How do I remove .pst links for deleted files in Navigation pane?

[GaryRFr]

After I installed Office Professional 2003 and imported my old .pst file on
my new computer, three "Personal Folders" links appeared in the Navigation
pane. All three pointed to the same files and changes in one applied to all
three. I was unable to close any of them. I created a new .pst file,
renamed it, copied all of my files from the old .pst folder into it, and
made it my 'default' .pst file. I then deleted the old one.

Now in the Navigation pane, I see my 'new' .pst folder with the new name.
But below that, I still see two links that say "Personal Folders". When I
left-click on either of these I see an error message that says, "Unable to
expand folder. The set of folders could not be opened." (I didn't expect it
to open since I had already deleted it!) When I right-click on either of
them, and then click on close "Personal Folders", I see an error message that
says, "The operation failed. An object could not be found."

Can anyone tell me a way to change the Navigation pane so that these links
to nonexistant "Personal Folders" can be removed?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Importing is never the correct way to transfer Outlook data.
It is your profile that you corrupted, not your PST file.
You should create a new profile. Creating a new PST file would solve
nothing.

 

[GaryRFr]

As I wrote before, since the original .pst file was corrupted, I created a
new one with a different name, copied my folders into it and then deleted the
original completely (or so I thought). After doing that, the new folder
works fine, but I was left with two links called "Personal Folders" in the
Navigation Pane that I cannot eliminate.

Last night, I copied the .pst file to another folder for safekeeping and
then just created a new, empty .pst file. The result was that I was back to
having "Personal Folders" links show up 3 times in the Navigation pane. The
difference from the first installation was that this time, only the new link
at the top contained any files. That still left the 2 links that cannot be
opened, closed, or eliminated.

Since that didn't solve the problem, I got rid of the new "Personal Folders"
that I had just created and put the .pst folder back with all of my messages
and info in it. I have tried "Detect and Repair" and I have tried running
"scanpst.exe", but neither of those made any difference either.
Gary Rowland

Importing is never the correct way to transfer Outlook data.
It is your profile that you corrupted, not your PST file.
You should create a new profile. Creating a new PST file would solve
nothing.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

After I installed Office Professional 2003 and imported my old .pst file
on
my new computer, three "Personal Folders" links appeared in the Navigation
pane. All three pointed to the same files and changes in one applied to
all
three. I was unable to close any of them. I created a new .pst file,
renamed it, copied all of my files from the old .pst folder into it, and
made it my 'default' .pst file. I then deleted the old one.

Now in the Navigation pane, I see my 'new' .pst folder with the new name.
But below that, I still see two links that say "Personal Folders". When
I
left-click on either of these I see an error message that says, "Unable to
expand folder. The set of folders could not be opened." (I didn't expect
it
to open since I had already deleted it!) When I right-click on either of
them, and then click on close "Personal Folders", I see an error message
that
says, "The operation failed. An object could not be found."

Can anyone tell me a way to change the Navigation pane so that these links
to nonexistant "Personal Folders" can be removed?

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

So, have you tried creating a new mail profile, as suggested by Russ?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, GaryRFr asked:

| As I wrote before, since the original .pst file was corrupted, I
| created a new one with a different name, copied my folders into it
| and then deleted the original completely (or so I thought). After
| doing that, the new folder works fine, but I was left with two links
| called "Personal Folders" in the Navigation Pane that I cannot
| eliminate.
|
| Last night, I copied the .pst file to another folder for safekeeping
| and then just created a new, empty .pst file. The result was that I
| was back to having "Personal Folders" links show up 3 times in the
| Navigation pane. The difference from the first installation was that
| this time, only the new link at the top contained any files. That
| still left the 2 links that cannot be opened, closed, or eliminated.
|
| Since that didn't solve the problem, I got rid of the new "Personal
| Folders" that I had just created and put the .pst folder back with
| all of my messages and info in it. I have tried "Detect and Repair"
| and I have tried running "scanpst.exe", but neither of those made any
| difference either.
| Gary Rowland
|
| "Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:
|
|| Importing is never the correct way to transfer Outlook data.
|| It is your profile that you corrupted, not your PST file.
|| You should create a new profile. Creating a new PST file would solve
|| nothing.
|| --
|| Russ Valentine
|| [MVP-Outlook]
|| ||| After I installed Office Professional 2003 and imported my old .pst
||| file on
||| my new computer, three "Personal Folders" links appeared in the
||| Navigation pane. All three pointed to the same files and changes
||| in one applied to all
||| three. I was unable to close any of them. I created a new .pst
||| file, renamed it, copied all of my files from the old .pst folder
||| into it, and made it my 'default' .pst file. I then deleted the
||| old one.
|||
||| Now in the Navigation pane, I see my 'new' .pst folder with the new
||| name. But below that, I still see two links that say "Personal
||| Folders". When I
||| left-click on either of these I see an error message that says,
||| "Unable to expand folder. The set of folders could not be opened."
||| (I didn't expect it
||| to open since I had already deleted it!) When I right-click on
||| either of them, and then click on close "Personal Folders", I see
||| an error message that
||| says, "The operation failed. An object could not be found."
|||
||| Can anyone tell me a way to change the Navigation pane so that
||| these links to nonexistant "Personal Folders" can be removed?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Why don't you try what I posted instead? It works.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

