Outlook for Mac Add-ins unavailable offline

Markdon 21 Reputation points
2022-06-02T01:37:06.31+00:00

I have plans for making my Outlook add-in able to run without a connection to my add-in's servers. A bit of research shows a few examples of Office add-ins that can run offline. There's even some MS documentation.

Outlook on Windows seems to allow add-ins to run when fully offline (no local network connection).
Outlook on Mac can run an add-in if the Outlook client thinks it is online. If Outlook on Mac cannot reach my add-in servers, it will still let me launch my add-in.
However, if Outlook on Mac thinks it is fully offline, it blocks access to add-ins by disabling all add-in buttons in the action menu.

Are add-ins in Outlook for Mac expected to be able to run when offline in the future?

I also noticed that Outlook for Mac wouldn't let me "Send" anything while offline where Windows does when signed in to the same account. Mac claims "You're offline and your organisation doesn't allow messages or invites to be sent now."

Is support for offline features still a work in progress on Mac?

Office Development
Office Development
Office: A suite of Microsoft productivity software that supports common business tasks, including word processing, email, presentations, and data management and analysis.Development: The process of researching, productizing, and refining new or existing technologies.
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Outlook Management
Outlook: A family of Microsoft email and calendar products.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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Accepted answer
  1. Faery Fu-MSFT 16,826 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2022-06-02T09:45:29.833+00:00

    Hi @Markdon ,

    Welcome to our forum and posting your question here!

    According to my test on my Outlook for Mac, I can produce your scenario: The Send option is greyed out and add-ins can't lanuch.

    Many features of our current products are designed and upgraded based on customers’ feedback. With requirements like this increase, the problem may well be released in the future.
    I’ve tried submitted this feature request in my Outlook for Mac. What I can do for you at present is to submit a suggestion for you, and you can also make a suggestion via the Outlook client: Go to Help > Give Feedback.
    Thanks for your understanding.

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it so this thread can be closed.
    Note: Please follow the steps in [our documentation][10] to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

    [10]: https://aka.ms/msftqanotifications 

    1 person found this answer helpful.

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