Personal Folders missing

[Theodore Heise]

Hello all,

I use Outlook 2002 on my desktop, and Outlook 2003 on my notebook.
About once a week I copy the personal.pst file from my desktop to
my notebook, overwriting the old personal.pst.

I have been using this method for about a year without problem,
but do have one minor issue. I have not found a way to compress
my Personal Folders on the notebook, as this data file doesn't
appear when I open Data File Management.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[BillR [MVP]]

It should if it is attached to the profile. Can you open it with Outlook and
then Compact it?

 

[Theodore Heise]

It should if it is attached to the profile. Can you open it with
Outlook and then Compact it?

I'm not exactly sure what you're suggesting. When I start Outlook
on the notebook, the copied outlook.pst is opened as the Personal
Folders. If I'm reading you right, you're suggesting I try to
open the file again. Here's what happens when I try to do so:

* If I try {File; Open; Outlook Data File} then Outloook crashes.

* If I try {File; Data File Management; Add} the same thing happens.

* With {File; Data File Management; Open} and then selecting
outlook.exe to open outlook.pst I get a dialog box that says "A
dialog box is open. Close it and try again." After closing
this dialog box, I'm back at the Outlook Data Files dialog box.

I do find that after a {File; Data File Management; Add} sequence
Outlook will compact the file if I ask it to do so before clicking
on OK. After compacting it still crashes if I try to add it to
the Outlook Data Files list. Although it's possible to get the
file compacted, not having it listed as a data file seems like a
problem.

Any clarification or other suggestions for me?

Thanks,

 

[BillR [MVP]]

It *should* be in the profile. I was assuming you did not have it attached.
Right-click on the root of the PST (possibly called Personal Folders) and
you can access Compaction via Properties.

 

[Theodore Heise]

It *should* be in the profile. I was assuming you did not have
it attached. Right-click on the root of the PST (possibly
called Personal Folders) and you can access Compaction via
Properties.

Okay, this looks to be a behavior that changed from Outlook 2002
to Outlook 2003. In 2002 the Personal Folders (i.e., outlook.pst)
file shows up in the Data File Management dialog box. In 2003,
the following bit can be found in Help under Data File Locations:

* Only data files that you created will appear in the Outlook Data
Files dialog box (File menu, Data File Management command). Your
default data file, Outlook.pst, does not appear in the list.

Here's what hapopens when I follow your suggestion. When I right
click on the root (it is Personal Folders) and select Properties,
there are two tabs available: General and Home Page. I don't see
the option to Compact anywhere; however, there is an Advanced tab.
Unfortunately, if I click on Advanced I get a message that "The
operation failed. An object could not be found."

It's still possible to compact the main outlook.pst by the
sequence of {File; Data File Management; Add} and selecting
the file and Compact -- but trying to Add the file doesn't work.
Seems pretty borked to me.