Outlook Add-in does not stay installed and does not appear on the ribbon in Office for Mac

[carlosknowee]

Provide required information needed to triage your issue

Your Environment

• Platform: Mac
• Host: Outlook
• Office version number: 16.80 (23121017) [Please note: We have also replicated this issue on version 16.82.1 (24021813)]
• Operating System: macOS Sonoma 14.2.1
• Browser: N/A

Expected behavior

After installing the add-in from the Get Apps modal in Outlook for Mac, it should remain installed and visible in the ribbon when composing a new mail, opening the taskpane when the button is clicked and successfully executing the onNewMessageCompose event (the first time it should show a notification to configure the add-in). This behaviour works correctly on other platforms.

Current behavior

After installing the add-in by selecting the manifest.xml in Outlook for Mac, it appears correctly installed. However, when closing the modal, the add-in does not appear in the ribbon and does not execute with the onNewMessageCompose event. When you reopen the application modal, the add-in no longer appears as installed.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Outlook for Mac and go to Get Apps.
2. Install the add-in by selecting the manifest.xml file.
3. Confirm that the add-in appears in the installed applications and then close the modal.
4. Note that the add-in does not appear in the ribbon and does not execute with the onNewMessageCompose event.
5. Reopen the applications modal and note that the add-in no longer appears as installed.

Link to live example(s)

I provide a link to the manifest.xml for review and testing purposes: manifest.xml.

Additionally, a screencast documenting the observed problem, as reported by Appsource reviewers, is available at the following link: Mac Issue.mp4.

Context

This issue prevents Mac users from being able to use my Outlook add-in, significantly limiting its availability and functionality within the Office ecosystem. This impediment is a critical obstacle to publishing my add-in on Appsource, affecting accessibility for our clients.

Useful logs

• [ ] Screenshots
• [x] Screencast: Mac Issue.mp4
• [x] Test file: manifest.xml
• [ ] Console errors

[ajays-msft]

@carlosknowee - For now can you workaround the issue by using Outlook Web to sideload the addin? You can sideload by typing aka.ms/olksideload in your browser. Meanwhile, I will investigate the issue on Mac, and get back to you.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/outlook/sideload-outlook-add-ins-for-testing?tabs=windows

[carlosknowee]

Yes, thank you. Users can use it from the web version. It works correctly in Safari. The problem is that the reviewers won't validate it for publication on AppSource.

[ajays-msft]

@carlosknowee - I am not able to repro the issue with a test manifest I had. I was able to sideload both in OWA and Mac.

The manifest.xml you attached is also not installing. I validated the manifest, and see some errors. You can validate yourself by sending a postman POST request to https://validationgateway.omex.officeppe.net/package/api/check by copy-pasting the manifest you had in the body section.

"errors": [ { "id": "c03b34d5-2ac0-49fe-a3c3-f48a1d4c4b59", "title": "Minimum Api requirement constraint for VersionOverrideV1_1 is violated", "content": "Minimum Api requirement constraint for VersionOverrideV1_1 is violated", "code": "The Minimum API requirement '1.3' specified in override VersionOverrideV1_1 is lower than minimum API requirement specified in base manifest." }

[carlosknowee]

Thank you very much and sorry for the inconvenience, the manifest.xml I uploaded was not the correct one, it corresponded to some tests I did before publishing the issue. I have updated the file: manifest.xml

[ajays-msft]

@carlosknowee - There is an issue in your manifest. Please update the Host section in manifest, something like:

<Hosts>
  <Host xsi:type="MailHost"/>

Host section details https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/javascript/api/manifest/host?view=common-js-preview#child-elements

As per documentation: The values of child elements in the inner VersionOverrides override the values of the same-named elements in the parent VersionOverrides and the grandparent OfficeApp element. Sample :https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/develop/xml-manifest-overview?tabs=tabid-3#manifest-v11-xml-file-examples-and-schemas

Alternatively, you can also remove the Hosts section.

