"The Connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable" when adding second Exchange account to Outlook 2013

I have a problem that I've found to be typical, just haven't found anything that describes my exact problem.
I'm having trouble adding a second Exchange 2010 server account to Outlook 2013 in one of the computers of the domain. Outlook 2013 will complain with "The Connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete
this action".
I've Googled and found many threads with the same error... however most of those seem to be either a problem with the server, or the Global Catalog in Active Directory, or the "connection method" (I've tried all found solutions to no avail).
This is not the case, since the first account is added with absolutely no problem. It can send and receive and I can delete the outlook profile and recreate it and it'll give no problems. I have this problem only when adding a second account.
This is a fresh Windows 8.1 install with an up-to-date Outlook 2013. I have other computers in the same domain and network, with the same setup (Win 8.1 + Outlook 2013) configured with two exchange accounts with no problem.
There are no connectivity problems, I can access that same account through OWA and in other computers on the network... the Global Catalog seems to be fine (shows two active DCs, which is correct).
I've tried deleting and recreating the outlook profiles, repairing the outlook installation, even deleting all outlook files in AppData and letting it recreate them, with no success.
Any hints of what could be going on?
Before I speak, I have something important to say.

Hi Javier,
Thank you for the update.
I have tested on my lab and get following result.
Lab: Exchange 2010, CAS Array (CAS01+CAS02), MBX01, DC
Type Server Field
Check name result
Changed Server Field
CAS01.domain.com
Yes
CASArray.domain.com
CASArray.domain.com
Yes
CASArray.domain.com
DC.domain.com
Yes
CASArray.domain.com
MBX01.domain.com
No
"The Connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable"
Based on my knowledge, the reason why inputing DC FQDN in the Server Field fixes this issue is that Outlook performs AD Lookup and finds the account configuration from AD, then back the CAS Array FQDN in the Server Field instead of DC FQDN.
Exchange 2010 is different from Exchange 2013, if you are using Exchange 2013, we need to input MailboxServerGUID.domain.com into Server Field.
If there is anything I’ve misunderstood, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Thanks,
Steve Fan
Forum Support
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Similar Messages

The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable

Environment: Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Setup: Fresh install of Office 2010 64-bit from office 365 web site on a fresh install of Win 7 Pro 64bit.
Issue: I first launched Outlook and tried to link a new account to the client by putting in my email address and password. It seemed to take it, but a new dialog box keeps poping up asking me for my password (it shows the email address
already filled in). It acts as if it does not like my password, but I know it is correct because I can log in and get my mail through the web access.
When after 5 or 6 tries, I press cancel, I get the error message " The action cannot be completed. The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action." Then I get a
dialog box listing the Microsoft Exchange Server and Mailbox.
Steps to resolve:
I am at a total loss on how to resolve this issue, is there anyway to manually connect to M.E> as it is just saying the connection is unavailable. All of the other threads dealing with this issue have been no help. I can sign into my account
at login.microsoftonline.net so I know the account is valid. I also receive email to my iPhone with the account and server. Any advice would be wonderful.
I went into Control Panel ->Mail, and deleted the profile. Then I tried to create a new profile and I got the same results as the first time through Outlook directly. Also, this is Windows 7 64 and office 64, but in Control Panel, it says
Mail(32bit). This is a completely new install so I don't know why it is not working. I have performed this exact same install on a dozen machines over the last 2 years without a single hitch.
I checked my DNS records and everything seems to check out. I haven't changed anything in DNS for over a year.
I am out of the office so I cannot copy some of the registry entries as some of the other posts recommend.
I ran remote connectivity analyzer. I don't know what it is saying, but below are the things that seemed to be irregular:
1) Attempting to test potential Autodiscover URL https://X123.com:443/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml
Testing of this potential Autodiscover URL failed.
2)Testing TCP port 443 on host X123.com to ensure it's listening and open.
The specified port is either blocked, not listening, or not producing the expected response.
Any help would really be appreciated.
Tom

