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Salesforce for Outlook no longer connects for some customers working from Lightning Experience

Publish Date: Jun 19, 2023
Description

Last updated: APRIL 2021

Your users could be affected by this issue if you have current Salesforce for Outlook users whose access to Salesforce Classic has recently changed and they are experiencing one or all of these limitations: 

  • Users see the error “You’re not connected to Salesforce” in the side panel, and can’t use any side panel features. 
  • Users who have been logged out of Salesforce for Outlook no longer sync contacts, events, or tasks between Salesforce and Microsoft Outlook.
  • Users who try to enter their credentials from the Salesforce for Outlook setup wizard see the error “Can't access this page.”

The issue is a result of Salesforce retiring Lightning Experience support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 (IE11). See Supported Browsers for Lightning Experience . To continue migrating customers away from that browser, starting in Winter ’20, Salesforce enabled a change to Ensure IE11 Lightning Experience Users Can’t Access Salesforce. 

Because Salesforce for Outlook relies on IE11 to display Salesforce features from Outlook, the Winter ’20 change can cause existing users to suddenly lose Salesforce for Outlook access.

You can unintentionally block Salesforce for Outlook access in these ways: 

  • You fully turn off access to Salesforce Classic by turning on the Make Lightning Experience your org’s only experience setting in the Lightning Experience Transition Assistant.
  • You hide your users’ access to the Switcher, which lets users switch between Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience.
Resolution

Switch to our latest Microsoft integration products

If you meet the system requirements, consider moving to our next-generation products, Outlook Integration and Einstein Activity Capture. Moving to these products lets you take advantage of our latest email integration features. Plus, these products are cloud-based, which means that you get product updates automatically, with each Salesforce release. So your IT professionals no longer have to manage manual updates. Learn about some of the benefits.

  • The Outlook Integration offers productivity features that aren’t available on the Salesforce for Outlook side panel. Lightning Experience admins can build customized panels for different users, and sales reps can log Microsoft emails to Salesforce as emails—no more logging emails as tasks! You can also upgrade reps to Salesforce Inbox for enhanced desktop and mobile features. Review Outlook and Gmail Integration on Desktop.

The Outlook Integration supports IE11 through December 2021 for Outlook 2013, Outlook 2016, and volume-licensed versions of Outlook 2019 only. For details about supported browsers, See Outlook Integration System Requirements.

  • Einstein Activity Capture syncs contacts and events between Microsoft applications and Salesforce. It also offers even more productivity-boosting features than our other sync products. Plus, it offers more versatile configurations for connecting with Salesforce. See Einstein Activity Capture.
To get a deeper understanding of the features offered and the system requirements compared to those of Salesforce for Outlook, see Move from Salesforce for Outlook to the Next-Generation Products.

How to get your users back on Salesforce for Outlook until the June 2023 product retirement

Salesforce for Outlook is retiring in June 2023. We recommend that as a long-term plan, Salesforce administrators move users to our next-generation replacement products, Outlook Integration and Einstein Activity Capture. Read more about that in the “Switch to our latest Microsoft integration products” section above. For more on the retirement, see Salesforce for Outlook Retirement. 

However, if you need to get your reps back on Salesforce for Outlook for the time being, avoid fully turning off your access to Salesforce Classic, at least for now. If you want to reduce your users’ access to Salesforce Classic, we recommend making the switcher available for users who work with Salesforce for Outlook only, and hiding the switcher for everyone else. Users aren’t required to return to Salesforce Classic to access Salesforce for Outlook, but the switcher must be available to them. 

To check that you’ve set the right settings in Salesforce, follow these steps.
  1. Check that Salesforce Classic is turned on for your org. From the Lightning Experience Transition Assistant in Setup, select the Optimize phase, and make sure that the Make Lightning Experience your org’s only experience setting is turned off. To locate the setting, see Turn Off Salesforce Classic for Your Org. But remember: In this case, you want to turn Salesforce Classic on!
  2. The setting Hide Option to Switch to Salesforce Classic is turned off on any permission sets assigned to your Salesforce for Outlook users’ profiles. See Make Lightning Experience the Only Experience for Some Users.
 

 

Knowledge Article Number

000388772

 
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Salesforce Help | Article