emails lost in middle of downloading because pst was too big

[elmurado]

Outlook 2003 on winXp.
Got stuck in middle of downloading 20 or so emails because the pst file had
gone past 2Gb. Had to archive and then compact the personal folders to be
able to move any emails etc. However, the 'new' emails do not show in the
inbox.

Do they get kept as .tmp files? I searched but to no avail. I assumed that
if the download session didn't finish then the remaining emails would be on
our pop3 server which is in the US. Couldn't see them.

Does anyone know if those 'new' emails would be anywhere else?

TIA

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

If your .pst file did not accept them and you do not have the option set to
leave mail on the server, the mails are lost. They only download to
Outlook, no place else so they are not temp files on your computer.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. ALWAYS post
your Outlook version.
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375


After furious head scratching, elmurado asked:

| Outlook 2003 on winXp.
| Got stuck in middle of downloading 20 or so emails because the pst
| file had gone past 2Gb. Had to archive and then compact the personal
| folders to be able to move any emails etc. However, the 'new' emails
| do not show in the inbox.
|
| Do they get kept as .tmp files? I searched but to no avail. I assumed
| that if the download session didn't finish then the remaining emails
| would be on our pop3 server which is in the US. Couldn't see them.
|
| Does anyone know if those 'new' emails would be anywhere else?
|
| TIA

 

[Pat Willener]

There may be no way of recovering these messages. In order to avoid such
situations in the future, I recommend that you create a new Unicode-type
PST file with no 2GB limit, then receive all new mail into that data file.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Just an FYI:
If only Outlook was involved in the send/receive process, then a failed
send/receive attempt, due to any reason, wouldn't delete the emails from the
server. When there is a 3rd party tool involved which takes over the
send/receive responsibility (like a virus scanner that integrates with
Outlook) then it is up to the 3rd party scanner to not process the delete
process until it has successfully delivered the messages to Outlook. Sadly
this is not the case and you'll get these results. You could contact the
vendor of your virus scanner software and ask where they keep the messages
before delivering them to Outlook and what they do with them when they
cannot be delivered to Outlook. You would expect some sort of queue but most
tools only keep them in memory so they are lost the moment they cannot be
delivered and the process terminates.

An advice often given here is not to have your virus scanner integrate with
Outlook. They cause a multitude of issues and don't provide an extra level
of safety anyway. See http://www.msoutlook.info/question/20

 

[elmurado]

Thanks Roady/Milly/Pat.
We use ESET which is usually pretty good. The reason we don't want the pst
file to get to plus 2Gb is because this forces users to archive their email
and basically look after it better. Ie cull unnecessary stuff. I had thought
of the whole unicode thing but our policy is to not even backup mail/(hence
it is not discoverable-hey, I don't make the policy!)

So I imagine that Outlook simply holds the email in memory as it is
downloading and then eset works on it(possibly writing it somewhere else).

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Even if you are only going to allow up to 2GB of mail storage, it's still
better to start using UNICODE formatted pst-files. They are a bit more
resilient as well. Note that you can use Group Policies to limit the maximum
size of a pst-file (both UNICODE and ANSI). The default limit is 20GB but
you can decrease that as much as you like.

For more info see http://www.msoutlook.info/question/99

 

[MPS]

Just an FYI:
If only Outlook was involved in the send/receive process, then a failed
send/receive attempt, due to any reason, wouldn't delete the emails from the
server. When there is a 3rd party tool involved which takes over the
send/receive responsibility (like a virus scanner that integrates with
Outlook) then it is up to the 3rd party scanner to not process the delete
process until it has successfully delivered the messages to Outlook. Sadly
this is not the case and you'll get these results. You could contact the
vendor of your virus scanner software and ask where they keep the messages
before delivering them to Outlook and what they do with them when they
cannot be delivered to Outlook. You would expect some sort of queue but most
tools only keep them in memory so they are lost the moment they cannot be
delivered and the process terminates.

An advice often given here is not to have your virus scanner integrate with
Outlook. They cause a multitude of issues and don't provide an extra level
of safety anyway. See http://www.msoutlook.info/question/20

I have a similar problem but not the same. I had issues with my hard drive
and my office backed up all the information and reformatted my drive. They
handed me back my PST on a external hard drive. I successfully imported it
back onto my laptop into my INBOX. But for some reason OutLook will not
download the email from June 08 to Jan 09 because OutLook "thinks" that it
has already downloaded it. I can see that email on the server but I have no
idea how to download it to my machine?

 

[DL]

If you had restored your data file using the correct procedure, which is not
by import, all your mail for these dates would be contained in that data
file, assuming it had previously been downloaded.

BTW you should have started a new thread, the subject has no baring on your
problem

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Using POP3?
Then move the messages that you want to re-download to another folder on the
server and then back to the Inbox. For most POP3 implementations, Outlook
will now download it again.

 

[MPS]

Thanks for the suggestion. I forgot to mention that this account is supported
by Google* and therefore the format is similar to gmail. I cannot create
folders.

I am not very Outlook savy and so if you need more information about the
account set up, I can get it for you from my office. I will just need to know
what questions to ask them.

Appreciate your help!

*I work out of various countries where as my main office is based in DC.