Empower Information Systems

Cached Exchange Mode provides you with a better experience when you use a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account. A copy of your mailbox is stored on your computer. This copy provides quick access to your data and is frequently updated with the mail server.

If you work offline, whether by choice or due to a connection problem, your data is still available to you instantly wherever you are. If a connection from your computer to the computer running Exchange server isn’t available, Outlook switches to Trying to connect or Disconnected. If the connection is restored, Microsoft Outlook automatically switches back to Connected or Connected (Headers). Any changes you make while a connection to the server isn’t available are synchronized automatically when a connection is available. You can continue to work while changes are synchronized.

There are circumstances that will arise that can corrupt this data or cause user and environmental issues. Should you find you are in this situation, this article should help.

1. Turn Off Cache Mode
   1. Open Outlook
   2. Tools
   3. Email Accounts
   4. Select View or change existing e-mail accounts
   5. Next
   6. With “Microsoft Exchange Server” selected, Click “Change”
   7. Uncheck the box for “Use Cached Exchange Mode”
   8. Next
   9. In the box that pops up, click on OK
   10. Click Finish
2. Close Outlook
   1. File
   2. Exit
3. Delete OST files from hard drive
   1. Start
   2. Search
   3. For Files or folders
   4. All files and Folders
   5. Expand “More Advanced Options”
   6. Check the box next to “Search hidden files and folders”
   7. Leave the other options at default
   8. In the top box for “All or part of the file name”, type in “*.ost”
   9. Look in should be “Local Hard Drives”
   10. Click Search
   11. It’ll find files such as outlook.ost, outlook001.ost, etc. Select all the files it finds and select delete. This will delete all the offline emails from your computer, but they are still on the server so you won’t lose anything.
4. Turn On Cache Mode
   1. Open Outlook
   2. Tools
   3. Email Accounts
   4. Select View or change existing e-mail accounts
   5. Next
   6. With “Microsoft Exchange Server” selected, Click “Change”
   7. Check the box for “Use Cached Exchange Mode”
   8. Next
   9. In the box that pops up, click on OK
   10. Click Finish
5. Restart Outlook

Once Outlook is restarted, all of your emails will download to your computer again. It may take awhile, depending on the number of emails you have. You can watch the progress in the lower right corner of your Outlook screen… it will show the folders as they update.