Outlook losing appointments!

[MS]

Using Outlook 2003 (all of Office 2003), and Win XP Pro SP1. I regularly
check the Office Update site to get the latest security patches, etc.

Something strange has been going on in Outlook the last couple of weeks,
which never happened to me before. I look at the calendar, and some of the
appointments that I set are not there any more! Not all appointments, just
some. But they were definitely entered into Outlook, and later seemed to
have vanished. I have sometimes been able to retrieve one or more of the
missing appointments from a backup copy of my outlook.pst file, if the
disappearance occurred after the last backup. I definitely did not delete
those appointments, and no one else has access to my computer. What could
possibly be happening, and what could I do to fix it?

Perhaps I should mention, in case someone guesses a virus as the cause, that
I regularly update my virus signatures, have the background virus scanner
running, and do a complete manual virus scan weekly. Ditto with spyware. So
I don't think that is a possibility, that it could be a virus.

What could cause disappearing appointments?

Thanks to anyone in advance who can help with this problem.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Is this in a corporate environment using Exchange and Blackberries? Do you
have any delegates?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, MS asked:

| Using Outlook 2003 (all of Office 2003), and Win XP Pro SP1. I
| regularly check the Office Update site to get the latest security
| patches, etc.
|
| Something strange has been going on in Outlook the last couple of
| weeks, which never happened to me before. I look at the calendar, and
| some of the appointments that I set are not there any more! Not all
| appointments, just some. But they were definitely entered into
| Outlook, and later seemed to have vanished. I have sometimes been
| able to retrieve one or more of the missing appointments from a
| backup copy of my outlook.pst file, if the disappearance occurred
| after the last backup. I definitely did not delete those
| appointments, and no one else has access to my computer. What could
| possibly be happening, and what could I do to fix it?
|
| Perhaps I should mention, in case someone guesses a virus as the
| cause, that I regularly update my virus signatures, have the
| background virus scanner running, and do a complete manual virus scan
| weekly. Ditto with spyware. So I don't think that is a possibility,
| that it could be a virus.
|
| What could cause disappearing appointments?
|
| Thanks to anyone in advance who can help with this problem.

 

[MS]

No, not a corporate environment. A personal home setup. No Exchange, no
blackberries, my e-mail is POP3. (The disappearing problem hasn't occurred
with e-mail, however, just with calendar appointments. (I should add that
these are not recurring appointments, just regular, one-time appointments.)

Any clues? What could be causing this problem? Anyone else encountered it?



"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"

 

[Robert Henriksen]

-And you are not deleting them from your Inbox either?

Might help you:
"Troubleshoot meetings"
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP052429281033.aspx

Regards,
Robert

No, not a corporate environment. A personal home setup. No Exchange, no
blackberries, my e-mail is POP3. (The disappearing problem hasn't occurred
with e-mail, however, just with calendar appointments. (I should add that
these are not recurring appointments, just regular, one-time
appointments.)

Any clues? What could be causing this problem? Anyone else encountered it?



"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"

Is this in a corporate environment using Exchange and Blackberries? Do you
have any delegates?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, MS asked:

| Using Outlook 2003 (all of Office 2003), and Win XP Pro SP1. I
| regularly check the Office Update site to get the latest security
| patches, etc.
|
| Something strange has been going on in Outlook the last couple of
| weeks, which never happened to me before. I look at the calendar, and
| some of the appointments that I set are not there any more! Not all
| appointments, just some. But they were definitely entered into
| Outlook, and later seemed to have vanished. I have sometimes been
| able to retrieve one or more of the missing appointments from a
| backup copy of my outlook.pst file, if the disappearance occurred
| after the last backup. I definitely did not delete those
| appointments, and no one else has access to my computer. What could
| possibly be happening, and what could I do to fix it?
|
| Perhaps I should mention, in case someone guesses a virus as the
| cause, that I regularly update my virus signatures, have the
| background virus scanner running, and do a complete manual virus scan
| weekly. Ditto with spyware. So I don't think that is a possibility,
| that it could be a virus.
|
| What could cause disappearing appointments?
|
| Thanks to anyone in advance who can help with this problem.

 

[MS]

-And you are not deleting them from your Inbox either?

From my Inbox? There are no meetings in my inbox, only mail. I have not been
losing mail, just appointments on my calendar.

Might help you:
"Troubleshoot meetings"
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP052429281033.aspx

I'll take a look at it. Thanks.

I just looked at it. Nothing that applies to my situation. The lost items
aren't "meetings" per se, just normal calendar entries. No one else views my
calendar other than myself, it's not part of a workgroup or anything like
that.

