Serious problems with Outlook 2007

[Haidar]

I hope someone has some insight into this..

I recently upgraded from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007. I imported all my
contacts, email, calendars, tasks, etc. from 2003, no problems. I then tried
to import the rules (I have about 250 rules), and for some reason, it did not
recognize rules that referred to contact lists, so I had to re-enter those
(about 30 of them), and it seemed fine.

In Outlook 2003, every time I checked mail, it would zip through them, and
while getting mail, Outlook seemed to run fine, no appreciable slowdown. I
expected the same or better of OUtlook 2007, but have had nothing but
problems since day 1. I was originally on Vista, and thought that my
instability problems were becuase of the new OS. I backtracked to Windows
XP, and same thing...

1. It takes FOREVER to download messages - I get sometimes 500 at a time (I
am on alot of alert lists of very small 500 byte messages). It can take a
second or two to get each message (Outlook 2003 would get 500 messages in 20
or 30 seconds)

2. While downloading messages, Outlook 2007 is unusable. I have to wait
20-30 minutes to get all my messages sometimes, and can't do anything else
while this is happenening since it runs so slowly

3. I have to restart OUtlook 2-3 times per day - it just hangs eventually
and in a couple of cases has crashed the entire OS.

4. Memory usage: Outlook 2003 process used to report about 20Mb, and if it
got close to 100Mb, I knew it was in trouble and may need a restart which was
maybe once week or two. Outlook 2007 process regularly runs at about 200Mb,I
have seen it go up to 450Mb. If I shut down Outlook, it frees up alot more
memory than the process itself was reporting (for example, today, the process
in Task Manager was showing 450Mb of memory usage. Whn I shut it down, I
freed up almost 1.8GB if memory bringing the total memory usage of the pc
from 2.2Gb to 600Mb!! Outlook was using 1.8Gb of RAM even though the process
only showed 450Mb)

5. Every time I exit and restart (whether by killing the process, 'X'ing
out, Or "File|Exit") When Outlook 2007 restarts, it always tells me that the
file was not clsoed properly and is being checked.

6. When I close normally ("File|Exit"), it can take 10-15 minutes for the
OUtlook process to shut down (freeing sometimes up to 1.8Gb of RAM - normally
in the 1Gb range...)

I have no idea what to do at this point - do I need to reinstall again (I've
already tried twice)? Is it possible that Outlook 2007 can't handle a large
number of rules? Did I maybe import something wrong? The problem seems to
be getting worse.

 

[Gordon]

I hope someone has some insight into this..

I recently upgraded from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007. I imported all my
contacts, email, calendars, tasks, etc. from 2003, no problems. I then
tried
to import the rules (I have about 250 rules), and for some reason, it did
not
recognize rules that referred to contact lists, so I had to re-enter those
(about 30 of them), and it seemed fine.

If you did an in-place upgrade on the same machine, you shouldn't have
needed to do any importing of anything!

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

Have you already installed the Outlook Performance Update (link below)?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[Haidar]

I upgraded to Vista at that time as well, so I backed everything up and
reinstalled from scratch.

 

[Peter Foldes]

http://slipstick.com/outlook/ol2007/slow.htm

 

[Haidar]

Thank you Patrick,

That helped. It downloaded 100 messages much faster than normal, and I was
able to do other things in Outlook while that was happeneing.

But, I am still experiencing extremely high memory usage - the Outlook
process, after downloading 100 messages (total of about 112K worth of data -
all small messages), the Outlook process was reporting it was using 212Mb of
RAM - is this normal for Outlook 2007?

Memory usage just seems to climb every time email is received, and is never
released till either Outlook crashes or the entire OS crashes (I'll keep a
close eye on this now that the patch is in, but memory is now over 250Mb - it
climbed again just as I was writing this)

Thanks!

Have you already installed the Outlook Performance Update (link below)?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

I hope someone has some insight into this..

I recently upgraded from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007. I imported all my
contacts, email, calendars, tasks, etc. from 2003, no problems. I then tried
to import the rules (I have about 250 rules), and for some reason, it did not
recognize rules that referred to contact lists, so I had to re-enter those
(about 30 of them), and it seemed fine.

In Outlook 2003, every time I checked mail, it would zip through them, and
while getting mail, Outlook seemed to run fine, no appreciable slowdown. I
expected the same or better of OUtlook 2007, but have had nothing but
problems since day 1. I was originally on Vista, and thought that my
instability problems were becuase of the new OS. I backtracked to Windows
XP, and same thing...

