Cannot expand the folder. There is not enough free memory to run t

[Nour]

Since a few weeks, whenever I used Outlook for some time (5-10 minutes), I
start getting the error

Cannot expand the folder. There is not enough free memory to run this
program. Quit one or more programs, and then try again.

When I quit Outlook and open it up again, I can then again work for 5 - 10
minutes before receiving the error again.

The error appears whenever clicking or expanding a folder (public folder or
mailbox folder) except for the Inbox, which is always working, but for
example clicking on "Sent Items" or "Outbox" produces the error, as well as
any Public folder.
When the error occurs, mail in the Outbox also doesn't get sent until I
restart Outlook.

I'm running Outlook 2007 on WinXP with all the latest service packs
installed. Outlook 2007 runs in Exchange Cache mode, in RPC mode (not RPC
over HTTP), and I'm connected to the office by VPN.
I have disabled all add-ins, there is plenty of memory available (no other
programs running and 2GB free memory available out of 4GB), I have tried
fixing the .ost file (3.5GB) with scanost.exe, I even tried creating a new
..ost file, the same error occurs over and over again.
OL 2007 was running fine for a long time (more than a year) with the same
..ost file, same connection, even with Add-ins enabled. The errors started
appearing only some weeks ago. I guess some Office update or service pack
must have created the problem.

What can I do?
Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Nour

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I'm currently in contact with Microsoft to investigate this issue further.
It seems to be caused by a change made in SP2.
The issue seems not surface when you are using Outlook with Cached Exchange
Mode disabled. The connection method (direct Exchange, RPC over HTTP, VPN)
seems not to play a role in this.

Could you tell me how many folders (including subfolders) you have in your
mailbox and how many do you have in your Public Folder Favorites?
For now, a rough estimate will do such as 10, 100, 500, 1000, 5000, 10000,
etc...
Do you have Cached Exchange Mode for Public Folders enabled as well?

A possible workaround can be achieved by applying this registry change;
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269794
Make sure you replace MyApp with outlook.exe

Note that this is a workaround and that it could lead to other problems.
Feel free to contact me directly about this issue as well. You can find an
email address in the About section on either of my website.

When the issue surfaces, instead of restarting Outlook, it will suffice to
place Outlook in Offline mode for a second and then back on-line again. You
can do this via File-> Work Offline

 

[Nour]

Hi Roady
Thanks for your reply. It is true, switching to Offline Mode and back to
Online lets you continue working without restaring Outlook. Thanks for that
tip, but as you said, it doesn't resolve the issue.
I DO have Cached Exchange Mode for Public Folders enabled as well. This is
the main reason why I use Outlook in Cached Exchange Mode, as it enables me
to search the Public Folders with Windows Desktop Search.
I made a quick program to count the folders that are cached: In the mailbox
there are 3765 folders, in the Public Folders 10342 folders that get
synchronized (Favorites).
Hope this information helps. I'm very keen to get a solution to this, as it
is very annoying.
Again, thanks for your help.

Nour

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Thanks for the info. I'll add the data to current open issue and will post
back here when some progress is made.

 

[toleary]

Hi Roady,

Just wondering if a fix has been found for this?

I have a user who is now receiving these messages on outlook 2007 SP2. He
has quite a folder structure under his exchange mailbox so i guess this is
causing the eventual out of memorey error. He is using offline cached mode,
but is not syncing public folders, just his own mailbox.

He is also running Bussiness contact manger, which requires him to use
offline cached mode, so we can't turn it off. Not sure if this is also adding
to the memory issue.

Outlook also seems to eventually crash and restart, upon which you can go
into most folders again until what ever limit is reached, where you end up
with the memory error again.

Any info on this would be grateful.

Thanks
Tim