Regards,
Robert

No, not a corporate environment. A personal home setup. No Exchange, no
blackberries, my e-mail is POP3. (The disappearing problem hasn't occurred
with e-mail, however, just with calendar appointments. (I should add that
these are not recurring appointments, just regular, one-time
appointments.)

Any clues? What could be causing this problem? Anyone else encountered it?



"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"

Is this in a corporate environment using Exchange and Blackberries? Do you
have any delegates?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, MS asked:

| Using Outlook 2003 (all of Office 2003), and Win XP Pro SP1. I
| regularly check the Office Update site to get the latest security
| patches, etc.
|
| Something strange has been going on in Outlook the last couple of
| weeks, which never happened to me before. I look at the calendar, and
| some of the appointments that I set are not there any more! Not all
| appointments, just some. But they were definitely entered into
| Outlook, and later seemed to have vanished. I have sometimes been
| able to retrieve one or more of the missing appointments from a
| backup copy of my outlook.pst file, if the disappearance occurred
| after the last backup. I definitely did not delete those
| appointments, and no one else has access to my computer. What could
| possibly be happening, and what could I do to fix it?
|
| Perhaps I should mention, in case someone guesses a virus as the
| cause, that I regularly update my virus signatures, have the
| background virus scanner running, and do a complete manual virus scan
| weekly. Ditto with spyware. So I don't think that is a possibility,
| that it could be a virus.
|
| What could cause disappearing appointments?
|
| Thanks to anyone in advance who can help with this problem.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Enable the advanced toolbar and ensure that your view is not filtered. If
it is not filtered, then go to step 2.

Step 2., if you remember a specific meeting that is no longer displayed, use
Advanced Find to get it if it still exisits and note in what folder the item
was found. If it says the calendar, I would close Outlook and restart it
using the /cleanviews switch (this is a bit drastic but will restore the
default views to all Outlook folders.)


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.


After furious head-scratching, MS asked this group:

| || -And you are not deleting them from your Inbox either?
|
| From my Inbox? There are no meetings in my inbox, only mail. I have
| not been losing mail, just appointments on my calendar.
|
|
||
|| Might help you:
|| "Troubleshoot meetings"
|| http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP052429281033.aspx
|
| I'll take a look at it. Thanks.
|
| I just looked at it. Nothing that applies to my situation. The lost
| items aren't "meetings" per se, just normal calendar entries. No one
| else views my calendar other than myself, it's not part of a
| workgroup or anything like that.
|
|
||
|| Regards,
|| Robert
||
||
||
|| |||
||| No, not a corporate environment. A personal home setup. No
||| Exchange, no blackberries, my e-mail is POP3. (The disappearing
||| problem hasn't occurred with e-mail, however, just with calendar
||| appointments. (I should add that these are not recurring
||| appointments, just regular, one-time appointments.)
|||
||| Any clues? What could be causing this problem? Anyone else
||| encountered it?
|||
|||
|||
||| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
||| |||| Is this in a corporate environment using Exchange and
|||| Blackberries? Do you have any delegates?
||||
|||| --
|||| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||||
|||| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due
|||| to the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my
|||| personal account will be deleted without reading.
||||
|||| After furious head scratching, MS asked:
||||
||||| Using Outlook 2003 (all of Office 2003), and Win XP Pro SP1. I
||||| regularly check the Office Update site to get the latest security
||||| patches, etc.
|||||
||||| Something strange has been going on in Outlook the last couple of
||||| weeks, which never happened to me before. I look at the calendar,
||||| and some of the appointments that I set are not there any more!
||||| Not all appointments, just some. But they were definitely entered
||||| into Outlook, and later seemed to have vanished. I have sometimes
||||| been able to retrieve one or more of the missing appointments
||||| from a backup copy of my outlook.pst file, if the disappearance
||||| occurred after the last backup. I definitely did not delete those
||||| appointments, and no one else has access to my computer. What
||||| could possibly be happening, and what could I do to fix it?
|||||
||||| Perhaps I should mention, in case someone guesses a virus as the
||||| cause, that I regularly update my virus signatures, have the
||||| background virus scanner running, and do a complete manual virus
||||| scan weekly. Ditto with spyware. So I don't think that is a
||||| possibility, that it could be a virus.
|||||
||||| What could cause disappearing appointments?
|||||
||||| Thanks to anyone in advance who can help with this problem.

 

[Robert Henriksen]

I really hope that Milly's suggestions helps you solve the problem!



If the suggestions provided turns out to not solve the problem, then you
might should look into the following documentations as well, since they are
relevant for non-corporate scenarios like yours.



