How do I recover temporary files in Outlook?

[Guest]

Here is what happened (just so you know, the user now realizes this was a
stupid operating procedure):
1. An email (Outlook 2003) was received containing a Word attachment.
2. To 'save time', the user regularly opens Word files straight from the
email and makes edits directly to the attachment. In other words, the user
never saves the attached file somewhere.
3. Last night, the user finished the edits, left the email window open and
moved on to other things.
4. Later, the user shutdown the system (forgetting the email and attachment
were still open). Outlook asked if a draft should be saved before shutting
down. For an inexplicable reason, the user said 'no'.

Leading to the questions:
A. Where are temporary files kept by Outlook?
B. Can I expect to recover a temporary file for an edited attachment?

Thanks in advance

 

[Brian Tillman]

Leading to the questions:
A. Where are temporary files kept by Outlook?

%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLKxxx
(where "xxx" is a random string of letters and digits). You can see this
with Windows Explorer (Windows XP) like this:

Click Start>Run. In the "Open" field, type:

%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK

at this point, the Open field should automatically fill in the final
characters of the folder in blue. Press End and click OK. (If it doesn't,
see below)

B. Can I expect to recover a temporary file for an edited attachment?

If the modified attachment is still there. Usually it gets deleted.

*If Windows doesn't automatically fill in the folder name, there are two
other ways to find out what it is and both ways should also work in some
other Windows versions as well as XP. One is to look in the registry for
the key "OutlookSecureTempFolder", which specifies the name of the OLK
folder. The other way is to open a command prompt window and enter the
following:

cd %UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
dir /a

You should see the OLK folder in the display you receive. You can then type
it explicitly in the Open field of Start>Run as deceribed above.

 

[Guest]

Brian,

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Unfortunately the temporary file appears
to have been deleted, but we are a bit wiser thanks to your input.

Regards,
Ray

 

[Guest]

Hi, I'm just joining this discussion (and I realize it's old), but when I
look for the OLK folder from Windows Explorer, it doesn't appear, nor does it
appear if I try to open a file from Word or any other applications. Why
isn't this folder visible? It isn't as though the file is empty; from
Outlook, I can see nearly 50 files.

Any help you can offer so that I can find this folder through a more logical
route rather than doing a specific search for the folder would be helpful.
Thanks for your input.

Thanks.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

the olk folder is a secure temp folder for outlook attachments so others
can't browse your files.

more info: http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2003/20030828.htm
view temp folder: http://www.poremsky.com/p/view_temp.htm

 

[coal_brona]

Hi,

If the files were erased you can still try restoring them with Active@
undelete data recovery tool. It worked great for me and never failed
before. I'm pretty sure that will really help you.

http://www.active-undelete.com/

 

[Ghost721]

For Outlook 2007 mail clients change directory or explore to the following directory:

%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\

then look into the subdirectories of this directory.