magpiebrain

Thank you VERY much for this article. My office uses Lotus Notes exclusively. Lotus Notes is great, however – the e-mail client is pitaful

Updates will show up in two places – are you sure you’re looking at the updates displayed under office 2003 itself, rather than the generic windows updates?

Thanks for this. Works a treat!

Hi,

I am having the exact problem that Alan has described above when I try to access my Notes Mail database using Outlook.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Well I am not able to open Microsoft Office as initially I had configured the Mail account directly by specifying the Domino server name(before installing the connector) but Outlook gave me and still gives me an error and shuts down and thus I am not able to access the ooptions to use the connector. How do i remove these settings to revert back to the original Outlook configuration? please help!

Kamal,

You should be able to uninstall the connector easily enough from the add/remove programs option under the control panel.

I have a different problem. My Outlook Connector works perfectly, but other email does not. When I’m not connected by my VPN to the Notes server (VPN is down), I cannot send email via my Comcast account. Interestingly, I can get email from the same Comcast account. The only odd thing I’ve noticed is that even though I select Comcast account as to be used when sending the email, the email itself ends up in the Domino “Outbox”. Any ideas as to what might be going on? And – Thanks in advance for any help you might provide!

this pertain to a message that said my local message file.

A question – can the Notes mail automatically be delivered to my Personal folder inbox if it is specified as the delivery mail box, in the same way as it can be setup to do when there is an Exchange server & a Personal folder?

Thanks for the tip…though some corrections might be in order based on my experience in making my Outlook connector for Domino in Outlook 2003 work again on my XP-SP2 (It was down for last few months ever since I got the Outlook updates from MS site via automatic updates)

Firstly, after I removed the 3 patches related to Outlook, my Outlook was crashing on start-up, had to use the “repair” option of Microsoft Office installation to fix that. Secondly, I don’t think I can run the patches again as they will again block its working. One just have to live without those MS patches.

Thank You!!

Worked like a charm!

Really big “Thank You” ...

Excellent – removing the Outlook update and re-installing the connector fixed it. Well done.

Finally- After two weeks and reading your blog it finally WORKS!!!

[...] Thanks goes to the Magpiebrain’s guide Using Outlook 2003 to read Lotus Notes email. It helped me get started on installing the Notes Connector, when I was having problems with it. [...]

So no-one else has had the problem where the Notes folders are missing? I can’t use the outlook connector as I need the folders. I’ve gone back to the horrible Notes client for now.

Hi All:

I need to access “four Lotus Notes email files” but do not have Lotus Notes and don’t need it. Is there any easy way to access these files … should I do the whole rigamarole of setting up Outlook?

I don’t need to access a server, don’t need to download anything … I just need to view four Lotus Notes email files which are contained on a DVD.

Any advice would be most appreciated … THANK YOU!!!!

Help…I had the connector working fine on my old laptop using Outlook 2002 and Lotus Notes V6. My new laptop came with Outlook 2003 and Lotus Notes V7. I do not have the Outlook 2003 security fix KB892843 installed. The connector installed fine, configured fine, but when I try to open the folders, I get a POP up error “folders could not be opened, server not available”..

Any suggestions. Also is anyone using connector with Notes V7. Thanks in advance.

Any idea when will a connector Notes 7 be released? Every since my company has migrated to Notes 7, my outlook has been crashing after 10 – 15 mins of use. I suspect its because the original connector has been designed only for R5/6
thanks

NeIT Wrote:

> Why you would want to use the limited Microsoft tool when Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook is available and supports encryption as well as everything esle I don’t know.

Several people in my company tried it – they found it to be more buggy and memory hungry than the MS connector. Many of our users also reported being unable to uninstall it. As for encryption, very few people use notes for this any more (as people’s email traffic is by and large mostly external to the company). Most people use notes because they have no other choice.

I’ve tried all of the above suggestions and still get the error when I try to open the Connector folder ” The set of folders could not be oopened. The server is not available…..”. I don’t have any Outlook security fixes that I can see. Lots of Windows updates but none of the numbers listed on this blog. Any suggestions?????

It works!! This site should be given a gold star. In order to get the folder to open this is what I had to do.

