Share via

Troubleshooting and monitoring server-side synchronization

  • Article

 

Applies To: Dynamics 365 (online), Dynamics 365 (on-premises), Dynamics CRM 2016, Dynamics CRM Online

This page is your source for issues and resolutions for troubleshooting server-side synchronization. Check back for updated information as issues are discovered and resolutions recorded.

Tip

Check out the following: Blog: Test and Enable Mailboxes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015

The Server-Side Synchronization Performance dashboard

You can use the Server-Side Synchronization Performance dashboard to get a quick look at the health of mailboxes using server-side sync.

Go to any dashboard, click Select Drop-down button next to the dashboard title, and then click Server-Side Synchronization Performance.

Server-side Synchronization Performance dashboard

This dashboard is made up of multiple charts, each providing insights into your organization’s server-side sync performance.

Click on a number in the list of mailboxes configured for server-side sync to get a specific mailbox status.

Click on the maiboxes listed for more info.

Click on the grid icon in each chart to view the records that are used to generate the chart.

Click to view records used to create chart

Mailbox disabled for synchronization

Alert: The mailbox has been disabled for synchronizing appointments, contacts, and tasks for the mailbox because an error occurred while establishing a secure connection to the Microsoft Exchange server. The owner of the email server profile has been notified.

Solution: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2993502

Error while establishing a secure connection

Alert: Email cannot be received for the mailbox because an error occurred while establishing a secure connection to the email server. The mailbox has been disabled for receiving email and the owner of the email server profile has been notified.

Solution: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2993502

Email message has "Pending Send" status

If you create an email message in Dynamics 365 and click the Send button, the message will not be sent unless email integration has been correctly configured and enabled for sending email from Dynamics 365.

Verify that the user who sent the email is enabled for sending email.

  1. Click Settings, and then click Email Configuration.

  2. Click Mailboxes, and then change the view to Active Mailboxes.

  3. Select the Dynamics 365 mailbox record for the user who sent the email, and then click the Edit button.

  4. Verify the user is correctly configured and enabled for sending email:

Email address requires approval by Office 365 administrator

Alert: Email cannot be sent/received because the email address of the mailbox <User Name> requires an approval by an Office 365 administrator. The mailbox has been disabled for sending/receiving email and the owner of the email server profile Microsoft Exchange Online has been notified.

Cause:

This error will occur if a user is configured to use the Microsoft Exchange Online email server profile but their email address has not been approved by an Office 365 administrator. A user with the global administrator role in Office 365 needs to approve the email address for each user that uses the Microsoft Exchange Online email server profile. The Microsoft Exchange Online profile uses server-to-server authentication between Microsoft Dynamics 365 (online) and Exchange Online. This authentication is dependent on a trust between Dynamics 365 (online) and Exchange Online. By verifying the email address in Dynamics 365 as an Office 365 global administrator, Dynamics 365 (online) will be able to send and receive email for that user without the need to provide any email credentials within Dynamics 365.

Solution:

To approve one or more mailboxes:

  1. Sign in to Dynamics 365 (online) as a user with the global administrator role in Office 365.

  2. Go to Settings > Email Configuration.

  3. Click Mailboxes.

  4. Select Active Mailboxes or perform an Advanced Find query to identify a list of mailboxes to update.

  5. Select the list of mailboxes you want to approve and then click Approve Email.

  6. Click OK to approve the email addresses.

  7. Click Test & Enable Mailboxes to retest email processing for the enabled mailboxes.

Email addresses must be approved

Alert: One or more mailboxes have been disabled for sending/receiving email because their email addresses have not been approved. Approve the email addresses, and then enable the mailboxes for sending/receiving email." or "Email cannot be received for the mailbox <Mailbox Name> because the email address of the mailbox <Mailbox Name> is not approved and the mailbox has been disabled. The owner of the associated email server profile <Email Server Profile name> has been notified.

Solution:

Mailboxes must be approved before the email will be processed. To approve mailboxes:

  1. Sign in to Dynamics 365 (online) as a user with the global administrator role in Office 365.

  2. Go to Settings > Email Configuration.

  3. Click Mailboxes.

  4. Select Active Mailboxes or perform an Advanced Find query to identify a list of mailboxes to update.

  5. Select the list of mailboxes you want to approve and then click Approve Email.

  6. Click OK to approve the email addresses.

  7. Click Test & Enable Mailboxes to retest email processing for the enabled mailboxes.

Note

You can remove the requirement for approving mailboxes using: Settings > Administration > System Settings > Email tab. Uncheck Process emails only for approved users and Process emails only for approved queues, then click OK. If you are using the Microsoft Exchange Online profile, email addresses must still be approved by an Office 365 global administrator.

Mailbox location could not be determined

Alert: The mailbox location could not be determined while sending/receiving the email message <Message Subject>. The mailbox <Mailbox Name> has been disabled for sending/receiving email and the owner of the associated email server profile <Email Server Profile name> has been notified.