Hi Tom,
Please manually configure your Office 365 account in Outlook 2010 to check whether the issue persists. About how to manually configure Outlook for Office 365 account, please refer to:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/hot/archive/2012/02/06/how-to-manually-configure-outlook-office-365.aspx
If the account can be manually configured but can’t be auto-configured by using autodiscover, please open Outlook - press CTRL key - right click on the Outlook icon from right bottom corner taskbar - Test Email AutoConfiguration. Put your email address -
uncheck use guessmart and secure guessmart authentication - click Test to check your Autodiscover service. If possible, please post the
Results tab and Log tab here for further troubleshooting.
Regards,
Winnie Liang
TechNet Community Support

The action cannot be completed. the connection to microsoft exchange is unavailable

Hi dear.
We have exchange 2013 and we want auto configure outlook 2007,2010 and 2013. In first time when we are setup exchange 2013 we can auto
configure outlook. But I don’t know now we cannot configure outlook. I think when we make some change in exchange certificate ( created by exchange in first time ) and after that we cannot configure outlook. Just we can set up pop3 and imap
for outlook. Now we have outlook with pop3 and outlook web app ( OWA ) and we don’t have problem with them, but we want our client see the all contact list in outlook. When we want configure outlook with Microsoft exchange server we get the error “
the action cannot be completed. the connection to Microsoft exchange is unavailable “.please help me. I don’t know how I solve the problem.

hi.
ok. this is the out put of autodiscover url in address bar :
"" <?xml
version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
- <Autodiscover
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/autodiscover/responseschema/2006">
- <Response>
- <Error Time="10:30:23.5154338"
Id="3405091169">
<ErrorCode>600</ErrorCode>
<Message>Invalid Request</Message>
<DebugData
/>
</Error>
</Response>
</Autodiscover> ""
thanks for your help.
If it returns error code 600, your autodiscover service should be accessible in Exchange server. Please restart Microsoft Exchange Address Book service in Exchange server, then create a new Outlook profile in Outlook to have a try.

The action cannot be completed. The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. outlook must be online or connected to complete this action

I have outlook 2013 and am trying to add an exchange 2010 multi-tenant account.
I have created a new profile.
I select Manual setup or additional server types
Then select Microsoft Exchange Server or compatible service
I enter the server settings. But the following error is returned when i click check name
"The action cannot be completed. The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. outlook must be online or connected to complete this action"
I have tried selecting more settings, selecting security, and then selecting the option:- Always propt for logon credentials.
But the same error is still returned
I tried deselecting the option Encrypt data between Microsoft outlook and Microsoft Exchange
But still continue to get the same error.
Reading from other forums I have tried restarting the Microsoft Exchange Address book service under services on the exchange server.
But this did not help either
i am able to access the email accout via outlook web access. I am also able to add the email account to my iphone with the server details and it adds fine onto my iphone but cannot add it to outlook 2013.
any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Rehan Miah

Hi,
This issue may occur when the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders registry key does not contain all of the required data. Specifically, these problems occur if the
AppData string value is missing from this registry key.
NOTE: The \User Shell Folders key also contains a string value called
Local AppDatawhich is different from the value called AppData. The value that causes this problem (if it is missing) is the
AppData value.
To resolve this issue, import the User Shell Folders registry key from a working Windows User Profile.
For more information, please refer:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2264398
Hope this helps.
Best Regards,
Steve Fan
TechNet Community Support
I have looked in the registry and Appdata is not missing it has the following value "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming" also Local AppData is there with the following value "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local" i do not have a working machine to import the user shell
folders registry key so any other advice would be useful.
thanks
Rehan Miah
In order to test what you suggested i created a windows 7 virtual machine installed outlook 2003 however i also get the error on the virtual machine that i have created.
any further suggestions would be a great help.

The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete - Cant add Outlook accounts

Hi have recently started getting the following error message when setting up new accounts with Outlook 2007:
The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.
Outlook then prompts me to enter the username and password, i do so and get message again. This happens on Windows XP Professional and Vista, i cannot setup any accounts for new machines.
Points to note are that OWA works fine, and previous users who are already setup work fine also. It seems to be limited to setting up new Outlook 2007 accounts.
It can find the username fine. It comes up with green ticks underr the Online Search for your server settings:
Establish Network connection
Search for [email protected] server settings
Long on to server ---------- then it fails with a big red cross at this point
Recently i did add a second mail server to the network but it was not configured to talk to the other main mail server which was handling all the functions of mail box, CAS, hub transport. I had installed all the same roles on the second server with a view to move it across and retire the old server, the second machine is a different machine name from the main mail server. In summay my servers are:
svr001              Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 domain controller
mail                 Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 non-domain controller with exchange 2007 SP1
mail001            Windows 2008 Enterprise x64 non-domain controller with exchange 2007 SP1
The main box "mail" has been fine until i recently introduced this new server "mail001" into the network.
I am really stuck now and would really appreciate any pointers or steps to debug the above.
Many thanks,
Chris

