Can’t Connect Outlook to Office 365 Exchange Server

microsoft-office-365outlook-2007

We use Office 365 exchange server for staff emails. I have an email account which I have been able to successfully setup on my iPhone, and android tablet, however when trying to set it up in Outlook I get an error saying that autodiscovery is not working. When I then attempt to manually set it up using the exchange server address given to me which is outlook.office365.com and the username which is my full email address I get an error saying "The action cannot be completed. The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action."

Steps So Far

  1. Double checked server address
  2. Switched off computer firewall
  3. Switched off Windows firewall
  4. Switched off antivirus
  5. Tried alternate username

Each time I get the exact same error and it is starting to get tiring given the fact that I can connect from everything except my Outlook installation. I have checked with out IT department and it is meant to be accessible from home but given that it is a personal computer they have stated that they can not provide any further assistance other than to tell me what the server address is.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Best Answer

You tagged this as Outlook 2007 so I'm assuming that is the version you are using.

Make sure you have all the patches and service packs installed for Office. You must be on SP3.

Login to portal.office.com. There is a link called "setup your desktop applications to work with Office 365". Exactly where the link is in the portal will depend on which Office 365 plan you are signed up for. That link will download a utility that configures Outlook for you and makes sure all the necessary updates are installed.

Outlook 2007 is on the edge of incompatibility with Office 365. It works but is not fully supported. You really should consider upgrading to 2013 or later.