Outlook 2003: Contacts Activities tab say "cannot display view this view" caused by corrupt .ost

In Win XP Tablet with all updates (including sp2), in my Outlook 2003
with all latest updates (including sp1), when opening a contact and
then clicking on the Activities tab I suddenly got the popup which
said "Outlook cannot display this view. A folder by this name already
exists."

I had never seen this error before, and had been using this Outlook
2003 installation for months. Moreover, I had clicked on an
Activities of another contact just minutes earlier, working fine, and
hadn't restarted. I have no idea what caused the error -- wasn't
doing anything unusual. But now I was getting this error, and on
every contact I tried.

Tragically, I found no references to this error on www.Microsoft.com
nor any Google web page, however I found several in Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Ou...n&lr=&filter=0

Unfortunately, most were responded by Sue Mosher saying to right-click
on the Contacts folder-Properties-Activities then verify the the
default folder group had all existing folders (none deleted) or just
select or create a new one. This sounded like a reasonable fix, but
just like the case of
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...0a%2540phx.gbl
it didn't fix it. In that case, the user had to restore from an
earlier version of a *.pst -- yuck.

Trying to avoid that, I tried to follow the suggestion of
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...TNGP11.phx.gbl
and others to use ScanPST or similar to repair the file, but it seems
ScanPST has been removed from Outlook 2003 (perhaps too soon, for this
case?).

I also tried the suggestion of
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...540tkmsftngp03
and started Outlook with the command option "/cleanviews" -- that not
only reset my views to their default, but it erased the custom
contacts view I had created (probably erases all custom views, not
only doesn't just avoid them). And it didn't fix nor affect the
problem at all. I recommend avoiding this option.

Finally, I bit the bullet and tried restoring the data file. And this
worked. Fortunately I was an .ost (Exchange server cache file), and I
noticed that Outlook reported "All folders up to date", so I just
exited Outlook and did Control Panel-Mail-Show Profiles... then
selected my profile I was using, then did Email Accounts-View or
Change Existing Email Accounts - Microsoft Exchange Server - More
Settings - Advanced, and the unchecked "Used Cached Exchange Mode"
and also clicked "Offline Folder File Settings..." and copied the path
to the .ost file and then pressed cancel to get back to the Advanced
setting I just changed and then "Okay"'d everything else to save it.
Then I went out and deleted this .ost file (in a way it could be
restored just in case). Launching Outlook and logging into the
server, the "Activities" tab worked fine, suggesting that fortunately
whatever corruption had occurred was only in the .ost . I then quit
Outlook and went back to the Advanced setting from before and enabled
caching again, and since I had deleted the .ost, when I launched
Outlook again and logged in, it rebuilt the .ost file and everything
worked fine again (Warning: if the .ost file is several 100MBs, only
do this rebuild of the .ost on a fast, reliable network connection to
the server, at least say 1Mbps download).

Since my Folders where in sync, I didn't loose a thing (except my
custom view from trying /clearviews which wasn't needed) and it was
fairly quick (because, even though the .ost was 224MB, I had a 1.5Mbps
connection to the Exchange Server). Had the folders not been
up-to-date, I hope syncing (F9) wouldn't have caused the corruption to
propagate to the server -- probably not I would guess.

Hope this helps for others who have this issue. Seems like the .ost
file (and .pst) still gets corrupt.

-Mike Parker, www.Cytex.com

Did you ever try just creating a new profile?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Michael B. Parker" wrote in message
om...
In Win XP Tablet with all updates (including sp2), in my Outlook 2003
with all latest updates (including sp1), when opening a contact and
then clicking on the Activities tab I suddenly got the popup which
said "Outlook cannot display this view. A folder by this name already
exists."

I had never seen this error before, and had been using this Outlook
2003 installation for months. Moreover, I had clicked on an
Activities of another contact just minutes earlier, working fine, and
hadn't restarted. I have no idea what caused the error -- wasn't
doing anything unusual. But now I was getting this error, and on
every contact I tried.

Tragically, I found no references to this error on www.Microsoft.com
nor any Google web page, however I found several in Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Ou...n&lr=&filter=0

Unfortunately, most were responded by Sue Mosher saying to right-click
on the Contacts folder-Properties-Activities then verify the the
default folder group had all existing folders (none deleted) or just
select or create a new one. This sounded like a reasonable fix, but
just like the case of
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...0a%2540phx.gbl
it didn't fix it. In that case, the user had to restore from an
earlier version of a *.pst -- yuck.

Trying to avoid that, I tried to follow the suggestion of
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...TNGP11.phx.gbl
and others to use ScanPST or similar to repair the file, but it seems
ScanPST has been removed from Outlook 2003 (perhaps too soon, for this
case?).

I also tried the suggestion of
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...540tkmsftngp03
and started Outlook with the command option "/cleanviews" -- that not
only reset my views to their default, but it erased the custom
contacts view I had created (probably erases all custom views, not
only doesn't just avoid them). And it didn't fix nor affect the
problem at all. I recommend avoiding this option.

Finally, I bit the bullet and tried restoring the data file. And this
worked. Fortunately I was an .ost (Exchange server cache file), and I
noticed that Outlook reported "All folders up to date", so I just
exited Outlook and did Control Panel-Mail-Show Profiles... then
selected my profile I was using, then did Email Accounts-View or
Change Existing Email Accounts - Microsoft Exchange Server - More
Settings - Advanced, and the unchecked "Used Cached Exchange Mode"
and also clicked "Offline Folder File Settings..." and copied the path
to the .ost file and then pressed cancel to get back to the Advanced
setting I just changed and then "Okay"'d everything else to save it.
Then I went out and deleted this .ost file (in a way it could be
restored just in case). Launching Outlook and logging into the
server, the "Activities" tab worked fine, suggesting that fortunately
whatever corruption had occurred was only in the .ost . I then quit
Outlook and went back to the Advanced setting from before and enabled
caching again, and since I had deleted the .ost, when I launched
Outlook again and logged in, it rebuilt the .ost file and everything
worked fine again (Warning: if the .ost file is several 100MBs, only
do this rebuild of the .ost on a fast, reliable network connection to
the server, at least say 1Mbps download).

Since my Folders where in sync, I didn't loose a thing (except my
custom view from trying /clearviews which wasn't needed) and it was
fairly quick (because, even though the .ost was 224MB, I had a 1.5Mbps
connection to the Exchange Server). Had the folders not been
up-to-date, I hope syncing (F9) wouldn't have caused the corruption to
propagate to the server -- probably not I would guess.

Hope this helps for others who have this issue. Seems like the .ost
file (and .pst) still gets corrupt.

-Mike Parker, www.Cytex.com