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How Outlook and Exchange can prevent FocalScope from receiving emails
Monday, December 5, 2016 6:18 AM

FocalScope can coexist with any other email client and does not require any changes to your mail server. However, as Outlook has specifically been designed to work with Exchange, Outlook has extensive control over the mail server. Thus, in Outlook-Exchange environments FocalScope may not be able to retrieve new emails when used in conjunction with Outlook. This article covers some of the critical settings in Outlook / Exchange that may prevent FocalScope from performing as expected.

Cause

  • Emails received in Outlook have been moved to a folder other than the inbox
  • Routing rules have been configured to move emails received in Outlook from the inbox folder to other folders
  • Emails received in Outlook have been deleted
  • Outlook configuration pertaining to how emails are retrieved from Exchange

Troubleshooting

If you notice you are not receiving new emails in FocalScope (this may occur with only a few emails), verify if the following conditions have occurred in Outlook (or any other email client that you are using).

Emails relocated manually

If a user moves an email from their Outlook inbox folder to another folder, e.g., the [Customer A] folder in Figure 1, then FocalScope will not be able to retrieve the email when it connects to Exchange, as the email will not be located under the inbox folder (where FocalScope retrieves all new emails on Exchange).


Figure 1 - Manually relocating emails in Outlook



Emails relocated by email rules

Similarly to the previous cause, if emails are being moved out of Outlooks inbox folder by Outlook Rules (see Figure 2), then FocalScope will be unable to retrieve the message from Exchange as FocalScope can only retrieve new emails from the inbox folder.


Figure 2 - Rule-based email relocation in Outlook


Deleted emails

Deleting emails from Outlook's inbox folder will have a the same effect as moving emails out of the inbox folder; again making it impossible for FocalScope to retrieve the email(s) from Exchange.


Figure 3 - Deleted emails in Outlook


Outlook configuration

Outlook has a main setting that dictates how it retrieves emails from Exchange. For FocalScope (and other email clients) to be able to download emails, it is required that Outlook be configured to leave a copy of messages on the mail server. This can be configured as follows:

  1. In Outlook, click [File > Account Settings > Account Settings]
  2. In the [Account Settings] window, click the [E-mail] tab and double click the associated email account
  3. In the [Change Account] window, click the [More Settings] button
  4. In the [Internet E-mail Settings] window, click the [Advanced] tab and under the [Delivery] section, tick the [Leave a copy of messages on the server] flag
  5. Click [OK] and follow through with the email account test to save the settings

Figure 4 - Configuring Outlook to leave copies on the mail server

Additional Information