RSSCategory: Outlook Support

SharePoint Expert

| September 2, 2016 | 0 Comments

If you are having a hard time finding a SharePoint Expert to hire for just a few hours or for a project… I will let you know that it is very difficult to find someone for just a few things. I have looked for a few years now and finally found someone who does 1 hour or many hours and does project work as well. (see form below to get in touch with us). Robert Crane is a well known SharePoint Expert who is for hire by the hour or project.

He offers some free information for you first to review to see if you can figure it out yourselves and if not, you can hire him.

If you want to get to know him, you can check out my podcast video here. Robert Crane SharePoint Expert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEVnypCYf-Y

 

SharePoint Expert For Hire

| September 2, 2016 | 0 Comments

If you are having a hard time finding a SharePoint Expert to hire for just a few hours, I will let you know that it is very difficult to find someone for just a few things. I have looked for a few years now and finally found someone who does 1 hour or many hours and does project work as well. (see form below to get in touch with us). Robert Crane is a well known SharePoint Expert who is for hire by the hour or project.

He offers some free information for you first to review to see if you can figure it out yourselves and if not, you can hire him.

If you want to get to know him, you can check out my podcast video here. Robert Crane SharePoint Expert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEVnypCYf-Y

 

How to backup Office 365

| August 28, 2016 | 0 Comments

Hi folks, as a Microsoft Outlook Expert and Office 365 Consultant, I get asked often, “So how do you backup my Exchange on Office 365” and that is a smart question! But do you need to backup Exchange? Yes and No. And does Microsoft backup your Exchange for you? And what about SharePoint and OneDrive?

These questions and a few others are covered in this blog.

Typical Questions! 

How does Exchange get backed up? How do I get back emails and folders that I didn’t meant to delete permanently?  

  • Exchange has some built-in protections. Everything you delete should be in the “deleted items” folder and it usually is there. There is an option to “recover deleted items”. There is also an option to “Purge selected items” and that is not good. That means it’s gone for good. Can that data be recovered? Maybe. Maybe not.

Does Exchange have automatic backup? 

  • No, automatic backup to the cloud or local computer is not a feature of Exchange. I fix many clients broken Outlook profiles by just downloading a fresh copy of their Exchange. The data is on a server and that’s how it can synchronize so well between many computer types and devices. See options for backup down below.

Can your IT admin recover things off the exchange server if it’s missing from Outlook?

  • According to my vendor, even data purged should be able to be restored back 21 days, but I recommend a 2nd backup just in case. (See notes below for vendor options for Office 365 backup).

Can my employees delete all of their data before leaving the company and can I retrieve that data? 

  • Yes and no. Employees can go crazy before they leave the company. I have seen this before, they delete all of their inbox/folders/deleted and sent items and do a delete and purge, so that means everything is gone. They can do that with calendar and contacts as well. If you are not using a vendor for your Office 365 and/or your current IT vendor does not have it setup correctly, then you might be out of luck. Trying to get the data back from the local OST file might not work if you are not backing up the OST file your computer backup programs.

We share our contacts with one mailbox for everyone in the company, is this safe and is that data backed up? 

  • Many folks today want complete sharing of calendars and contacts off the desk, meaning mobile. To do that, we need to create a new shared mailbox and that has to be completely trusted within all employees who have that access because they have full ownership. Backing up is very important because a great employee one day can go crazy the next day and destruct date very easy. Again, see options below. I highly recommend backing this data because of the full ownership required for each employee to use it mobile!

My iPhone did an update and now my calendars are empty and not in Exchange on my Outlook.

  • Yep, seen this happen too. Updates on the iPhone (this is rare but can happen) cause craziness with Exchange.  You can look in the deleted items and see if you can recover but if that fails and you have no backup, then you have to spend hours fixing OST files on the computer to get the data back, you can hope too that this works. I recommend backing up your iPhone before doing any updates on the phone and if you need to, do a manual backup of your exchange (see instructions below)

Where is Exchange on my computer and can I backup that file? 

