

The log file did not use standard terminology for reporting errors, used codes that were not defined, did not support normal CLI commands such as grep, and did not contain critical pieces of information such as filepath.Debug error logging was hard to turn on and the log file was hard to find.Default error logging was not sufficient.I still do not know what was responsible for changing the permissions on my files and directories, but I do know I wasted a bunch of time because: I changed the permissions recursively on this directory: $ > sudo chown -R OutlookĪnd all my Outlook problems went away! (Note: Remember to turn off troubleshooting logging in Outlook)

Wouldn’t you know this space has an Outlook directory: $ > ls -l | grep Outlookĭrwx- 5 root wheel 170 Apr 22 21:44 /Īnd look at that, it is owned by root. You can echo the variable to see the location: $ > echo $TMPDIR
Where do outlook for mac 2016 folders mac os#
Just like mac os uses a non-Linux standard directory service utility, mac os uses TMPDIR which provides a user-specific private temporary directory space in /var/private. You may remember my note in my previous blog post where I stated that I checked /etc/passwd to double-check my User ID, but could not find the entry. This was a strong indication that the problem was with my profile, but I had confirmed - multiple times now - that the permissions on my profile were correct.
Where do outlook for mac 2016 folders install#
So, where is the permission problem? After digging around the filesystem for a bit and turning up nothing, I decided to create a new user account, install Outlook and see if I could reproduce the issue there - wouldn’t you know it worked without issue. Even if they had been modified, reinstalling mac os would have resolved this issue as well. mac os Sierra does not allow repairing permissions because the system files and directories cannot be modified. Well, I know I had permission problems with my home directory given my previous blog post, but I also know that I fixed them. Remember kids, log messages are only as good as the information that they contain! What critical piece of information am I missing? Yup, the filename and/or filepath.

OK, I see a file IO error, an error code, and a message about failing to create a temporary directory. The first set of Unexpected messages I received looked like the following: 11:30:00.452›OUTLOOK (0x17e)›0xe92c000› Outlook›MbuFont›icy4b› Unexpected› Failed to write postScript name to file What I eventually realized is that you need to look for messages that contain the word “Unexpected” - Microsoft would it kill you to adhere to syslog RFC standards is use something like “error”? - note using grep on the file did not work for me so I used vim and its search capabilities to look for Unexpected messages. Tailing this log while reproducing the issue will result in a lot of output. Then you reproduce the issue and check the logs - the big question is where are the logs? Unfortunately, Outlook does not tell you this either, but you can find it in: ~/Library/Containers//Data/Library/Logs. Then you need to close Outlook and open it again - wish it would state that. To do this, you go to Tools > Sync Errors > Gear Icon > Turn on logging for troubleshooting. Next up, I enabled troubleshooting logging. After completing this, I reinstalled Office, but the problem persisted.

Unfortunately, this process is not as user friendly as I hoped ( see here for more details) and requires you to manually delete the following: I, of course, ensured I was running the latest version of Office and then did what Microsoft typically recommends - manually uninstall and manually reinstall Office for Mac 2016. This time I could easily check the logs so I did, but unfortunately, they did not report any issues. What was going on? Read on to learn more!
