Archiving not working properly.

[Guest]

New to this Outlook stuff so be gentle...

Partner has Outlook 2000 a/c which is getting slow and beginning to lock up,
presumably through a lack of attention to archiving.

I understood that the main pst could be up to 2gig in this version but am
not sure if, when the user also has the archive folders showing in the
folder list, the size of the archive pst has to be included in an overall
2gig 'working margin'.

I ask this, because when I tried to 'shave the inbox' a year at a time say,
I found that the archive.pst only filled up to 738695, and then seemed to
stick even when further archiving was selected.

I can drag and drop files into the archive folders to increase this number,
but the automatic functions don't seem to do it. I have tried this even
with the 'ignore do not archive' box ticked (even though I have no idea
where 'do not archive' flags are kept!) but this does not get the stubborn
files moving on their own.

It seems more than coincidental that the OutlookPersonal pst at 1258889, and
the archive pst stuck at 738695, between them come nearly to the magic 2gig.

So, is the archiving capability 'broken' and if so, how to fix?

Or: does one have to archive 'blind' with the archive.pst closed (or at
least, not shown in the folder tree). If so, how does one monitor whether
it has enough room to take further archiving and still be openable by
Outlook. I appreciate that an upgrade to a later version would get around
the problem for now, but I suspect that this would just lead to a much
bigger 20gig seize up before said partner gets around to archiving properly!

Thanks in advance,

S

 

[DL]

Ol2k pst files can show problems from 1.6gb
The size is for individual pst's not combined total
The Archive function works on the modified date, nor received/sent dates
Locate and run scanpste.exe, the repair tool on the pst's

An upgrade will not 'convert' a pst to the new format, a new unicode format
pst has to be explicitly created.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the tip,

Is the repair tool reliable?

What exactly counts as a modification: some of the files that don't move are
more than 4 years old, and the only process I should think is ever done on
them is filtering by sender?

Cheers,

S

 

[DL]

The repair tool creates a backup, if it finds anything to repair

 

[Guest]

Cheers,

S

The repair tool creates a backup, if it finds anything to repair

 

[Guest]

I've now run scanpst on both the archive and main outlook files. No faults
were found with the former, and only minor errors were found with the
latter. I took the opportunity of backing up and 'repairing' the latter,
though it only said this was optional.

Archiving still does not transfer files to the archive folder.

Any more ideas?

What does the archiving dialogue mean by "delete expired items (e-mail
folders only)"? I have not had this option ticked as I have no idea what
'expired items' might be, and would not want anything to be permanently
deleted by an automatic process.

Thanks very much for your help.

S

 

[Brian Tillman]

I've now run scanpst on both the archive and main outlook files. No
faults were found with the former, and only minor errors were found
with the latter. I took the opportunity of backing up and 'repairing'
the latter, though it only said this was optional.

Archiving still does not transfer files to the archive folder.

Examine the Modified date for your items and make sure that date is older
than your archive date. As DL said, Outlook works on the modified date and
that is nearly always the reason why archiving appears to fail.

What does the archiving dialogue mean by "delete expired items (e-mail
folders only)"?

You can mark items as expired and autoarchive will delete those messages the
next time it runs. If you have not marked anything as expired, then that
option will do nothing. Uncheck it if you wish.

 

[Guest]

Examine the Modified date for your items and make sure that date is older
than your archive date. As DL said, Outlook works on the modified date
and that is nearly always the reason why archiving appears to fail.


You can mark items as expired and autoarchive will delete those messages
the next time it runs. If you have not marked anything as expired, then
that option will do nothing. Uncheck it if you wish.

Thanks for this Brian, but I do not see anywhere where one can inspect for
any 'modified date'. Individual emls in inbox view, do not seem to have any
properties sheets on right click, and there is no such option for individual
eml files under the 'File' menu. There is no 'modified date' column
available in the 'columns' either. This is as I would expect, because one
should not normally be able to change an email, other than in a forward or
reply, or e-mail would be useless as 'proof' or 'evidence'.