Solution: You will see this alert if your email server profile (Settings > Email Configuration > Email Server Profiles) is configured to use the Auto Discover Server Location option but auto discover cannot detect the location of your mailbox. If this issue occurs, check with your Exchange administrator to verify your network is configured for auto discover. You can update the email server profile and click No for Auto Discover Server Location. Then provide the Exchange web services URL for your Exchange deployment. For example: https://ExchangeServerName/EWS/Exchange.asmx.

Credentials are incorrect or have insufficient permissions

Alert: Email cannot be sent/received because the credentials specified in the associated email server profile are incorrect or have insufficient permissions for sending/receiving email. The mailbox <Mailbox Name> has been disabled for sending/receiving email and the owner of the email server profile <Email Server Profile name> has been notified.

Solution:

This error can appear if incorrect credentials are provided or if the user account specified to access the mailbox does not have sufficient permissions to the mailbox. Check credentials and permissions for the mailbox. If you are providing credentials within an email server profile, make sure the user has impersonation permissions and mailbox access to each associated mailbox.

For more information on configuring Exchange impersonation and granting mailbox access, see:

Appointments can’t be synchronized

Alert: Appointments can’t be synchronized because the Organizer field is not present.

Cause: The Organizer field is required for appointment records to synchronize. By default, this field isn’t included on the appointment form.

Solution:

To add the Organizer field to the appointment form:

  1. Go to Settings > Customizations > Customize the System

  2. Under Components, expand Entities > Appointment, and then click Forms.

  3. Click Appointment, and then drag the Organizer field onto the form.

  4. Click Save > Publish.

Appointments, contacts, and tasks can't be synchronized

Alert: Appointments, contacts, and tasks can't be synchronized because the email address of the mailbox <Mailbox Name> is configured with another Microsoft Dynamics 365 organization. The best practice is to overwrite the configuration when you test and enable the mailbox in your primary organization. Also, change the synchronization method for your mailbox in non-primary organizations to None.

Solution:

To change the primary synchronization organization and overwrite the setting stored in Exchange, click: Settings > Email Configuration > Mailbox > open a mailbox > Test & Enable Mailbox > select Sync items with Exchange from this Dynamics 365 Organization only, even if Exchanges was set to sync with a different Organization. This will allow server-side synchronization to work for this Dynamics 365 instance but the other instance would no longer work for synching that mailbox through server-side synchronization. To change the synchronization method for Appointments, Contacts, and Tasks, click: Settings > Email Configuration > Mailbox > open a mailbox > select None for Appointments, Contacts, and Tasks.

For more information, see: When would I want to use this check box?

Can't set user name and password

Alert: You can't set the user name and password in this email server profile and its associated mailboxes because the Microsoft Dynamics 365 server requires using a secure mode (TLS/SSL) to specify credentials. Use another mode of authentication, or contact the Microsoft Dynamics 365 server admin to allow setting credentials on a nonsecure channel.

Cause:

For security reasons, Microsoft Dynamics 365 will not allow you to save your email credentials in Dynamics 365 if the URL is not configured for TLS/SSL (HTTPS). Microsoft Dynamics 365 also does not allow for the connection to a mail server that does not use TLS/SSL.

Important

You can only disable this requirement in a Dynamics 365 on-premises installation.

Solution:

The following Windows PowerShell commands can be used to allow for the entry of credentials via HTTP and to connect to a non TLS/SSL email server:

Allow for credentials via HTTP

  1. Open a PowerShell command window.

  2. Add the Microsoft Dynamics 365PowerShell snap-in:

    Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Crm.PowerShell

  3. Enter the following:

    $itemSetting = new-object 'System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair[String,Object]'("AllowCredentialsEntryViaInsecureChannels",1)$setting = get-crmsetting customcodesettings
$configEntity = New-Object "Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Deployment.ConfigurationEntity"
$configEntity.LogicalName="Deployment"
$configEntity.Attributes = New-Object "Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Deployment.AttributeCollection"
Set-CrmAdvancedSetting -Entity $configEntity

$itemSetting = new-object 'System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair[String,Object]'("ECAllowNonSSLEmail",1)
$configEntity = New-Object "Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Deployment.ConfigurationEntity"
$configEntity.LogicalName="Deployment"
$configEntity.Attributes = New-Object "Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.Deployment.AttributeCollection"
$configEntity.Attributes.Add($itemSetting)
Set-CrmAdvancedSetting -Entity $configEntity

Note

Before you can save a URL that uses HTTP, you will need to update the Use SSL settings for incoming and outgoing connections (Go to Settings > Email Configuration > Email Server Profiles. Then select a profile, expand Advanced, and set Use SSL for Incoming/Outgoing Connection to No).

