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Fixed: Autodiscover problems with Outlook 2013 and Exchange 2007

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› Outlook › Outlook 2013 › Fixed: Autodiscover problems with Outlook 2013 and Exchange 2007

Last reviewed on February 15, 2021     21 Comments

Applies to: Outlook (classic)

outlook2013-iconAfter installing the November 2013 security updates, Outlook 2013 users had issues connecting to Exchange server 2007. These problems are fixed by the Outlook 2013 December 13 2013 update.

In addition to fixing the problems with autodiscover, this update also fixes a problem where you may not receive new email messages on IMAP accounts, as well as problems moving or deleting email in an IMAP account.

To recap, after installing the November security update, many users experienced the following issues:

  • Outlook crashes shortly after it starts.
  • When Outlook connects to an IMAP email account, you may not receive new email messages. You may receive an error message when you move or delete an email message:
    You do not have appropriate permission to perform this operation.
    You do not have permission to move items in this folder.
  • When using Outlook to connect to an Exchange Server 2007 mailbox, you receive an error message when you try to configure Automatic Replies (Out of Office)
    Your automatic reply settings cannot be displayed because the server is currently unavailable. Try again later.
    You cannot retrieve Free/Busy data for calendar scheduling.
    Add-ins that use the Account.SmtpAddress property no longer work.

    These features rely on an underlying Autodiscover technology but after installing the security update, Autodiscover may fail for Exchange 2007 configurations. This means Outlook features that rely on Autodiscover will also stop working.

You can download the update from either of the following articles:
MS13-094: Description of the security update for Outlook 2013: November 12, 2013
Description of the Outlook 2013 update 2850061: December 13, 2013

Fixed: Autodiscover problems with Outlook 2013 and Exchange 2007 was last modified: February 15th, 2021 by Diane Poremsky

Related Posts:

  • Outlook 2013: October 2015 Update
  • Outlook 2013 Updates May 2016
  • Outlook 2016: POP3 Problems (Fixed)
  • December 2015 Updates for Outlook

About Diane Poremsky

A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999, Diane is the author of several books, including Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginners Book. She also created video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.

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Dana Cairns
October 29, 2014 11:00 am

We are in the process of upgrading five workstations to Office 2013 Home & Business. The users use lots of the features of Outlook--sync to smart phones, out of office, etc. Their network server is running Exchange 2007. We have found mixed responses on the Internet as to whether Outlook 2013 will work correctly with Exchange 2007. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

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Diane Poremsky
Reply to  Dana Cairns
October 29, 2014 11:05 am

Outlook 2013 will work with Exchange 2007. It won't allow you to use all of the features that Outlook 2013 supports, but it will work. You need Exchange 2007 SP2 or SP3.

This shows a list of features you'll have available when connecting to Exchange 2007: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178996(v=office.15).aspx

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Steve Robertson
June 5, 2014 5:30 pm

One final question - what are the service names that need to be restarted? I couldn't see one called Exchange Web Services.

Thanks again!
Steve.

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Diane Poremsky
Reply to  Steve Robertson
June 5, 2014 6:39 pm

IIS aka 'world wide web publishing service' - that should be enough, but if you want/need to restart all exchange services, restart Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology.

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Steve Robertson
June 5, 2014 5:11 pm

Hi Diane,

Thanks so much! I didn't restart the services but just left it over-night, and this morning the free/busy & out of office is working. I also didn't put in the ExternalURL as we don't need it, but I've added it now (just in case).

Once again, thanks for all your help - I really appreciate it.

Steve.

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Steve Robertson
June 5, 2014 12:09 am

Hi Diane,

Yes, Out of Office isn't working either.

I ran Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory, and both internalURL and ExternalURL came up blank.

I checked: https://servername.domain.local/EWS/exchange.asmx actually resolved to something, and then ran:

Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity "SERVER\EWS (Default Web Site)" -InternalURL https://servername.domain.local/EWS/exchange.asmx -BasicAuthentication:$true

Now I can see it in Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory, but Free/Busy still isn't working nor is Out of Office.

