Archive folders cannot be removed from folders view

[PaulA]

I have 3 folders named "Archive Folders" that appear in the folders view of
Outlook 2003 under windows XP. They have little or no content and clutter the
view to no obvious advantge. Auto archive is (now was) enabled and I guess
that this created the corresponding .psts and the folders appearance in the
the view in the first instance.

I have previously been able to remove many/others via the "Close pst" (right
click option) but these 3 remain because on attempt to close them I get an
error message:
"The operation failed. An object could not be found" which does not help much.

I tried line commands "outlook /resetfolders" and also "outlook
/cleanprofile" that cleaned up similar errors but with no result for these
folders.

Question:
a) How to I remove these from my view?
b) Is it necessary for me (or outlook) to 'see' the folders in the folders
view, i.e.: could they not work in the background without cluttering my view
(until/unless I need them for recovery)?
c) (Tounge in cheek) why is archiving so 'hard to tame'?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Question:
a) How to I remove these from my view?

If File>Data File Management doesn't let you delete them, then you'll have
to create a new mail profile.

b) Is it necessary for me (or outlook) to 'see' the folders in the
folders view, i.e.: could they not work in the background without
cluttering my view (until/unless I need them for recovery)?

Archive folders do not have to be in the Folder List in order to work.

c) (Tounge in cheek) why is archiving so 'hard to tame'?

I don't find it hard to tame. I simply don't use it <grin>.

 

[PaulA]

Brian,
Thank you for your quick and correct advice - I tried it and the old archive
folders were indeed not present in the new profile.

However, it is a hard way of doing it because now I need to redefine my 5
active email accounts with their oddball individual settings that I cannot
remember and which are not accessible to view from the old profile whilst
building the new profile. I then need to bring back the other wanted .PSTs to
re-create the desirable features of the old profile. I then apparently have
to manage the re-installation of Plaxo as part of the process making sure
that my desired default mail delivery target .PST is not the one that OUtlook
prefers when it creates a new default (incorrect) location.

I have not even begun to think about the rules and other settings that I may
(or may not) have lost in the creation of a new profile and frankly I do not
think that I ought to have to consider these inner workings.

I suppose I rather foolishly want MS to fix the problem rather than me
having to work around their error condition. I am perhaps a bit old fashioned
in that I expect the services that I have paid for to operate correctly.

If anyone else has a 'fix' to remove these archive folders that I do not
wish to display (that does not involve a partial re-build) I would be 'ever
so' grateful (though I have little hope of finding such a solution).

Perhaps I will just have to live with this idiotic but cosmetic irritation.
PaulA
-------------------

 

[Brian Tillman]

I then apparently have to manage the re-installation
of Plaxo as part of the process making sure that my desired default
mail delivery target .PST is not the one that OUtlook prefers when it
creates a new default (incorrect) location.

There are many posts in this group describing how Plaxo can have unintended
side-effects in Outlook.

I have not even begun to think about the rules and other settings
that I may (or may not) have lost in the creation of a new profile
and frankly I do not think that I ought to have to consider these
inner workings.

Rules are kept in the PST so if you add in your old PST, the rules should be
there.

 

[PaulA]

Brian,
Thanks for the thought.

Whilst I know that you were not suggesting that Plaxo could be the cause of
the problem, I uninstalled Plaxo anyway just to check.

No change. Outlook is still confused as to how to disconnect from these
archive files.
PaulA
-----------------------------------------------------------

 

[Brian Tillman]

No change. Outlook is still confused as to how to disconnect from
these archive files.

The only way, then, is to create a new profile. That is guaranteed to work.

 

[nardone.a]

I have found a way to solve the problem without creating a new profile.
It involves playing around with the registry! The pst list is stored in
the key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\your_profile_name
Under such keys there are a number of hex subkeys. All the info is in
Hex and the folders name are in ASCII, each letter of the name separate
by a space (20H). The folder name is written in the key 001f3001. If
you right click on the name of the key and select "modify binary data"
a box will appear showing the date in Hex and in ASCII. I have deleted
the key which had the name the of the ghost pst. It worked, but this
has not been tested. I am not sure that it works for every issue.
Before making changes to the registry is better to export the key.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have found a way to solve the problem without creating a new
profile. It involves playing around with the registry! The pst list
is stored in the key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\your_profile_name
Under such keys there are a number of hex subkeys. All the info is in
Hex and the folders name are in ASCII, each letter of the name
separate by a space (20H). The folder name is written in the key
001f3001.

Good for you. However, your key and mine do not agree, so I speculate that
the 001f... key you describe isn't the same value for everyone.

 

[nardone.a]

In any case is easy to identify, Is the only key that shows the name of
the pst in ASCII with 20H separting the letters