As I wrote before, since the original .pst file was corrupted, I created a
new one with a different name, copied my folders into it and then deleted
the
original completely (or so I thought). After doing that, the new folder
works fine, but I was left with two links called "Personal Folders" in the
Navigation Pane that I cannot eliminate.

Last night, I copied the .pst file to another folder for safekeeping and
then just created a new, empty .pst file. The result was that I was back
to
having "Personal Folders" links show up 3 times in the Navigation pane.
The
difference from the first installation was that this time, only the new
link
at the top contained any files. That still left the 2 links that cannot
be
opened, closed, or eliminated.

Since that didn't solve the problem, I got rid of the new "Personal
Folders"
that I had just created and put the .pst folder back with all of my
messages
and info in it. I have tried "Detect and Repair" and I have tried running
"scanpst.exe", but neither of those made any difference either.
Gary Rowland

Importing is never the correct way to transfer Outlook data.
It is your profile that you corrupted, not your PST file.
You should create a new profile. Creating a new PST file would solve
nothing.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

After I installed Office Professional 2003 and imported my old .pst
file
on
my new computer, three "Personal Folders" links appeared in the
Navigation
pane. All three pointed to the same files and changes in one applied
to
all
three. I was unable to close any of them. I created a new .pst file,
renamed it, copied all of my files from the old .pst folder into it,
and
made it my 'default' .pst file. I then deleted the old one.

Now in the Navigation pane, I see my 'new' .pst folder with the new
name.
But below that, I still see two links that say "Personal Folders".
When
I
left-click on either of these I see an error message that says, "Unable
to
expand folder. The set of folders could not be opened." (I didn't
expect
it
to open since I had already deleted it!) When I right-click on either
of
them, and then click on close "Personal Folders", I see an error
message
that
says, "The operation failed. An object could not be found."

Can anyone tell me a way to change the Navigation pane so that these
links
to nonexistant "Personal Folders" can be removed?

 

[GaryRFr]

Long Story short, it seems to have worked. I renamed my .pst file, deleted
my old profile and created a new profile with a blank .pst file. I did not
want to have to deal with two folders in Outlook, so I then opened my old
..pst file, and copied each folder into the blank "Personal Folders". The
only way that I could figure out to move my Contacts, Calender, Tasks and
Notes from the old to the new was to export them from my old personal folder
and then import them into the blank personal folder. Then, I closed the old
folder. So far so good. Thanks for the help.

Gary Rowland

So, have you tried creating a new mail profile, as suggested by Russ?

--Â
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, GaryRFr asked:

| As I wrote before, since the original .pst file was corrupted, I
| created a new one with a different name, copied my folders into it
| and then deleted the original completely (or so I thought). After
| doing that, the new folder works fine, but I was left with two links
| called "Personal Folders" in the Navigation Pane that I cannot
| eliminate.
|
| Last night, I copied the .pst file to another folder for safekeeping
| and then just created a new, empty .pst file. The result was that I
| was back to having "Personal Folders" links show up 3 times in the
| Navigation pane. The difference from the first installation was that
| this time, only the new link at the top contained any files. That
| still left the 2 links that cannot be opened, closed, or eliminated.
|
| Since that didn't solve the problem, I got rid of the new "Personal
| Folders" that I had just created and put the .pst folder back with
| all of my messages and info in it. I have tried "Detect and Repair"
| and I have tried running "scanpst.exe", but neither of those made any
| difference either.
| Gary Rowland
|
| "Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:
|
|| Importing is never the correct way to transfer Outlook data.
|| It is your profile that you corrupted, not your PST file.
|| You should create a new profile. Creating a new PST file would solve
|| nothing.
|| --
|| Russ Valentine
|| [MVP-Outlook]
|| ||| After I installed Office Professional 2003 and imported my old .pst
||| file on
||| my new computer, three "Personal Folders" links appeared in the
||| Navigation pane. All three pointed to the same files and changes
||| in one applied to all
||| three. I was unable to close any of them. I created a new .pst
||| file, renamed it, copied all of my files from the old .pst folder
||| into it, and made it my 'default' .pst file. I then deleted the
||| old one.
|||
||| Now in the Navigation pane, I see my 'new' .pst folder with the new
||| name. But below that, I still see two links that say "Personal
||| Folders". When I
||| left-click on either of these I see an error message that says,
||| "Unable to expand folder. The set of folders could not be opened."
||| (I didn't expect it
||| to open since I had already deleted it!) When I right-click on
||| either of them, and then click on close "Personal Folders", I see
||| an error message that
||| says, "The operation failed. An object could not be found."
|||
||| Can anyone tell me a way to change the Navigation pane so that
||| these links to nonexistant "Personal Folders" can be removed?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

