When certain large COM add-ins are installed on Outlook 2013 / 2016 for Windows. O365 add-ins get disabled and greyed out in email compose, but are still accessible if you write the email as a draft.
Is there a good explanation or solution for this behaviour? Are O365 add-in's not able to function normally when large COM add-ins are installed?
add-ins behavior is unpredictable when a COM plug-in is installed, because COM plug-ins can remove key item properties, change the ribbon or form entirely, etc. As a result, they are greyed out, as we didn't want the add-ins to load and behave unpredictably.
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I am building a custom add-in for outlook, but I couldn't use the add-in after adding to outlook, because it is inactive(disabled).
I created a custom add-in by following this documentation.
But after creating the add-in, I was not able to sideload using npm start.
So I used this. npm run dev-server.
And I added the add-in to outlook by following this guide - outlook on desktop.
At this moment, the custom add-in I just added is inactive, so I tried to troubleshoot this.
The documentation says I should go to File->Slow and Disabled COM Add-ins and enable the disabled add-in, but there were nothing in the option.
And also I tried to find add-ins in the system registry and set to enable always, but I couldn't find the added custom add-in either.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/outlook/Concepts/Getting-Started/support-for-keeping-add-ins-enabled
Did I miss anything or ...?
Even if the add-in is active, but it doesn't work.
I signed in with my work email and am using the latest version of Office365.
Thank you.
You are mixing web and COM add-ins for Outlook. It seems a web add-in was created using the yeoman generator and sideloaded into your Outlook account. Note, web add-ins work for Exchange profiles only (including O365). Most probably you are trying to run the add-in against a non-Exchange account in Outlook.
But the troubleshooting steps described in the post are related to COM add-ins only (VSTO based ones too).
We are developing an Outlook Web App add-in.
Our Client dont want to see the add-in in outlook, in other words, they want to show the enabled add-in in owa only. is it possible to do that?
or is it possible to hide the add-in button in outlook?
This feature is currently not available. The good new is the officespdev.uservoice.com has confirmation from Microsoft that the request to allow mail apps to be OWA only is now in backlog and there is chance it will be implemented. Obviously you are welcome to upvote this request.
Now about options available right now as work around ...
The suggested work around by #NamigIsmayilov (Enable Outlook Web Add-in only on the Web) I wouldn't consider. This is possible, but the manifest crafted this way won't be accepted by Office store.
You may have a look on (How to detect if Office 365 addin is already active from a VSTO Outlook addin or vice-versa?) thread. This is about detection from VSTO/COM add-in, if you have one, web add-in and possibility to display some informational message to the user.
We've created an Outlook add-in which integrates our custom CRM with Outlook. A command button is added to messages in read and compose mode. A function file is called on the button click.
The add-in manifest passes validation and installs properly on all machines. However on Outlook 2016 desktop (only) we are seeing an error on some machines. The exact error message says: “We’re sorry, we couldn’t access [NCS Outlook Add-in]. Make sure you have a network connection. If the problem continues, please try again later.” ([NCS Outlook Add-In] is the name of our add-in.)
Note that this message appears IMMEDIATELY after clicking the add-in command button. It does not first say “[NCS Outlook Add-in] is working on your request” like it add-ins do when an error has occurred.
We have tried Outlook logging and haven't found anything useful in the logs. We've checked settings and disabled other add-ins. We have also tested across machines with user accounts. The same user will have the error on one machine and not the other. In short, it seems that the error is machine specific and not profile related.
Version of Office 365 installed: 1705 (Build 8201.2209).
We experienced this exact behavior in Outlook 2016, the solution was to enable protected mode for the restricted and internet zones.
The easiest way to change this is in IE.
In Internet Explorer, click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.
Click the Security tab, and then select the Restricted Sites Zone.
Select the Enable Protected Mode check box, and then click OK.
Restart Internet Explorer.
Here is a little more information:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2761180/apps-for-office-don-t-start-if-you-disable-protected-mode-for-the-rest
Try this:
1) Close Outlook
2) Rename the folder C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
to C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook.OLD
(Where %USERNAME% is current User Name.)
3) Start Outlook, Setup User Profile
4) Add/Test Add-In.
If that works, then something broken on old Outlook profile. But if same problem: Exit Outlook, delete the Outlook folder and rename Outlook.OLD back to Outlook.
