BCM unusable when Outlook offline with Exchange accounts

[Jurg]

We have a laptop with Outlook 2003 and Business Contact Manager v2. Outlook
is configured with an Exchange server account (on a Small Business server,
Exchange is in cached mode). Everything works fine as long as there is a
connection to the Exchange server. If the connection is not present (by
cutting the network connection, setting Outlook to offline at startup, or by
moving to a different network), the BCM database becomes unavailable. Outlook
starts with a 'The information store could not be opened' message. In BCM,
when you try to open a contact's details, it gives a 'business contact
manager was unable to initialize this form' message and displays the form
without any data in it. The SQL link to the database seems to be working,
since you can see the list with the contacts, but you cannot access the pages
showing the contact details or modify the contact's data. The only 'cause' of
this problem seems to be the fact that the Exchange account is offline.

I have found some posts about the same kind of problem
http://www.officekb.com/Uwe/Forum.a...-offline-Infomation-store-could-not-be-opened

but couldn't find any solutions.

I guess it's an uncommon problem, if you experience the same or know how to
fix it, your post would be very much appreciated.

 

[Raul Thomas]

Can you turn off e-mail auto linking and see if it does the trick for you

--
Regards

Rahul Thomas [MSFT]

https://blogs.msdn.com/rathomas

 

[Jurg via OfficeKB.com]

Can you turn off e-mail auto linking and see if it does the trick for you

Interesting hint, thanks. I can't try right now, I'll let you know.

 

[Jurg via OfficeKB.com]

I tried with auto-linking turned off. No luck, I get the same errors. I also
noticed that the BCM menus in the Outlook menu bar are not there when offline.
I checked in Help-Disabled items, BCM is not disabled, but it's not working
all the same.