That works. Another even easier way to get the job done would be simply to
designate your old PST file as the default after you open it in the new
profile, then close the new one. You won't get dupes that way, and it saves
all that copying.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Long Story short, it seems to have worked. I renamed my .pst file,
deleted
my old profile and created a new profile with a blank .pst file. I did
not
want to have to deal with two folders in Outlook, so I then opened my old
.pst file, and copied each folder into the blank "Personal Folders". The
only way that I could figure out to move my Contacts, Calender, Tasks and
Notes from the old to the new was to export them from my old personal
folder
and then import them into the blank personal folder. Then, I closed the
old
folder. So far so good. Thanks for the help.

Gary Rowland

So, have you tried creating a new mail profile, as suggested by Russ?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, GaryRFr asked:

| As I wrote before, since the original .pst file was corrupted, I
| created a new one with a different name, copied my folders into it
| and then deleted the original completely (or so I thought). After
| doing that, the new folder works fine, but I was left with two links
| called "Personal Folders" in the Navigation Pane that I cannot
| eliminate.
|
| Last night, I copied the .pst file to another folder for safekeeping
| and then just created a new, empty .pst file. The result was that I
| was back to having "Personal Folders" links show up 3 times in the
| Navigation pane. The difference from the first installation was that
| this time, only the new link at the top contained any files. That
| still left the 2 links that cannot be opened, closed, or eliminated.
|
| Since that didn't solve the problem, I got rid of the new "Personal
| Folders" that I had just created and put the .pst folder back with
| all of my messages and info in it. I have tried "Detect and Repair"
| and I have tried running "scanpst.exe", but neither of those made any
| difference either.
| Gary Rowland
|
| "Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:
|
|| Importing is never the correct way to transfer Outlook data.
|| It is your profile that you corrupted, not your PST file.
|| You should create a new profile. Creating a new PST file would solve
|| nothing.
|| --
|| Russ Valentine
|| [MVP-Outlook]
|| ||| After I installed Office Professional 2003 and imported my old .pst
||| file on
||| my new computer, three "Personal Folders" links appeared in the
||| Navigation pane. All three pointed to the same files and changes
||| in one applied to all
||| three. I was unable to close any of them. I created a new .pst
||| file, renamed it, copied all of my files from the old .pst folder
||| into it, and made it my 'default' .pst file. I then deleted the
||| old one.
|||
||| Now in the Navigation pane, I see my 'new' .pst folder with the new
||| name. But below that, I still see two links that say "Personal
||| Folders". When I
||| left-click on either of these I see an error message that says,
||| "Unable to expand folder. The set of folders could not be opened."
||| (I didn't expect it
||| to open since I had already deleted it!) When I right-click on
||| either of them, and then click on close "Personal Folders", I see
||| an error message that
||| says, "The operation failed. An object could not be found."
|||
||| Can anyone tell me a way to change the Navigation pane so that
||| these links to nonexistant "Personal Folders" can be removed?

 

[Brian Tillman]

As I wrote before, since the original .pst file was corrupted, I
created a new one with a different name, copied my folders into it
and then deleted the original completely (or so I thought).

By deleting the PST without first removing it from the mail profile
(right-click>Close) in Outlook you didn't let Outlook know that the file no
longer exists, so it continues to show the pointer to it. It's like putting
something on a shelf, writing a note to yourself that you stored something
there, tacking that note to the bulletin board and, sometime later, removing
the original object from the shelf without removing the note from the
bulletin board telling you to look on the shelf. This often takes a new
mail profile to fix. You can sometimes fix it by removing from the register
the settings still pointing to the deleted file, but it's not nearly as
easy.