Outlook 2007 creating multiple personal folders

[gary]

We are experiencing some random issues with Outlook 2007 where a user will
open Outlook and will immediately get a pop-up that states "This information
service has not been configured. Select an existing file to configure, or
type the name of a new file to create". Clicking OK lets you select a new or
existing PST file. Choosing either causes another pop-up stating "Properties
for this information service must be defined prior to use". Clicking OK sends
you back to the original pop-up. During this loop, Outlook is unusable and
the only way to exit the application is using Task Manager to kill the
process. During this process Outlook creates hundreds of Personal Folders.

We have tried creating a new Outlook profile and uninstalling and
reinstalling Office, but the issue always seems to come back within a few
days. The only definitive solution we have found so far is to give the user a
new machine, which obviously isn't going to work.

Any ideas?

Thank you,
Gary

 

[Oliver Vukovics [Public Shareware]]

Hi Gary,

can you start Outlook in the "/safe" mode?
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/commandlines.htm

Do you have any "addin" installed?

If you could start Outlook in "safe mode", check the installed addins under
"Tools/Trustcenter"

Maybe it helps.

 

[rcosta]

We are experiencing some random issues with Outlook 2007 where a user will
open Outlook and will immediately get a pop-up that states "Thisinformationservice has not been configured. Select an existing file to configure, or
type the name of a new file to create".  Clicking OK lets you select a new or
existing PST file. Choosing either causes another pop-up stating "Properties
for this information service must be defined prior to use". Clicking OK sends
you back to the original pop-up. During this loop, Outlook is unusable and
the only way to exit the application is using Task Manager to kill the
process. During this process Outlook creates hundreds of Personal Folders.

We have tried creating a new Outlook profile and uninstalling and
reinstalling Office, but the issue always seems to come back within a few
days. The only definitive solution we have found so far is to give the user a
new machine, which obviously isn't going to work.

Any ideas?

Thank you,
Gary

Gary,

Did you get a resolution to your issue? we are having the same issue
with a few of our users..

 

[gary]

Gary,

Did you get a resolution to your issue? we are having the same issue
with a few of our users..

Not exactly. I put in a call to MS support regarding the issue. The tech was
insistant that it was caused by Outlook add-ins, and had me disable all the
add-ins for one of the users. That (along with a new MAPI profile) worked for
about 3 days before the issue popped back up. The best work around I've found
so far is to create a new MAPI profile, disable any unnecessary add-ins,
remove the MySite List from the SharePoint List tab in Account Settings, and
adding the following registry key to try to prevent the connection from
coming back:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Preferences\WSS\Disable, value 1.

If I find anything else of use, I'll post back.

 

[rglick]

Same problem arose for me today. Only change made in last 24 hours is to
SharePoint MySite.

 

[rglick]

Today I am completely unable to run Outlook. When I try to launch "Mail"
control panel to delete profile, the mail control panel will not launch. What
a mess

 

[Aaron Ball]

I've been having this issue along with everyone else that I work with on the web developement team. The problem doesn't occur until a user logs in to sharepoint with their domain username that is used to connect to the exchange server for outlook. Has anyone found a solution to this yet?

Regards,
Aaron

 

[Lee Walker]

I have one user who continues to get this problem and the reg edit doesn't work because ther is no WSS folder under preferences. Anyone have any idea why the MySite Sharepoint list causes this to happen?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I have one user who continues to get this problem and the reg edit doesn't
work because
ther is no WSS folder under preferences. Anyone have any idea why the
MySite Sharepoint
list causes this to happen?

And what problem might that be? We're not psychic here. You must quote the
message you think you're replying to so that there's some context.

 

[Mike Q]

Came across this thread when researching the same problem of a user I support. In her case, she had a ton of extra personal folders that she had not intentionally configured. I removed every personal folder, closed the app, reopened it and she no longer had this issue.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

What issue!!!????

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact.
ALWAYS post your Outlook version.
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375


After furious head scratching, Mike Q asked:

| Came across this thread when researching the same problem of a user I
| support. In her case, she had a ton of extra personal folders that
| she had not intentionally configured. I removed every personal
| folder, closed the app, reopened it and she no longer had this issue.

 

[Kord]

Good question Milly... There isn't much detail to it but I'll describe what
I'm seeing.

When does the problem occur:
80% of the time I start Outlook 2007.

What happens:
I see the folder list flickering a little bit and Outlook is very sluggish.
I scroll down the folder list and see multiple entries for "personal
folders" with the last one in the list flickering... kinda like it's trying
to add it, then removing it, then trying to add it again.. but very quickly.
Eventually, the entry will remain solid and a new entry will be created
below it flickering the same way. It might one new personal folder entry
every minute or so. I haven't let this go on too long but have seen as many
as 10-15 created in the past.

What I do to stop it:
Generally, I go to data file mgmt and remove each personal folder entry one
at a time. I also remove the Sharepoint my site entry. Just going through
and removing the personal folders and the my site generally is enough to
break the loop.

Do I see any errors?
Nope. Nothing on screen or in the event log.

When did it start?
I believe it started about the time I added the sharepoint mysite.
Subscribed to it via Sharepoint and I can't figure out how to get rid of the
dang thing for good to test this.

I hope that helps.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[LilDeb]

Has there been a resolution to this issue yet?

We are having the exact same issue in our environment as well. However, I
can add a little more information. The users that are connecting with their
SharePoint lists on desktops, do NOT have this problem. Users that connect on
laptops DO have this problem. In addition, the problem ONLY occurs AFTER
their tablet is no longer able to communicate with the drive where their .pst
is located.

For example, we save our .pst files to the users home directory on a file
server. Once the user goes off site and the .pst is not available it creates
a local .pst. The user then comes back on site and Outlook is now confused,
local .pst or file share .pst and the vicious cycle begins.

For those users who synch with SharePoint, I am fine with bringing the
SharePoint Lists .pst file locally, but it seems as though it is not caching
the documents, rather it is creating a link back to the SharePoint site. This
obviously will not work is a person is off site band needs to send an email
with a SPoint document attached.

I hope this little bit of extra info helps and hopefully we can get a
resolution to this problem soon.

Thanks!!
Debbie

 

[LilDeb]

An update to my previous post.

In our installation of Office 2007, we have the default location for pst's
to be on a file server. However, when setting up the SharePoint/Outlook
relationship, there is no way of telling it where you want to save the pst.
It automatically puts it in the default location.

As mentioned earlier, it is when that location is unavailable that this
cycle starts. Any way to tell it where I want to save the pst to?