1. It takes FOREVER to download messages - I get sometimes 500 at a time (I
am on alot of alert lists of very small 500 byte messages). It can take a
second or two to get each message (Outlook 2003 would get 500 messages in 20
or 30 seconds)

2. While downloading messages, Outlook 2007 is unusable. I have to wait
20-30 minutes to get all my messages sometimes, and can't do anything else
while this is happenening since it runs so slowly

3. I have to restart OUtlook 2-3 times per day - it just hangs eventually
and in a couple of cases has crashed the entire OS.

4. Memory usage: Outlook 2003 process used to report about 20Mb, and if it
got close to 100Mb, I knew it was in trouble and may need a restart which was
maybe once week or two. Outlook 2007 process regularly runs at about 200Mb,I
have seen it go up to 450Mb. If I shut down Outlook, it frees up alot more
memory than the process itself was reporting (for example, today, the process
in Task Manager was showing 450Mb of memory usage. Whn I shut it down, I
freed up almost 1.8GB if memory bringing the total memory usage of the pc
from 2.2Gb to 600Mb!! Outlook was using 1.8Gb of RAM even though the process
only showed 450Mb)

5. Every time I exit and restart (whether by killing the process, 'X'ing
out, Or "File|Exit") When Outlook 2007 restarts, it always tells me that the
file was not clsoed properly and is being checked.

6. When I close normally ("File|Exit"), it can take 10-15 minutes for the
OUtlook process to shut down (freeing sometimes up to 1.8Gb of RAM - normally
in the 1Gb range...)

I have no idea what to do at this point - do I need to reinstall again (I've
already tried twice)? Is it possible that Outlook 2007 can't handle a large
number of rules? Did I maybe import something wrong? The problem seems to
be getting worse.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I recently upgraded from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007. I imported
all my contacts, email, calendars, tasks, etc. from 2003, no
problems. I then tried to import the rules (I have about 250 rules),
and for some reason, it did not recognize rules that referred to
contact lists, so I had to re-enter those (about 30 of them), and it
seemed fine.

Export and import are never the way to move data from one Outlook instance
to another. It's no wonder you had trouble.

In Outlook 2003, every time I checked mail, it would zip through
them, and while getting mail, Outlook seemed to run fine, no
appreciable slowdown. I expected the same or better of OUtlook 2007,
but have had nothing but problems since day 1. I was originally on
Vista, and thought that my instability problems were becuase of the
new OS. I backtracked to Windows XP, and same thing...

1. It takes FOREVER to download messages - I get sometimes 500 at a
time (I am on alot of alert lists of very small 500 byte messages).
It can take a second or two to get each message (Outlook 2003 would
get 500 messages in 20 or 30 seconds)

I'd start with a new mail profile.
Did you install the Outlook 2007 Performance Update?

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

Don't worry about the memory usage. Outlook grabs as much as it can, but
gives it back once a program requests memory. An easy way to demonstrate
is to minimize every Outlook window (individually, not via the show
desktop approach). Memory usage should drop massively when you do that.
250 is a bit high though. Do you have any add-ins installed that might
not be fully compatible with 2007?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

Thank you Patrick,

That helped. It downloaded 100 messages much faster than normal, and I was
able to do other things in Outlook while that was happeneing.

But, I am still experiencing extremely high memory usage - the Outlook
process, after downloading 100 messages (total of about 112K worth of data -
all small messages), the Outlook process was reporting it was using 212Mb of
RAM - is this normal for Outlook 2007?

Memory usage just seems to climb every time email is received, and is never
released till either Outlook crashes or the entire OS crashes (I'll keep a
close eye on this now that the patch is in, but memory is now over 250Mb - it
climbed again just as I was writing this)

Thanks!

Have you already installed the Outlook Performance Update (link below)?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

I hope someone has some insight into this..

I recently upgraded from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007. I imported all my
contacts, email, calendars, tasks, etc. from 2003, no problems. I then tried
to import the rules (I have about 250 rules), and for some reason, it did not
recognize rules that referred to contact lists, so I had to re-enter those
(about 30 of them), and it seemed fine.

In Outlook 2003, every time I checked mail, it would zip through them, and
while getting mail, Outlook seemed to run fine, no appreciable slowdown. I
expected the same or better of OUtlook 2007, but have had nothing but
problems since day 1. I was originally on Vista, and thought that my
instability problems were becuase of the new OS. I backtracked to Windows
XP, and same thing...

