Connecting to Outlook: Unable to connect to Outlook

Modified on Fri, 15 Mar 2024 at 05:53 PM

Due to a bug in Microsoft Office's update procedures, sometimes Faster Suite will no longer be able to connect to Microsoft Office applications. Listed below are the steps one should follow in order to re-establish the connection between Faster Mail and Outlook:

Option 1)

This procedure resolves this issue every time. Only an IT professional or an advanced user familiar with editing the registry should attempt these steps. This procedure will delete all MS Outlook settings including the default folder where PST files are stored if Outlook is using PST file(s) to save emails. Be certain you will not permanently delete any emails and that you will be able to restore MS Outlook to its previous state prior to performing these steps.

Verify and test that client can sign into portal.office.com
Uninstall Faster Suite
Uninstall MS Office and its applications
Search 'Registry Editor'
Delete or rename the following registry hive for Microsoft Office and Mediated Communications...
```
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office
```

Delete the following four folders.

%localappdata%\Microsoft\Office
%localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook
%appdata%\Microsoft\Office
%appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook

Reinstall MS Office
Reconfigure Outlook with the user's primary email inbox. I recommend setting up Outlook to work with just one inbox to start.
Download the most recent version of Faster Suite from www.fasterlaw.com by clicking the Free Download button.
Reinstall Faster Suite
Test ability to preserve email in Faster Suite
Finish configuring additional inboxes in Outlook if needed. Test ability to preserve emails in Faster Suite after adding each new inbox to ensure email preservation is still working. If it stops working after adding an inbox, then there is a problem with that specific inbox (PST file corrupt?) causing email preservation to fail.

Option 2

Follow the 9 steps outlined below in order, testing between each step to see if the error was corrected. These steps will sometimes resolve the issue (not always), but they're less destructive to settings in Outlook.

1) Check if Outlook is installed more than once

Sometimes when Office 365 apps are installed previous versions of Outlook will remain installed on the computer. This can cause Faster Suite to be unable to properly connect to the new version of Outlook. To check, click on your start menu and search Add or Remove Programs. If you see both Microsoft 365 Business apps AND Outlook listed, then you have two versions of Outlook installed. Uninstall the old version and restart Outlook.

2) Make sure Outlook is up to date

Most of the time, a connection problem can be resolved by installing the latest update for Outlook. To update Outlook, go to

File > Office Account > Update Options and click the button labeled "Update Now". Office will download and install updates for all Office applications, including Outlook. Keep in mind that you will have to close all Office applications in order to install these updates.

If your Outlook window does not show the Office Updates button like in the screenshot above, you'll nee to update through the Microsoft Store. Go to Start and type in "Store", then click the option for "Microsoft Store". From here, you can click the downloads button to check for and install updates.

3) Make sure Windows is up to date

To update windows search "Check for updates" on your computer

The Windows Updates screen will show you any pending updates on your computer. Install all pending updates and restart computer if required.

4) Disable COM Add Ins.

Follow the instructions found in this article to disable uneeded Com Add-ins.

5) Perform a connection test

Follow the steps in this article to perform a connection test.

6) Manually link Faster Mail to Outlook

If you've updated Outlook or the update button tells you that you're up to date and you're still having issues with Faster Mail automatically connecting to Outlook, you can attempt to repair the connection by using the Link to Outlook button. On the Faster Ribbon, go to Mail > Link to Outlook. You should receive a popup in the bottom right corner of your screen indicating whether or not the link was successful.

7) Perform an Outlook Data File Repair

This step should only be done if the Windows Event Log contains a message indicating the following:
Exception from HRESULT: 0x8004010F

Steps to repair the Outlook Data File

8) Reset the GAC Permissions

Sometimes when Microsoft Office performs an update, the permissions on updated Microsoft Offlice DLLs the .NET Global Assembly Cache get set incorrectly. To reset the permissions, do the following steps. (This should be done by an IT Professional).

1. Navigate to:
C:\Windows\assembly

2. Right-click on "GAC_MSIL" and select "Properties.
2.1. If you don't see a folder called "GAC_MSIL" and instead see a list of MSIL files, follow these steps:
2.1.a. Go to "Start" and type "regedit" then hit "Enter"
2.1.b. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Fusion
2.1.c. Right-click in the panel on the right and select "New" > "DWORD (32-bit) Value"
2.1.d. Enter "DisableCacheViewer" as the name of the new entry
2.1.e. Right-click the new entry and select "Modify... "
2.1.f. Enter "1" in the "Value data:" field and hit OK.
2.1.g. Refresh the assembly folder

3. Click on the "Security" tab and then select "Advanced".

4. Up at the top it will list an owner. Click on Change and type in the name of the same owner (it should be either SYSTEM or Administrators.
4.1 Once you've done that, check the box that just appeared that says "Replace owner on subcontainers... ". Then click "Apply" and confirm any popups that appear.

5. Down at the bottom, it will also list a checkbox that says "Replace all child object permission entries... ".
5.1. Check this box. Then click "Apply" and confirm any popups that appear.

6. Click OK as many times as necessary to "OK" and confirm all dialogs.

9) Check if You have Invalid Outlook Registry Settings

The following article explains how to detect and correct invalid Outlook registry settings.

10) Perform Option 1 and/or Contact Faster Law Support

If you have followed the steps above and are still unable to establish a connection to Outlook, you will need to perform Option 1. You should contact your IT professional for help with that, or you can send an email to help@fasterlaw.com or use the Schedule Support Session button located under Help on the Faster Ribbon to book a time for a call.