Overview

It has been reported that HTML formatted emails are displayed in plain text in Kerio Outlook Connector (Offline Edition) (KOFF). This article provides the possible root causes and suggested workarounds. The likelihood of each root cause depends on the version of Outlook you are running.

If you are on version 2205 (Build 15225.20204) or newer of Outlook, please refer to Solution A below.
If you are on any version previous to the one mentioned above, it is likely a compatibility issue between MAPI and HTML formatting. Please refer to Solution B below.

Solution A

Since its release on 24 May 2022, there have been a number of reports of this formatting issue occurring with Outlook version 2205, which were not occurring for the same users previously. Our Development team is working on a permanent solution under issue ID CONNECT-94898. In the meantime, we can suggest the following workarounds:

Use KerioConnect Webmail: this will only display one mailbox at a time.
Use the EAS Protocol: this has certain usage limitations as set out in the aforelinked article.
Use IMAP: this has certain usage limitations.

Revert to the immediately previous version of Office: for networks with many users, Group Policy can be used to schedule a one-time task to run a simple batch script with highest privileges. The example script below starts by rolling back the Office version and then disabling automatic updates for Office.

@echo This will rollback your version of Office and disable automatic updates for Office.
@echo off
pause> nul | set /p ="Press any key to begin the rollback process..."
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun\officec2rclient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=16.0.15128.20248
@echo The rollback process has opened in another window. Several windows may open and close during this process.
@echo off
pause> nul | set /p ="Wait for the final confirmation window, click the "Close" button, then press any key to disable automatic updates for Office..."
REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\common\officeupdate /f /v enableautomaticupdates /t REG_DWORD /d 0
pause> nul | set /p ="Press any key to close this window..."

Note: to reverse the effects of the above script remove the rollback command, replace the "0" on the end of the updates command with a "1" and have it run again as a one-time task with highest privileges.

Solution B

KOFF is based on the MAPI profile setup. The encoding/decoding conversion does not function in KOFF due to a compatibility issue between the MAPI and HTML formatting. The standard Exchange ActiveSync and IMAP/POP3 profiles do not have this limitation.

<supportagent> Additional information can be found in this JIRA bug report. </supportagent>

As a workaround, Rich Text formatting can be selected before saving an HTML email in Outlook:

Go to the Format Text tab > select Rich Text instead of HTML
- If Format Text does not appear, go to Actions and Edit.
Save the email as an Outlook Template (*oft) by clicking on File > Save as
When you open the message to send it as an email, go back to Format Text, and select HTML
Send the email