Outlook reminders after backup restore?

[Gary Fritz]

I'm just rebuilding my environment on a brand new XP machine. I've never
had much luck restoring Outlook backups, but I finally found a process that
seems to work well: under Documents and Settings, I copied all files in
Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook and Local Settings\Application Data
\Microsoft\Outlook from the old system into the new system. Voila, my new
Outlook woke up with all my calendar appointments, all my contacts, etc.
(I only use Calendar and Contacts, not email)

But I've found one problem. When I create a new appointment with a
reminder, it says: "The reminder for 'appointment' will not appear because
the item is not in your Calendar or Tasks folder. Is this OK?"

I've created a test appointment and the reminder does seem to work OK.
What's with this message?

It also appears that the reminder checkbox got cleared for most or all
appointments in my calendar. If I fix the error above I can resolve this,
but it makes me nervous... Any ideas?

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

I can see why you've never had much luck restoring backups. Your "solution"
is a decidedly bad idea. Please don't anyone try this.
There are countless posts here that tell you the correct way to backup or
transfer Outlook data. What you did is probably the worst way.
Reposting:
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
http://www.howto-outlook.com/Howto/backupandrestore.htm
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx

 

[Gary Fritz]

I can see why you've never had much luck restoring backups. Your
"solution" is a decidedly bad idea.

Well, this is the first time I've tried this approach, so it wasn't the
cause of troubles before.

There are countless posts here that tell you the correct way to backup
or transfer Outlook data. What you did is probably the worst way.

OK, looking at those pages, they say all you really need to copy (for
calendar and contacts, anyway) is the Outlook.pst file. That was the
first thing I tried when I first tried backing up Outlook, and it didn't
work. That's why I got more "creative."

So I deleted (renamed) the old Outlook dirs, and ran Outlook again to
recreate them in a clean state. Then I copied the backup Outlook.pst
into the <user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook directory and ran
Outlook again.

It appears that this time it worked. No error, and the reminders seem to
be OK. I tried this several times in the past and it never worked right.
*shrug* Go figger...

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Brian Tillman]

So I deleted (renamed) the old Outlook dirs, and ran Outlook again to
recreate them in a clean state. Then I copied the backup Outlook.pst
into the <user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook directory and ran
Outlook again.

It appears that this time it worked. No error, and the reminders
seem to be OK. I tried this several times in the past and it never
worked right. *shrug* Go figger...

Your method here still runs a big risk of corrupting your mail profile.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You didn't read the information carefully enough. Yes you copy your PST
file. No, you never just copy it into the default location and expect
Outlook to know what to do. You must configure Outlook to use the file from
within Outlook. Read the information I posted.

 

[Gary Fritz]

You didn't read the information carefully enough. Yes you copy your
PST file. No, you never just copy it into the default location and
expect Outlook to know what to do. You must configure Outlook to use
the file from within Outlook. Read the information I posted.

The first link had a blizzard of information that did not apply to my
situation, since I do not use most of those features. I only use
Calendar and Contacts, and I don't use Exchange. It had no clear
instructions on what to do in this situation, so I figured it was safest
to use the other sources.

The second two links say to open Outlook, then read the old backup file
with File -> Open -> Outlook Data File. I followed the procedure in the
MS article exactly, and the data in Calendar and Contacts appears to be
OK. But when I continued with the steps in the MS article, I noticed
several problems:
* There were two Personal Folders entries, as the article said might
happen.
* One of them seems to be invalid; the "Close" option is grayed out,
and Properties -> Advanced fails saying "The operation failed. An object
could not be found."
* The valid one, under Advanced, says its filename is the backup copy!
I don't see any way to re-target it at the proper file under Documents
and Settings.

So I followed Microsoft's instructions to the letter. Now I have an
invalid folder I can't get rid of, and a valid folder that points to the
wrong file. This is exactly the kind of headache I have run into every
@#$%#@ time I have to restore an Outlook backup.

One possible source of the problem: I followed the *restore* operation
exactly, but I had not actually backed up the Outlook data. My old PC
died and I can't run an export on that system. I have the disk
containing the Outlook.pst file (and other files) from the old computer.
Can Outlook properly import a file that wasn't actually exported from
Outlook with File -> Export?

The second link (howto-outlook) talks about restoring a backup (File ->
Open -> Outlook Data File) AND importing a file (File -> Import and
Export -> Import a pst). I thought importing a file might be a better
answer for this situation. I tried importing the file but my folders
were already hosed from my previous experiments. I deleted the Outlook
directories and restarted Outlook, thinking this would force Outlook to
create new clean directories, just like it did yesterday. But now
Outlook won't open at ALL with the directories gone. I tried
removing/reinstalling Outlook and that didn't help.

