Understanding Outlook Addin Problems After Upgrading
A very common type of problem description posted in the Microsoft Outlook Answer forum is one where something no longer works as expected particularly after Outlook has been upgraded. The term <upgrade> in this case also means when a newer version of Outlook has been installed on a new machine but the same versions of any Outlook addins have been installed as were being previously used.
For example, “Upgraded to Outlook ’2013 and it no longer works with Product X. Why doesn’t it work anymore? <or> What do I have to change in Outlook ’2013 to make it work. Everything worked fine with Outlook ’2010 so it has to be an Outlook ’2013 problem.”
To properly state the subject of this article and get into the correct mindset – it’s not that Outlook won’t work with Product X – it’s that Product X does not work with Outlook. There is a world of difference between the two descriptions.
The first step would be to check the support site for Product X to ensure that it in fact supports the Outlook version you have upgraded to and/or if there are any known issues.
Just because Product X worked with Outlook ’2007 does not necessarily mean that it will work with Outlook ’2010. That is something that only the vendor of Product X can determine and change if required.
It is completely unreasonable to expect any single vendor (whether or not that vendor is Microsoft) to be responsible for a given program to work with everything that is created by other parties until the end of time. First, they have no way of knowing what the other program is going to do and second, most importantly, there is no way to know if Product X is doing things correctly.
Category: Troubleshooting
