Outlook for Mac 15.3 (Outlook 365) gets hung up on Sync Pending

Locate your account setup file here: ~/Library/Group Containers/xxxx.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data/Exchange Accounts/xx/

(the file will not have any extension)

I am an experienced windows user that has switched to macs. All 3 of my macs have this problem, but i noticed that if i change the server, it works really well until auto discover changes the server reference - even though I am sometimes prompted to accept the change I decline, but the server is still modified.

My question was how do I locate my account set up file? For ex-windows users, who may not be familiar with macs, this is what you do:

1. Open outlook
2. Change the server
3. Quit outlook (as the auto discover can work at any time and you may lock the file in the wrong state)
4. Click on Spotlight Search the hour glass in the top right hand corner
5. Type in ~/Library/Group Containers/
6. Go through the directories until you come to the last folder indicated above.
7. The file will not have an extension but will end in "ExchangeAccount"
8. Right click on the file
9. Select "get Info"
10. check the "Locked" box
11. Open outlook

If you are prompted for a password, even though you know it is there and correct, maybe insert the server without the "https://" proceeding it, then repeat the steps above.

I did look at the file (copied it to my desktop and changed its extension to "txt" and notices that it has a call to auto discover - i suppose that this "fix" does not allow it to happen.

Actually seems to be working and as changing the server always worked (but was tedious) i have high hopes for this fix. This sometimes used to happen with my iPhone and iPad when auto discover would change the server name. For this fix I will reserve judgement as I have been struggling with this for months with both 365 and 2011.

PS, Up to 2 days & this seems to be working - it has not done that before...

I had the same issue w/ trying the script, but another forum thread has an easier method:

http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/153/t/274711.aspx

Since I've done this the problem hasn't reoccurred, but I've had long periods of stability before, so we'll see how this goes...

So the solution documented in the above thread: 

Open Outlook and manually enter the Exchange Server Address to the one you want and make sure all the settings are correct.

Locate your account setup file here: ~/Library/Group Containers/xxxx.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data/Exchange Accounts/xx/

(the file will not have any extension)

Your Exchange Account setup are in one of these files, depending on how many Exchange Accounts you have setup. You can check for the correct account by opening them using TextEdit, but don't edit them there.

Lock this file through Get Info

Quit and restart Outlook and the Exchange Server address should be locked to what you entered.

appears to have worked for me - going on four days w/o getting stuck on sync.  Will see if it stays stable.

We continue to have the sync pending problem.  Tried the auto discover idea with no success.  Keep hoping that Microsoft will issue a fix soon.

I had the same issue w/ trying the script, but another forum thread has an easier method:

http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/153/t/274711.aspx

Since I've done this the problem hasn't reoccurred, but I've had long periods of stability before, so we'll see how this goes...

I had this problem also.  I turned off auto discover on my Mac for Outlook.  I am running version 15.6.  To do this you have to run a script.  I opened the tool called apple script and ran this command:

set background autodiscover of exchange account 1 to false

        end tell

Restarted my machine and now my mail is syncing.

Tell me more about this.  I tried to create the script and I get an error "A identifier can't go after this identifier"