I’ve been wanting to know how to stop outlook from synchronizing for a few years now. Every now and again I tackle the problem but can never find any solutions.
This time, my outlook locks up while synchronizing and it’s really been pissing me off.
When Outlook is open, it begins to download the mail, then the synchronizing icon shows up in the task bar with it’s little message. Then outlook freezes up and I have to shut it down and send in an error report.
Today, I finally found a solution and am posting it here for my own purposes. I NEVER want to lose this little piece of information because it finally worked.
How To Stop Microsoft Office Outlook from Synchronizing
If you right click on each of the email folders and select “properties” you will see a check box: Automatically generate Microsoft Exchange views”.
UNcheck this box on each email folder.
You will still get a very brief “synchronizing” message, but ONLY while it is actively linking to your POP account.
There, hopefully I can find this again if and when I need it and maybe help someone else in the mean time.
Btw, before I tried this, I renamed my old .pst file, created a new one, and it still did the same thing. It WAS NOT a corrupt .pst file. Then I did the procedure above, then imported my mail and folders from the old .pst file.
and that… is finally that!
Popularity: 14%
April 28th, 2009 at 10:40 am
It’s about time someone disclosed this information…..thank you!
May 28th, 2009 at 11:41 am
I searched high and low, gave up, searched again and again. Thanks so much.
July 8th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Is there a downside to this fix? What are Exchange views and what is the impact of not generating them?
July 8th, 2009 at 9:43 am
@Jon, exchange views work in a client server environment for people who have their outlook connected to their office MS Exchange server
If you’re using pop or imap, it will have no impact
December 14th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Microsoft doesn’t even know how to resolve this issue. However, it works and that’s all that matters. I wish I could tell the whole world because I know hundreds of people with the same problem. I’ll send it out to my email database and maybe it will make the rounds. Thanks so much for finally solving this devastating issue. Previously I could not get anything done while the synchronizing was going on. Regards, Greg
January 11th, 2010 at 8:50 am
At last, I was about to pull my hair out with this daily problem, which I’ve been experiencing for months. My local IT guy wasn’t even familiar with the problem and couldn’t help me.
It got to a stage I started digging a bit deeper for a solution as I couldn’t stand it anymore, as it was REALLY slowing my whole system down when synchronising.
I then found this link/how-to and was chuffed. Does what it says on the tin, including the very brief icon popping up again when connecting to POP, but no problems. Buy this person a pint, well deserved!!!
Thank you!!!!
January 11th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
“Chuffed” and “Does what is says on the tin”
WTF does that mean? lol
translation please (glad it’s working for you now)
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:57 am
Thanks for sharing! I will toast to you with a beer tonight! Like you, this has been a pain for some time.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:06 pm
and I will accept that toast with gratitude!
January 27th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
my problem is that outlook freezes and crashes the entire system. I can’t access the folders. Is there some way to do this without running outlook? Help please! I am using vista and outlook 2007.
January 31st, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Another annoying habit of ms Out is when it suggests recipients in the To… bar it puts inverted commas ‘everybody@nowhere.com’ this either stops the messages going out or sends them but they dont get delivered. Does anyone know how to fix it?
February 1st, 2010 at 3:42 am
Rob
Will this fix 2007 as well ??
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:44 pm
@Bob, re: fixing Microsoft 2007 Synchronizing issue, I have NO idea. I’d suspect that if they never fixed it in the first place, the bug may have propagated to the latest releases. I’d say give it a whirl and report back. I honestly have no idea. Haven’t upgraded past Outlook 2003 myself.
February 8th, 2010 at 9:13 am
@Bob i have tried this on my 2007 today and yes it does work
Thanks alot
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:05 am
deselected all the folders however on send command still attempts to synch tho’ timescale a big improvement…….(don’t understand what it is synching with)still thankful for improvement
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:44 am
having thought the problem had improved collegue just called to ask why I sent him 10 (multi) copies of a media attachment….anyone any ideas if there’s a link ??? cheers
March 2nd, 2010 at 10:16 am
@Bob, I’ve had that happen before as well. I’ve always attributed it to the ISP, not the actual sending computer. In my experience, sometimes the isp sends duplicate copies and sometimes the receiving email client fails to send a “delete” command, deleting the copy from the server after it downloads the mail. Both possibly related to the ISP and communications with it.
March 29th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
I was trying to work through this but with SO MANY folders it was a lot of work. Then came MICROSOFT OFFICE BETA 2010 and I took the plunge. It appears (I have tested it but no absolute guarantee) that there is an immediate solution to the problem.
I sent this message as a SMILE (part of the BETA Program) to Microsoft:
————————————————————————
I am not 100% sure but it looks as if this is the solution to the MICROSOFT OFFICE SYNCHRONIZING FILES with the Microsoft Exchange Server. I asked about this a few days ago as that option was no longer on the individual FOLDER PROPERTIES. If this is the solution, it is a great solution as it works on ALL FOLDERS and you do not have to go to each one – a big task for a large OFFICE user with many e-mail addresses and folders.
If this is a TRUE FIX this will be a significant selling feature to the user that is not on an exchange server as the SYNCHRONIZATION disrupted our e-mail every day, many times a day. So far, since I unchecked this box, I have not had that problem.
I will circulate this to our team in anticipation that it is a correct statement. If not, I am the only one to blame.
Richard
http://richard.laughton.tel
April 6th, 2010 at 6:40 am
It did not work for me at all. I am still getting the same message ” Microsoft Office Outlook is synchronizing folders” I cannot send out my urgent emails. I went through each and every folder and unchecked the box but problem still exists. Any further ideas anyone?
April 26th, 2010 at 7:23 am
Damn I was about to jump when I found this. You are my hero!
May 7th, 2010 at 1:09 am
So what about when using POP, any hints/ I’m going crazy
May 11th, 2010 at 7:26 am
@mm, I am using POP. I only use POP. I think the deal is that it tries to synchronize regardless of which method is being used and hence ties up resources. I’ll never try to figure out why Microsoft does what it does, but it just does.
June 12th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Thank you Rob –
This has plagued me for a long time and has cost me hours and hours of chargeable time!
I think this will do the trick!
Once again, thank you!
Rob J
June 14th, 2010 at 3:55 am
Thanks so much, I’ve been looking for a fix for soooo long !
Cheers !
June 27th, 2010 at 3:47 am
I tried your solution and it workded for a few days and the synchronization started all over again. I am so disappointed. This has cost me so much time. I am not on an Exchange server. This is a new PC running XP with Outlook 2007. Any other clues I could try? Kathy 6/27/10
July 16th, 2010 at 1:03 am
Thanks
July 22nd, 2010 at 1:04 pm
I would send you a case of beer for that info
I was about ready to just give up since I have been looking for a solution for almost 2 years. I cannot tell you how great this info is.
July 27th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
I did the “un-check” thing to – to no avail on OUtlook 2007. Then I actually bought Outlook 2010 – and it still does the same friggin thing. I can get emails (slow), but Outlook will not “send” any emails at all.
This only started for me about 3 days ago.
WTF? Help – anybody. Can’t believe that Microsoft is letting this happen.
August 4th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Thank you for posting this for the rest of us. This same situation has been a nightmare for me for weeks. My system kept hanging and I almost chucked it to buy a Mac. Thanks for saving me endless headaches and significant dollars!