I had installed the connector and then uninstalled the hotfixes. Still couldn’t open up the folder. So as Alan mentioned above, I deleted the email account (connector) and still wouldn’t work. Soooo. I uninstalled the connector (again). I then realized that in the Document & Settings/User/Local Settings/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook there was a file that had been created by Notes when I first tried to install the Connector. It brought over the data but was not being read by Outlook. So I moved the file (didn’t want to delete it right away), installed Connector again, set up the e-mail account as Sam explains, and Voila…..it brought over the files and works like a charm. I than ran the updates for windows and it still works!!

I would like to know as Alan asked on 6-13-06, if I can make the default folder for receiving emails the personal folders instead of the Connector folder. I don’t want to try it in case it screws something up.

Julie – try what I did and see if the folders come in. I was having the same problem until I deleted the file in the Outlook folder and reinstalled. Good luck and thanks Sam for making this available.

I have failed to get this working, despite resorting to uninstalling the connector, completely uninstalling Office 2003 then re-installing Office and the connector.
The connector picks up my server location and displays it in a greyed out box – asks for my password but fails to connect to mail error shows “set of folders is not available”
I am running Notes 6.5 on this XP box

Has anyone tried or does anyone know whether the connector will work with Outlook 2007???
I would like to load the software but do not want to lose the current functionality

Many many thanks!

My company also uses Lotus Notes which has the world’s least intuitive user interface. I could not get Outlook Connector to work until I found your blog with its advice. Corporate IT disavowed itself of the problem.

I had reinstalled Office and Notes to no avail. I followed your directions and now I can use Outlook again!

Niall

Hello,

I have Outlook 2003 with Connector for Lotus on WInXP

Everything was OK for years…. But yestarday I changed something :-) and now i have problem.

Problem is – i cannot channged default delivery location back for personal folder. After changing , and restarting Outlook – it is back “Domino Connector” . :(

What I change: I’m not sure ;). I enbaled some desabled add-is in Outlook. It was some part of Conector I think (but it works fine without it).

Help.What to do?

Excellent Post!

MilkyMagic – I have the same problem. Using a new profile I can connect to the Domino Server, but the folder list doesn’t populate. I can send email but not view any items.

The strange thing is, if I create a new Windows XP account and use the same notes .id file, same account, it will populate the folder list. I have tried copying the resulting .nst file to my old – that lets me see the messages in it, but not any of the new messages. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. If I find a solution to the problem I will post it here.

Here is a tough question: If your domino server doesn’t allow you to keep your address book on the server, how do you synch the Outlook Contacts?

Will, Are you sure you have it installed in teh first place? If you can see it on the ‘Add/Remove Programs’ window you should be able to select it and try and remove it.

Mind you, you do have Windows 2000 and these instructions are for Windows XP – but a quick google turned this up: http://tinyurl.com/k39zp which implies you should be able to remove them using the Add/Remove programs window.

Are you logged on as an Admin?

Sam, yes it is installed. I know this because I tried to re-install this KB Hot Fix to to ensure it was installed. My computer came be back saying that it was already on my computer.
In the Add/Remove Programs window there is not KB###### for me to uninstall. Any other thoughts?

Thanks to all of you for provinding the help to get the connector working.
About the Outlook update to remove: I also did not have that particular update listed and could not get it working. as a last resort, I uninstalled all Outlook updates listed in the Add/Remove programs box and even all updates that applied to the complete product (office that is). Just to be absolutely sure everything was gone, I also ran a regclean to get rid of the last references.
Everything is now working fine, except for my “Out of the Office” and my local address book which cannot be found (-;

Hi all,

is anyone suffering with attachments? I regularly have a problem opening attachments in my outlook – only way to get to them is then use Webversion of Notes??

any idea’s / suggestions?

tnx

I have similar problem as Ducks9 submitted on 8.24.06 @ 5 AM. everything works but it is VERY slow. it takes almost an hour to send one email while it sits in the outbox thinking what to do with it. any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have seen many posts about missing notes email folders. The user created mail folders don’t come over/can’t be seen/are missing. Only the default domino folders (inbox, sent, drafts, junk, outbox) are there. Anyone have a fix for this yet? Thanks

Will- you need an update to Windows Installer to get the ‘Show Updates’ box.

