Outlook 2003 Helped Me Lose A Message

  • Thread starter Thread starter Adam Selene
  • Start date Start date
A

Adam Selene

I had spent quite a lot of time on an important message and finally
sent it out to a client.

I then desired to move it to my client's message folder. I
right-clicked on the message in the SENT ITEMS folder and selected
"Move to folder...".

Well, the folder offered up was a folder that was in the Contacts
folder tree rather than in the Messages tree. Unfortunately, it had
the same name as a message folder and it fooled me. But it didn't
"look right" so when I was asked if I wanted to "save" the changes to
the folder, I replied "no".

I then discovered that I'd been looking at a Contacts folder and that
my message was irretrievably lost.

If that's a "Works As Designed" behavior, design be damned!

Yeah, I helped but why isn't it an error to try to move a message to a
contacts folder? Why does Outlook even allow this? Don't make sense to
me.

Frustrated...
 
Go to the contacts folder and chance the view to something like "by
category" or anything that gives you a table view. This should allow you to
pick out the message (icon will be different), so you can move it somewhere
else.

As for the answer to the questions, messages, contacts, calendar, tasks,
..etc are all based on default class knows as an interpersonal message or
"IPM" for short. Every folder in Outlook can store items built on this
class. Hence, the reason why you can move items where you least expect it.
 
No, it's gone. Recall I said "NO" when asked if I wanted to "Change
the Folder". So, no changes were stored.

But the original message was deleted anyway. I treated the "No" like
a "Cancel" response fully expecting my move to be aborted. It wasn't
though. My message was merely moved to the "bit bucket". Not good.

IMHO, messages and contacts are totally dissimilar objects and should
never be mingled.

But the real culprit is the loss of the message in the face of a "No"
response. IMHO, this is a catastrophe in the making.
 
That shouldn't have happened. If you right click on an item and select Move
to Folder, the next dialog displays the folder list, OK button, Cancel
button, and a New Folder button. Cancel means nothing happens, OK it moves,
and New Folder button that lets you create a new folder and then the dialog
highlights said folder. So I understand where you think the process went
haywire, what button/option did you select at this point?

Outside of that, I'm guessing the message is still around (unless it hit the
deleted items folder and said folder was emptied). Have you tried searching
for a word/term that might be in the item that you believe is lost? (CTRL +
SHIFT + F to do an advanced find. Make sure you start at the top of the
store [Personal Folders] since items can get hidden behind the "Outlook
Today" page.)
 
That shouldn't have happened. If you right click on an item and select Move
to Folder, the next dialog displays the folder list, OK button, Cancel
button, and a New Folder button. Cancel means nothing happens, OK it moves,
and New Folder button that lets you create a new folder and then the dialog
highlights said folder. So I understand where you think the process went
haywire, what button/option did you select at this point?
Click to expand...

Well, the problem was that I didn't get an OK|Cancel button; I got
asked if I wanted to "save the changes" to the destination folder with
choices "Yes" or "No".

Since I knew something was wrong (but not what) I chose "No" thinking
that it was tantamount to "Cancel". Unfortunately, the message was
simply discarded and the target folder (which I later learned was a
Contacts subfolder) was unchanged.
Outside of that, I'm guessing the message is still around (unless it hit the
deleted items folder and said folder was emptied). Have you tried searching
for a word/term that might be in the item that you believe is lost? (CTRL +
SHIFT + F to do an advanced find. Make sure you start at the top of the
store [Personal Folders] since items can get hidden behind the "Outlook
Today" page.)
Click to expand...

Tried that but no luck. No, the message just vanished.

In a sense, Outlook seems to have reacted to the incompatibility
between message and contact but the result (with my help) was loss of
data.

I'll see if I can reproduce the problem and do a better job of
documenting.
 
OK, I created a Draft message and saved it.
Then, I right-clicked on the message and selected "Move to folder.."
Then, I navigated to a small Contacts sub-folder and clicked OK.
Then, I got a pop-up as if creating a new "Untitled" Contact.
I closed that without saving.
I then got a message asking if I wanted to save the changes in the
folder. Responses are "Yes" and "No".
I clicked "No".

Message has been deleted.
It is absolutely gone.

IMHO, this is really confusing behavior.

The original problem arose because I have a contact subfolder which
has the same name as that of a message subfolder. Outlook appears to
offer as target the last folder used and if it's not clear the folder
is of the wrong class, then something bad is likely to happen.

We should have the opportunity to cancel the move.

Doesn't happen.

That shouldn't have happened. If you right click on an item and select Move
to Folder, the next dialog displays the folder list, OK button, Cancel
button, and a New Folder button. Cancel means nothing happens, OK it moves,
and New Folder button that lets you create a new folder and then the dialog
highlights said folder. So I understand where you think the process went
haywire, what button/option did you select at this point?

Outside of that, I'm guessing the message is still around (unless it hit the
deleted items folder and said folder was emptied). Have you tried searching
for a word/term that might be in the item that you believe is lost? (CTRL +
SHIFT + F to do an advanced find. Make sure you start at the top of the
store [Personal Folders] since items can get hidden behind the "Outlook
Today" page.)

Adam Selene said:
No, it's gone. Recall I said "NO" when asked if I wanted to "Change
the Folder". So, no changes were stored.

But the original message was deleted anyway. I treated the "No" like
a "Cancel" response fully expecting my move to be aborted. It wasn't
though. My message was merely moved to the "bit bucket". Not good.

IMHO, messages and contacts are totally dissimilar objects and should
never be mingled.

But the real culprit is the loss of the message in the face of a "No"
response. IMHO, this is a catastrophe in the making.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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