"Connect to Outlook" Disabled - SharePoint 2013

As mentioned in my last article, we have been recently migrated to SharePoint 2013, users are still reporting issues and today’s article is one of those issue.

Machine configuration entities where the issue has been reported:

OS: Windows 7, 32-Bit.

IE (Internet Explorer): IE9, 32-bit.

SharePoint 2013

Office 2013

Site permissions: Site collection administrator.

Problem description:

Not able to connect CALENDAR list to Outlook, while doing the specific action i.e. ‘connect to outlook’ is always disabled.

Error message:

This control is currently disabled.

Troubleshooting done:

-checked the office version and its already 32-bit office.

-disabled the protected mode of IE

-reduced the high priority of IE to lesser one

-restarted the web client service

-Cross-checked the IE version and make sure it should not be 64-bit version.

-checked the client-integration option by means of web application settings and its already enabled.

Resolution:

-Open the site collection on which you are not able to ‘connect to outlook’

-site actions

-site settings

-manage site features

-There is a feature called "Minimal Download Strategy"

-Deactivate this feature

Once this feature will be deactivated then try to ‘connect to outlook’ please check the results again…

Pretty much sure that your issue will be resolved.

Happy SharePoint to all of U...

Importance of this feature i.e. Minimal Download Strategy

Minimal Download Strategy in SharePoint 2013 improves rendering performance when browsing content where large parts of the page do not change providing a more fluid navigation experience. 

The Minimal Download Strategy is by default enabled on Team sites, Community sites and a few others in SharePoint 2013. Once this feature (and it's also a Feature, notice the capital F, we'll get back to that later) all pages for that site is rendered "through" the /_layouts/15/start.aspx page.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues, Thank you.

Product applies to:

SharePoint Server 2013

Reference:

Microsoft Outlook 2013 Tutorial | Connecting SharePoint Calendars To Outlook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULwa6i2g5g4