Example of going offline with Dynamics 365 for Outlook

Article
08/02/2022

Salespeople can make critical customer information available and up-to-date on business trips with filters. By specifying only the data you need to synchronize with your laptop, you can avoid wasting valuable laptop memory, stay current with the head office, and keep information on your laptop fresh. Meanwhile, managers and co-workers are up-to-date.

Using Dynamics 365 for Outlook, you can set up and activate filters with criteria similar to Advanced Find by specifying the criteria for the Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement records that you want to be available when you go offline. In addition, you can change what data will be available when you synchronize by activating and deactivating the filters.

To see what data filters are being applied to your offline synchronization, in Outlook, on the File menu, click or tap Dynamics 365 apps > Go Offline > Manage Offline Filters.

Note

You can have more than one active filter so you can take larger, combined sets of data offline.

Select the data you need with filters

To leverage local data, consider a trip to regional offices in the USA in Washington and Oregon. You would want to define needed information in the Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement database that applies to customers in these states.

First, create a filter of the data for a record type. Save this filter as your “master,” and call it “My Active Accounts”, for example. Second, modify this filter to create different versions for your business needs.

To edit an existing filter, on either tab, double-click or tap the item in the list. To keep the original data group, make a copy using Save As, and add additional criteria, such as “Address 1: State/Province equals WA”. Save it with a new name such as “My Accounts in Washington.”
Using Save As again, change the criteria to “Address 1: State/Province equals OR”, and name your new data group “My Accounts in Oregon.”

Important

Before your trip, deactivate all filters, except those that apply to the customers in the first area you are visiting.

Deactivate or activate filters

To deactivate a filter, on the User Filters tab, select one or more filters. On the tool bar, click or tap the Deactivate button (a red circle with a red square).
To activate a filter, on the User Filters tab, select one or more filters and then click or tap the Activate button (a green circle with a green triangle).

Take your data offline and synchronize your data

In Outlook, on the Dynamics 365 apps menu, click or tap Go Offline.

While you are offline, you can add new contacts and accounts or update the accounts and contacts on your laptop. When connecting to your company's network again, you can synchronize your data.

Important

Users who log on locally to a device that has Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Outlook installed can potentially access Dynamics 365 data stored locally. Shared use of a device running Dynamics 365 for Outlook is not supported.

Go back online and synchronize your data

In Outlook, on the Dynamics 365 apps menu, click or tap Go Online.

Any updated data from your laptop will be synchronized with your company's Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement database. You can now deactivate and activate a new set of filters for your next visits, using the procedures explained earlier in this article.

Combine data filters to take more information with you

Because filters are additive, you can have more than one active filter. For example, if you are going to the Northwest United States, you can activate the Washington and Oregon data filters you created and take both sets of data with you.

Privacy notices

To use Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Outlook, you are required to sign in by using your credentials (an email address and password). You may choose to save this information locally so that you are not prompted for your credentials each time you open Outlook. If you do choose to save this information locally, Dynamics 365 for Outlook will automatically connect to Microsoft Dynamics 365 (online) every time you open Outlook.

After the first time you sign in and use Dynamics 365 for Outlook, the connection between your computer and Dynamics 365 (online) will always be open when you have access to the Internet. You may choose to turn off the connection between your computer and Dynamics 365 only by using a configuration setting, but if you do turn off the connection, Dynamics 365 for Outlook may exhibit decreased performance.

If you use Dynamics 365 for Outlook to track email, the email thread will be visible to users in your organization who have permission to view it.

For every email you receive, Dynamics 365 for Outlook will send Dynamics 365 (online) the sender’s email address, the recipient’s email address, and the subject line of the message. This allows Dynamics 365 (online) to validate whether or not a particular mail should be stored by the Dynamics 365 (online) service. When you track an item, a copy of that item will be maintained by the Dynamics 365 service and will be visible to other users in your organization who have the appropriate permissions. When you untrack an item, that copy is automatically deleted from Dynamics 365 (online) only if you own the item.

If you use Dynamics 365 (online), when you use the Sync to Outlook feature, the Dynamics 365 data you are syncing is “exported” to Outlook. A link is maintained between the information in Outlook and the information in Dynamics 365 (online) to ensure that the information remains current between the two. Outlook Sync downloads only the relevant Dynamics 365 record IDs to use when a user attempts to track and set regarding an Outlook item. The company data is not stored on the device.

An administrator determines whether your organization’s users are permitted to sync Dynamics 365 data to Outlook by using security roles.