Potential issues and resolutions

Email fails to be sent or received when server-side synchronization is configured with Gmail

If Microsoft Dynamics 365 is configured to use Server-Side Synchronization with Gmail, you may encounter one of the following errors:

  • Email cannot be received for the mailbox <Mailbox Name>. Make sure that the credentials specified in the mailbox are correct and have sufficient permissions for receiving email. Then, enable the mailbox for email processing.

  • An unknown error occurred while sending the email message "Test Message". Mailbox <Mailbox Name> didn't synchronize. The owner of the associated email server profile <Email Server Profile Name> has been notified.

For more information, see this kb article.

Using Dynamics 365 (online) with Exchange Online

If your company is using Exchange Online with Dynamics 365 (online), note the following:

Dynamics 365 (online) supports server-side synchronization with Exchange Online in the same tenant with Server to Server Authentication. Other authentication methods or settings are not recommended or supported, including:

  • Using Credentials Specified by a User or Queue

  • Using Credentials Specified in Email Server Profile

  • Using Impersonation

  • Setting Auto Discover Server Location to No

  • Using an email server profile other than Exchange Online

  • Using non-default network ports

Connecting Dynamics 365 (online) with Exchange Online in different tenant is not supported.

Mailbox deliveries regularly disabled

Mailbox delivery errors are classified as follows:

  1. A permanent error (for example, 401 Unauthorized) or a transient error (for example, a network issue).

  2. A server error (for example, invalid profile credentials) or a mailbox error (for example, invalid mailbox credentials).

Dynamics 365 responds to the error as follows:

  • For server or mailbox permanent errors, the mailbox is disabled as soon as the error is detected.

  • For server or mailbox transient errors, delivery is retried up to 10 times with a 5 minute gap between attempts. If delivery fails after 10 attempts, the error is considered permanent and the mailbox is disabled.

Review the troubleshooting steps in this topic and if the issue is successfully resolved, enable the mailbox.

Unsupported email service configurations

Server-side synchronization doesn’t support the following scenarios:

  • Mix of Exchange/SMTP and POP3/Exchange.

  • Creation of mass email marketing campaigns.

  • Extensibility scenarios like extending EWS/POP3/SMTP protocols and creating custom email providers.

  • Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007.

  • Server-side synchronization in Dynamics 365 (online), or in a Microsoft Dynamics 365 (on premises) deployment that is configured for FIPS 140-2 compliancy, requires a POP3/SMTP email server that is also FIPS 140-2 compliant. Some email servers are not FIPS 140-2 compliant, such as MSN, Outlook.com, or Windows Live Mail.

For most situations not supported by server-side synchronization, you can use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Email Router. More information: Integrate (synchronize) your email system with Microsoft Dynamics 365

Note

We recommend that you don’t use a mixed configuration of Outlook synchronization and server-side synchronization for appointments, contacts, and tasks in the same organization, because it may result in updated Dynamics 365 data not synchronizing to all attendees.

Appointment record is not created in Dynamics 365 when tracked by invitee

Consider the following scenario regarding tracking an event in Dynamics 365:

  1. An event organizer uses Outlook for the synchronization method.

  2. An event invitee uses server-side synchronization for the synchronization method.

  3. In Dynamics 365 for Outlook, the organizer creates an appointment and sends an invite to the invitee.

  4. In Dynamics 365 for Outlook, the invitee tracks the appointment.

  5. The invitee logs in to Dynamics 365 and navigates to Marketing > Activities > Appointment > My Appointments

Result: the appointment is not created in Dynamics 365 for the invitee.

This is a known issue and is not supported. If the organizer is someone outside of the Dynamics 365 organization, a Dynamics 365 user who is an invitee can still track the appointment and have the record created in Dynamics 365.

Status fields not listed in Dynamics 365 for Outlook

Consider the following scenario:

  1. In Dynamics 365 for Outlook, click File > Dynamics 365 > Synchronize > Review Synchronization Settings.

  2. Choose the Synchronization Fields tab and the Contact entity.

Result: there is no Category: [Dynamics 365] Inactive Outlook/Exchange field and no Status Reason: Inactive Dynamics 365 field.

This is a known issue and is not supported.

Service Appointments and Activities don’t synchronize from Outlook to Dynamics 365

Changes made to Service Appointments and Activities in Dynamics 365 will update in Dynamics 365 for Outlook when you synchronize but the reverse is not true. When you make changes to Service Appointments or Activities in Dynamics 365 for Outlook, the changes are not synchronized to Dynamics 365. Service appointments are scheduled by an agent and need free/busy information for resources available only in Dynamics 365.

Be aware of Exchange Online receiving and sending limits

For enterprise customers with a large mail flow, make sure you're not running up against Exchange Online receiving and sending limits. See Exchange Online Limits

See Also

Best practices for server-side synchronization
{Hidden Gem}Understanding Server Side sync Performance Dashboard
Troubleshooting and things to know about Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Outlook
Set up server-side synchronization of email, appointments, contacts, and tasks

© 2017 Microsoft. All rights reserved. Copyright