Did anyone ever get Outlook 2003 to work with Notes 7? I had this working with O2K3 & Notes 6.5, got a new laptop with Notes 7, I get the ‘Unable to open default e-mail folders…’ message and this is driving me nuts!

Hello Everyone,
I went through the posts but did not come across the dilemma that I am faced with. So plz help me out.

My company had lotus notes and I was using the connector and all things were…..until they took my laptop to replatform and bingo….now there is no Outlook installed….and no Admin rights too.

So now i have this huge .nst file that i think is the old mail file. I have my other laptop that has Outlook. How do I open this .nst file in Outlook on this other laptop???

This is worth 18 monthsof mail and i just cannot see them sitting there wasted. Helpppp….....

I got it working.. Thanks for the tip.
Only problem is that I am unable to apply any rules on outlook. I want to have a copy of every outgoing message in my Inbox. As soon I click on Rules and Alerts menu the window appears and disappears immediately.
Work around is to manually copy from sent items and paste in Inbox or have your email ID in the CC list but it is tedious.
Any solutions to this? Thanks.

For the guys asking about the folders created that are not the default folders created by the outlook connector I have found out a solution for that problem.

Jut go to control panel, mail and delete the existing profile after that is done create another and set it up…make sure that you rename the outlook file and that the profile is not named like the previews one.

I did this and when I went to outlook I saw them been recreated automatically.

Good luck

Feel free to email me if you any of you need any clarification on this post

Thanks a lot for the help. Great stuff.

I can install and setup the Outlook Domino Connector (delete updates, clear profile, etc.). I can login to my Notes account, but I see no messages in my inbox. I know I’m logged in because it will allow me to send email, I just can’t receive it. Any suggestions?

Sandi – After your response, I realize my initial message was not clear. I can login to the Domino server using Outlook, which confirms my access to the account. I can also send messages using Outlook. But I don’t see any messages or custom folders in the Outlook inbox.

FOLDERS – domino folders not showing up in Outlook

Thanks Sandi

exit Outlook

delete or move the files in C:\Documents and Settings\your login profile\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

restart outlook

the resync will grab al your domino created folders and populate them in Oultook. (it’ll recreate the .Dat, .Nst, .pst files)

xp sp2, outlook 2003, olconn2, domino 6.?

Tried again – Removed Domino connector, removed outlook updates, removed profile, reinstalled connector, created new profile. Still can’t see messages from the Outlook inbox, or custom folders. Yet I can login and send email. Very strange. Is there a way to force the resync?

Is there any way to get the outlook connector to work with Lotus Notes 7?

ok, i understand that i have to remove the Outlook 2003 security fix KB892843 first and then install the connector. Now my problem is i cannot located in Add/Remove programs this hotfix. So how to uninstall the same?

I am having an interesting issue with the connector. It installs OK, and starts up OK, and even starts synchronizing. But… after about 5 minutes, Outlook just up and dies with no message at all.

I posted about this issue (http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.outlook/browse_frm/thread/4c5a0b14bfcf2394?lnk=igtc) but haven’t had any responses.

Any thoughts from this group?

Thanks in advance!
Chris

First of all, thank you very much for this information. I was having trouble getting it work since others in the office had it working fine but wouldn’t work for me. I did not have the specific KB you mentioned but I uninstalled the 3 outlook related updates and then it worked perfectly. I then reapplied the updates and am good to go.

However, a minor glitch, anytime I get an attachment it won’t let me save it, why is that? anyone know how to get the darn thing to download EVERYTHING and in full and then allow me to save the attachment without having to open Lotus to do it? Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Chemin,

I don’t think the content is being deleted by Outlook. I get ‘spam’ emails from time to time that have my address and a subject line but there is nothing in the body of the email. If the email is coming from someone you know, have them resend it with a different subject line and see if works.

Outstanding! This was a great post. I was having the server error, but after uninstalling the connector, removing all Outlook (not office) updates, blasting away the cached profiles in the Document & Settings/[User]/Local Settings/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook, reinstalling the connector… it works like a champ.

