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c#outlookvstooutlook-addin

Outlook AddIn not detected


I have developed an outlook AddIn, I tested it and it showed up the first time and then disappeared (I assumed it was because I set LoadBehavior to 16, so I changed it to 3). Check this link for more information about LoadBehavior

Then it worked fine for me and some other people. But for some other people the Addin didn't even show up in Outlook after that, just as if it is not installed.

1-The registries are correct.

2-The loadBehavior is 3, it does not change to 2.

3-The outlook AddIn is not listed in the Active, inactive or disabled addins.

4-There is no record for it in the registry's Disabled Addins entry.

5-The only way it works is by launching the .VSTO file. The .msi installation does not enable it.

On the machine where it actually worked:

The outlook version is 2013

OS is Windows 7 x64,

.Net Framework 4.

Thi is the same configuration for the all the machines. I also looked at Fusion Log Viewer, nothing there was related to my Addin. It's like the AddIn is not detected or not considered as an AddIn. Any ideas why is it behaving in such a way and/or how to fix it ?


Solution

  • Did you have a chance to check out the COM add-ins list in Outlook. Is your add-in listed there?

    If so, there can be several reasons:

    1. Your add-in can be disabled by the host application (Outlook in your case). Microsoft Office applications can disable add-ins that behave unexpectedly. If an application does not load your add-in, the application might have hard disabled or soft disabled your add-in.

    Hard disabling can occur when an add-in causes the application to close unexpectedly. It might also occur on your development computer if you stop the debugger while the Startup event handler in your add-in is executing.

    Soft disabling can occur when an add-in produces an error that does not cause the application to unexpectedly close. For example, an application might soft disable an add-in if it throws an unhandled exception while the Startup event handler is executing.

    When you re-enable a soft-disabled add-in, the application immediately attempts to load the add-in. If the problem that initially caused the application to soft disable the add-in has not been fixed, the application will soft disable the add-in again. Read more about that in the How to: Re-enable an Add-in That Has Been Disabled article in MSDN.

    1. If you see your add-in in the active add-ins list - an error in the Ribbon UI. See How to: Show Add-in User Interface Errors for more information.

    Finally, if you don't see the add-in listed in the COM add-ins listed you didn't register it properly in the windows registry. See the Deploying an Office Solution by Using Windows Installer article in MSDN which described all the required steps for deploying Office add-ins.