When an Outlook session is initialized, connections are set up for each group marked as a favorite. It is these background threads that show up in Outlook’s connection status. Synchronization occurs via background threads that connect to the mailboxes and fetch new conversation and calendar items as they are posted to groups. The process is functionally similar to the “drizzle mode synchronization” used by every version of Outlook since Outlook 2003 to copy mailbox folders and their contents to the OST. Outlook synchronizes the server copies of the inbox and calendar folders from group mailboxes to slave copies in the GST. The GST and the OST are found in the same folder (%HomePath%/AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook). Cached local data for Office 365 Groups is stored in a separate file, the GST (Group Storage Table).
The local copy for a mailbox is held in an OST (Offline Storage Table) file. Times do exist when Outlook fetches information from the server rather than using cached data, but that’s usually only when the local copy is very out-of-date. In this mode, Outlook works with a cached local copy of the mailbox rather than depending on server connections. Outlook 2016 can only connect to Office 365 Groups when the client is configured in cached Exchange mode.
The question is what purpose do these connections serve? The answer lies in the nature of the way Office 365 Groups integrate with Outlook 2016. Figure 1: The many connections to Office 365 group mailboxes (image credit: Tony Redmond)
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