(I realize I am probably not following standard procedure, but the
standard procedures aren't working for me and I'm trying everything I can
to get this thing back into a valid state.)

So now I can't run Outlook at all. I could copy my old Outlook.pst into
the Outlook directory, which seemed to work fine, but you already told me
not to do that. So how do I get it back to a clean state? Do I have to
completely remove Office and start over?

Once I get Outlook running again, how should I restore the old data?
Either I'm stupid (but other evidence says this is unlikely) or this is a
complicated mess (more likely, given the zillions of Outlook-backup
products and tutorials on the web), and just saying "Read the information
I posted" is not working. :-(

Gary

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You've made it far too difficult. The correct method for migrating PST files
is simple. You would never have 2 PST files if you had followed it. You
probably were still using a corrupt profile. Do the following:
1. Create a new profile. Outlook will create a new, empty PST file when you
do.
2. Open the PST file you want to use.
3. In File > Data File Management, designate this PST as your default.
4. Restart Outlook.
5. You can now close the new, empty PST file that Outlook created since it
is no longer the default.

Importing PST files and simply copying PST file to the default location will
corrupt your Outlook profile every time.

 

[Gary Fritz]

1. Create a new profile. Outlook will create a new, empty PST file

when you do.

How? I can't run Outlook. I get the "Outlook.pst could not be found"
error as soon as I run it, and then it exits. I need to get it back to a
state where I can at least run Outlook.

2. Open the PST file you want to use.

Open how? File -> Open, or File -> Import? From your comment below I
assume importing is not correct?

Importing PST files and simply copying PST file to the default
location will corrupt your Outlook profile every time.

Would be nice if this was a bit more straightforward and robust procedure.
Gary

 

[Brian Tillman]

The second link (howto-outlook) talks about restoring a backup (File
-> Open -> Outlook Data File) AND importing a file (File -> Import and
Export -> Import a pst).

Talks about but recommends NOT using in a backup/restore operation.

I deleted the
Outlook directories and restarted Outlook, thinking this would force
Outlook to create new clean directories, just like it did yesterday.

Danger, Will Robinson!

But now Outlook won't open at ALL with the directories gone. I tried
removing/reinstalling Outlook and that didn't help.

Outlook doesn't create the ...\Microsoft\Outlook folders at any time other
than installation time, as far as I can tell. Your best bet is to restore
things the way they were and then start with a new mail profile, configuring
completely in the Mail applet of Control Panel prior to ever starting
Outlook.

Once I get Outlook running again, how should I restore the old data?
Either I'm stupid (but other evidence says this is unlikely) or this
is a complicated mess (more likely, given the zillions of
Outlook-backup products and tutorials on the web), and just saying
"Read the information I posted" is not working. :-(

The simplest way is to use the Mail applet, with the Data Files button being
used to load the PST into the mail profile and the E-mail Accounts button
being used to redefine your mail accounts and the Outlook Addres Book
service.

 

[Brian Tillman]

How? I can't run Outlook.

Control Panel>Mail>Data Files

Open how? File -> Open, or File -> Import? From your comment below I
assume importing is not correct?

If you use Control Panel, you won't have to use Outlook, but usually it's
File>Open>Outlook Data File.

Would be nice if this was a bit more straightforward and robust
procedure.

No argument there, but I personally think it is rather straight-forward and
robust.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You really have quite a mess here. The reason it is so difficult is that
there is a lot more wrong than what you've posted.
You do not open Outlook to create a profile. You do that from the Mail icon
in Control Panel:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;829918&Product=out2003

 

[Gary Fritz]

Control Panel>Mail>Data Files

OK. I used that applet and that created an Outlook.pst that allowed me to
run Outlook.

There were TWO Personal Folders shown. Both of them said "The operation
failed. An object could not be found." when I tried to do things like
close them or access their Advanced properties.

If you use Control Panel, you won't have to use Outlook, but usually
it's File>Open>Outlook Data File.

Well, I do still need to import the data from my old system; I didn't see
any way to do that in Control Panel.

So I used File>Open>Outlook Data File to open the Outlook.pst file on my
old system's disk. That successfully opened the file, but as I said
before, it referred to the backup copy on the old disk. I don't want to
open that file permanently. I want to merge its contents into my active
working file in c:\Doc&Set\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft
\Outlook\Outlook.pst. Then I want to REMOVE the backup copy on the old
disk. I don't want Outlook referring to the old disk. I just want the old
data on my new disk.