1. It takes FOREVER to download messages - I get sometimes 500 at a time (I
am on alot of alert lists of very small 500 byte messages). It can take a
second or two to get each message (Outlook 2003 would get 500 messages in 20
or 30 seconds)

2. While downloading messages, Outlook 2007 is unusable. I have to wait
20-30 minutes to get all my messages sometimes, and can't do anything else
while this is happenening since it runs so slowly

3. I have to restart OUtlook 2-3 times per day - it just hangs eventually
and in a couple of cases has crashed the entire OS.

4. Memory usage: Outlook 2003 process used to report about 20Mb, and if it
got close to 100Mb, I knew it was in trouble and may need a restart which was
maybe once week or two. Outlook 2007 process regularly runs at about 200Mb,I
have seen it go up to 450Mb. If I shut down Outlook, it frees up alot more
memory than the process itself was reporting (for example, today, the process
in Task Manager was showing 450Mb of memory usage. Whn I shut it down, I
freed up almost 1.8GB if memory bringing the total memory usage of the pc
from 2.2Gb to 600Mb!! Outlook was using 1.8Gb of RAM even though the process
only showed 450Mb)

5. Every time I exit and restart (whether by killing the process, 'X'ing
out, Or "File|Exit") When Outlook 2007 restarts, it always tells me that the
file was not clsoed properly and is being checked.

6. When I close normally ("File|Exit"), it can take 10-15 minutes for the
OUtlook process to shut down (freeing sometimes up to 1.8Gb of RAM - normally
in the 1Gb range...)

I have no idea what to do at this point - do I need to reinstall again (I've
already tried twice)? Is it possible that Outlook 2007 can't handle a large
number of rules? Did I maybe import something wrong? The problem seems to
be getting worse.

 

[Haidar]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the reply. If not by importing the data into Outlook, how do I
get all my data into the system? Is there another way to do this without
importing (and not by manually re-entering thousands of contacts, tasks,
calendar items, etc.)?

When you say "start with a new mail profile", do you mean to just move the
old mail to separate data file and create a new data file? Can I still
import my contacts and other info without having problems?

Yes, I did install the Outlook 2007 performance update, and it made a big
difference in speed, but I am still having memory usage problems (The Outlook
process, as I started writing this, was using almost 400Mb of memory. When I
shut it down, I recovered 1.1Gb of system memory and the entire system is
running better. I'll run Outlook again now, and by morning, it'll have run
my system memory back up 1 to 1.5Gb (highest I've seen is 1.8Gb).

Thanks, I appreciate all the feedback!

 

[Haidar]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks again for the reply, I really do appreciate your expertise. I
actually do not have any other Outlook windows open outside the main window
and the reminder window. By the time I got back to it, the Outlook process
was at almost 400Mb. I minimized the Outlook window, and the memory usage
did go down somewhat, but not appreciably. I went ahead and closed the
application, and I recovered an amazing 1.1Gb of system memory (700Mb more
than the process reported taking). The highest I have seen recovered is
1.8Gb when I shut Outlook down (without touching anything else)

The Outlook performance patch help immensely, though - at least it is usable
now. Any ideas about the memory usage? The problem with this is that if I
don't shut Outlook down and restarted 4 or 5 times a day, it overwhelms the
system and nothing else can run (it crashed my system entirely yesterday
which is what got me to start his thread to begin with)

Don't worry about the memory usage. Outlook grabs as much as it can, but
gives it back once a program requests memory. An easy way to demonstrate
is to minimize every Outlook window (individually, not via the show
desktop approach). Memory usage should drop massively when you do that.
250 is a bit high though. Do you have any add-ins installed that might
not be fully compatible with 2007?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

Thank you Patrick,

That helped. It downloaded 100 messages much faster than normal, and I was
able to do other things in Outlook while that was happeneing.

But, I am still experiencing extremely high memory usage - the Outlook
process, after downloading 100 messages (total of about 112K worth of data -
all small messages), the Outlook process was reporting it was using 212Mb of
RAM - is this normal for Outlook 2007?

Memory usage just seems to climb every time email is received, and is never
released till either Outlook crashes or the entire OS crashes (I'll keep a
close eye on this now that the patch is in, but memory is now over 250Mb - it
climbed again just as I was writing this)

Thanks!

Have you already installed the Outlook Performance Update (link below)?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed





I hope someone has some insight into this..

I recently upgraded from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007. I imported all my
contacts, email, calendars, tasks, etc. from 2003, no problems. I then tried
to import the rules (I have about 250 rules), and for some reason, it did not
recognize rules that referred to contact lists, so I had to re-enter those
(about 30 of them), and it seemed fine.

