Outlook won't start when offline.

[bmccle]

I have a number of Outlook 2003 .PST files in c:\mailfolders05 and
other directories which open fine when connected to the Microsoft
Exchange server.

When not connected to the server I get the following message when
trying to start Outlook and choosing "work offline":

"Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook
window. The set of folders could not be opened."

If I remove all my .PST files from within Outlook while connected and
then try starting Outlook offline I get the following message:

"Unable to open your default e-mail folders. The information store
could not be opened."

Thanks for your help.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have a number of Outlook 2003 .PST files in c:\mailfolders05 and
other directories which open fine when connected to the Microsoft
Exchange server.

When not connected to the server I get the following message when
trying to start Outlook and choosing "work offline":

"Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook
window. The set of folders could not be opened."

If I remove all my .PST files from within Outlook while connected and
then try starting Outlook offline I get the following message:

"Unable to open your default e-mail folders. The information store
could not be opened."

What do you have set for your delivery location?

 

[bmccle]

I'm not sure what you mean by delivery location. When I'm connected to
the server my e-mail comes to my Inbox. From there I move it to various
of my data files on the c: drive.

Thanks for responding.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I'm not sure what you mean by delivery location.

Click Tools>E-mail accounts>Next. What's in the "Delivery new e-mail to
this location" box at the bottom left?

 

[bmccle]

The box reads "McClellan, Bill"

 

[Brian Tillman]

The box reads "McClellan, Bill"

Your delivery location is the Exchange server then. Do you have either
Exchange cached mode or offline folders enabled?

 

[bmccle]

Exchange cached mode is not enabled.

The Offline Folder File Settings dialogue lists this file:

"c:\documents and settings\bmcclellan\local settings\application
data\microsoft\outlook\outlook.ost"

and

"compressible encryption" is set.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Exchange cached mode is not enabled.

The Offline Folder File Settings dialogue lists this file:

"c:\documents and settings\bmcclellan\local settings\application
data\microsoft\outlook\outlook.ost"

and

"compressible encryption" is set.

And that file exists? Well, I'm at a loss. As far as I can tell,
everything's there for offline operation. One last thing to check. Open
the Mail applet in Control Panel, click E-mail accounts, click Next, select
your account and click Change, then More Settings. Is "Automatically
detect..." selected? If so, select "Manually control..." and check the
"Choose the connection state" Click OK, then Next, then Finish, then Close.
Restart Outlook. DOes it allow you to choose working off line? If so, what
happens when you do?

 

[bmccle]

Outlook.ost does exist.

When I manually choose to work offline I get the same error message:

"Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook
window. The set of folders could not be opened."

If I manually choose to connect it works fine.

While doing the above test after closing Outlook I checked Task Manager
- running processes and noticed that outlook was still running. I ended
that process before re-opening it.

 

[bmccle]

Is there another group here that might have some thoughts on this
problem?

 

[bmccle]

Found solution:

I set up another "offline" profile with no e-mail account attached to
it and checked the "Prompt for profile to be used" box. Now when I'm
not connected to the server, I choose the "offline" profile in order to
start Outlook and access my offline PST files. Simultaneously, using
Outlook Web Access, I can access my current e-mail in another window.

Not the best solution since there are two e-mail apps open, but it
works for now.