And after doing this, I now have THREE invalid Personal Folders (none of
which I can close, because now their Close menu choice is grayed out) plus
the backup file I opened.

The simplest way is to use the Mail applet, with the Data Files button
being used to load the PST into the mail profile and the E-mail
Accounts button being used to redefine your mail accounts and the
Outlook Addres Book service.

In Data Files -- do you mean the Add button? This appears to open the file
just like File>Open>Outlook Data File.

Email Accounts button -- this all seems to refer to Outlook email accounts
and Outlook address books, which I don't use.

No argument there, but I personally think it is rather straight-forward
and robust.

That hasn't been my experience. Maybe I'm using it "wrong" because I
don't want to use Outlook email, and everything seems to be centered around
Outlook email. (I'm forced to use Outlook's calendar because of the Timex
Datalink watch I use and heavily rely upon.) But geeze, it shouldn't be
this hard to just merge in my old calendar/contacts data!!!

So then I tried Russ's procedure:

1. Create a new profile. Outlook will create a new, empty PST file
when you do.
2. Open the PST file you want to use.
3. In File > Data File Management, designate this PST as your default.
4. Restart Outlook.
5. You can now close the new, empty PST file that Outlook created
since it is no longer the default.

I closed Outlook and copied my old backup file into my working directory in
C:\, naming it Gary.pst. Then I started Outlook -- or tried to. It hung.
I started it again in safe mode and it hung. In exasperation I deleted
Outlook.pst and created a new one with the Mail applet. I started Outlook
and opened Gary.pst with File > Open. File > Data File Management doesn't
let you change your default; I finally found how to do that in Tools >
Email Accounts. Then I deleted the Outlook.pst and I seem to have my
calendar and contacts data.

Because it would only open the old file, instead of inserting the old data
into a new file, I am stuck with an old-format .pst file. I.e. it doesn't
support Unicode &etc. But I don't think that matters to me. At least I
have my calendar and contacts back in one piece. I think. But then I
thought I had it back at the start of this mess, too.... :-O

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

If you had created a brand new profile with a unique name you wouldn't have
had this trouble. You would have had a brand new UNICODE PST file. You could
then just opened your old file and copied what you wanted from it.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Well, I do still need to import the data from my old system; I didn't
see any way to do that in Control Panel.

Just make the data file a part of the mail profile with the Mail applet. Do
NOT import.

So I used File>Open>Outlook Data File to open the Outlook.pst file on
my old system's disk. That successfully opened the file, but as I
said before, it referred to the backup copy on the old disk. I don't
want to open that file permanently. I want to merge its contents
into my active working file in c:\Doc&Set\<user>\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft \Outlook\Outlook.pst.

Fine. Now that you have it open, copy the contents of its folders to your
current default folders. Open a source folder, select everything with
CTRL-A, then either right-click-drag-and-drop to the destination folder or
use Edit>Copy (or Move) to Folder, specifying the desired destination
folder. If the source folder is a non-default folder, you can just
right-click-and-drag the source folder itself to the root of the default PST
without opening the folder.

Then I
want to REMOVE the backup copy on the old disk. I don't want Outlook
referring to the old disk. I just want the old data on my new disk.

When the copying is complete, right-click the backup PST and choose Close.

And after doing this, I now have THREE invalid Personal Folders (none
of which I can close, because now their Close menu choice is grayed
out) plus the backup file I opened.

Then your mail profile is still corrupt. You haven't yet created a new mail
profile from scratch.

In Data Files -- do you mean the Add button? This appears to open
the file just like File>Open>Outlook Data File.

Yes, it does, but you don't need Outlook open.

 

[Gary Fritz]

Fine. Now that you have it open, copy the contents of its folders to
your current default folders. Open a source folder, select everything
with CTRL-A, then either right-click-drag-and-drop to the destination
folder or use Edit>Copy (or Move) to Folder, specifying the desired
destination folder. If the source folder is a non-default folder, you
can just right-click-and-drag the source folder itself to the root of
the default PST without opening the folder.

I had the copy of the old backup file as my default. I created a new
folder in the Mail applet, then made that my default folder. I'm not sure
how I'm supposed to open the source folder in such a way that I can select
everything; when it's open in Outlook I don't seem to have that option.