The FIX IT here
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=319206 works, but only for a user who's already logged in (if you just run the fix it program and do nothing else). To make it work for all users you'll need to manually edit the registry as it says in the article.
To force Outlook to use a pre-defined global catalog server, use the following steps to set the following special registry parameter to point to the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). Doing this over-rides any setting in the MAPI profile.
Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type regedit.exe, and then click
OK.
Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\Exchange Provider
Note You may have to create the registry path.
On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
Value name: DS Server
Data type: REG_SZ (string)
Value data: FQDN of the global catalog server
This allowed me to roll out a bunch of laptops and not have to worry about running the Fix It for each user.
update: Sysprep seemed to remove fix. Each time a new user logged into a newly imaged laptop (on domain) same error about Outlook 2007 cannot connect to Exchange. Have tried just about everything, but all I seem to be able to do is run this stupid
Fix it each time. Luckily I don't have 1000 machines to setup because then I'd be screwed.

Outlook 2013 error: The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable

Environment: Windows 7 Enterprise
Setup: Fresh install of Office 2013
Issue: When I launch Outlook I get the error:
The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.
Steps to resolve:
I made sure my server name and mail address were correct but this did not have an impact.
I am at a total loss on how to resolve this issue, is there anyway to manually connect to M.E> as it is just saying the connection is unavailable. All of the other threads dealing with this issue have been no help. I can sign into my account
at login.microsoftonline.net so i know the account is valid. I also receive email to my iPhone with the account and server. Any advice would be wonderful.
Now when I start up the application it tells me the same error and brings up something to alter the server and connection address.

Hi,
Have you tried to recreate a new mail profile and then test the issue?
To do this, please exit Outlook, and then go to
Control Panel >Mail... > Add…
Details about create a new mail profile, see:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829918/en-us
Also, you can try with this KB:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2264398
This issue occurs when the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders registry key does not contain all of the required data. Specifically, these problems occur if the
AppData string value is missing from this registry key.
To resolve this issue, import the
User Shell Folders registry key from a working Windows User Profile.
Hope this helps.
Best Regards
Steve Fan
TechNet Community Support

The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. outlook must be online or connected to completed this action

Hello,
I used to use Outlook 2010 connecting with my account.
However, after I upgrade to outlook 2013, whenever I tried to connect to my account,
it keeps saying "The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable.
outlook must be online or connected to
completed this action."
I've read the other threads, I deleted my accounts through using control panel and so on, but nothing works for me.
Plz help me :(
Other office stuff such as excel,
powerpoint and word works very well.
Thanks

Hi,
If you could connect with your Exchange account with Outlook 2010 successfully and OWA works well. Then the issue might be more related to your Outlook 2013.
I would like to know your Exchange server version. Please understand Outlook 2013 is not compatible with Exchange server 2003 or an earlier version of Exchange. For more resource:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178996.aspx
Regards,
Rebecca Tu
TechNet Community Support

The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action. Error while connecting to exchange through Outlook 2010

Hi,
I have set up Exchange Server 2013 on Windows Server 2008 R2. Everything is working fine except I am unable to configure Exchange account in Outlook 2010 or any other version. It says
"The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action."
Error screenshot is attached. Even, I am able to configure exchange active sync on my adroid and ipad which is working perfect. Please let me know if any body have any idea about it. Searched many blog and forum but still now solution till now.
Thanks in advance
Regards,
Manoj

Hi Manoj,
Can you ping your Exchange server? It would hlep us isolate the fault from network releated issue.
Is there a trusted certificate installed on Exchange 2013 server?
If you run the test of RPC over HTTP in
https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/, is there any error returned?
For more information, please refer to :
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123741(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchangesvrgeneral/thread/1b4dc21c-c745-4699-8eee-423105608dcd/
Thanks.
Fiona Liao
TechNet Community Support