Please be aware that missing appointment issues could be very hard to figure
out of, so Microsoft has therefore created several troubleshooting
documentations for these scenarios:

"How to troubleshoot missing and duplicate appointments in Outlook"

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;890436



"Description of common scenarios in which Calendar information may be
removed from the Calendar or may become out of date"



http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;899704



Since you are using OL2003, and if all suggestions provided does not help
you on what goes wrong, then it might help to turn on Calendar logging, but
you will need to get in touch with Microsoft Support to get the logfile
converted to some readable file:



"Description of the Calendar logging feature in Outlook 2003 Service Pack 1
(SP1)"

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=841615&product=out2003

Good luck, I hope you figure out what's going wrong.

-Robert

-And you are not deleting them from your Inbox either?

From my Inbox? There are no meetings in my inbox, only mail. I have not
been
losing mail, just appointments on my calendar.

Might help you:
"Troubleshoot meetings"
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP052429281033.aspx

I'll take a look at it. Thanks.

I just looked at it. Nothing that applies to my situation. The lost items
aren't "meetings" per se, just normal calendar entries. No one else views
my
calendar other than myself, it's not part of a workgroup or anything like
that.

Regards,
Robert

No, not a corporate environment. A personal home setup. No Exchange, no
blackberries, my e-mail is POP3. (The disappearing problem hasn't occurred
with e-mail, however, just with calendar appointments. (I should add that
these are not recurring appointments, just regular, one-time
appointments.)

Any clues? What could be causing this problem? Anyone else encountered it?



"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
Is this in a corporate environment using Exchange and Blackberries?
Do
you
have any delegates?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my
personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, MS asked:

| Using Outlook 2003 (all of Office 2003), and Win XP Pro SP1. I
| regularly check the Office Update site to get the latest security
| patches, etc.
|
| Something strange has been going on in Outlook the last couple of
| weeks, which never happened to me before. I look at the calendar,
and
| some of the appointments that I set are not there any more! Not all
| appointments, just some. But they were definitely entered into
| Outlook, and later seemed to have vanished. I have sometimes been
| able to retrieve one or more of the missing appointments from a
| backup copy of my outlook.pst file, if the disappearance occurred
| after the last backup. I definitely did not delete those
| appointments, and no one else has access to my computer. What could
| possibly be happening, and what could I do to fix it?
|
| Perhaps I should mention, in case someone guesses a virus as the
| cause, that I regularly update my virus signatures, have the
| background virus scanner running, and do a complete manual virus
scan
| weekly. Ditto with spyware. So I don't think that is a possibility,
| that it could be a virus.
|
| What could cause disappearing appointments?
|
| Thanks to anyone in advance who can help with this problem.

 

[MS]

Thanks for the tips. I'll read the article.

I don't think I have been losing more appointments in the last few days, so
perhaps the problem with my calendar has been resolved. I should look into
it in any case, to try to ensure that this doesn't occur again.

I really hope that Milly's suggestions helps you solve the problem!



If the suggestions provided turns out to not solve the problem, then you
might should look into the following documentations as well, since they are
relevant for non-corporate scenarios like yours.



Please be aware that missing appointment issues could be very hard to figure
out of, so Microsoft has therefore created several troubleshooting
documentations for these scenarios:

"How to troubleshoot missing and duplicate appointments in Outlook"

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;890436



"Description of common scenarios in which Calendar information may be
removed from the Calendar or may become out of date"



http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;899704



Since you are using OL2003, and if all suggestions provided does not help
you on what goes wrong, then it might help to turn on Calendar logging, but
you will need to get in touch with Microsoft Support to get the logfile
converted to some readable file:



"Description of the Calendar logging feature in Outlook 2003 Service Pack 1
(SP1)"

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=841615&product=out2003

Good luck, I hope you figure out what's going wrong.

-Robert

-And you are not deleting them from your Inbox either?

From my Inbox? There are no meetings in my inbox, only mail. I have not
been
losing mail, just appointments on my calendar.

Might help you:
"Troubleshoot meetings"
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP052429281033.aspx

I'll take a look at it. Thanks.

I just looked at it. Nothing that applies to my situation. The lost items
aren't "meetings" per se, just normal calendar entries. No one else views
my
calendar other than myself, it's not part of a workgroup or anything like
that.

Regards,
Robert




No, not a corporate environment. A personal home setup. No Exchange, no
blackberries, my e-mail is POP3. (The disappearing problem hasn't occurred
with e-mail, however, just with calendar appointments. (I should add that
these are not recurring appointments, just regular, one-time
appointments.)

Any clues? What could be causing this problem? Anyone else

encountered
it?