I ran into this exact same problem after uninstalling Visual Studio 2015 on my development machine. (I had been using Visual Studio 2017 for Outlook add-in development.)
The problem went away as soon as I reinstalled Visual Studio 2017. The Outlook 2016 installation had nothing to do with the problem, I never changed Outlook or its profile at all.
This would indicate that the problem is somehow related to the SDK tooling on the machine...perhaps something to do with the .Net framework?
If I ran into this problem on a customer machine I would try reinstalling or repairing the .Net framework, or perhaps reinstalling Outlook (assuming it contains some add-in tooling that is broken.)
Just passing this on in case it helps anyone else.
I have c# outlook addin created in visual studio 2013.
It has windows forms also.
I am getting mad on generating msi file, any easier solution/steps for me, please ?
Mainly tell me, after completing the process, where do I find the final MSI file (like bin/release folder) ?
I installed this - https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/9abe329c-9bba-44a1-be59-0fbf6151054d
as well as installshield limited edition installer.
I was able to build it and ran the installation file(.exe) from disks folder and it is installing but not showing anything in the outlook.
Take a look at the Deploying an Office Solution section in MSDN. It describes two possible options for deploying your Office solution in depth:
Deploying an Office Solution by Using Windows Installer
Deploying an Office Solution by Using ClickOnce
It is up to you which way is to choose.
I was able to build it and ran the installation file(.exe) from disks folder and it is installing but not showing anything in the outlook.
There are multiple reasons why you don't see your add-in in Office applications.
First of all, make sure that you did all the steps described in the previously mentioned articles. Then I'd suggest checking the required windows registry keys for COM add-ins, see Registry Entries for Application-Level Add-Ins for more information.
Microsoft Office applications can disable add-ins that behave unexpectedly. If an application does not load your add-in, the application might have hard disabled or soft disabled your add-in.
Hard disabling can occur when an add-in causes the application to close unexpectedly. It might also occur on your development computer if you stop the debugger while the Startup event handler in your add-in is executing.
Soft disabling can occur when an add-in produces an error that does not cause the application to unexpectedly close. For example, an application might soft disable an add-in if it throws an unhandled exception while the Startup event handler is executing.
You can read more about that in the How to: Re-enable an Add-in That Has Been Disabled article in MSDN.
Finally, you may also check out the Trust Center settings in Outlook. The Macro Security settings can be applied to add-ins as well. May be it is required to sign the add-in with a digial signature and etc.
Can someone give me a quick explanation of when I would use Visual Studio 2008 Outlook 2007 Ad-In project type? and how would that compare to developing a bunch of outlook macros directly in outlook?
Basically, I want to have some sort of application read email (with attachments) from a pop3 email box, do some filtering/editing/validation of the subject/sender/content and then if certain conditions are met, save the attachments to a local file, and then add an entry into an SQL server database table (i.e. date/sender/subject/message).
Seems there are at least 10 different ways to do this....so between an outlook macro and a VS Office Project, how do I pick?
I am not clear, if I create this solution as a Visual Studio outlook add-in, where does it run? Is it loaded into outlook, does it run as a separate process and communicates back and forth with outlook? if outlook is not running, does it start it?
An Outlook Add-on is a compiled component that uses the Outlook API to perform the tasks you need. A macro/VB script is an interpreted script that actually uses the same API. The add-on approach is better if you want to deploy your functionality.
When you work on an Outlook add-on in Visual Studio, you'll be creating a .NET component, which integrates into the Outlook application, which is written in C++ so uses COM. You'll have to be careful about managed/unmanaged types and releasing objects you retrieve from Outlook.
I have recently completed just such a tool, but I chose to use Add-in Express (http://www.add-in-express.com/). These guys provide a layer of abstraction over the [challenging] Outlook API and also provide some excellent support if you're stuck.
In my case, with Add-in Express, I "run" by setting Outlook as the application command to run, in the Project properties. Add-in Express sorts out the installation of the add-on within Outlook. So when I press "Run", Outlook starts and my add-in is displayed, which may be debugged in the normal fashion. I'm not sure how VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office) works in this respect - or at least, I can't remember.
This is an example of an outlook add-in..
Personally, I don't see macros distributable.