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putzco

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Cannot move mail w/attachments to a pst

All,

Let me first apologize for bringing you all back to Exchange 5.5, but I have some pre-migration issues.
We have an Exch5.5 organization consisting of 7 Win2k servers fully patched and updated, Exchange Enterprise is also patched with the latest patches.  We are forcing users to reduce the size of their boxes before the migration by moving mail to pst's or simply deleting the mail.  Users on two of the servers are complaining that they cannot move emails with attachments to their respective pst's, the error is as follows:
    "unable to move items, they were either deleted or moved or access denied"
If the user opens the email (not the attachment) then closes it they can then move it with no errors.
One of these servers has an IS of 25GB, the other is about 11GB, total user in the whole org is 7500.
Of these two servers only one has been restored from backup, the other has had its IS defragged as well as the daily tools that Exchange runs..
I hope I have given enough info, if not let me know.
Thanks in advance for all your replies
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Bembi
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- Have you ever run ESEUTIL in repair mode? May be that this damaged some items.
- Size limit of the PST file?
- less disk space on the server?

Can you copy the items istead of moving?
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putzco

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Yes, I have run the ESEUTIL in repair mode on only one of the two servers, I never had a reason to run it on the other.
The pst's vary in size, some have 0kb used.
Free disk space on both server is more than double the size of the IS.
And no, cannot copy instead of moving
There are lots of different things that can cause minor corruption to message files, which result in the error message you are seeing. I am not aware of any way to bulk repair the items - perhaps others will have some ideas. Options:
a) see if VBA code can move these items as they are (last time I saw this, this solution worked, and everything worked great in the PST). If it can, then you give the users some code to run which does the copy for them.
b) use VBA code to open and close an item - does that make it so the user can move it now?  If so, you could use VBA code to do this for all items...
Mmh, the only thing I found is, that there may be storage size issues...

Have you checked, if there are users within the permissions tab of the folder, which may be deleted. Also the private flag may be an option, if set within an object. Can you move the hole folder? Do you have event logs on the local machine /  PDC? esp. security?
Are only mails affected with attachements?
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To: Rosesolutions1
Unfortunately I do not know much about writing code, I guess I can search the internet for something to try.
That would definitely be a great tool for all the Help Desk calls we are receiving.
Maybe someone can help with a code solution....
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To: Bembi
I haven't seen any deleted users in the permissions tab of the folder.
I cannot move the move the Inbox folder and I checked for privacy flags and saw none.
I don't recall seeing anything specific to this error in the event logs but I will check again, and yes it is only emails with attachments that are affected.
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Exchange_Admin

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Exchange_Admin's hint point me also to Virus scanners on your client. Also check, if you can open the attachements, may be the Security Settings of newer Outlook versions may make trouble.
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Exchange_Admin, I think you are possibly on to something.

I have disabled our AV sotware on a client machine and also on the exchange server, but I am still getting the same result.  I may go as far as uninstalling it from the client first then the server to see if that helps.
I would first try to make a full scan on the server (most virus scanner allows a full scan on all postboxes) and also a full scan on your client. Then try the clients first. Most exchange virus scanners are usring VSAPI to scan the mails, as long as it is not necessary, I would be carefuly with uninstall. Always read the knowledge base of your virus scan manufaturer to avoid trouble. Have seen exchange servers, which were not running anymore as the uninstall was not complete.

What is about offline folders? Have you checked, if these are used on problem machines?

How many mailboxes are affected?

Have you tried to use exmerge on the server to export such a mailbox?
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Bembi:
Your concerns with the uninstall are noted.
Offline folders are very rarely used.
Total users affected come to about 4000.
I have tried exmerge, not recently, in the past and had little or no success, it would bomb out, I suspect for the same reason I am seeing here.
We installed CA antivirus a few months ago, I will say we did start seeing some issues pop up after that.
CA's answer was to turn off Background scanning, with IS's the size of the ones we currently have it was not good practice to have it running.
The idea with exmerge is only to see, if you have the same problems. If yes, it is definitely a server issue, in that case I would see, if there any updates with CA before you uninstall it.  
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Just tried Exmerge, it copied everything in the inbox except those mails with an attachment
You should have a log file or you can enable it in EXMERGE, there you may get some mor information.
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Log, yes, there is an error for each mail item that has an attachment associated with it:
       
        "Message subject" (MAPI_W_PARTIAL_COMPLETION)
Putzco,
The reason that EXMERGE won't copy emails with the attachments is because EXMERGE is a MAPI task.
The attachments are being scanned by the AV before they can be accessed. What happens is that OL or EXMERGE will in essence "time out" on the attachment because it has not been released by the AV scanner. The reason it can be moved to a PST after opening the message is because the AV scanner has scanned the attachment when you opened the message and marked it as scanned.

Enabling background scanning will place more of a load on the server. If you enable this on Friday, maybe most of the database will be scanned by Monday. After it has been scanned, then only new messages will need to be scanned when they arrive. With databases the size of yours I can see why Ca recommended to disable it. Remember, they are in the AV buisness, not the email buisness.

In the article I posted earlier there are different possible solutions. But the one I have found to work the best is to enable background scanning. Just my 2 cents worth.
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Exchange Admin,
I will definitely set up CA to run the background scan over the weekend, actually I may set it up as a scheduled scan every weekend.  And I do understand that the MAPI clients are basically timing out waiting for the AV to release the mail.
I will let you all know what happens on Monday.
Thanks for the input.
Once you enable background scanning, leave it enabled. The added load on the server will reduce as the database gets scanned.
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Alright, thanks for the help.....
I will let you all no how it turns out on Monday
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Exchange_Admin:

Thanks for your help, about two hours after enablig background scanning things started to work.
Your welcome.