Outlook 2013 2016 Starts Disconnected with Outlook.com & Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) Accounts

In Microsoft Outlook 2013 & 2016, when connecting to a Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) account such as Microsoft Outlook.com (Hotmail, Windows Live, etc.) some users are reporting that the accounts are disconnected when you open Outlook or after a certain period of time. A workaround is to put Outlook in offline mode and then return so you are working online, but this is quite an annoying solution to have to do this everytime you open Outlook.

Read more to get the details and resolution...

This is a bug if your Send / Receive settings for the "All Accounts" group is not set to schedule an automatic send/receve for the account, even if it is scheduled to do so in another group.

Here is the quick solution:

1. In Outlook, open the Send / Receive tab in the ribbon.
2. Open Send/Receive Groups -> Define Send/Receive Groups.
3. Make sure the "All Accounts" group (it must be this group, not another custom group) has the "Schedule an automatic send/receive every [xxxx] minutes" checkbox checked.
   • Since EAS is a direct push synchronization technology, if you do not have any accounts using this group that require a manual sync, you can set this value to the highest setting allowed: 1440.
   • You do not have to check any other boxes, including the Offline sync option, but feel free to set them to your preference.
4. Click the Edit... button to edit the "All Accounts" group.
5. Select your EAS account and make sure the "include the selected account in this group" checkbox is checked.
6. Click OK a couple times to save your settings.

That should solve your problem. Exit Outlook, wait 5 seconds or so, then reopen Outlook to test (it stays running for a few seconds after the window disappears).

Tag: microsoft microsoft office microsoft outlook hotmail windows live email annoyances disconnected