Thanks again!

Hi,

Outlook Notes Connector is a great software. It ’s running quite good in my IBM T41.

But installing it on a colleagues T40 it will not work. After removal of all Outlook related Fixes and installation of the connector software I am not able to select the apporpriate connector “driver” when creating a new mailbox for a new outlook profile. Unter “additional server types” the “MS Office Outlook Connector for IBM Lotus Domino” will not show up at my colleagues machine. Only the Lotus Notes Mail “driver” is available.

Anyone has any kind of idea what could be the problem? Anyone ever had this kind of issue?

We already created a new profile, reinstalled the fixes.

Thanks in advance.

Mr. Nandez

still waiting for a version of the Outlook connector that will work with Notes 7 – anybody?

Thats using connector with Lotus 7 and Office 2003? or 2007

... still in search of a connector for 2007

I read somewhere else that this connector:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=AA0AD3B0-E1A4-4990-A2BE-DDE78FED0709&displaylang=en
helps, but only if you go from Office 2003 to Office 2007
Havent had time to ruin my laptop yet…....... needed it for work

Hi I really need help here. How do I get Outlook to synchronise with my LOCAL notes database, not the server version???

What did it fix for you?

I was able to get the connector working again with Lotus Notes 7. I removed the email account from Outlook and readded it. Everything is working again!

OK, I see lots of great comments, but what I am looking for is the step by step to install the connector to work with a Lotus Notes 7 client – this is my work PC and I cannot afford to make a mistake and possible disable my e-mail functionality. Can someone post this, or would you mind if I contacted you directly for phone assistance on this?

Thanks in advance for considering this…

Hi, i have just started to use the lotus connector for outlook 2003, and its like i have got my life back after using iNotes!

BUT! IM getting random blank emails sent to me? from both notes users, notes with outlook connection users and other outlook users…

any ideas??

I was recently laid off from work. I cleared out my Lotus mail folder, except for my personal mail, and then I saved my Lotus folder. Is there a way that I can open and view my Lotus mail in Outlook? If not Outlook, is there any way that I can just open and view my old mail?

I’ve installed the “Outlook Connector for Domino”, but from what I see so far, I also have to have Lotus installed and access to a Lotus database, of which I have neither.

I’ve seen, above, several people asking this same question. But if there were any responses then I’ve missed them. If it is NOT possible then please respond to this too.

Thanks,
Andrew

Thanks. I’ll give the trail version a try and see what happens. I’ll post back here with the results. (But it will be a week or two. The holidays are going to be really busy.)

Have a very Merry Christmas and remember Christ is the reason-for-the-season.

Thanks again,
Andrew

For those of you wondering about the link posted by Mark about a connector that is supposed to work with Outlook 2007, you can put your mind to rest, the connector is only for MSN Premium Subscribers. It doesn’t have anything to do with LotusNotes.

Since I was busy with re-install of my laptop, I installed from the posted link. As I suspected, it was just for MSN users. So don’t bother if you are not an MSN subscriber.

Please anyone, post any information regarding Outlook 2007 Connector for Domino in this blog. Thanks All.

– McAkins

Hi,

firstly what a great source of information, I’m hoping that someone can shed some light onto the problems I’m having.

Firstly I have follwed the guidance above and configured the connector and outlook and when started everything looks ok. an .NSF file is created and I can see all my notes mail and folders.

Now.

I have 2 issues

1 when I send a mail the it just sits in the outbox and never goes.

2 if I restart Outlook it terminated with the following

NSD is running.
Saving to C:\Program files\lotus\notes\data\XXXXXXXXXX.log

This file may be used by your company’s help desk and IBM to determine the possible cause of the Notes error. Etc..

This problem is cleared if I delete the .NSF file that was originall created but I obviously need a permanent solution.

Please help, I cant stand notes, I need my outlook :)

Neil.

Hi,

I’ve now got things working using the IBM connector as reccomended in an earlier post, but in doing this it has answered a few queries above re *.pst files so I though I’d give a follow up.

This connector does transfer mail to a .pst outlook file

Neil.

