OLK temp folder

[Christine]

Outlook 2003, XP SP2: Does anyone know how long a file will stay in the OLK
folder? The only info I could find was on a 4/1/2005 post that asked: "Can
I expect to recover a temporary file for an edited attachment?" Answer: "If
the modified attachment is still there. Usually it gets deleted." (Brian
Tillman).

I'm teaching a class about editing Outlook attachments and saving them to a
safe place on the network. While I want to show people how to access the OLK
folder, I want to discourage them from directly editing Outlook attachments
by emphasizing the temporary nature of this folder. I just don't know how
temporary it is. For example, will the edited attachment get deleted when
Outlook gets shutdown? When they exit XP? When they shutdown their PC?

 

[Lester Bennett]

I'm having trouble with OLK folders and have been doing quite a bit of
research on the subject.
From what I have found, in theory if you start a computer and went to the
OLK without opening Outlook the folder should be empty.
If you then open Outlook then open a message with imbedded images or an
attachment which you then open the temporary files will be created in the
OLK folder so they can be displayed or opened. When you close the attachment
then close the associated email, the temporary files should be deleted. If
you close the email before closing the attachment the link to the temporary
file is lost and the temporary file is not deleted.

My problem is that my client is sending and receiving email in html format
with embeded graphics but no attachments. After a while the embeded graphics
are no longer displayed. If I then exit Outlook and delete the contents of
the OLK folder then reopen Outlook the graphics are once again displayed. I
can't find whether there is a limit on the number of files or the total size
of the files in the folder. Im pretty sure there is no time based cleanup of
the files.

Regards,
Lester Bennett

 

[Brian Tillman]

I'm having trouble with OLK folders and have been doing quite a bit of
research on the subject.
From what I have found, in theory if you start a computer and went to
the OLK without opening Outlook the folder should be empty.
If you then open Outlook then open a message with imbedded images or
an attachment which you then open the temporary files will be created
in the OLK folder so they can be displayed or opened. When you close
the attachment then close the associated email, the temporary files
should be deleted.

That's the theory.

If you close the email before closing the
attachment the link to the temporary file is lost and the temporary
file is not deleted.

Could be. I've not spent a lot of time testing this.

My problem is that my client is sending and receiving email in html
format with embeded graphics but no attachments. After a while the
embeded graphics are no longer displayed. If I then exit Outlook and
delete the contents of the OLK folder then reopen Outlook the
graphics are once again displayed. I can't find whether there is a
limit on the number of files or the total size of the files in the
folder. Im pretty sure there is no time based cleanup of the files.

I believe there is a Windows limit of 100 copies of the same file name in a
folder. The file names get (1), (2), ...(99) appended to them. When this
reaches 99, no more files of that name can be created. There is, as you
say, no time-based cleanup of the files, but you could make one. You could
schedule a batch job to run periodically and have that job delete the
contents of the OLK file.