[DvdB]

Hello,

on a laptop with Windows XP (up-to-date) and the MS Office 2k7 suite, someone asked me to help on an email problem on Outlook 2007.

The problem started when someone did send an email of the size of 24MB (Hi-resolution images attached). According to the Outlook user the problem started there. It took a long time to get the message so they (at least this I can only assume from their own recollections) seem to have aborted the download of the message halfway through. Now each time they want to download new messages, one of them gets stuck at 55%. If I increase the timeout period to the max of 10 minutes, it makes no difference.

When I logon at the webmail at their provider (the account the POP protocol tries to download from) I see that the mail is no longer there.

So I think that Outlook is just trying to get an email that is no longer there...pending at 55%.

My question...how do I tell Outlook to stop trying? Cancelling it doesn't work and I can find no other traces of the email.

Both the Windows XP and the Office 2007 installations are fully up-to-date, and I have disabled virus scanning.

Anyone able to help me?

[JPCompHelp]

Have you tried reinstalling Outlook?

[DvdB]

not yet.

But could that even make a difference? Isn't the incoming mail part from the PST file? My understanding of the working of pst files isn't that advanced, because I always worked (and will try to whenever I get the chance) to work with Thundebird

[JPCompHelp]

Outlook stores messages and such in .pst files, yes. Reinstalling is a standard thing to try when problems of otherwise unexplainable nature occur. If you do that we will be sure that it's a problem of the configuration or data files and not the software itself.

Have you tried using a different email client?

[DvdB]

I have tried a different email client (thunderbird in this case). It doesn't look for any new mail except the one it should have.

Re-installing it could be an option and I think i'll give it a try later this week. Unless someone has a better idea that is.

btw...thanks for your quick replies

[DvdB]

well...I finally got the chance to reinstall Outlook. It didn't work. So the incoming mail is indeed stored in the .pst file. Now what...any ideas anyone?

[EAFiedler]

Hi DvdB

Create a new Personal Folders (.pst file) and make it the new Default Delivery Location.
Or create a new profile for Outlook:
How to create a new e-mail profile in Outlook 2007 and in Outlook 2003

Unless you are reformatting and losing all the Registry entries for Outlook, reinstalling Outlook usually does not fix problems with Outlook.

This was a message that was received, not sent?

[DvdB]

Well, come to think of it, it might be either of them. The person in question that did sent OR receive the email doesn't know for sure now either. Which leaves me puzzled too. But is there are a way to maybe edit the pst file and just throw the garbage out? And if I create a new profile, wouldn't I lose the data, mails and addresses? Or is this the point. That I might import the mails and other stuff from the old pst later on?

[EAFiedler]

If the message was being sent, it may be stuck in the Outbox folder, the message may be too large for mail server to allow.

If that is the case, place Outlook in Work Offline mode:
File > Work Offline
Close Outlook 2007, wait a minute, start Outlook 2007 and attempt to delete the message the message in the Outbox.

If the above fails, close Outlook (still in Work Offline mode) restart the computer, start Outlook and try to delete the message again.

The above method would not require a new profile.


Creating a new profile, in Outlook, does not lose messages since they are contained in the .pst files and .pst files can be connected to several profiles in Outlook.
There is no need at this point to delete the profile in question, that can be done later.

[DvdB]

Well...that didn't work either I have the feeling I might be running out of options now

[EAFiedler]

Can you clarify? What didn't work?
Is there a message in the Outbox folder? If so, were you unable to delete the message?

Did you create a fresh new profile, or did you only create a new .pst file?
If you created a new .pst file, did you configure it to be the new Default Delivery Location?

[DvdB]

I only tried the offline method. There was no message there. I rebooted in offline modus, but that didn't work either. I already created a fresh new profile. No troubles there. But when I load the pst files, the problem returns. The pst files are rather big (900mb for outlook.pst and 500mb for archive), so maybe there lies the (or just a) problem? Or should I just start with a fresh pst file and import parts of it one by one?

[DvdB]

deleting the profile didn't work either. Looks to me that the installation of the entire laptop might have gone separate ways with its sanity...maybe a new installation is needed. It's really crappy, slow and with way to many programs...and a history of many MANY accounts, domains and workgroups.

[EAFiedler]

Reinstalling would certainly help remove all the extra Registry entries for the domains and workgroups. If you do that, you can save the .pst files and Import them into the new profile, Outlook will create, once it has been reinstalled and started.


If you have not tried Importing the Personal Folders (.pst file) into a new Personal Folders (.pst file), you might try that first.

Be sure to make the new Personal Folders (.pst file) the new Default Delivery Location, in Outlook 2007, restart Outlook 2007 for the changes to take effect.
Then Import the original Personal Folders into the new Personal Folders.


The size of the .pst files do not sound out of line for Outlook 2007.



Let us know what you decide.

[DvdB]

Today we went to new user accounts and names. I just imported the old .pst files so the work itself could go on without much more trouble, but the issue itself isn't really solved. Thanks anyway for the great replies and the additional insight in outlook.