[carlosknowee]

Thanks for your attention, @ajays-msft

I think it may be due to the tests I had done to try to limit the minimum version, maybe in those tests I changed xsi:type to name. My fault.

In any case, I have tried removing the main <Hosts> section with the same result: the addin disappears.

I have also tried changing the section like this:

    <Hosts>
        <Host xsi:type="Mailbox"/>
    </Hosts>

and in that case the following error occurs:

Installation error

We are unable to complete this operation at this time. Please try again later

[carlosknowee]

Hi, I forgot to mention that the version without the bug is already updated in manifest.xml.

[ajays-msft]

@carlosknowee - You need to change it to `

`

Please refer to the documentation:

Host section details https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/javascript/api/manifest/host?view=common-js-preview#child-elements

As per documentation: The values of child elements in the inner VersionOverrides override the values of the same-named elements in the parent VersionOverrides and the grandparent OfficeApp element. Sample :https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/develop/xml-manifest-overview?tabs=tabid-3#manifest-v11-xml-file-examples-and-schemas

[carlosknowee]

Thanks @ajays-msft, I tried again:

It causes an error during the installation:

When I try to sideload from terminal with debugger, I see:

This is the new manifest.xml. What I am doing wrong?

[ajays-msft]

@carlosknowee - Please try to validate the addin manifest in postman using the endpoint I sent earlier. Please let me know what the output is.

[millerds]

There's a flaw in the manifest (one of our yo office templates created this issue) that his a but in rich client apps. Remove the following from between the two VersionOverride tags.

    <Hosts>
        <Host xsi:type="MailHost"/>
    </Hosts>

[carlosknowee]

Thank you, @ajays-msft and @millerds

I experimented by excluding the block of code located between the two VersionOverride tags. Additionaly, I tested scenarios both with and without the primary Hosts node:

<Hosts>
    <Host xsi:type="MailHost"/>
</Hosts>

Including the primary node results in a validation error when posting to https://validationgateway.omex.officeppe.net/package/api/check:

{
    "utcTimestamp": "2024-03-05T11:16:15.2026397+00:00",
    "status": "Rejected",
    "errors": [
        {
            "id": "072f035c-004f-4c76-b09a-2f012a490683",
            "title": "Package Type Not Identified",
            "content": "We could not recognize any supported add-in type "
        },
        {
            "id": "7e9767d6-3d6a-4f55-9ce7-f399108e2fb7",
            "title": "Wrong Package",
            "content": "Your package does not match submission type."
        }
    ],
    "warnings": [],
    "notes": [
        {
            "id": "906eba01-3ef7-44d9-8b44-c606b4fb9f55",
            "title": "Acceptance Test Completed",
            "content": "Acceptance test service has finished checking provided add-in."
        }
    ]
}

Omitting this node allows the validation to pass successfully. However, after installation on a Mac, the add-in disappears again.

I have updated the manifest.xml.

[carlosknowee]

Hello, can I offer any other information that might be helpful, or any tests I can carry out to try to solve it? Thank you very much.

[DivyaPatidar]

@carlosknowee The latest manifest.xml shared by you looks correct. It gets installed on Outlook mac without disappearing and validation is also passing successfully. Do you not see same behaviour?

[carlosknowee]

Hello, in our tests we keep getting the same error: the addin disappears after installation.

[ajays-msft]

Can you please capture logs and share incident id?

[carlosknowee]

How can I get the logs and the incident id on Mac?

[mmanjaree-msft]

Steps to generate Diagnostics/incident ID:

1. Re-launch Outlook
2. Repro the issue mentioned
3. Click on Help->Collect Diagnostics
4. Share the ID generated.

[carlosknowee]

We have not found a way to get the ID. When you follow the steps you get this message:

On checking the directory mentioned above, we have the following files:

[rajjha-msft]

Hey @carlosknowee

Thanks for reporting the issue. We have put it in our backlog, and unfortunately have no timelines to share.

Internal tracking id : 8885920