Restoring the Email Configuration option in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Settings Area

It seems that with organizations that were migrated from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, the Email Configuration option is sometimes missing from the Settings area.

We ran into this problem while troubleshooting an issue for which our customer could not track emails in their upgraded Dynamics CRM 2013 online deployment.  In some cases, the configuration for Email handling is set to default to Server-Side Synchronization for the online customers, which is not a valid configuration.   This article, “Track in CRM does not work for emails with default settings in new Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online organizations” suggests a solution by correct the settings in the “Email Configuration” settings, however that area was missing altogether from our installation.   To solve this we needed to export the site map from a clean organization, and add the nav_social sub area to the Settings area of the site map in the problem org.  I’ve provided the relevant line from the clean org below,

The process restore the Email Configuration settings button is:

Note:  Incorrectly editing the Site Map can cause your CRM installation to become unusable.  Proceed at your own risk.  Export and archive copy of your Site Map in it’s original pre-edited form, and ensure that your CRM databases are backed up and can be successfully restored if needed, in case you need to revert.  If you aren’t completely comfortable with this process, engage the services of Dynamics CRM consultant.

1. Create a new solution and add only the Site Map resource.
2. Export the solution.   Make a copy of the exported solution and store it somewhere safe in case you need to revert.
3. Extract the contents of the solutions zip file.
4. Edit the customizations.xml file.
5. Locate the nav_audit  and the msdyn_postconfig sub areas in the Settings area definition.
6. Insert the following on it’s own line in between the nav_audit  and the msdyn_postconfig lines, being careful not to change anything else (despite being oddly named nav_social this line addes the Email configuration button):

   <SubArea Id="msdyn_postconfig" ResourceId="Activity_Feed_Configuration" Entity="msdyn_postconfig" />

7. It should look similar to:

   <SubArea Id="nav_audit" ResourceId="Audit_SubArea_Title" DescriptionResourceId="Audit_SubArea_Description" Icon="/_imgs/area/16_audit.png" Url="/tools/audit/audit_area.aspx" AvailableOffline="false" />
   <SubArea Id="nav_social" ResourceId="Social_SubArea_Title" DescriptionResourceId="Social_SubArea_Description" Icon="/_imgs/area/16_social.png" Url="/tools/social/social_area.aspx" AvailableOffline="false" />
   <SubArea Id="msdyn_postconfig" ResourceId="Activity_Feed_Configuration" Entity="msdyn_postconfig" />

8. Save the customization.xml.
9. Zip the contents of the solution folder again, being careful to maintain the same structure as the original solution zip archive.
10. Import the solution in to the problem org and publish the customization.

If you’ve done everything correctly, you can now access the Email Configuration area from the settings area (you’ll need to reload Dynamics CRM in order to see the new button).

If you are looking for support for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, contact our professionals at crm@mcgladrey.com. We are a nationally recognized Microsoft Dynamics partner with locations across the United States.

Read more articles on the new release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013.

By: John Voorhis – Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner in New Jersey

John Voorhis