As someone that has been frustrated w/ Notes for a long time, it has been great to leverage Outlook via the Connector.

However, I have an issue that I’m wondering if anyone on this board has experienced and, more importantly, has a solution to propose…

First, my experience is that when I receive a meeting invite through the Connector into Outlook, if I accept it, eventually I’ll have two identical appointments in my Outlook calendar. My sense is that when I accept, the first instance is populated into my Outlook calendar. Then, when the Connector syncs Outlook with Lotus Notes, an entry is populated in my Notes calendar, which somehow then creates a second instance of the meeting in my Outlook calendar. On top of that, if I delete one of the two identical entires in Outlook, the Connector eventually syncs w/ Notes, Notes deletes the single entry in its calendar, and then the Connector eventually syncs back w/ Outlook and deletes the second instance of the Outlook calendar entry. Net, I either have to live w/ two idential meeting entries in Outlook or none. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

i got outlook 2003 working, no luck with the update prob yet. my yahoo account was stolen the other day as well they r doing s*** to help me, pass reset cant find account with info i typed+their automated email they sent(supposed to be person)was totally all viewable on their site all info on it covered on their site duma****

I am using it with Notes 7. It works most of the time. But sometimes I have to reinstall it. My routine is:

1. Uninstall Outlook Hotfixex, as pointed out above
2. If reinstalling – delete earlier profiles and .nst data files from the outlook folders
3. Disable Norton Anti Virus/ Internet Security / Desktop search tools (X1, MSN…) before installing Outlook connector.
4. Install connector, but do not select the option for starting the application
5. Cretate a new Outlook profile and new account using Microsfot Outlook Connector, as specified above, and choose a new .nst data file
6. Ensure you are connected to Internet or network before starting the Outlook
7. Start the Outlook with the new profile, and you should be seeing your mails
8. Enable NAV/NIS.
9. Start Desktop engines but ensure Outlook connector Notes profile (or .nst folder) is excluded from search (otherwise Outlook connector keeps crashing)
10. Reapply Outlook Hotfixes…

DM

I am new to Notes and so looking around at what options are available to get me back into the Outlook comfort zone. I seem to be missing the point though with this connector. As I see it you need to install Notes first then install Outlook. This seems like a duplication of both software and costs associated with the licenses so you are gaining a better UI but it is costing you the same as it would for notes plus the outllook client cost.

Hi folks,
I repaired my Outlook installation and my Lotus notes connection stopped working.
My original installation was the connector under Outlook 2002. Office was then upgraded to 2003, and this Lotus connection was retained.

When trying to reconnect to Lotus Notes, I tried all of the great information shared above without success.

Eventually the following worked:
1. Delete my pocket pc partnership with this computer
2. Uninstall the Outlook to Lotus Notes Connector.
3. Placed everything in Document & Settings/User/Local Settings/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook in a new folder for back up, and emptied folder.
4. Uninstalled Office (this drastic step was taken because removing hotfixes suggested elswhere brought no joy).
5. Reboot
6 Kept Lotus Notes installation.
7. Found file: \Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Lotus\Notes\Data with my lotus user name and .id extension.
8. Opened [lotususername].id in notepad and searched text for the following: “CN=”, then “OU=” and then “O=”. Wrote down the values that equaled those codes which mean User Name, Organization Unit and Organization.
9. Reinstalled Office 2003 from disk.
10. Installed outlook connector and entered User Name and Organization name found in [lotususername].id when prompted.
11. Ran Outlook and added new email account per these steps: “Start Outlook up. Select E-Mail Accounts… from the Tools menu. Select Add a new email account, click next, and select Additional Server Types and click next again. Depending on your configuration, you’ll be presented with several server type options. We want Microsoft Office Outlook Connector for IBM Lotus Notes Domino. Click next. You’ll now be prompted to exit Outlook before the new account will be active.”
12. Open Lotus Notes and wait until database replication is complete.
13. Open Lotus Notes and under File\Security\[enter Lotus Notes password]\USER SECURITY:SECURITY BASICS, I unchecked “Login to Notes using your operating system login”
14. Opened Outlook, entered Lotus Notes Password when prompted for password and checked the “remember password” box.
15. Let Outlook synchronize with Lotus notes for the first time (can take a while).
16. Re-establish Pocket PC partnership.
17. Ran Office/Outlook Service Pack Updates for Office 2003

I hope these steps might help someone.