In Outlook 2003, every time I checked mail, it would zip through them, and
while getting mail, Outlook seemed to run fine, no appreciable slowdown. I
expected the same or better of OUtlook 2007, but have had nothing but
problems since day 1. I was originally on Vista, and thought that my
instability problems were becuase of the new OS. I backtracked to Windows
XP, and same thing...

1. It takes FOREVER to download messages - I get sometimes 500 at a time (I
am on alot of alert lists of very small 500 byte messages). It can take a
second or two to get each message (Outlook 2003 would get 500 messages in 20
or 30 seconds)

2. While downloading messages, Outlook 2007 is unusable. I have to wait
20-30 minutes to get all my messages sometimes, and can't do anything else
while this is happenening since it runs so slowly

3. I have to restart OUtlook 2-3 times per day - it just hangs eventually
and in a couple of cases has crashed the entire OS.

4. Memory usage: Outlook 2003 process used to report about 20Mb, and if it
got close to 100Mb, I knew it was in trouble and may need a restart which was
maybe once week or two. Outlook 2007 process regularly runs at about 200Mb,I
have seen it go up to 450Mb. If I shut down Outlook, it frees up alot more
memory than the process itself was reporting (for example, today, the process
in Task Manager was showing 450Mb of memory usage. Whn I shut it down, I
freed up almost 1.8GB if memory bringing the total memory usage of the pc
from 2.2Gb to 600Mb!! Outlook was using 1.8Gb of RAM even though the process
only showed 450Mb)

5. Every time I exit and restart (whether by killing the process, 'X'ing
out, Or "File|Exit") When Outlook 2007 restarts, it always tells me that the
file was not clsoed properly and is being checked.

6. When I close normally ("File|Exit"), it can take 10-15 minutes for the
OUtlook process to shut down (freeing sometimes up to 1.8Gb of RAM - normally
in the 1Gb range...)

I have no idea what to do at this point - do I need to reinstall again (I've
already tried twice)? Is it possible that Outlook 2007 can't handle a large
number of rules? Did I maybe import something wrong? The problem seems to
be getting worse.

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

You can just open all the PST files from 2003 via File, Open, Outlook
Data File. Or you can go into Tools, Account Settings, Data Files and
add the files there. If you want your old file as the default, open it,
then declare it as default in Data Files and then you'll have to close &
reopen Outlook.
The memory usage of Outlook you are seeing is insanely high. That is
definitely not normal. I would switch off all add-ins that are not from
Outlook 2007, deactivate all anti-virus integration into Outlook/Email
and see if it doesn't get better.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[Haidar]

My 2003 PST files are over a month old, and I've made numerous changes
unfortunately. I thought starting with a freash 2007 PST file would be the
smartest thing in case the newer files supported some additional 2007 feature
- I guess that'll teach me a lesson. I may just set the current file as an
archive and start with a fresh file - if I tried to import some items like my
folder structure and calendar from the current PST file, would that get me
into the same boat I am now?

As far as application stability, it runs much faster when it runs now, but
over time, it is still unstable. I let it run overnight. When I left it,
the Outlook process was using about 250Mb of RAM (this time, though, when I
minimized the main window, the RAM usage dropped to around 5Mb although
overall system memory usage remained stable and did not drop, so Outlook was
still taking up that RAM even though the process did not report this. Do you
know of a utility that will tell me where my memory is being used that is not
reported in the task manager?) Overall system memory being used was 1.8Gb
for the entire system. When I looked in the morning, Outlook had crashed
completely (asking if it should send a report mack to MS). Overall system
memory usage was down around 500Mb, 1.3Gb lower than when Outlook was running.

I have a basic install of Outlook 2007, no addons, virus scanners, etc.
Your suggestion of installing the performance patch has already done wonders.
I'll keep trying to figure out why the memory usage and crashes are happening
and post any answers I find in case anyone else runs into them.

Thanks to everyone for their replies

You can just open all the PST files from 2003 via File, Open, Outlook
Data File. Or you can go into Tools, Account Settings, Data Files and
add the files there. If you want your old file as the default, open it,
then declare it as default in Data Files and then you'll have to close &
reopen Outlook.
The memory usage of Outlook you are seeing is insanely high. That is
definitely not normal. I would switch off all add-ins that are not from
Outlook 2007, deactivate all anti-virus integration into Outlook/Email
and see if it doesn't get better.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the reply. If not by importing the data into Outlook, how do I
get all my data into the system? Is there another way to do this without
importing (and not by manually re-entering thousands of contacts, tasks,
calendar items, etc.)?

