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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 |
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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 |
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