I can 'create' a properties sheet, by dragging an email to the desktop
before right clicking, but presumably, that action then becomes the modified
date and screws up my archiving even more...

Please explain this 'modified date' business?

Regards,

S

 

[DarkSentinel]

Thanks for this Brian, but I do not see anywhere where one can inspect for
any 'modified date'. Individual emls in inbox view, do not seem to have
any properties sheets on right click, and there is no such option for
individual eml files under the 'File' menu. There is no 'modified date'
column available in the 'columns' either. This is as I would expect,
because one should not normally be able to change an email, other than in
a forward or reply, or e-mail would be useless as 'proof' or 'evidence'.

I can 'create' a properties sheet, by dragging an email to the desktop
before right clicking, but presumably, that action then becomes the
modified date and screws up my archiving even more...

Please explain this 'modified date' business?

Having read back, although I MAY have missed it, I didn't see anywhere you
set the archive properties on the folders. How you do this is...

Right click on the folder you want archived. Click on properties, then
select the AutoArchive tab. Select whatever parameters you wish to use.
Click Ok.

Assuming you have your autoarchive settings in place, once you have that
done, the next time you have set for your autoarchive to run, those folder
parameters will be followed. You can also do it manually from menu as well.
HTH.

 

[Guest]

Having read back, although I MAY have missed it, I didn't see anywhere you
set the archive properties on the folders. How you do this is...

Right click on the folder you want archived. Click on properties, then
select the AutoArchive tab. Select whatever parameters you wish to use.
Click Ok.

Assuming you have your autoarchive settings in place, once you have that
done, the next time you have set for your autoarchive to run, those folder
parameters will be followed. You can also do it manually from menu as
well. HTH.

Thanks for the thoughts DS, but I did try this, both manually and
automagically.

Cheers,
S

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks for this Brian, but I do not see anywhere where one can
inspect for any 'modified date'.

You can open the message, then click File>Properties to see the modified
date for a particular message or you can use Field Chooser to add the
Modified field to the header line.

 

[Guest]

You can open the message, then click File>Properties to see the modified
date for a particular message or you can use Field Chooser to add the
Modified field to the header line.

Aha,
Found it: I was looking under the View / Columns, menu, rather than just
right clicking on the column headers so did not see all the extras. Will
have another go when the user stops using her inbox for a while!

Cheers for your patience,

S

 

[Guest]

Aha,
Found it: I was looking under the View / Columns, menu, rather than just
right clicking on the column headers so did not see all the extras. Will
have another go when the user stops using her inbox for a while!

Cheers for your patience,

S

OK, so I now have my modified column, and find that a whole tranche of the
mail was modified all at once on one date. What causes this? Clearly
something that needs to be avoided in future!

I suppose there is no way to change the field that archiving works on ?

Many thanks,

S

 

[Brian Tillman]

OK, so I now have my modified column, and find that a whole tranche
of the mail was modified all at once on one date. What causes this?
Clearly something that needs to be avoided in future!

Importing is one way. There are other operations that will change that date
as well, and the Microsoft Knowledgebase contains an article on it.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295657/en-us

I suppose there is no way to change the field that archiving works on ?

Nope.

 

[Guest]

Importing is one way. There are other operations that will change that
date as well, and the Microsoft Knowledgebase contains an article on it.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295657/en-us


Nope.

Thanks Brian,

You have been very helpful, and I have now filed the old mail into a series
of new 'ArchiveDate'.psts.
Would I be right in assuming that if, at the end of the year, I rename the
active archive folder (Archive.pst), Outlook will simply create a new one
ready for next year?

Cheers,

S

 

[Brian Tillman]

Would I be right in assuming that if, at the end of the year, I
rename the active archive folder (Archive.pst), Outlook will simply
create a new one ready for next year?

Provided you are not showing the archive PST in the folder list, that should
work.

 

[Guest]

Provided you are not showing the archive PST in the folder list, that
should work.

Thanks very much Brian.

Cheers for sticking with me.

All running smoothly now.

S