MS 365 Email has gone all weird!

[bodminman]

Hi there,

 

yesterday when we we're using 365 the look and layout was standard across the site. (as below)

 

 

Today, people are logging in and getting this layout:

 

 

This new layout has cause lots of confusion and more importantly, those that have been delivered this layout seem to no longer have the email address history of people they have sent mail too. Also the new layout seems to lack spell check!?!

 

Has anyone got any ideas on how to restore things to there former glory?

 

Thanks in anticipation!

[SYNACK]

You've been upgraded to the latest version, did you not get the warning emails or alerts in the management console. You can delay a bit but only if it has not already happened.

[EduTech]

That is the E15 Layout that you are being presented with, basically Exchange Online 2013.

 

Do you have the new E15 portal? or is that still in the orange theme?

 

Regards,

James.

[AngryTechnician]

There is no going back - you've been upgraded to the latest version of Office 365. You should have had several email notifications in advance of this. If you didn't, you need to find out where those notifications are being sent so that you get them in future. Check here using your Office 365 admin credentials.

 

Past recipient history being lost doesn't surprise me, but isn't something I'm aware of. Spellcheck is no longer present because they have devolved that responsibility to the browser now that IE10 is out (What's Discontinued in Exchange Online: Exchange Online Help)

[bodminman]

Thanks for the replies.

 

We have literally moved to 365 from LiveEdu just over a week ago and now this. I have just read the upgrade emails and they only refer to the Live to 365 upgrade being ready so this I have done.

 

The portal is still in the 'Orange' theme.

 

This is crazy! Now I have to rush through a IE10 upgrade to get the spell checker back for users. Not good!

[bodminman]

Also, how often do MS change the version as if this means users will be losing their history each time, they will be getting very fed up indeed!

[SYNACK]

Not very often, every major exchange version, this has been planned and talked about for months though even on here.

[bodminman]

Great, now when users print off an email via IE9, they get at least 6 blank pages with just the url in the footer printing after the actual email!

 

IE10 and Firefox print fine.

[jamesbmarshall]

Log the IE9 thing with support.

 

Someone, somewhere will have received notification of the upgrade to the new Office 365 so as @AngryTechnician says, you need to find out where those notifications are going.

 

There's a big change in moving from Live@edu to "pre-upgrade Office 365" to the new Office 365, but now that you're on the latest version you should see smoother service upgrades in future.

[Michael]

I have two sites due to be upgraded soon. When logging in as an admin to Office 365, there's a message towards the top of the screen. You can delay the upgrade as an option, however all Office 365 domains will be upgraded by the end of 2013.

[bodminman]

Log the IE9 thing with support.

 

Someone, somewhere will have received notification of the upgrade to the new Office 365 so as @AngryTechnician says, you need to find out where those notifications are going.

 

There's a big change in moving from Live@edu to "pre-upgrade Office 365" to the new Office 365, but now that you're on the latest version you should see smoother service upgrades in future.

 

Firstly, thanks for the info re smoother upgrades in the future.

 

Secondly, I have had a look at the mailbox where the admin emails are going to and the only emails in there are relating to the upgrade from Live@Edu and nothing at all about Office 365 upgrade. Anyway I shall raise this with the MS support this morning.

 

Thanks for all the info everyone.

[Michael]

One of my schools is being upgraded today, although Microsoft's 'claim' that everything continues working isn't correct.

 

The admin account hosts the site Calendars which are then shared to all staff or pupils as required. I've had some reports that the Calendar is currently unavailable. I can only speculate because some users have received the Exchange upgrade (the blue interface) and some haven't. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

I'd much rather upgrades were performed out of hours GMT time to avoid these kind of issues (for future upgrades).

[Michael]

Just to confirm I was right - as soon as the admin Outlook account was upgraded to Exchange 2013, calendar functionality and availability returned to normal. At least I can notify other schools due to be upgraded soon.

 

The new calendar is excellent and allows calendars to be merged by colour - one of the biggest requests I had, so well done Microsoft.

 

At the time of writing I still can't explore all admin features, as some appear to be based on Exchange 2013 and others are still Exchange 2010. Hopefully the upgrade will be complete in a number of hours. This is a school with 250 users for everyone's reference. Bigger schools will most likely take longer.

[Michael]

@jamesbmarshall - One of my sites has now been upgraded 100% to Office 365, Exchange 2013 - however when logging in I see the Office 365 Admin Center. All good so far.

 

Now if I click on Admin > Exchange there's no way to get back to the Office 365 Admin Center page other than typing in login.microsoftonline.com into my browser. The blue bar appears blank. Can this be fixed? When I click on Admin > Lync, the blue bar at the top remains populated - hope this makes sense!

[IKWeb]

Seen as you guys have been upgraded how does everyone find the new layout??

 

I am still running on the old system and layout, and I must admit I want to stay on the old version :-) shame Microsoft dont give you this option. I and clients I look after have found the new system to be horrid, and the layout of say Sharepoint is horrid....

 

Dam you Microsoft!!

[Michael]

The way to look at it is Exchange Server is generally updated every 3 to 4 years, as with other Microsoft products. The newer version of Exchange is better, plus the admin tools available are a lot more detailed.

 

If you want more control over upgrades, then an in-house Exchange/Sharepoint Server may be better, but then you'll have to worry about patching it and running a small cluster of servers to keep it online. This is why Office 365 is considerably better value when you do the maths.

[IKWeb]

The way to look at it is Exchange Server is generally updated every 3 to 4 years, as with other Microsoft products. The newer version of Exchange is better, plus the admin tools available are a lot more detailed.

 

If you want more control over upgrades, then an in-house Exchange/Sharepoint Server may be better, but then you'll have to worry about patching it and running a small cluster of servers to keep it online. This is why Office 365 is considerably better value when you do the maths.

 

Totally agree.. For education you would have to be mad not to look at Office 365 / (sorry for the bad language) Google Apps seen as they are free for use.

 

It would just be nice is Microsoft built in a theme to allow users to revert back to the old look system but allow the new features to still be used.

 

When you have over 30 schools and a hand full of businesses logging (even tho they have been told about the change) and going oh this is horrid, and WTF and on top of that all logging support calls it can cause a few issues.

 

Plus they all ask if they can change the look and feel back :-)

[Michael]

I think the best advice is to create as many useful KBs or visual user guides as possible, in as advanced as possible to notify users of the changes, but also telling them of the advantages.

 

At first I had many users wanting Office 2003 back, when upgrading to Office 2010. Staff and pupils soon got the hang of things once I had shown them various tips that all the existing tools and more were still there.