Cannot connect to an Exchange account in Outlook 2013 using "Microsoft Exchange Server or Compatible Service"

Dear All,
I cannot connect to my Exchange account in Outlook 2013 using "Microsoft Exchange Server or Compatible Service".
First I would like to present my network environment, I have 4 physical servers;
The first one is holding the Domain Controller 1, IP@: 192.168.1.10
The second server is holding the additional Domain Controller which it is DC2, IP@: 192.168.1.11
The third server is holding the Exchange 2013 Mailbox, IP@: 192.168.1.15
And the last server is holding the Exchange 2013 CAS-HT, IP@: 192.168.1.16
I am doing the steps below:
1-Creating a new profile in outlook and start configuring the exchange account by entering the IP address of the Exchange-CAS Server, 192.168.1.16
2-entering the account name: [email protected]
3-Go to "More Settings" > "Connection" > "Connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP" > and entering the "Exchange Proxy Settings"
4-type the exchange CAS Server URL, https://192.168.1.16
5-Check the "Connect using SSL Only"
6-Authentication Settings: "NTLM Authentication", and pressing Apply
7-When I press the "Check Name" button, a message occurred> "The action cannot be completed. The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action".
8-I go back to the "Exchange Proxy Settings" and I Uncheck the "Connect using SSL Only" and pressing Apply
9-i press the "Check Name" Button, a small window occurred to enter a Username and Password, so I enter the Administrator username and the administrator password and pressing "OK", but nothing is changed, I tried to enter my
username and password in the small window and I still got the same result.
I cannot verify the account name and I cannot complete the process.
I appreciate you kind assistance.

Hi,
To narrow down the cause, I’d like to recommend the following troubleshooting:
1. Try to login the test account through OWA.
2. Check the Autodiscover settings: get-clientaccessserver |fl autodiscoverserviceinternaluri
3. Check the result of directly accessing the following URL:
https://autodiscover.domain.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml
Thanks,
Angela
Angela Shi
TechNet Community Support

I can't create an email account in Outlook 2013 for my exchange server

Have tried many things on this issue.
I have a new tablet PC running Windows 8. I am able to connect to my Exchange Server account using Windows 8 Mail, no problem but when I have tried to set up an account for Outlook 2013 to connect to the same Exchange Server using exactly the same login
information I cannot get it to connect. I simply get the message that the Exchange Server is unavailable.
I've been able to connect a variety of other devices to the same Exchange Server account without any problem - iPhones, Windows Phone, iPads, etc, etc all without problem. It's just this device and Outlook 2013 seems to be the issue. From checking various
forums seems this is not an isolated issue but I've not been able to find a useful solution so far. Have deleted the user profiles and .ost files, switched off caching etc, all to no avail.
One key difference between the account information required by Windows Mail and Outlook is that in the Windows Mail system I am prompted to enter my domain information. I know this is critical from the information provided to me by our network administration
team but there is nowhere in the Outlook account setup process where I can enter my domain info.
Closest I've been able to get to success is to use the manual account creation process and select the Exchange ActiveSync option - this gets me to the point where I'm prompted for my username and password info but it fails at this step because I am connected
to a local domain (the domain account for the PC) and my user name and password are not accepted. There is nowhere in this login process that I can find where I can enter the correct domain info.
Any ideas on a solution would be very much appreciated - I use Outlook extensively in my work and whilst the Windows 8 Mail system is good, it doesn't have the level of functionality I need.
Many thanks
Wayne.

Have managed to solve this with your help Martina regarding using the domain\username combination.
Here's the solution in detail in case anyone else is having similar problems.
From control panels - select the User Accounts and Family Safety item, then the Mail (Microsoft Outlook 2013) item and then the Email Accounts option.
Select the Email tab and click 'New... button to create a new email account
Choose the standard Email account option in the following form. (Not the 'Manual' option'
Enter your Exchange account details - no alterations necessary here. just your standard details.
As the account verification proceeds you are prompted to again enter your username and password details. In this form, instead of using the top option with your username already populated, click the lower 'Other user' option and enter your domain\username
details. This changes the domain. Enter your password as usual.
I was prompted to do this twice - same each time. Enter domain\username in the username field and usual password
Account is then created.
Open Outlook to complete the process and synchronise data with Exchange.
Hope this is helpful to others - again, many thanks for your assistance Martina.
Wayne.