Did I miss something? Do I need the external also?

Do I need to restart a service?

Thanks again!
Steve.

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Diane Poremsky
Reply to  Steve Robertson
June 5, 2014 3:05 pm

you do need to restart the services and you'll need entries in both the internal and external urls, they can be the same but can't be empty.

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Steve Robertson
June 4, 2014 6:55 pm

Hi again,

I saw on that website an option to download a version of the test onto the client, which I've ran. This time it failed with:

Performing Free/Busy Test. See guidance about the Hybrid Configuration Wizard at https://aka.ms/HCW

Determining where the source mailbox is hosted based on the Availability Service URL (ASURL)
-The check to determine where the source mailbox is hosted failed.

-Additional Details: An exception was encountered: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Does that make any sense? Since I was testing internally I entered the addresses as:

Admin@domainname.local (which is valid internally)

Apart from this test failing, all the other autodiscover tests passed fine.

Steve.

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Diane Poremsky
Reply to  Steve Robertson
June 4, 2014 9:20 pm

If everything except free/busy worked, then I'm not sure its the virtual directory, but it can be the source of problems.
https://www.slipstick.com/exchange/cmdlets/out-of-office-doesnt-work-with-exchange-2007-or-2010/

Is autodiscover the only thing not working? Free/Busy and Out of Office are usually affected by problems with autodiscover.

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Steve Robertson
June 3, 2014 7:55 pm

Hi Diane,

I'm having this problem on a server I manager, only it's for Exchange 2013 not Exchange 2007. Also we have Office 2013 SP1, which was supposed to fix this problem, but hasn't for us.
Will installing that update you link to (https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2850061) be ok for us? Given that it's for an older version of the software than we now have?

Thanks,
Steve.

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Diane Poremsky
Reply to  Steve Robertson
June 3, 2014 11:54 pm

the update will only install on Exchange 2007. Have you run any test to see if it gives you any clues to where the problem is?

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Steve Robertson
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
June 4, 2014 12:39 am

Hi Diane,
I'm all out of ideas on this one. What sort of tests do I need to be running?

Steve.

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Diane Poremsky
Reply to  Steve Robertson
June 4, 2014 12:46 am

Run the remote connectivity analyzer - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/bb288481.aspx

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Steve Robertson
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
June 4, 2014 6:23 pm

Hi Diane,
The remote connectivity analyzer failed miserably. But that was only testing remote connections - and my problems are internal. I didn't mention that this is terminal services, so essentially the connections will always be internal (won't they?).

Is there some sort of tool that can test the autodiscover on the internal network?

Also using OWA internally works fine with the free/busy info.

Thanks,
Steve.

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doug
January 25, 2014 11:52 am

Thnaks Di,

Yes I have tried the mobile app...which is what I was talking about. The desktop app has it's own problems and I know you cannot EDIT contacts from the mobile app (real stupid), but I was just trying to us MS instructions to find the 4 drop down squares. I tried to find the MS inst. to paste here, but don't remember where I found them. If I do, I'll send them along.

Doug

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Diane Poremsky
Reply to  doug
January 26, 2014 12:04 am

Those instructions are for the web page, not the mobile app. I don't have my device with me tonight, so i can't tell you have to get to the calendar and contacts. If you use the browser, you'll see the button and the app tiles.

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doug
January 21, 2014 11:21 am

Diane,
using nexus 5 mobile, I can never find the four squares OUTLOOK PEOPLE CALENDAR SKYDRIVE. Been looking forever, need to edit contacts, can't get to them. followed the following MS instruction, they do not work. https://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/where-my-contacts

Help!
Thanks
Used this thread as an easy way to get to you, hope it is/was not a problem.

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Diane Poremsky
Reply to  doug
January 25, 2014 1:54 am

At the top right is a little Outlook banner - there should be a down arrow to the right - on my venue, i only see the arrow when I touch it (preferably with really small fingers :)) That will display the 4 buttons.

Have you tried the outlook.com app ? That works pretty good.

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