The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on February 9, 2023.
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Today's Highlights »
- Remove Microsoft Cloud Sync Cache
- Filter Messages with Flags
- Shared Calendar bug
- Word bug: Random names in Track Changes
Remove Microsoft Cloud Sync Cache
When you add a Gmail, iCloud, or Yahoo IMAP account to Outlook for Mac, Outlook mobile, or Windows Mail, by default it is added as a Microsoft Cloud account. This protocol syncs the mailbox to Microsoft Office 365 servers and adds the account to the app using Exchange services. This allows Microsoft to sync calendar and contacts with your mail server.
It works great - most of the time. Occasionally the sync will seem to stall, especially in Outlook for Mac and removing the account and adding it back doesn't always fix it because the problem is with the protocol syncing to your mail server. Adding the account manually as an IMAP account will fix it, because the app connects directly to the mail server using IMAP, but you lose the calendar and contacts. (Why oh why can't they just use CalDav and CardDav to sync calendar and contacts from other servers, like everyone else?)
You need to clear the mailbox cache on the server and re-sync if you want to use Microsoft Cloud sync, but how do you do that?
To clear the server cache so the Microsoft cloud re-syncs with your server, you need to remove the account from the app, and when asked if you want to remove the account from the device or from everywhere, choose the option to remove it from everywhere. This purges the server cache and starts fresh, but you will need to set the account up again on other devices.
If the account is inactive for 30 days, the Microsoft Cloud mailbox is purged automatically.
Filter Messages with Flags
Spammers will try anything to get you to look at their spam, including sending email with flags set or sending their spam in a meeting invitation, so its added to your calendar.
Fortunately, you can use rules to remove flags or delete the flagged messages.
In Outlook desktop, create a new rule for "messages I receive". As the condition, choose "flagged for action" and choose Any as the flag type. While you can delete (or permanently delete) the flagged message, in Outlook desktop, you can select "clear the Message Flag" to remove the flag. If your contacts or coworkers flag messages they send you, you can set an exception for addresses in a specific address book.
In Outlook on the web, you can use rules to check for a flag on incoming messages but there is no option to remove the flag, so you'll need to delete the message. This works great as long as your contacts don’t send you flagged messages. Outlook on the web supports exceptions, but you need to select each contact; you can't make an exception for all addresses in the address book or contacts folder.
As a reminder, rules run after the junk email filter so if Outlook moves the message to the Junk email folder, the rule will not remove the flag.
If you need to create a rule for meeting request spam, please see my article at Meeting Request Spam (slipstick.com)
Shared Calendar bug
As I mentioned in last week's issue, there is a bug with the shared calendar improvements in Outlook.com. The most noticeable problem is reminders for events in a shared calendar cannot be dismissed, but there are sync issues with the family calendar too.
The fix for these issues expected to the applied to the server at the end of next week. Fingers crossed that it won't be pushed back.
If you cannot dismiss the reminders in a shared calendar, you will need to turn off shared calendar improvements in File > Account Settings > Account Settings. Double click on the account and click More Settings. On the Advanced tab, remove the checkmark from "Turn on shared calendar improvements" then restart Outlook.
Word bug: Random names in Track Changes
Server users reported that people they don’t know are listed as reviewers in their word documents, even if the file is not shared.
As far as I know, only Word for Mac is affected by this bug. Microsoft is aware of it. At this this I don't have a ETA for a fix, but if you notice the issue, please choose Help > Feedback > I Don't Like Something and describe what is happening. Be sure to include your contact information in case Microsoft wants to ask you about your submission. They have several support cases opened, so it's unlikely they will need to contact you for more information, but please report it.
If you are using Word for Windows and notice the same issue, please report using Help > Feedback.
New & Updated Outlook Support Articles
Calendar events missing in Scheduling Assistant
Flickering observed in Outlook Calendar while scrolling
No results when searching with the built-in ‘Received’ filter in Outlook
Unable to dismiss shared calendar reminders for Outlook.com accounts in Outlook Desktop
Join the Microsoft 365 Insider program
Other Resources
Reset the New Outlook Profile
When you switch on the new Outlook, it pulls accounts in from your Outlook desktop profile. I'll show you how to clear the profile and create a new profile.