The following is based on Outlook 2003 and below. It
sounds like there is a corrupt item in the calendar. Nine
times out of ten I find the item is a "recurrence" type appt:
To detect the offending item
1) Open the mailbox in Outlook
2) Create a New folder (Calendar Test)
3) Do an advanced find on the old calendar and sort events by recurrence.
- Press F3
- Change the Look For: text box to Appointments and Meetings
- Click on the Advanced tab
- Click Field
- Select All Appointment fields
- Select Recurring
- Condition: equals
- Value: Yes
- Click the Add to List button
- Click Find Now
Drop and drag from advanced find listed events one at a time to the new
calendar, when you get to the corrupt item it will give you an error
message. (delete this item)
Move all your calendar items from Calendar Test folder back to original
calendar (these are previously dragged over items).
If this does not fix the Calendar Freeze:
Try starting Outlook with the /safe command line switch. Go to the calendar
folder to see if Outlook freezes. (See link below for info)
OL2002: Additional Command-Line Switches
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;296192
If there is a freeze I would guess one of the following.
1) A reminder or free/busy information couldn't be cleared. Try starting
Outlook with the /cleanfreebusy and /cleanreminders command line switch
while no items are stored in the calendar folder
2) A corrupted view. Try starting Outlook 1 time with the /cleanviews
command line switch
If there is no freeze when starting with the /safe switch -- visit the
folder you moved the items to and see if Outlook freezes. If it does, there
is still a corrupt item that Outlook can't deal with. If there is no
freeze, then I would guess that file outcmd.dat is corrupt. Rename this file
and restart Outlook. Outlook will recreate a new outcmd.dat file on open.
Nikki Peterson
