WSS 3.0 is missing the 'Connect to Outlook' action

Question

My current configuration of WSS 3.0 is suddenly missing the 'Connect to Outlook' actions menu item!

Update: I have verified using the same browser instance loading a calendar from a different SharePoint site (hosted on a different machine) shows me the 'Connect to Outlook' action menu. This rules out any client-side issues.

It used to be there but I don't recall making any changes at all (I know, famous last words!). I'd like to avoid having to re-install SBS 2008 because of it.

Is there a log file that I could inspect for any errors?

Solution 1

Is it possible Client Integration got turned off? In Central Admin/App Management/Authentication Providers, click on your provider. There is an option for "Enable Client Integration". If it is set to no Connect to Outlook does not work.

Solution 2

Thanks for the clue that Kevin Kuphal put here. Yes, a customized calendar lose the ability to "Connect to Outlook". While the blog seems to be a solution it was too hard to understand. So I picked the simple way. I created a standard "Calendar", created a workflow to copy the existing calendar's new item into the standard calendar. I then linked the standard calendar into my Outlook, it worked. I can then drag the booking into my Gmail calendar to synchronize to my mobile phone. The only problem is changes on the Gmail calendar won't be updated back to the original calendar. Unless I create another workflow to do that. But I am happy with it for now.

Solution 3

Also remember this is only available in Internet Explorer and if you recently switched over to using a different browser such as FireFox it will show you a "Connect to Client" action instead of "Connect to Outlook".

Comments

[MattB]

Is it missing for everybody in your organization, or just for you?

[Philipp Schmid]

Thx, I'll check this out. However, we have seen it on different machines which are not centrally managed (as a matter of fact, the other machine is on the other coast), so I am still suspecting an issue on the server.

[Philipp Schmid]

It is missing in both the IE (7/8) and Firefox (3.0) browser versions.

[Philipp Schmid]

I just confirmed that I can see the missing menu item using the same browser against a different SharePoint site (hosted on a different machine). So that rules out a client-side issue.

[Philipp Schmid]

Bingo, that was it! I found it after reading about it here: technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263304.aspx .

[Tim Long]

+1 This solved a different but related problem for me (open in Windows Explorer).