Outlook repeatedly crashes and re-starts

[Outlook problems]

I have a system on which Outlook crashes and re-starts continually. It is
running XP Home + Office 2003.

I was able to temporarily resolve the problem by creating a new
outlook.pst file and opening the old file from the file menu once Outlook
had opened, however, after outlook re-downloaded all the emails from the
server again, it behaves the same as before.

I have run scanpst.exe and it shows the pst file as clean.

I have brought the machine fully up to date with both Windows and Office
updates.

Any ideas?

 

[Cary Liu]

Try this command in Start -> run:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE" /safe

 

[Cary Liu]

Note the /safe in the command end, Retry others commands as following


/cleansniff
Deletes duplicate reminder messages.

/cleanviews
Restores default views. All custom views you created are lost.

/cleanrules
Starts Outlook and deletes client- and server-based rules.

/noextensions
Starts Outlook with extensions turned off, but listed in the Add-In Manager.

/profile profilename
Loads the specified profile. If your profile name contains a space, enclose
the profile name in quotation marks (").

/profiles
Opens the Choose Profile dialog box regardless of the Options setting on the
Tools menu.

/safe:1

Starts Outlook with the Reading Pane off.

/safe:2

Starts Outlook without checking mail at startup.

/safe:3

Starts Outlook with extensions turned off, but listed in the Add-In Manager.

/safe:4

Starts Outlook without loading Outcmd.dat (customized toolbars) and *.fav
file.

 

[Outlook problems]

See comments below.

Note the /safe in the command end, Retry others commands as following


/cleansniff
Deletes duplicate reminder messages.

/cleanviews
Restores default views. All custom views you created are lost.

/cleanrules
Starts Outlook and deletes client- and server-based rules.

/noextensions
Starts Outlook with extensions turned off, but listed in the Add-In Manager.

/profile profilename
Loads the specified profile. If your profile name contains a space, enclose
the profile name in quotation marks (").

/profiles
Opens the Choose Profile dialog box regardless of the Options setting on the
Tools menu.

/safe:1

Starts Outlook with the Reading Pane off.

/safe:2

Starts Outlook without checking mail at startup.

/safe:3

Starts Outlook with extensions turned off, but listed in the Add-In Manager.

/safe:4

Starts Outlook without loading Outcmd.dat (customized toolbars) and *.fav
file.

None of these worked.

The problem seems to be related somehow to the main pst file, however,
even after deleting all the emails out of this pst file, compressing it,
outlook still won't start up. Outlook will only start up if the main pst
file (outlook.pst) is a new file. The problem pst file can then be opened
and read within outlook (that is how I was able to delete the emails out
of it), but, the problem resumes with the new pst file after all the
emails (approx 15000) are downloaded from the server into the new pst
file.

It appears that one of the emails that is on the server does something to
the outlook data file (pst file), since even starting with a new pst file
and then downloading again resulted in the same crashes.

 

[Outlook Problems]

Nothing I have done has solved the problem.

If I start with a fresh .pst file as the default, Outlook will behave
normally. It can even open the pst files that would cause Outlook to crash
if they were set as the default. However, once I download the emails
(approximately 15k of them) from the POP3 server into the new default .pst
file, Outlook will crash again.

Is there any way to trick Outlook into thinking it has already downloaded
those emails into a pst file, so that it does not download them again --
but instead only downloads the new emails?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Nothing I have done has solved the problem.

If I start with a fresh .pst file as the default, Outlook will behave
normally. It can even open the pst files that would cause Outlook to
crash if they were set as the default. However, once I download the
emails (approximately 15k of them) from the POP3 server into the new
default .pst file, Outlook will crash again.

Is there any way to trick Outlook into thinking it has already
downloaded those emails into a pst file, so that it does not download
them again -- but instead only downloads the new emails?

If this were happening to me, I'd use the ISP's webmail interface and move
the messages from the Inbox on the server to a separate folder. I'd then
let Outlook perform a send/receive. I'd then move messages one or a few at
a time from the folder I'd created on the server and let Outlook download it
or them until I'd found the message that was causing it to fail. I'd them
delete the message from the server, clean things up in Outlook, and then let
Outlook complete an entire download with all the remaining messages.

 

[Outlook Problems]

If this were happening to me, I'd use the ISP's webmail interface and move
the messages from the Inbox on the server to a separate folder. I'd then let
Outlook perform a send/receive. I'd then move messages one or a few at a
time from the folder I'd created on the server and let Outlook download it or
them until I'd found the message that was causing it to fail. I'd them
delete the message from the server, clean things up in Outlook, and then let
Outlook complete an entire download with all the remaining messages.

That's essentially what I am doing. It's not my mailbox, but I have asked
the mailbox owner to delete all the emails that he received before the
problem began.

Frankly, I am amazed that a mature program such as Outlook should exhibit
such a problem - that it should be possible to create an email that will
cause Outlook to crash. Think of the DoS possibilities!

 

[Outlook Probs]

I can't help with your situation but you look knowledgeable to help me.

My Outlook creashes today. I checked file size of Outlook.pst and
noticed that it went up to over 2GB. It function okay when it was below
2GB. I tried to empty the "Delete folder" but the process is fail
returning a message "... due to registry or installation problem". It
suggest re-insall software which I did but result is the same.

Any suggestion to do next? Is there any way I can empty the "delete
folder" without opening Outlook?

Alex,

Outlook has a 2GB limit. There is a tool somewhere that will truncate a
pst file but you will lose some emails in the process.

Read this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296088

My suggestion: unless you really need Outlook for some of its unique
features, download and use Mozilla Thunderbird.