Can someone please address the issue of having Outlook taking 20 mins before fully functional? it is downloading everything, everytime, and it is making me crazy. Also, I get meeting reminders as well each time I start Outlook. I dismiss all, and it happens the next time…. thoughts??

Thanks!

Thanks Steve, I guess I just need to be patient and let it replicate all the way through. I am not sure if it has something to do with the fact that my company stores emails on the lotus notes servers. I do not think they are downloading to my actual drive. I also have an issue with old calendar reminders showing up each time, even though I click dismiss all, everytime I start up Outlook it pops them up….

Thanks again for the response, hopefully waiting for the full download will help. But call it a gut feeling I don’t think it will. I might have to delete some emails to make this work, but I save everything from work… sigh

Have a great week!
Paula

You are a legend!!! After 2 months its finally fixed!

Just for the record – Lotus sucks and that includes Notes, 123, etc!!! They need to get their act together and revamp the programs to bring them into the 21st Century

HI All,

I am having problems with my Outlook 2003 client and I think it is related to the fact I have the connector running because after the initial sync (what a pain) the memory goes crazy and eats up the entire 2.5gb I have and then the system crashes. If I kill Outlook everything runs fine.

I am also having the SVCHOST.EXE issue reported by so many people.

My problems started when I installed MS Live Search with the Outlook component over the weekend. I have removed all that I can find and even the desktop search but nothing is working.

I need to get my Outlook working again. I have considered removing the connector, removing the Outlook security patch, rebooting and then installing the connector again. Does anyone have any idea if that is worth while or if it has a chance to fixing things?

I am looking for any ideas you very smart people out there may have. Since I moved into a management position, I don’t seem to have the technical capabilties, or mindset, that I once had…. sigh

Thanks,

Perry J

Hi all
I think that the outlook connector is one of the most useful programs I’ve ever used.
Anyway, I have the following problem: When I read a message coming from out of my organization, my account is sending out a blank message. I don’t know if this is a connector’s bug of there is a problem in the lotus server. Anyway, some customers have already complained about my blanks messages.
I’m running windows xp pro sp2, outlook 2003 sp2, lotus notes 6.5.3 and outlook connector 2.0.4007.0.
Anyone facing the same problem? Any suggest?

Why does lotus notes still have to be open when I am using this tool? Whenever I try to open Outlook without having lotus notes open, I get an error message that says “Your ID file can’t be opened. Start the Lotus Notes client, configure your account, and then start Outlook Connector for Domino.”

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

You are seriously awesome!

Worked perfectly just as you said, now its time to update my Microsoft Office.

Seriously appreciate the tutorial and information. No more Lotus Notes Email making 5 trips to the server on HUGE files. This will definitely save me time! Thank you!!!!

Hi

A client gave me a .nsf file on memory stick but we do not have lotus notes, any ideas?

Thanks in advance

I have had to rebuild my machine & am now unable to get the connector to work.

I have XP SP2 & Office 2003 with no updates loaded. When installing the connector I get all the expected screens & choices confiming the Notes user id filke etc. & asking for the user password.
I am however unable to open the mail file in Outlook, amessage that the mailbox cannot be accessed occurs.

Any suggestions would be appreciated as I am now being forced to use the Notes client – yuk, yuk, yuk

Thanks in advance

I am not able to synchronize my address book ( contacts) in outlook with the one in Lotus Notes.

Any ideas ?

I have XP sp2 and Outlook 2002 + connector for lotus domino.

Regards,

Juan

Swapnil,

I’m currently using the IBM type of connector called DAMO, can you answer me a few questions about the one you are using (MS):

1. is the domino inbox a mirror of the lotus inbox?
2. if you’re getting mail for other sources too (POP) does it come in to the same inbox? and will it then be copied to the Domino Servers file?

your answer will be greatly appreciated by many people :)

Thank You
Chaim