We have an Exchange 2010 server that is managed by a 3rd party vendor that is used by external users who connect over RPC-HTTP autodiscover with Outlook 2010. We have run into many Outlook/PC/OS/etc-specific problems on these users, but I haven't been able to figure this one out. Currently we have a few thousand users working in the environment with the same setup, so I don't believe it's a problem with how exchange is setup.



User had the e-mail account set up on their computer and working, then at some point Outlook 2010 was suddenly unable to connect to exchange. We haven't tracked down what triggered it. When we delete the account and re-add it, the setup gets through the first two checkmarks "Establish network connection" and "Search for server settings" then locks up when trying to "Log on to server". I say lock up because the gradient progress bar at the top will stop moving and the window becomes unresponsive. It will hang there for 5-10 minutes and then error out saying "the connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action".

However, we are able to add our test account (that's on the same domain) onto that same computer, so it is not a network/DNS problem. And I am able to add the user's account on other computers, so it is not an exchange/AD/account/autoconfigure/certificate/server-side problem. It seems to be something specific on that computer when Outlook tries to configure that specific e-mail account AFTER getting the autodiscover xml.

I have the log files and from what I can tell it is getting stuck downloading the autodiscover xml over and over. The logs all look fine at first, then in the olkdisc.log it gets the xml, then a minute or so later it gets it again, then again, and again, and again. I let it sit there for 12 minutes and it got the xml 7 times. Meanwhile the UI was still sitting there trying to configure the account. I went through all the other logs and none of them have any data beyond the first XML retrieval.

Outlook's built-in "Test Email AutoConfiguration" tool does complete successfully with the user's account info on the user's computer.

A few other details: I can get all three green checkmarks if I delete the account, open Outlook, go to file and account settings and add it there. But it doesn't so the whole setup there, just connects to the server. It tells me to restart Outlook to configure the account, and when I do that it either hangs at Loading Profile or sometimes at Processing. Basically it's getting stuck at the same point as above.

I renamed the whole Profiles key in the registry under Windows Messaging Subsystem or whatever it was called, deleted all the .ost/.xml/etc files associated with the account, renamed the account folder under %appdata%/Microsoft/Protect/, and tried starting Outlook in safe/resetnavpane/noextensions/etc modes, all with no change in the symptoms. Except that if you start in Safe Mode Outlook will actually start to open, but as soon as the UI starts to form it will lock up and eventually error the same way. It's like safe mode tries to load the UI before configuring the account, but as soon as the .ost file starts to generate it will lock up and the task needs to be ended.

OWA works fine and shows a valid certificate chain in IE.

There are no credentials saved in Control Panel - Users. I used ProcMon and NetMon to try and see what it's doing but it doesn't show anything useful. Netmon shows it hitting the server to get the xml, but Procmon has no clues to what it's failing on after that. I can't seem to figure out what file/key/process/etc is interfering with the configuration.

All the easy stuff has been tried. Full uninstall/reinstall, new profiles, manually configuring, etc. But I'm open to any suggestions.