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
Is this in a corporate environment using Exchange and Blackberries?
Do
you
have any delegates?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my
personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, MS asked:

| Using Outlook 2003 (all of Office 2003), and Win XP Pro SP1. I
| regularly check the Office Update site to get the latest security
| patches, etc.
|
| Something strange has been going on in Outlook the last couple of
| weeks, which never happened to me before. I look at the calendar,
and
| some of the appointments that I set are not there any more! Not all
| appointments, just some. But they were definitely entered into
| Outlook, and later seemed to have vanished. I have sometimes been
| able to retrieve one or more of the missing appointments from a
| backup copy of my outlook.pst file, if the disappearance occurred
| after the last backup. I definitely did not delete those
| appointments, and no one else has access to my computer. What could
| possibly be happening, and what could I do to fix it?
|
| Perhaps I should mention, in case someone guesses a virus as the
| cause, that I regularly update my virus signatures, have the
| background virus scanner running, and do a complete manual virus
scan
| weekly. Ditto with spyware. So I don't think that is a possibility,
| that it could be a virus.
|
| What could cause disappearing appointments?
|
| Thanks to anyone in advance who can help with this problem.

 

[MS]

Now I realize that it has lost contacts as well as appointments. Today two
phone numbers that I looked up in Outlook, were not there any more. I know
they were there before. I also checked my backup PST, not there either. (I
don't know when the contacts and appointments were lost.)

What could be causing this lost data in Outlook 2003?

 

[MS]

Are you, by chance, synching with a PDA, using ActiveSync?

Yes, I am. With two PDAs, a Pocket PC and a Smartphone. I'm using ActiveSync
Version 3.8.0, build 5004.

Can an ActiveSync session lose contacts and appointments from Outlook 2003?
How? I have the ActiveSync rules set to "always replace item on device" (if
there is a conflict), so I can see no reason why AS should delete contacts
and appointments in desktop Outlook.

Is this a known bug? Is there a way to recover the data? Is there a way to
prevent it from happening again?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Yes, I am. With two PDAs, a Pocket PC and a Smartphone. I'm using
ActiveSync Version 3.8.0, build 5004.

While syncing one PDA with two desktops works well, I'm not sure how well
syncing two PDAs with one desktop. Do you have two partnerships defined?

Can an ActiveSync session lose contacts and appointments from Outlook
2003?

I've not encountered this in over five years of using PocketPCs, unless I've
specified something wrong in the partnership.

 

[MS]

While syncing one PDA with two desktops works well, I'm not sure how well
syncing two PDAs with one desktop. Do you have two partnerships defined?


I've not encountered this in over five years of using PocketPCs, unless I've
specified something wrong in the partnership.

Yes, I have two partnerships defined, Pocket PC and Smartphone. There are
two separate profiles for them in the AS profiles folder. AS recognizes
which device is connected, and opens that profile. That doesn't seem to be a
problem.

I have also used AS for years without problems. However, as stated, recently
I seem to have inexplicably lost some contacts and appointments in Outlook
2003 on my desktop. Somehow I suspected that it might have had something to
do with an AS sync, although not at all sure of that. I asked about the lost
data problem in Outlook newsgroups, not even mentioning my suspicion about
ActiveSync.

But then, I noticed this one sentence question (again, only in Outlook
newsgroups, as there had been no mention of AS in the thread so far) from
normc:


----------quote--------------
"Are you, by chance, synching with a PDA, using ActiveSync?"
---------end quote-------------

I wish he had elaborated on why he was asking that, but it sounds like he,
without up until then any mention of AS in the thread, or even that I use a
PDA, suspected that AS perhaps caused the problem. I hope he keeps reading
and replies here, as to why he asked me that.

Anyone else aware of such a problem--of ActiveSync causing lost data in
desktop Outlook?

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have also used AS for years without problems. However, as stated,
recently I seem to have inexplicably lost some contacts and
appointments in Outlook 2003 on my desktop. Somehow I suspected that
it might have had something to do with an AS sync, although not at
all sure of that. I asked about the lost data problem in Outlook
newsgroups, not even mentioning my suspicion about ActiveSync.

Well, there may be an ActiveSync issue and I hope you get an answer. You've
crossposted to the appropriate groups, so good luck.

 

[shamanjh]

I've had the same problem of losing appointments... one in particular to
which i add data to this occurence only thru the week. Will be there for
awhile and then suddenly not any more. single computer, not synching- just
losing appointments. can import calendar and the same appointment goes away.
other single day appts also will not show unless i go forward a ay then back
to today and it will show again. is not all appts, just random single
entries. Would file size of the recurring appt that will not stay, be part
of problem? Happened in 2000 and now in 2003. thank you

 

[Greeves]

I am having the same problem with Pocket Pc 2003 using MIS 2003, Outlook 2000
and exchange 2000 servers. Users are syncing using active synce via GPRS.
Randomly the calendar and contacts in Outlook on their PC's is be wiped when
the PDA syncs. Baffling really, i'm still looking for a solution if i find
anything i will let you know.