pst file cannot be offline

[Guest]

Hi,
Either I'm being an idiot and doing something wrong or the arrogance of
Microsoft is once more trying to curtail my productivity. Either way, any
help in resolving this issue, or in how to report a bug to these fellas would
be great.

We are migrating to an outsourced exchange service (from an in-house lotus
notes system), owing to the premium costs of using an outsourced exchange
service, we are having to store all data locally (in pst files).

As we use roaming profiles and also (some people) laptops, and want the data
to be backed up, we want to store the data on a fileserver but have this data
available offline (laptop users only).
For some bizarre reason, XP refuses to allow the pst file to be held offline
- claiming that "files of this type cannot be made available offline".

It perfectly allowed us to use Lotus mailbox files offline, with zero impact
on Lotus Notes.

Is there a way around this? Or a method to raise this as yet another
'feature' that is stopping people here working? (such as the 30Mb limit on
personal files that can be roamed in NT4 server - hence the fact we have to
store all our files in offline folders if we want to roam, as opposed to in
their profile area)

Any help appreciated

Note to microsoft - stop trying to make your software clever - all that's
happening is it is becoming less and less flexible. Take a leaf out of the
business operating systems, they allow you to accomplish far more, in less
time.

 

[Guest]

First hit in a Google search.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=252509

 

[Vagabond Software]

Hi,
Either I'm being an idiot and doing something wrong or the arrogance of
Microsoft is once more trying to curtail my productivity. Either way, any
help in resolving this issue, or in how to report a bug to these fellas would
be great.

We are migrating to an outsourced exchange service (from an in-house lotus
notes system), owing to the premium costs of using an outsourced exchange
service, we are having to store all data locally (in pst files).

As we use roaming profiles and also (some people) laptops, and want the data
to be backed up, we want to store the data on a fileserver but have this data
available offline (laptop users only).
For some bizarre reason, XP refuses to allow the pst file to be held offline
- claiming that "files of this type cannot be made available offline".

It perfectly allowed us to use Lotus mailbox files offline, with zero impact
on Lotus Notes.

Is there a way around this? Or a method to raise this as yet another
'feature' that is stopping people here working? (such as the 30Mb limit on
personal files that can be roamed in NT4 server - hence the fact we have to
store all our files in offline folders if we want to roam, as opposed to in
their profile area)

Any help appreciated

I'm confused. The offline or local version of your Exchange Server mailbox is kept in an .ost file, never a .pst file. Also, I'd be a little skeptical of a backup plan involving .pst files if the desire is to make a backup of the offline (or local) Exchange Server mailbox. Perhaps I'm not understanding something correctly, but everyone should be able to open up Outlook and peruse their offline folders (in the .ost file) by default.

carl

 

[NobodyMan]

I'm confused. The offline or local version of your Exchange Server mailbox is kept in an .ost file, never a .pst file. Also, I'd be a little skeptical of a backup plan involving .pst files if the desire is to make a backup of the offline (or local) Exchange Server mailbox. Perhaps I'm not understanding something correctly, but everyone should be able to open up Outlook and peruse their offline folders (in the .ost file) by default.

carl

Many systems are set up to automatically move messages from ther
server into the local Perosonal Folders upong login to Exchange.
Personally I hate it when a system is set up this way; if you only use
one computer it's OK, but when you don't have a "dedicated" computer
and have to go to the first available system, then you have to
remember which computer contains which messages...a royal pain in the
ass.

 

[NobodyMan]

Hi,
Either I'm being an idiot and doing something wrong or the arrogance of
Microsoft is once more trying to curtail my productivity. Either way, any
help in resolving this issue, or in how to report a bug to these fellas would
be great.

We are migrating to an outsourced exchange service (from an in-house lotus
notes system), owing to the premium costs of using an outsourced exchange
service, we are having to store all data locally (in pst files).

As we use roaming profiles and also (some people) laptops, and want the data
to be backed up, we want to store the data on a fileserver but have this data
available offline (laptop users only).
For some bizarre reason, XP refuses to allow the pst file to be held offline
- claiming that "files of this type cannot be made available offline".

It perfectly allowed us to use Lotus mailbox files offline, with zero impact
on Lotus Notes.

Is there a way around this? Or a method to raise this as yet another
'feature' that is stopping people here working? (such as the 30Mb limit on
personal files that can be roamed in NT4 server - hence the fact we have to
store all our files in offline folders if we want to roam, as opposed to in
their profile area)

Any help appreciated

Note to microsoft - stop trying to make your software clever - all that's
happening is it is becoming less and less flexible. Take a leaf out of the
business operating systems, they allow you to accomplish far more, in less
time.

Wrong newsgroup. You'd be better off posting this in an Outlook
and/or Exchanger Server group. It's not XP that's preventing you from
doing this, nor is your error message coming from XP. As far as XP is
concerned, the PST file is just another file.

 

[Guest]

it worked!
Tried the search again and it came back with the answer - must have been a
typo on my part.


Still don't like the fact that Microsoft manage to make things worse than
they already are.
Bring back MS-DOS, fast, efficient, and ran from a 5 inch floppy ;-D

 

[Guest]

Hi, just for technical issues, we are storing the files on a fileserver, so
no matter which PC you log on to, the PST file automatically roams with you,
by virtue of the fileserver.
It's a little slow, but allows us to backup the data more easily and allows
users to roam more easily.
cheers

 

[Guest]

Hi, thanks to all who answered, the problem was in fact XP and the way it has
changed its functionality.
XP defaults to disallowing you to offline the following file extensions:
db?
..ldb
..mdb
..mde
..mdw
..pst
..slm

To allow these to be offlined, you need to edit the local policy found under
"Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\Offline Files\Files
not cached"
Change it to enabled, and then put in a daft value, eg ".dontbothermeagain"

You'l need to reboot in time honoured tradition, but the end result is worth
it.

To access the policy editor, I ran gpedit.msc. I believe that there is
active directory method, but we don't run ADS so I don't know the commands
for that system (sorry).

Again, thanks to all who contributed.