When you say "start with a new mail profile", do you mean to just move the
old mail to separate data file and create a new data file? Can I still
import my contacts and other info without having problems?

Yes, I did install the Outlook 2007 performance update, and it made a big
difference in speed, but I am still having memory usage problems (The Outlook
process, as I started writing this, was using almost 400Mb of memory. When I
shut it down, I recovered 1.1Gb of system memory and the entire system is
running better. I'll run Outlook again now, and by morning, it'll have run
my system memory back up 1 to 1.5Gb (highest I've seen is 1.8Gb).

Thanks, I appreciate all the feedback!

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

When Outlook crashes the next time, you should see a link that tells you
what data is being sent to Microsoft. Can you post that information in
here?
Don't use import. Open the PST, and then use drag & drop or cut & paste
on the items you want from one PST in the other. Import isn't the most
reliable of all features.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

My 2003 PST files are over a month old, and I've made numerous changes
unfortunately. I thought starting with a freash 2007 PST file would be the
smartest thing in case the newer files supported some additional 2007 feature
- I guess that'll teach me a lesson. I may just set the current file as an
archive and start with a fresh file - if I tried to import some items like my
folder structure and calendar from the current PST file, would that get me
into the same boat I am now?

As far as application stability, it runs much faster when it runs now, but
over time, it is still unstable. I let it run overnight. When I left it,
the Outlook process was using about 250Mb of RAM (this time, though, when I
minimized the main window, the RAM usage dropped to around 5Mb although
overall system memory usage remained stable and did not drop, so Outlook was
still taking up that RAM even though the process did not report this. Do you
know of a utility that will tell me where my memory is being used that is not
reported in the task manager?) Overall system memory being used was 1.8Gb
for the entire system. When I looked in the morning, Outlook had crashed
completely (asking if it should send a report mack to MS). Overall system
memory usage was down around 500Mb, 1.3Gb lower than when Outlook was running.

I have a basic install of Outlook 2007, no addons, virus scanners, etc.
Your suggestion of installing the performance patch has already done wonders.
I'll keep trying to figure out why the memory usage and crashes are happening
and post any answers I find in case anyone else runs into them.

Thanks to everyone for their replies

You can just open all the PST files from 2003 via File, Open, Outlook
Data File. Or you can go into Tools, Account Settings, Data Files and
add the files there. If you want your old file as the default, open it,
then declare it as default in Data Files and then you'll have to close &
reopen Outlook.
The memory usage of Outlook you are seeing is insanely high. That is
definitely not normal. I would switch off all add-ins that are not from
Outlook 2007, deactivate all anti-virus integration into Outlook/Email
and see if it doesn't get better.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the reply. If not by importing the data into Outlook, how do I
get all my data into the system? Is there another way to do this without
importing (and not by manually re-entering thousands of contacts, tasks,
calendar items, etc.)?

When you say "start with a new mail profile", do you mean to just move the
old mail to separate data file and create a new data file? Can I still
import my contacts and other info without having problems?

Yes, I did install the Outlook 2007 performance update, and it made a big
difference in speed, but I am still having memory usage problems (The Outlook
process, as I started writing this, was using almost 400Mb of memory. When I
shut it down, I recovered 1.1Gb of system memory and the entire system is
running better. I'll run Outlook again now, and by morning, it'll have run
my system memory back up 1 to 1.5Gb (highest I've seen is 1.8Gb).

Thanks, I appreciate all the feedback!

:


I recently upgraded from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007. I imported
all my contacts, email, calendars, tasks, etc. from 2003, no
problems. I then tried to import the rules (I have about 250 rules),
and for some reason, it did not recognize rules that referred to
contact lists, so I had to re-enter those (about 30 of them), and it
seemed fine.

Export and import are never the way to move data from one Outlook instance
to another. It's no wonder you had trouble.

In Outlook 2003, every time I checked mail, it would zip through
them, and while getting mail, Outlook seemed to run fine, no
appreciable slowdown. I expected the same or better of OUtlook 2007,
but have had nothing but problems since day 1. I was originally on
Vista, and thought that my instability problems were becuase of the
new OS. I backtracked to Windows XP, and same thing...

