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My current configuration of WSS 3.0 is suddenly missing the 'Connect to Outlook' actions menu item!

Update: I have verified using the same browser instance loading a calendar from a different SharePoint site (hosted on a different machine) shows me the 'Connect to Outlook' action menu. This rules out any client-side issues.

It used to be there but I don't recall making any changes at all (I know, famous last words!). I'd like to avoid having to re-install SBS 2008 because of it.

Is there a log file that I could inspect for any errors?

Philipp Schmid
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5 Answers5

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Is it possible Client Integration got turned off? In Central Admin/App Management/Authentication Providers, click on your provider. There is an option for "Enable Client Integration". If it is set to no Connect to Outlook does not work.

MattB
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Also remember this is only available in Internet Explorer and if you recently switched over to using a different browser such as FireFox it will show you a "Connect to Client" action instead of "Connect to Outlook".

Aaron Weiker
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Thanks for the clue that Kevin Kuphal put here. Yes, a customized calendar lose the ability to "Connect to Outlook". While the blog seems to be a solution it was too hard to understand. So I picked the simple way. I created a standard "Calendar", created a workflow to copy the existing calendar's new item into the standard calendar. I then linked the standard calendar into my Outlook, it worked. I can then drag the booking into my Gmail calendar to synchronize to my mobile phone. The only problem is changes on the Gmail calendar won't be updated back to the original calendar. Unless I create another workflow to do that. But I am happy with it for now.

Jackie Huang
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There is probably a problem with the ActiveX control provided by the Office client products that give this additional functionality. (Have you also found that you can't upload multiple files any longer?)

This is most likely to happen if you have different Office versions installed on your machine. The official, supported way to fix this is:

  1. For each pre-Office 2007 product, run Setup and remove the Windows SharePoint Services Support component.
  2. For each Office 2007 product, run Setup and ensure the Windows SharePoint Services Support component is installed (under Office Tools).
  3. You may also need to Repair the Office 2007 product.

Another thing to try in Internet Explorer is go to Tools, Manage Add-Ons and look for add-ons using the file OWSSUPP.DLL. On my machine there are four of these. The one most likely to be affected here is "SharePoint Stssync Handler". Check that it exists (unfortunately you can't tell which office version it's using, at least in IE7).

Alex Angas
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  • Thx, I'll check this out. However, we have seen it on different machines which are not centrally managed (as a matter of fact, the other machine is on the other coast), so I am still suspecting an issue on the server. – Philipp Schmid Jun 12 '09 at 15:23
  • I just confirmed that I can see the missing menu item using the same browser against a different SharePoint site (hosted on a different machine). So that rules out a client-side issue. – Philipp Schmid Jun 12 '09 at 19:17
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Have you customized the Calendar event types?

http://blogs.msdn.com/syedi/archive/2008/08/30/connect-to-outlook-feature-is-missing-in-the-calendar-of-custom-calendar-list-definition.aspx

Kevin Kuphal
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