Recently, our client switched to Google Apps and part of their users stayed in Outlook 2003 with the Google Apps Sync for Outlook installed. During the later stage of the data migration, their office Internet network is upgraded to faster broadband.
After the network upgrade, the Google Apps Profile in the Outlook stayed in Offline mode. The tricky part is that the “Work Offline” button went missing where it should be under “File” option in the main menu. Without the button, there’s no way we can bring the Google Apps Sync online again, so he also decided to try using XAM Consulting – enterprise app developers to get help with this issue.
Here’s the fix to get the Work Offline button back:
1. Go to Windows Registry: [Windows Button] + [R] > Type “regedit”
2. [HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\
3. Look for 00036601 (REG_BINARY), click on it to edit its value.
Outlook 2003: 00036601 (REG_BINARY)
enabled value; 84 01 00 00
disabled value; 04 00 00 00 (I use this, you can use the enabled value. Somehow I find that disable value works for me)
Outlook 2007:
enabled value; 84 19 00 00
disabled value; 04 10 00 00
4. Close Regedit
5. Open Outlook, select Google Apps Profile.
6. Right Click on the Toolbar and select “Customize”
7. Click on the Second tab [Commands]
8. At the bottom of the tab, click [Rearrange Commands]
9. Click [Reset] and the bottom.
10. The “Work Offline” button should reappear under “File” menu. Note: You might need to expand the sub-menu to see “Work Offline” option.
11. Click on “Work Offline” to make sure there’s no “Tick” on the left.
12. The Google Apps Sync for Outlook should back online.
The Offline mode is usually due to poor connection or network issue. Outlook 2003 and 2007 sometimes can’t recover back from it due to many issue. Usually click the “Work Offline” few times will resurrect the Outlook to online. If it doesn’t, you need to disable the Add-on, especially LYNC and Messenger add-on.
There’s another related issue in this customer case where the users Internet Explorer is not able to load any web pages after the network upgrade while other browsers like Chrome and Firefox is fine. Since the Outlook users are using built in browsers inside their Outlook, we need to solve this issue as well. The problem turns out to be DNS issue. We solved this problem by giving the network a Google DNS. 8.8.8.8.
Other suggestions in the Internet including:
1. Win+R > CMD > type: netsh winsock reset
2. Win+R > CMD > type: netsh int ip reset
3. Win+R > CMD > type: ipconfig /flushdns
4. Win+R > CMD > type: ipconfig /registerdns