1. It takes FOREVER to download messages - I get sometimes 500 at a
time (I am on alot of alert lists of very small 500 byte messages).
It can take a second or two to get each message (Outlook 2003 would
get 500 messages in 20 or 30 seconds)

I'd start with a new mail profile.
Did you install the Outlook 2007 Performance Update?

 

[Haidar]

Outlook crashed again - looks like there are hundreds of Mb of data
(including the content of some of my emails) that it wants to send to MS -
it's too big to post here, and I don't know if I want MS reading my emails.

When I have time, I am going to create archive most of my email, create a
new PST file, drag over the latest, folder structure, contacts, calendar,
etc. and see if that fixes things. I'll post here to let you know.

When Outlook crashes the next time, you should see a link that tells you
what data is being sent to Microsoft. Can you post that information in
here?
Don't use import. Open the PST, and then use drag & drop or cut & paste
on the items you want from one PST in the other. Import isn't the most
reliable of all features.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

My 2003 PST files are over a month old, and I've made numerous changes
unfortunately. I thought starting with a freash 2007 PST file would be the
smartest thing in case the newer files supported some additional 2007 feature
- I guess that'll teach me a lesson. I may just set the current file as an
archive and start with a fresh file - if I tried to import some items like my
folder structure and calendar from the current PST file, would that get me
into the same boat I am now?

As far as application stability, it runs much faster when it runs now, but
over time, it is still unstable. I let it run overnight. When I left it,
the Outlook process was using about 250Mb of RAM (this time, though, when I
minimized the main window, the RAM usage dropped to around 5Mb although
overall system memory usage remained stable and did not drop, so Outlook was
still taking up that RAM even though the process did not report this. Do you
know of a utility that will tell me where my memory is being used that is not
reported in the task manager?) Overall system memory being used was 1.8Gb
for the entire system. When I looked in the morning, Outlook had crashed
completely (asking if it should send a report mack to MS). Overall system
memory usage was down around 500Mb, 1.3Gb lower than when Outlook was running.

I have a basic install of Outlook 2007, no addons, virus scanners, etc.
Your suggestion of installing the performance patch has already done wonders.
I'll keep trying to figure out why the memory usage and crashes are happening
and post any answers I find in case anyone else runs into them.

Thanks to everyone for their replies

You can just open all the PST files from 2003 via File, Open, Outlook
Data File. Or you can go into Tools, Account Settings, Data Files and
add the files there. If you want your old file as the default, open it,
then declare it as default in Data Files and then you'll have to close &
reopen Outlook.
The memory usage of Outlook you are seeing is insanely high. That is
definitely not normal. I would switch off all add-ins that are not from
Outlook 2007, deactivate all anti-virus integration into Outlook/Email
and see if it doesn't get better.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed





Hi Brian,

Thanks for the reply. If not by importing the data into Outlook, how do I
get all my data into the system? Is there another way to do this without
importing (and not by manually re-entering thousands of contacts, tasks,
calendar items, etc.)?

When you say "start with a new mail profile", do you mean to just move the
old mail to separate data file and create a new data file? Can I still
import my contacts and other info without having problems?

Yes, I did install the Outlook 2007 performance update, and it made a big
difference in speed, but I am still having memory usage problems (The Outlook
process, as I started writing this, was using almost 400Mb of memory. When I
shut it down, I recovered 1.1Gb of system memory and the entire system is
running better. I'll run Outlook again now, and by morning, it'll have run
my system memory back up 1 to 1.5Gb (highest I've seen is 1.8Gb).

Thanks, I appreciate all the feedback!

:


I recently upgraded from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007. I imported
all my contacts, email, calendars, tasks, etc. from 2003, no
problems. I then tried to import the rules (I have about 250 rules),
and for some reason, it did not recognize rules that referred to
contact lists, so I had to re-enter those (about 30 of them), and it
seemed fine.

Export and import are never the way to move data from one Outlook instance
to another. It's no wonder you had trouble.

In Outlook 2003, every time I checked mail, it would zip through
them, and while getting mail, Outlook seemed to run fine, no
appreciable slowdown. I expected the same or better of OUtlook 2007,
but have had nothing but problems since day 1. I was originally on
Vista, and thought that my instability problems were becuase of the
new OS. I backtracked to Windows XP, and same thing...

1. It takes FOREVER to download messages - I get sometimes 500 at a
time (I am on alot of alert lists of very small 500 byte messages).
It can take a second or two to get each message (Outlook 2003 would
get 500 messages in 20 or 30 seconds)

I'd start with a new mail profile.
Did you install the Outlook 2007 Performance Update?