Can' add Exchange account to Outlook 2013

Hi,
We have an Exchange 2013 server which as far as I know is fully working - Outlook clients on the domain connect fine, OWA works fine and mobile devices work fine.
However I have a problem when trying to add an Exchange account to Outlook 2013 when this computer is on another domain (separate network, separate domain, separate company).
I assume Outlook is searching for an Exchange server which isn't there but how can I get around this?
Thanks

Hi,
Please try to alter the authentication method on the relevant CAS servers to Basic and test the issue. For details:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124503%28v=exchg.141%29.aspx
Thanks,
Rebecca Tu
TechNet Community Support

Multiple exchange e-mail accounts in outlook 2013

Hello. I'm trying to set-up two exchange e-mail accounts in outlook 2013 (Exchange server is synchronized with Active Directory).
Once I add second account and restart outlook I get password prompt from each of the accounts. And it keeps prompting all the time and one of the accounts do not work. Could you please assist me on how to set-up those multiple exchange e-mail accounts correctly

Setup the second Exchange account in one profile would always keep prompting usernam/password. This is limitation of Outlook profile.
To work around this, I recommand that you may use the tool as below:
http://www.codetwo.com/freeware/autologon/
Note:
This response contains a reference to a third party World Wide Web site. Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you. Microsoft does not control these sites and has not tested any software or information found on these sites; therefore,
Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. There are inherent dangers in the use of any software found on the Internet, and Microsoft cautions you to make sure that you
completely understand the risk before retrieving any software from the Internet.

Office 2013 - The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete.

Hi Team,
Just purchased and downloaded Office Home Premium and having trouble with Outlook. For what ever reason, I am unable to create account/add my email address ([email protected]) into the program. Through the set-up process it continuously
tells me that it is unable to connect to Microsoft Exchange, and that it must be online or connected to complete. In the end, it comes up with this pop-up listing a file. Something like that. Any pointers on how to resolve this or are a lot of people having
this problem..
Also, I installed this on my laptop (OSX 10.8.2)
and it worked fine, but not on my desktop (Win8 Pro 64-bit)
Thanks
Andi

Hello,
Does OWA work?
Does this issue occur on other users?
In Exchange 2013, most of the internal and external client becomes to use Outlook Anywhere(RPC over http).
Please make sure the autodiscover.domain.com is included in the certificate.
Thanks,
Simon Wu
TechNet Community Support
Hi I am having the same issue. Brand new computer, using Office 365 and trying to set up Outlook 2013 on Win 7 machine. OWA works fine. But cannot set up Exchange on my desktop.
I don't know what you mean by "In Exchange 2013, most of the internal and external client becomes to use Outlook Anywhere(RPC over
http).
Please make sure the autodiscover.domain.com is included in
the certificate."
Can you please walk me through this? Thank you.

The connection to microsoft exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.

Im sure there are many other questions regarding this. The thing is for me is that it pops up about 4 times for once user in a row. The odd thing is that she is connected and everything is working fine. No other user in the office is experiencing this
issue. So outlook is up and running but what can I check to stop this from coming up. Also it does not appear all the time. I find it strange it is just one user out of 25.

Hi,
We may use Remote Connectivity Analyzer to test the connection to Exchange:
https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/
Since it's only on one user, let her create a new profile to setup the account again, check the result:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829918/en-us
Regards,
Melon Chen
TechNet Community Support

Outlook 2010/windows 8.1 The connection to Microsoft exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.

I need an answer that a non tech geek can understand

Hi,
When does the issue happen? What's your operation before the error occurs?
Please confirm whether you can access your mailbox from OWA to check whether the setting in Exchange server is proper. If you can access mailbox in OWA, please try to create a new Outlook profile and manually configure your Exchange account to check whether
the issue persists. For detailed steps about manually configure Exchange account, please refer to:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/outlook-help/add-an-email-account-by-using-advanced-settings-HA010371264.aspx#_Manually_configure_a_1
Thanks,
Winnie Liang
TechNet Community Support

"The Connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable" when adding second Exchange account to Outlook 2013

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