Exchange Calendar: unable to display the folder using Outlook, suspected hidden object

D

David English

A single user cannot open their exchange based Calendar folder using
Outlook 2000 or Outlook 2003
msg received is:
"Unable to display the folder. Out of memory or system resources.
Close some windows or programs and try again" against the dreaded grey
background.
Exchange 2000 SP3 on Win2000 SP4, Outlook 2000 with Office SP3
User has been more or less happy for last 2 years.
Calendar can be opened using Outlook Web Access, it can be imported to
Outlook Express.
Calendar can be opened from another users Outlook session
Calendar can not be opened from any other workstation (that we'ver
tried) when logged on as the victim user.
The "Advanced find" function doesn't reveal any hidden objects.
Sub directories in the Calendar can be created and opened normally
The calendar is fully functional, reminders pop up, meetings can be
scheduled, free/busy status is published.
The real fun part is that the problem can be exported to a .PST file
It can also be moved between different information stores on the same
server and to information stores on other exchange servers.
Using the .PST file for analysis it shows a 0/0 size, no files no
folders
Compacting does not alter anything
Using a binary editor bytes 7-13 of the .pst were overwritten with
x'20' to deliberately corrupt the file - (there's a useful hit on this
in the database)
scanpst was run to recover the damaged .pst and reported 5 folders
recovered
still nothing visible in Outlook view of the .pst
repeated procedure with a "good" calendar only .pst and got the same 5
folders message and an Outlook view of 0/0 size

There is a strong suspicion that "something" has been inadvertently
dropped in the Calendar folder which Outlook 2000 cannot display.

A borrowed copy of Outlook 2003 could not open it either.

The next step under consideration is offloading all the user's
exchange account to a .PST file, delete the user from exchange,
recreate and import everything MINUS the calendar, then import
individual calendar items 1 x 1

That's obviously a workaround and what I'd like is help in
understanding how the calendar can be "edited" directly to fix the
problem.

My thoughts drifted along the possiblilty that a path length to an
object has been created which exceeds 256bytes a known (well I think
it is) windows limitation.

ANY HELP GREATLY APPRECIATED
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

have you tried using the /cleanreminders and /cleanfreebusy switches? It
might be a corrupt view, if so you'll need /cleanviews - which deletes all
custom views on the mailbox.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)



http://www.poremsky.com - http://www.cdolive.com
Expert Zone http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

Search for answers: http://groups.google.com
Most recent posts to the Outlook newsgroups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=microsoft.public.outlook.*&num=30
 
D

David English

Thank you Diane,
/cleanreminders and /cleanfreebusy == no joy
It took almost a week to convince the user to allow /cleanviews but
the result was worth the loss of the custom views.
The calendar is now visible in all it's pristine glory.
I appreciate the time you took to solve my problem.
IOU
Dave

Diane Poremsky said:
have you tried using the /cleanreminders and /cleanfreebusy switches? It
might be a corrupt view, if so you'll need /cleanviews - which deletes all
custom views on the mailbox.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)



http://www.poremsky.com - http://www.cdolive.com
Expert Zone http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

Search for answers: http://groups.google.com
Most recent posts to the Outlook newsgroups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=microsoft.public.outlook.*&num=30


David English said:
A single user cannot open their exchange based Calendar folder using
Outlook 2000 or Outlook 2003
msg received is:
"Unable to display the folder. Out of memory or system resources.
Close some windows or programs and try again" against the dreaded grey
background.
Exchange 2000 SP3 on Win2000 SP4, Outlook 2000 with Office SP3
User has been more or less happy for last 2 years.
Calendar can be opened using Outlook Web Access, it can be imported to
Outlook Express.
Calendar can be opened from another users Outlook session
Calendar can not be opened from any other workstation (that we'ver
tried) when logged on as the victim user.
The "Advanced find" function doesn't reveal any hidden objects.
Sub directories in the Calendar can be created and opened normally
The calendar is fully functional, reminders pop up, meetings can be
scheduled, free/busy status is published.
The real fun part is that the problem can be exported to a .PST file
It can also be moved between different information stores on the same
server and to information stores on other exchange servers.
Using the .PST file for analysis it shows a 0/0 size, no files no
folders
Compacting does not alter anything
Using a binary editor bytes 7-13 of the .pst were overwritten with
x'20' to deliberately corrupt the file - (there's a useful hit on this
in the database)
scanpst was run to recover the damaged .pst and reported 5 folders
recovered
still nothing visible in Outlook view of the .pst
repeated procedure with a "good" calendar only .pst and got the same 5
folders message and an Outlook view of 0/0 size

There is a strong suspicion that "something" has been inadvertently
dropped in the Calendar folder which Outlook 2000 cannot display.

A borrowed copy of Outlook 2003 could not open it either.

The next step under consideration is offloading all the user's
exchange account to a .PST file, delete the user from exchange,
recreate and import everything MINUS the calendar, then import
individual calendar items 1 x 1

That's obviously a workaround and what I'd like is help in
understanding how the calendar can be "edited" directly to fix the
problem.

My thoughts drifted along the possiblilty that a path length to an
object has been created which exceeds 256bytes a known (well I think
it is) windows limitation.

ANY HELP GREATLY APPRECIATED
 

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