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A client is connecting to three different Exchange Servers from within one Mail Profile within Outlook.

Is there a way to toggle a single account into Work Offline mode, or will clicking the Work Offline button affect all accounts?

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  • The client is at a remote location, and is not technically proficient. And is the type of client who expects me to be calling him with a solution, not with a "try this... now try this..." :(
    – Branden
    Commented Jul 16, 2015 at 17:13
  • Do you have access to the multiple Exchange servers to try it yourself?
    – Steven
    Commented Jul 16, 2015 at 17:18
  • Unfortunately not. I realize that this is a messy configuration. Its a problem that I inherited when this client moved into the area.
    – Branden
    Commented Jul 16, 2015 at 17:25

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
2

Clicking the "Work Offline" button affects all accounts. This is the application-wide setting.

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  • 1
    This answers the part about the Work Offline button. Do you know if there is any (other) way to toggle a single account or is this a definitive answer that it isn't possible by any method?
    – fixer1234
    Commented Jul 19, 2015 at 19:36
  • I'm pretty sure there are no other methods.
    – thims
    Commented Jul 20, 2015 at 15:18
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This is so frustrating. I had the same problem. Specifically that if one mailbox can't connect to, eg an IMAP server, it prevents you using all mailboxes because you can't turn off the constant prompts, and each prompt blocks the background synchronisations (both disk and network).

Work Around

Warning!! This is risky, laborious, and should not be required. But after 8 days trying to migrate an offline IMAP account to a new server, it's the only method I know that works. This use case is specifically for migrating a mailbox to a new server if for some reason the existing server becomes unavailable.

  1. Create a new folder in your offline 'On My Computer' root folder. Let's call it 'temp-offline' More info about what this is here: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Learn-more-about-On-My-Computer-folders-in-Outlook-2011-for-Mac-1d1bc451-8fcf-40f1-a705-4c41fe95a496
  2. For each top-level folder inside the mailbox you wish to keep offline:
    • Right-click the folder
    • Select 'Copy Folder'
    • Type or select the folder you created in step 1, eg 'temp-offline' to copy mail from your online account to the offline account.
  3. Compare the mail counts in each folder, if they equal, good, if not, delete the folders from 'temp-offline' and start again.
  4. If you're sure all mail has been copied from your online account to your offline, you can delete the online account.

To get the account online again, you need to create a new online account, then copy each folder back from the offline account to the new online account.

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0

There is a backwards way of doing it.

Do not save passwords.

Define a send / receive group for each mail account separately.

When you first open Outlook and see the box asking for password, click Work Offline button.

You will have to click Cancel on the Password Dialogue window about 4 times.

Then go to Send / Receive and choose the Send / Receive menu item for the account you want to work in.

It will download headers / messages, whatever you have set it to do.

Click the inbox folder for that account.

Click the Work Offline button to set yourself online.

It will immediately ask for the password for the other accounts.

Go to each inbox folder and click cancel on the password dialogue 4 times.

It will show Disconnected and you can go back to the inbox folder for the account you want to work with.

Bizarre, but seems to work.

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