So I tried doing the right-click-and-drag approach. Now I have a folder
tree within the main folder containing the data I actually want. The main
folder has a "Calendar" and a "Contacts," both of which are empty. Inside
the "Top of Personal Folders" tree that got copied into the main folder are
the calendar and contacts data I WANT. I can copy those good files into
the top-level folder but I cannot delete or move the empty Calendar and
Contacts files. It displays the empty one by default and I have to
deselect it and select the one I want under "My Calendars." In the process
of trying to get that straightened out Outlook crashed.

I think I may just go back to my old file and call it good...
Gary

 

[Brian Tillman]

I had the copy of the old backup file as my default. I created a new
folder in the Mail applet, then made that my default folder.

Did you stop and restart Outlook after that?

I'm not
sure how I'm supposed to open the source folder in such a way that I
can select everything; when it's open in Outlook I don't seem to have
that option.

Click the source folder (like Inbox in the backup PST) and then press
CTRL-A. That will select everything. I already told you this.

So I tried doing the right-click-and-drag approach. Now I have a
folder tree within the main folder containing the data I actually
want.

You did not follow my instructions.

 

[Gary Fritz]

Did you stop and restart Outlook after that?

I stopped Outlook before I started the Mail applet, then restarted it
after I had created the new folder.

Click the source folder (like Inbox in the backup PST) and then press
CTRL-A. That will select everything. I already told you this.

I know you did. I tried what I thought you said and it didn't do what I
expected. Either I am not understanding you, or you are not
understanding me.

I can select Deleted Items and select its contents, no problem. But if
your process applies only to things like Deleted Items and Inbox, that
won't help me. None of the folders I see in "Personal Folders" (Deleted
Items, Drafts, Inbox, Junk Email, Outbox, Sent Items) have anything I
want to copy. Only Deleted Items contains anything at all. All the
other folders apply only to email and I don't use Outlook email!!!

You did not follow my instructions.

Apparently. Though I'm not sure your instructions apply to my situation.
I only want to copy Calendar and Contacts, and there are no Calendar or
Contacts folders in Personal Folders. Should I be able to find a "source
folder" for Calendar and Contacts?

Gary

 

[Brian Tillman]

I can select Deleted Items and select its contents, no problem. But
if your process applies only to things like Deleted Items and Inbox,
that won't help me. None of the folders I see in "Personal Folders"
(Deleted Items, Drafts, Inbox, Junk Email, Outbox, Sent Items) have
anything I want to copy. Only Deleted Items contains anything at
all.

The process applies to all folders. With the calendar, you must first
display it in a table view, however, and if Outlook Today is your startup
view, then you'll have to select any one item in the folder first prior to
pressing CTRL-A.

Are you saying your backup PST contains nothing of value? Why would you
keep such a backup?

 

[Gary Fritz]

Hm. Today when I display Personal Folders, I see folders for Calendar and
Contacts. I swear they weren't there yesterday. I listed off all the
folders I could see yesterday.

The process applies to all folders. With the calendar, you must first
display it in a table view, however, and if Outlook Today is your
startup view, then you'll have to select any one item in the folder
first prior to pressing CTRL-A.

I can copy Contacts information OK. I displayed the Contacts in Phone List
format, and that worked to copy and paste.

But obviously I'm still missing something to copy Calendar info. I see
many references to Table Views in the online help and on lots of websites,
but nowhere can I find anything that tells how to get into that mode. Lots
of sites tell you how to change things once you're in a table view, but how
do you get there in the first place?

Are you saying your backup PST contains nothing of value? Why would
you keep such a backup?

No, the **email** folders in my backup contain nothing. The Calendar and
Contacts folders contain what I want, but yesterday when I looked, Personal
Folders did not contain Calendar and Contacts folders. Don't as me why.

Gary

 

[Brian Tillman]

But obviously I'm still missing something to copy Calendar info. I
see many references to Table Views in the online help and on lots of
websites, but nowhere can I find anything that tells how to get into
that mode. Lots of sites tell you how to change things once you're
in a table view, but how do you get there in the first place?

Use the View drop-down on the Advanced Toolbar or click View>Arrange
By>Current View and choose one of the table views like Events or By
Category.

No, the **email** folders in my backup contain nothing. The Calendar
and Contacts folders contain what I want, but yesterday when I
looked, Personal Folders did not contain Calendar and Contacts
folders. Don't as me why.

You were probably using the Mail view of the Navigation Pane. The Mail view
shows only, well, mail folders. You need to use a view that contains
Calendar or Contacts folders. The Folder List view is usually the best for
what you need to do.