Outlook 2003 not retaining dictionary and message rules settings

  • Thread starter Thread starter Martin Underwood
  • Start date Start date
M

Martin Underwood

A customer is reporting that a new installation of Outlook 2003, using a PST
file that I copied across from his old computer, is not retaining dictionary
and message rules settings.

I introduced the saved PST by copying it in place of the blank one that
Outlook created when I first ran it; I found that importing using File |
Import resulted in duplicate Contacts entries and a duplicate Personal
Folders tree structure. When I raised that issue in another newsgroup a few
days ago, the advice was to use the saved PST in place of the blank one; is
this the best way to migrate Outlook saved mail and contacts from one PC to
another: to copy the saved PST file from the old PC over the top of the
blank one on the new PC, assuming that both PCs use the same version of
Outlook?

Apparently the menus allow him to change the dictionary from US to UK
English and he can define message rules (eg "move all messages from X into
mailbox Y") but these settings are not retained. I'm not sure whether they
are lost when Outlook is stopped and restarted (without rebooting the PC) or
whether it happens at reboot. Also, the option to add words to a custom
dictionary is disabled.

The user is an administrator rather then a restricted user. The OS is
Windows XP Home SP2.

I've not seen the symptoms with my own eyes yet, but I want to gather some
suggestions for fixing the problem before I go to investigate.
 
Martin Underwood wrote in message
[email protected]:
A customer is reporting that a new installation of Outlook 2003,
using a PST file that I copied across from his old computer, is not
retaining dictionary and message rules settings.

I introduced the saved PST by copying it in place of the blank one
that Outlook created when I first ran it; I found that importing
using File | Import resulted in duplicate Contacts entries and a
duplicate Personal Folders tree structure. When I raised that issue
in another newsgroup a few days ago, the advice was to use the saved
PST in place of the blank one; is this the best way to migrate
Outlook saved mail and contacts from one PC to another: to copy the
saved PST file from the old PC over the top of the blank one on the
new PC, assuming that both PCs use the same version of Outlook?

Apparently the menus allow him to change the dictionary from US to UK
English and he can define message rules (eg "move all messages from X
into mailbox Y") but these settings are not retained. I'm not sure
whether they are lost when Outlook is stopped and restarted (without
rebooting the PC) or whether it happens at reboot. Also, the option
to add words to a custom dictionary is disabled.

The user is an administrator rather then a restricted user. The OS is
Windows XP Home SP2.

I've not seen the symptoms with my own eyes yet, but I want to gather
some suggestions for fixing the problem before I go to investigate.
Click to expand...

Anyone got any ideas on this? This *is* the right group to ask this
question, isn't it? If not, where do I look? As so often, the information
may be available in a Knowledgebase Entry - if only I could think of a
suitable phrase to search on which would return the answer without going to
either extreme of no matches or 1001 matches!
 
Martin Underwood said:
A customer is reporting that a new installation of Outlook 2003,
using a PST file that I copied across from his old computer, is not
retaining dictionary and message rules settings.

I introduced the saved PST by copying it in place of the blank one
that Outlook created when I first ran it;
Click to expand...


And thereby damaged the mail profile. Never overwrite or replace an
existing PST that is active in a mail profile.
I found that importing
using File | Import resulted in duplicate Contacts entries and a
duplicate Personal Folders tree structure.
Click to expand...

Never export to or import from a PST. There is no need and in some cases
you can damage the mail profile, as you have discovered.
When I raised that issue
in another newsgroup a few days ago, the advice was to use the saved
PST in place of the blank one; is this the best way to migrate
Outlook saved mail and contacts from one PC to another: to copy the
saved PST file from the old PC over the top of the blank one on the
new PC, assuming that both PCs use the same version of Outlook?
Click to expand...

Never do this. Instead, place the PST you want Outlook to use in any
folder, but with a different name than any existing PST in that folder, then
use Control Panel's Mail applet to modify the mail profile to use the new
PST instead of the existing PST.
 
Brian Tillman wrote in message
ORW%[email protected]:
Never do this. Instead, place the PST you want Outlook to use in any
folder, but with a different name than any existing PST in that
folder, then use Control Panel's Mail applet to modify the mail
profile to use the new PST instead of the existing PST.
Click to expand...

So I have to use a tool within Control Panel to modify the configuration of
Outlook? I've have thought it would be done within the File | Data File
Management menu of Outlook: an "add" operation for the new PST file and then
a "delete" operation for the old one.

Is there a way of repairing a corrupted PST file, or will I have to revert
to the saved PST from the other PC (which is a few days old) and then
download the new email again?

In case any recent messages have been deleted from the POP server, and to
preserve any recent sent mail, is there an easy way of saving individual
mail items - eg by dragging/dropping them from Outlook with the current
corrupted PST into a folder in Windows Explorer to create one file per
message, and then reversing the process to add them again to Outlook once
I've changed to use the older uncorrupted PST?
 
Martin Underwood said:
So I have to use a tool within Control Panel to modify the
configuration of Outlook? I've have thought it would be done within
the File | Data File Management menu of Outlook: an "add" operation
for the new PST file and then a "delete" operation for the old one.
Click to expand...

It's the same thing, actually. I just prefer to have Outlook closed when I
make these changes. Otherwise, you have to stop and restart Outlook at
least once during the process (i.e., when you choose the new delivery
location).
Is there a way of repairing a corrupted PST file, or will I have to
revert to the saved PST from the other PC (which is a few days old)
and then download the new email again?
Click to expand...

Depends on the corruption. However, the original description you gave
doesn't indicate a corrupt PST but a corrupt mail profile.
In case any recent messages have been deleted from the POP server,
and to preserve any recent sent mail, is there an easy way of saving
individual mail items - eg by dragging/dropping them from Outlook
with the current corrupted PST into a folder in Windows Explorer to
create one file per message, and then reversing the process to add
them again to Outlook once I've changed to use the older uncorrupted
PST?
Click to expand...

Sure. You can do that.
 
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