I’ve had a few questions recently on Outlook Web App offline mode functionality on Exchange Server 2013. As a general statement on my opinion, OWA 2013 Offline mode is a fantastic addition to Exchange 2013. OWA offline mode is made possible by the HTML 5 offline standard. While Outlook Web App Offline mode is a great addition, it doesn’t necessarily replace a full client for offline usage.
OWA Offline Mode Browser Requirements
At this time, OWA 2013 supports offline mode on:
- Internet Explorer 10
- Safari 5 or greater on OS X
- Google Chrome v24 or later.
Outlook Web App Offline Mode Limitations
Outlook Web App offline mode has the following limitations:
- Email from the last 3 days, up to 150 total items will be available offline.
- Your calendar will contain the previous month and the next year of appointments.
- Calendar reminders will exist for a limited period of time. If a computer is offline for a long period of time calendar reminders would no longer appear.
- Archives are online only, and as such do not exist offline.
- While contacts from your Exchange Server account are available offline, the auto-complete cache does not work.
- Searching and sorting may not fully function
- Attachments will not be available offline.
To me, the single largest end-user issue is the lack of attachments offline. Be sure to instruct users to download attachments before hopping on that plane if they intend to review documents while traveling.
I will be working as a staff member at TechEd 2013 in the capacity of a hands on guide in the Exchange 2013 and Lync 2013 labs. Microsoft Certified Master at TechEd 2013
