Duplicated folders in Outlook

[les.piggot]

Hi

This has come up in the forums a few times, but no one appears to have posted any solutions or work arounds so fingers crossed this time. Folder duplication appears to have occurred when users restored there PST outlook files into scalix. In my case, I currently have 2 deleted items folders, one the Scalix deleted items and the other os type mail (according to the icon) although I am not allowed to delete it in outlook. Creating a new profile (even on a new PC) doesn't solve the issue so I'm assuming that the folder is now stored in scalix (although only the correct folder is shown in swa)

any ideas?

Cheers

Les

[ScalixSupport]

Hi Les,

I don't fully understand the part about "users restored thier PST outlook files into scalix." I'd like to understand that bit more if you could give me a step by step of what you did to create this scenario.

Otherwise close outlook, then start/run and type outlook /resetfolders. Only one of the deleted items folder should be the real one. The real one you can not delete and, obviously, deleted messages will go to that folder.

If you were to access your mailbox with an IMAP client you would be able to delete folders that you aren't able to delete through Outlook.

Regards,
Don

[les.piggot]

Don,

Sorry for the delay, I wasn't about yesterday. On our old mail system we supported both POP mail for outlook clients and IMAP for everyone else. The Outlook users used the "Import/Export Wizard" in outlook to backup the outlook message store to a PST file. The Profile was changed and all users were recreated on Scalix and connected using Scalix connect (v 9.4.0.46) Once connected, mails were restored using the same outlook wizard.

From IMAP or SWA, the duplicate folders are not visable, so I cannot delete them from there. When I try the /ResetFolders option, it unfortunately makes no difference :?

An example of the problem can be seen here below:


Other users have duplicate Contacts, in one case, there are 3 extra contact folders, each empty. installing on a different PC connecting to the same profile makes no difference either, the extra folders appear also.

Thanks for all your help

Les

[florian]

Outlook recognizes certain folders as "Special" not by their name, but by what they call MAPI properties.

Only one folder of each type (inbox, deleted items, primary contacts, etc..) should be designated as "Special" by the MAPI properties.

When moving/mixing data, sometimes this association can be messed up.

Outlook provides a special switch, /resetfolders, to clean up the situation. You should start your outlook from the command line/dos prompt with this switch.

after that, you might actually see one extra set of folders. :-) Good thing is that now you should be able to delete all but one of each kind (i.e. if there are 3 deleted items folders, you will be able to delete two of these, the one that will be undeletable should be the special folder you want). Be careful to move all data into the undeletable folder before deleting the folder, otherwise you can lose some of your data.

Tell us if this helps,
Florian.

[les.piggot]

Florian,

Thanks for your advice.

>> When moving/mixing data, sometimes this association can be messed up. - This is what has happened here.

In each case where we have duplicate forlders, After running the /resetfolders switch in outlook the folders are still visible but I'm unable to delete them still. outlook states that:

"Unable to delete this folder. Right-click the folder; and then click Properties to check your permissions for this folder. See the folder owner or your administrator to change your permissions.

Cannot move the Waste Basket out of the top level of the filing Cabinet."

When I look at Permissions, I have the following setup:

Name: Default
Role: Owner

Permissions:
Roles Owner (checked)
Create Items (checked)
Read Items (checked)
Create Subfolders (checked)
Folder Owner (checked)
Folder Contact (checked) but Greyed out
Folder Visilble (checked)

Edit Items: All
Delete Items: All

Les

[ScalixSupport]

Hi Les,

Did you try setting permissions for the owner to none?

Thanks,
Don

[les.piggot]

Don,

Just reset the permissions on the duplicated folder so that the are back to Role: None, ran outlook /resetfolders and tried to delete, to no avail :(

Les

[jg]

Cannot move the Waste Basket out of the top level of the filing Cabinet."

I think this is the key to the problem.

Basically it would appear that the Deleted Items folder with the "mail items" icon is actually the "special" Outlook deleted items folder, which maps onto the server folder we call WASTEBASKET.

A simple test would be if you delete an item which folder does it end up in?
Also if you right click on the folder are you presented with the option to "Empty Deleted Items"...only the *real* deleted items folder presents this option.

Can you delete the other "Deleted Items" folder, i.e. the one with the special icon?, if you can't want error does Outlook throw up.

If Outlook is somehow considering this folder as "special", then we might have to resort to deleting the folder on the server using omcontain.

Interestingly on my own account my Deleted Items folder has "lost" it's special icon, but is functioning in all other regards correctly.

Hope that helps.
Cheers,
JG

[kanderson]

This has come up for us a few times.

Shut down Outlook. Go to Start|Run and type:

outlook.exe /resetfolders

Then move the data to the undeletable (system) folder, and delete the other one as it isn't needed anymore. For some users, they also saw a Drafts folder being recreated hundreds of times. (Whenever a message was autosaved into Drafts). This switch also fixed that problem.

This is a problem with Outlook going nuts. I don't know exactly why it happens, but it's not a Scalix issue, I found the fix on an Exchange forum. It happens to them too.

[les.piggot]

Update:

Migrated over another couple of users from IMAP connections on the scalix server to use Scalix Connect. Once again duplicate folders occurred.

In this example there were 4 Tasks, and 2 Deleted Items. (None of which occurred in IMAP so I'm now don't think it was due to importing existing mail from a pst file.)

Running outlook /Resetfolders allowed me to delete, only 2 of the six folders, In this case 1 deleted items and 1 Tasks.

All the other duplicated folders appear not to be able to be deleted. Current versions of Outlook are 2000 and XP all with the latest service patches applied.

Anyone got any other ideas on what to try?

[Josh Holman]

This happened to me with one user when importing a .pst. I ran outlook /cleanreminders and outlook /resetfolders. Then created a new profile and connected the Scalix store. I then assinged full permissions from Outlook to the admin user on the 'fake' special folders and logged out. Connected as admin and opened the users mailbox and deleted the 'fake' special folders. This appeared to solve the issue.

(As a sidenote, in my case the reminder service in Outlook would not start either, and everytime a reminder was supposed to pop, a new Calendar was created.)

-Josh

[STXRich]

Hi All,

This appears to have fallen by the wayside. We are experiencing the duplicate 'deleted items' folders. All our other duplicates were successfully removed from outlook. It seems as though outlook really wants the second deleted items folder.

Running outlook with the /resetfolders switch doesn't allow us to delete the bogus deleted items.

Has anyone figured out a good way to smack outlook in the face?

There was a mention of using omcontain to remove the invalid folder, how would this be done?

Thanks
-Rich-

[mikethebike]

You can use omcontain to delete (D) the rogue folder if deleting from Outlook is not possible.

Check that the duplicate "deleted items" folder is not a "special" MAPI folder by using the "lm" option at the top level in omcontain for that user (open the wastebasket in omcontain, then do an "lm" to list the MAPI properties, this should match the record starting "34140102=" in each case).

Delete the folder that is not listed in the MAPI properties for that mailbox.

Hope that helps.

Mick

[les.piggot]

Does anyone have an example of how to use omcontain with respect to removing rogue folders? As of yet I haven't tried this, although I have emailed support for the password to use omcontain :wink:

Cheers

Les

[packets]

Does anyone have an example of how to use omcontain with respect to removing rogue folders? As of yet I haven't tried this, although I have emailed support for the password to use omcontain

Cheers

Les

I hope someone could provide an example as I also encounter the same scenario.