The process of making a connection between Outlook and Exchange can sometimes be problematic. Sometimes the network is not up or the connection information for either the client or the server may have changed or become corrupted.

When unable to make a connection between the client and the server a variety of error messages can be displayed: some alone and others in combination with each other. One such error message that a user or administrator may see displayed is the following:

“Exchange is currently in recovery mode. You can either connect to your Exchange server using the network, work offline, or cancel this logon.”

There are a couple different reasons for this message as well as multiple solutions. Most of the time the error message is displayed because of a difference in the cached copies of the mailboxes stored on the local client and of the cached copies stored on the Exchange server. This problem can be resolved by disabling the cached Exchange mode on Outlook, restarting Outlook and then resetting the cached Exchange mode on Outlook back to enabled status.

The “Exchange is currently in recovery mode” can also indicate that there are configuration issues with the Domain Name System (DNS) settings. This could also be the result of a connection problem either on the client or on the server. And it could also mean that the DNS server itself is down and thus not providing name resolution services.

If you want to verify that DNS is working then you can try the “ping” command of a well known server such as yahoo.com. For example, you can open up an MS Dos prompt window and enter the command as such:

C:Documents and SettingsAdministrator>ping yahoo.com

Pinging yahoo.com [209.131.36.159] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.131.36.159: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=53
Reply from 209.131.36.159: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=53
Reply from 209.131.36.159: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=53
Reply from 209.131.36.159: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=53

Ping statistics for 209.131.36.159:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 22ms, Maximum = 26ms, Average = 24ms

This will help an administrator to know that the problem is not a DNS issue.

Another reason why you may receive this message is if the client mailbox was moved to a different Exchange Server. This can also occur if Cached Exchange mode is enabled. The result is that the signatures do not match between the one on Exchange Server and the signature of the offline folder file (dot ost). The dot OST file is an encrypted file that is linked to a user’s mailbox.

The intent of Cached Exchange Mode on Outlook was to improve the connection speed between Outlook and Exchange server. While Cached Exchange mode is enabled Outlook will keep a local copy of the Exchange server mailbox data. Then, when Outlook goes to access mailbox data normally stored on the Exchange server it will instead go to its own cached copy. Not only does this improve user response time but it also avoids unnecessary network traffic. Of course, synchronization will have to occur periodically to keep the two copies as consistent as possible.

In Outlook 2007 an administrator can enable Cached Exchange mode with the following procedure:

1. From the Tools menu select Account Setting.
2. Select the email tab.
3. Select Microsoft Exchange Server.
4. Click on the Change button.
5. From the Server Settings check the checkbox for the Use Cached Exchange Mode.
6. Click Next.
7. Click Finish.

You should receive an advisory notification asking you to restart Outlook. Once restarted, Outlook will be running in Cached Exchange mode and the contents of your mailbox will be copied and stored locally. Depending on the size of your mailbox and the speed of your connection this reproduction may take some time. You will need to advise your end users not to expect to be able to immediately access their email messages.

One last thing to note is that if your clients are running earlier versions Outlook, such as Outlook 2003, there is a functionality called “Recovery Storage Groups” which will allow an administrator to remotely mount a copy of the user’s mailbox database so that your end users can quickly gain minimal access to their mailbox while an administrator restores full access by recovering the data from the “Recovery Storage Group”.