Ongoing Outlook Sync issues with ESET

[Marcos 5,074]

V9.0 is not supposed to resolve sync issues. However, it should help if you enable the setting "Disable checking upon inbox content change".

[user852 0]

Since the beginning of switching over to ESET Business Account / ESET Protect Cloud with ESET Endpoint Security in November 2020, users at my office have on and off reported outlook imap sync issue which they have to close outlook and open again to get emails, and some emails reappear marked as unread even it was surely read on some email accounts that are shared by multiple users. I've searched on the web everywhere, including but not limited to, disabling google updater, scanpst, etc. and finally ended up here. I've also recently selected "Disable checking upon inbox content change", but it still doesn't solve the problems.

Could anyone please advise the latest solution at the moment? Thanks!

[Marcos 5,074]

18 minutes ago, user852 said:

I've also recently selected "Disable checking upon inbox content change", but it still doesn't solve the problems.

This should work around sync issues, however, due to a bug the above setting works alright as of Endpoint v9 which is currently available as a beta for testing.

[user852 0]

We're on v8.1.2037.2 and most of our users are having sync issues, but particularly significant for those having office 2013... I've selected "Disable checking upon inbox content change", but that did not work. Is there any other suggestion besides going to v9 before it's stable?

[ShaneDT 13]

Everyone will be having these Sync Conflicts issues, just 99% of people don't realise because the default view in Outlook is the Mail virtual view, and you don't see the Sync Issues folders in this view.

[Marcos 5,074]

6 hours ago, user852 said:

We're on v8.1.2037.2 and most of our users are having sync issues, but particularly significant for those having office 2013... I've selected "Disable checking upon inbox content change", but that did not work. Is there any other suggestion besides going to v9 before it's stable?

As I wrote, the aforementioned setting should work as of Endpoint v9+. If you want, you can try Endpoint v9 beta announced here: https://forum.eset.com/topic/30065-eset-endpoint-security-9-eset-endpoint-antivirus-9-beta-is-available/

There is no other workaround than disabling the Outlook plugin.

[CraigC 1]

Hello @Marcos, will this disable setting be enabled by default (ie disabled) and accessible via GUI in v9? It makes sense if the default ESET product detects Exchange server configuration in Outlook that this is disabled by default and is easily modified in GUI rather than having to import a configuration file.

[user852 0]

Will disabling the Outlook plugin cause any security issue besides scanning for spam? Will it disable the protection from phishing emails and emails containing virus / malware? Thanks!

[Marcos 5,074]

As long as you user POP3(S) or IMAP(S) to receive email, disabling the plugin will only cause antispam to no work and sent/read email not to be scanned. However, any received email will be scanned for threats / phishing.

[Troublestarter 0]

We have duplicated email with outlook ESET plugin for a long time now.

We are on Exchange server.

The mailbox are now size x2 than normal size...

Edited December 14, 2021 by Troublestarter

[Marcos 5,074]

With Endpoint v9 installed, enabling this option should resolve sync issues in most cases:

[CraigC 1]

Hello @Marcos , can you clarify this please:

1) We have to 'enable' this option to 'disable' the checking, ie to fix the sync issues the settings should be as per your screenshot above?

2) What is the effect of this, ie is there less protection of the client?

3) What is the default of this option for a new un managed fresh install of v9?

4) What is the default of this option from an upgrade of a previous version, also un managed?

[Florian87 2]

@Marcos, this Outlook-Addin discussion is more than annoying.

Being a ESET Gold Partner for almost 10 years I trust a lot into ESET’s product quality. But the Outlook addin has a general design flaw. It is tracking mails that have been scanned by changing a mail attribute. As soon as you have shared mailboxes that are being accessed from more than one Outlook user in cached mode, this will cause massive conflicts.

The only solution for this problem is to stop changing mail content or attributes. This should be the default setting, since O365 with cached mode and shared mailboxes is the default in today’s businesses around the world.

We have these issues at each and every customer.

Can you please let us know when this issue will be finally resolved in the default configuration.

[Marcos 5,074]

59 minutes ago, Florian87 said:

Can you please let us know when this issue will be finally resolved in the default configuration.

We expect a new Outlook plug-in to be implemented next year.

[Florian87 2]

20 minutes ago, Marcos said:

We expect a new Outlook plug-in to be implemented next year.

Marcos, it was already announced in 2014, see below:

 

I did open CASE_00285828 and did also escalate through sales.

You should have a serious word with HQ on that. It is shameful how this has been handled by ESET.

 

[Marcos 5,074]

Yes, we did a mistake in the past when we announced ETA too early and then it turned out that the development and especially subsequent testing took a lot of time. A lesson learned and since then we tried to avoid giving any ETA unless a particular product or feature was about to be released. We apologize for that.

[CraigC 1]

Hello again @Marcos, I have tried 9.0.2032.6, using the setting you have posted above, but I still get Sync issues:

 

[CraigC 1]

Sorry @Marcos I posted too soon, I did not check date on Sync Issues. I installed 9.0.2032.6 on 14/12 and since then only 1 sync issue, but that does is not an ESET Sync issue, so it does seem with the disable setting enabled, it stops the sync issues.

 

[ShaneDT 13]

Marcos do we have any idea on when this will actually be fixed without disabling scanning of the Inbox?

Having incoming email being scanned in Outlook is one of the big selling points of ESET. Even with Office 365 scanning I regularly see emails being picked up by ESET on customers computers with krypto attachements. So disabling scanning of emails in the Inbox IS NOT a viable option.

Is this something that the developers are actually working on or does it continue to be ignored?

As has been said many times, this problem with sync conflicts due to attribute changes has been a problem for many years. Surely it can't be that hard to just disable the attribute changes?!

[Marcos 5,074]

The reworked plug-in is ready, however, since it was made from scratch and works differently than the current one, it must be extensively tested before it's included in Endpoint. We expect it to be eventually included later this year.

Enabling the option "Disable checking upon inbox content change" would cause already scanned messages to be re-scanned on read as long as you have scanning of read messages enabled so it may have a minor performance impact if selecting various messages in inbox.

[ShaneDT 13]

OK I'm confused.

I would have thought enabling "Disable checking upon inbox content change" would disable scanning of emails in the Inbox? 

That's one thing about ESET, it's a great security product, but by god you guys make it complicated...

[CraigC 1]

I see this many times in software where you have to 'enable' or 'turn on' an option that 'disables' or 'turns off' that specific feature, its not just ESET that do this. I agree, it is confusing, when someone says 'enable' what do they actually mean, unless you explicitly say 'enable' this option to 'disable' the feature etc.

The 'Disable checking upon inbox content change' is a classic example of this.

 

[Marcos 5,074]

A new beta version of Endpoint 9.1 with the new reworked Outlook plug-in is available for testing. Let me know if you are interested in testing it.

[Peter Randziak 1,130]

Hello @CraigC@Goeman@ShaneDT@volkswagner@Lockbits@user852@Troublestarter@Florian87

 

the new Outlook plugin designed to resolve issues reported is available in BETA, details are available at https://forum.eset.com/topic/31777-new-outlook-plugin-beta/

 

If possible can you please try how it behaves with it and let us know? Feedback from real environments is very important for us and I may assure you that the development team is willing to troubleshoot issues reported with this new version to make it as stable and reliable as possible.

Thank you, Peter