  • Yes and no. Exchange by default creates an OST file. An OST file is really just a shadow copy of what is on the server, but stored locally so you can work offline or on travel, etc and view all of your data. If let’s say one day your Outlook won’t open, you cannot just create a new profile and import that OST File back into Outlook. With exchange you can though just create your account in Outlook and your current exchange should download. An OST file though, can be repaired and data can be extracted. I do that work and if you need me, feel free to use my online scheduler here to get on my calendar. I will let you know that an OST repair can be 1-4 hours of work, not cheap. http://bit.ly/1C2IoEO

  • Some online backup programs can be configured to backup OST files. The OST files are usually stored in a hidden folder in your computer C:\Users\User Profile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

Options for backup

Online Office 365 backup

  • A product I have tested is from Spanning.com. They have Office 365 backup on the cloud. What I did to test was set it up, configured it and then deleted a few folders in my Outlook. I went to the website, logged in and restored those folders. Almost instantly those folders were back in my Outlook named “restored folders” It was amazingly fast. Spanning was bought out my EMC (that owns Mozy backup) and if you want to talk to their sales rep, you can email Jennifer Bushman, tell her I referred you. I am not an affiliate or re-seller.

    Manual backup

  • Manual backup is free and if you’re concerned, schedule your manual backup every Friday before you leave for work, then let it run while you’re gone and you should have a good backup on Monday am. Here is my YouTube video on how to back up your Exchange to a PST file.

Don’t forget to check to make sure you have all of your email downloaded from the server too. Here is a video to help with that.

What about SharePoint and OneDrive? Are they backed up? 

These two programs are cloud based and should not need to be backed up, but SharePoint does offer “version history” so you can restore a past version. If you happen to have SharePoint mapped to your computer, then you will have to see if your backup program will back that up. OneDrive (if synced correctly) can be added to the documents list in online backup programs. 

*I work more with Office 365 purchases for clients and assist with Exchange migrations and Outlook troubleshooting. My core specialties do not include SharePoint or OneDrive. I usually assist clients if they ask a few questions about it.

Few final tips

Always back up your Outlook data especially calendars and contacts before using any 3rd party app! If you need my help, you can get on my calendar here http://bit.ly/1C2IoEO

I was reminded that your retention policies can be changed in the admin portal of Exchange/Office365 so you can have backup further back than the default.

If you want to discuss any of your Office 365 needs or want to work with my vendor, please use my scheduler system below. Thanks! ~Lisa

 

Mac Outlook 2016 Expert

| August 28, 2016 | 1 Comment

Mac Outlook 2016 works pretty well, but sometimes you can get caught up in some issues that you might be seeking a Mac Outlook 2016 Expert. I am an Outlook Expert, but do a lot of work on Macs with 2011 and the new Outlook 2016.

Below are a few examples of issues I have repaired lately.

  • After connecting Gmail, the Mac HD storage fills up and crashes Outlook

  • Email folders from 2011 missing after upgrading to Outlook 2016

  • Exchange contacts not working, categories missing

  • Calendar and contact sharing not working

  • IMAP not connecting in a new account

  • Folders completely missing

  • Sync pending for this folder never stops

Mac HD other storage fills up after adding Gmail in Outlook

| August 27, 2016 | 0 Comments

I took a call from a client the other day stating “my mac hd other storage fills up after adding gmail in outlook”, that is pretty much what she said. As an Outlook Expert, I help clients all the time with every type of device and email platform.

Since she was using Gmail, I assumed she had an overload of email and it turns out I was right. She had almost 30 gigs of email on the Gmail server. I did a few tests and removed the current account, added it back with some of the email turned off and it was still filling her HD space up. I thought for a moment that maybe there was another app or software program maybe trying to synch with the Mac (iCloud, Dropbox, etc) but nothing was there, it was a new Mac and only 3 gigs of data on the desktop.

I called on my Mac Expert who also happens to be a Google Apps Expert and he remoted in to verify that nothing else was wrong and during this analysis, we found that I had not removed the “sent” items from synching. That folder was using about 1/4th of the hard drive alone. I turned that off from the IMAP and her Outlook 2016 finally was in good shape and her Mac was usable again. The first time she added the account, it blew up the computer pretty much, made it unusable.

So there you go folks, without getting too technical, removing the IMAP from downloading should help. If you need my help, you can book time on my calendar below. If you want help from Steven (who can run the programs to find where the data is on the Mac), you can contact him here and please tell him that Lisa from Call That Girl sent you. Thanks!

FB ITBOG Group

| August 23, 2016 | 0 Comments

Computer Technicians need all the help they can get to build their computer businesses, each one of Lisa’s eBooks & video helps you with different layers of your business. To get a 20% off on any of the products, email Lisa@callthatgirl.biz for the deal

 Check out the Outlook Troubleshooting Training Videos here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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