Tip 1056: Outlook Connector "not available" and other questions

January 16, 2013

I've had several questions over the last two weeks about the expected behavior of the Outlook connector.

I'm using the Hotmail Connector and it's showing fine as a MAPI email account in settings but in the data files tab in email setting it is showing as "not available".�

This is normal behavior. The Connector's data file always shows as not connected.

Contacts don't sync?

The users almost always go on to add that their contacts aren't syncing correctly.

My Outlook Contacts and the Hotmail Connector Contacts folders are not synching. When I enter a new contact into Hotmail Connector Contacts it syncs with outlook.com but not with my desktop app. If I enter a new contact into my desktop Contacts, it isn't linked to Hotmail Connector Contacts.

Syncing is between the Hotmail folder and online, not between the Hotmail folder and other local contacts folders. You'll need to copy the contacts and appointments to the folders in the Hotmail account if you want them to sync.

Tip: To copy appointments, use a List view so you can select all.

Backup the data?

A final question is how to backup the contacts since you can't move the data file to a folder that is more frequently backed up.

Because the data file is an *.ost, it can only be opened using the profile that created it. If you want to back up your data, you'll need to export the contents of the Hotmail data file to a local pst file.

Published on January 16, 2013