Error When Trying to Set Out of Office ‘Your automatic reply settings cannot be displayed because the server is currently unavailable. Try again later’

KB ID 0000897 

Problem

When attempting to set my Out of Office automatic replies within Outlook, I was greeted with this.

Your automatic reply settings cannot be displayed

Your automatic reply settings cannot be displayed because the server is currently unavailable. Try again later.

If I logged into Outlook Web Access, (Options > Set Automatic Replies) I could set it up and it worked fine.

It’s never really bothered me, but my colleagues were complaining about it, and when they used Outlook on our Terminal Server they also got this.

MailTips could not be retreived

MailTips could not be retrieved.

Solution

Before proceeding you need to make sure of TWO things.

1. You are logged in, or authenticated against your domain.

2. If you are accessing web pages via a proxy server, the name of the Exchange server should be added to the Proxy Exceptions list. (Note: If you have multiple entries, you separate them with a semi colon).

Add Proxy Exception

Assuming you have met the two requirements above, then do the following.

1. Open Outlook > In the task bar (in the system tray) > Hold down CTRL and Right Click the Outlook Icon > Select Test E-mail AutoConfiguration.

Outlook Test E-mail Auto Configuration

2. Enter your details > Use AutoDiscover > Test.

Note: Here I got the following error message;

Autoconfiguration was unable to determine your settings

This was because the client I was on, could not resolve autodiscover.my-domain-name.co.uk, once that was rectified I could get further.

Outlook Test E-mail AutoDiscover

3. In the first section Locate the URL that is being used for OOF, and make a note of it.

Outlook Test E-mail AutoDiscover

4. Open your web browser and make sure you can open that URL. (Note: It will redirect to Services.wsdl that is normal).

Note: If you are asked for logon credentials, you are NOT authenticated against the domain.

Test Exchange EWS Directory

5. Repeat the same with the URL that is listed in the HTTP section of the test.

Outlook Test E-mail AutoDiscover

6. At this point mine started working. My problem was the lack of DNS resolution, if you find another fix drop me a line and Ill update this article (link at the bottom of the page).

Incorrect Permissions on the EWS Virtual Folder.

Just after I wrote this site follower Peter Dorner Emailed me to say,

Another common problem, is that the EWS virtual directory has misconfigured permissions in IIS.

So I checked permissions on some working systems, to see what they should be.

EWS Permissions Exchange 2007 on IIS 5

EWS Permissions Exchange 2007 on IIS 5

EWS Permissions Exchange 2007 on IIS 6 onwards

EWS Permissions Exchange 2007 on IIS 6

EWS Permissions Exchange 2010 on IIS 6 onwards

Note: As shown anonymous is enabled for the IUSR account.

EWS Permissions Exchange 2007 on IIS 6

EWS Permissions Exchange 2007 on IIS 5

EWS Permissions Exchange 2007 on IIS 6 onwards

EWS Permissions Exchange 2010 on IIS 6

EWS Permissions Exchange 2013 on IIS 7 onwards

Note: As shown anonymous is enabled for the IUSR account.

EWS Permissions Exchange 2013 on IIS 7

 

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

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Author: Migrated

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