Outlook Extension Published but Not Appearing for Users

Question

Hello,

We previously had Issue Publishing Outlook Extension using Latest Agent Toolkit with Unified Manifest but that's already resolved and we got the outlook extension published.

It shows that app is detected as an Outlook Add-In. I assigned it to 4 users in the organization.

Now the issue is it doesn't appear in their apps on either Outlook Web or Desktop. In some threads I saw that it might take time to appear but now it's more than 3 days and still not appearing. In organization settings uploading/installing apps for organization is available.

I am not sure what other configurations I may have missed. Appreciate any input as to what else I should check.

Appreciate any help :)

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi @Fleet 56

Based on your description, I understand that you have successfully resolved your previous unified manifest deployment issue and your app is now properly detected as an Outlook Add-In within the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. However, despite assigning it to 4 specific users more than 3 days ago, the extension is still not appearing in either Outlook Desktop or Outlook on the Web (OWA), even though organization-level app installation settings are completely enabled.

A common point of confusion in the Integrated Apps portal is the difference between app availability and a forced installation. If the status panel shows the app is "Available" to 4 users but "Installed" for 0, the platform has only granted those 4 users the rights to manually search for and add the extension themselves. It will not force-push it onto their ribbons.

Please sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Go to Settings > Integrated apps and click on your Outlook extension > In the configuration flyout pane, check the deployment settings under the Users and groups (or Deployment) tab > Ensure the app is explicitly set to Preinstalled / Fixed or forced deployment for those specific users or groups, rather than just set to "Available".

Since you are using the modern Agent Toolkit with the Unified Manifest, remember that modern Office Add-ins are entirely contextual. They will only appear on surfaces that match the rules declared in your manifest.

If your manifest dictates that the extension runs during Compose mode, it will not appear when simply viewing the Inbox. Users must click "New Email" or "Reply" and check the Apps / More apps button on that specific compose ribbon. If it is a Read add-in, they must select an existing message and look for the add-in icon inside the message header or the triple-dot (...) extension menu.

If the deployment states are correct but the add-in remains entirely missing, the underlying Exchange Online routing policies might be silently overriding your administrative intent. You can verify this by connecting to Exchange Online PowerShell and checking two crucial blocks:

Run the following cmdlet to ensure that Outlook apps are globally permitted to initialize:

Get-OrganizationConfig | Select AppsForOfficeEnabled

If it returns False, it will globally override and block all new add-in activations, even if Integrated Apps claims it is deployed. You can flip it back on by running:

Set-OrganizationConfig -AppsForOfficeEnabled:$true

Then please check that the Outlook Web policies allow the execution of custom scripts by running:

Get-OwaMailboxPolicy | Select Name, AppsForOfficeEnabled

Additionally, check the User Roles Assignment Policy inside the Exchange Admin Center (EAC). The role assignment policy attached to those 4 users must have the following checkboxes enabled under Other roles:

• My Custom Apps
• My Marketplace Apps
• My ReadWriteMailbox Apps

If these user role permissions are missing from their profile policy, Exchange will block the client from loading custom sideloaded or unified manifest app configurations.

Please check the "Installed" assignment state within your Integrated Apps portal first and please let me know what you find or if you need help looking into the manifest definitions.

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Answer 2

Hi @MKGN @Fleet 56

Thank you for the update. If you find that the hint I provided helps you work around the problem, please consider upvoting this thread so that other community users can also benefit from the workaround.

In addition, you are welcome to create a new question related to development topics that are relevant to the Microsoft community on this forum. As long as you include the necessary details and select the appropriate tags, other community members and moderators will be in a better position to assist you.

Thank you.