Question

Deleted Items folder missing from Outlook 2007 / Exchange OWA

Asked by: swallsvcs

I'm having a strange problem with the Outlook Deleted Items folder for one of our mailboxes.  For all intents and purposes the folder is apparently missing.  When logging in from any workstation (one in cached mode, the other is not) or when logging in using OWA the folder is not present.  I have expanded the entire folder tree in from each test location and am unable to find the folder.  

The folder is not gone however - when you right-click the mailbox in Outlook, go to properties then click on the Folder Size button the Deleted Items folder is shown on the list of folders on the Exchange Server (see attached).  As a test I created a new folder called Test Folder in Outlook then deleted it.  Outlook asked if I was sure I wanted to move it to the deleted items folder so I said yes.  Although the deleted items folder is still not visible in Outlook, the Folder Size window (see attached) confirms that my test folder is now located in the deleted items folder where I would expect it to be.

I've googled my heart out but I'm totally stumped - any suggestions on how to get the Deleted Items folder back in Outlook and OWA?

Configuration:
Server:  Windows SBS 2003 Std
Client1:  Windows XP Pro w/ Outlook 2007 in cached mode
Client2:  Windows XP Pro w/ Outlook 2003
Client3:  Outlook OWA / Internet Explorer 8 / Windows 7 RC

  • Capture.PNG
    • 38 KB

    Folder Size with Outlook Folder Tree; shows missing folders.

    Folder Size with Outlook Folder Tree; shows missing folders.

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Asked On
2009-08-04 at 10:57:52ID24625613
Tags

Outlook 2007

,

Exchange 2003

,

OWA

,

Deleted Items Folder Missing

Topics

Exchange Email Server

,

Outlook Groupware Software

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
25

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Answers

 

by: demazterPosted on 2009-08-04 at 11:05:27ID: 25016409

Completely close outlook (you may want to logoff and back on again as outlook is notoriously bad at closing properly)

then click start > run > outlook /resetfolders

 

by: badgermikePosted on 2009-08-04 at 11:07:35ID: 25016439

did you try opening outlook with the /resetfolders switch


 

by: badgermikePosted on 2009-08-04 at 11:11:42ID: 25016480

I am not sure how that affects owa though

How about using the PFDavadmin tool?

You can connect and select user mailboxes right click on the user mailbox and show deleted folders and go to the top of the info store and see if the deleted is highlighted in red.

 

by: endital1097Posted on 2009-08-04 at 11:12:06ID: 25016483

you may want to download mfcmapi and open the mailbox using this utility
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=55FDFFD7-1878-4637-9808-1E21ABB3AE37&displaylang=en
you may find the folder is hidden (PR_ATTR_HIDDEN)

 

by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-04 at 11:16:01ID: 25016521

@demazter

Thanks for the reply.  I performed your suggestion on Client2 by shutting down the computer, restarting, then launching Outlook with that command line switch but there was no effect.  Any other ideas?

Please note that this problem is also present when using Client3; Outlook Web Access.

 

by: endital1097Posted on 2009-08-04 at 11:17:10ID: 25016540

i would either try mfcmapi or the pfdavadmin tool

 

by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-04 at 11:30:23ID: 25016655

@badgermike

Thank you for your reply.  I downloaded the pfdavadmin tool and ran it on the server.  I connected to All Mailboxes using the Administrator account and was able to see the Deleted Items folder for the user in question, but it wasn't in red or anything.  As this is my first time using this utility if there is anything else I should be doing with this utility that I am not doing please let me know.  I have attached a screenshot in case it is helpful.

  • Capture.PNG
    • 21 KB

    pfdavadmin screen shot of deleted items folder

    pfdavadmin screen shot of deleted items folder
 

by: badgermikePosted on 2009-08-04 at 11:35:54ID: 25016716

apparently the utility is showing deleted items as not deleted -

when you right click on the top of information store for that account and then choose show deleted subfolders you would probably see deleted in red in which you could highlight and recover it.

...this is strange

 

by: endital1097Posted on 2009-08-04 at 11:35:57ID: 25016719

it may be hidden somehow and mfcmapi can update the folder

 

by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-04 at 11:51:14ID: 25016881

@endital1097

Thank you for your reply too.  I downloaded the mfcmapi utility from CodePlex and I think I may have found the problem if I'm understanding what I'm looking at.  Here is what I have done so far:

I downloaded and ran the utility from Client2.  I clicked Session and then Logon and Display Store Table.  I double clicked the exchange store which opened another window for Mailbox - Gidi Cohen.  I then walked the tree from Root Container > Top of Information Store > Deleted Items noticing the properties of each folder shown on the right hand side as I navigated the tree.  

Each folder has a long list of properties associates with it but the Deleted Items folder has NO properties shown on the right hand side at all.  All of the deleted folders underneath Deleted Items have properties, but Deleted Items itself is blank.

Have you heard of anything like this before?  Where should I go from here?

  • Capture.PNG
    • 50 KB

    mfcmapi showing no properties on delete items

    mfcmapi showing no properties on delete items
 

by: badgermikePosted on 2009-08-04 at 11:55:43ID: 25016929

Have you run office diagnostics? Help - detect and repair.

I

 

by: endital1097Posted on 2009-08-04 at 11:59:31ID: 25016975

you may need to use this utility to delete the deleted items folder and create a new one
i would test it on a test mailbox first to ensure it doesn't have any ill effects
i am looking at this with a test mailbox now

 

by: endital1097Posted on 2009-08-04 at 12:09:45ID: 25017086

i don't think these utilities are going to assist
do you now if a repair was done against this exchange database (eseutil /p)
you may need to run an isinteg against the database

 

by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-04 at 12:28:42ID: 25017280

@endital1097

To our knowledge, no utilities have been against the Exchange server database besides its normal automated utilities such as online defragmentation.  What would you suggest running?  (which utilities and command line parameters, etc.)  I'll do it tonight off-hours as we can't dismount the store during the day and report back tomorrow on the status.

 

by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-04 at 12:30:39ID: 25017298

@badgermike

No, we have not ran a detect and repair in Microsoft Outlook but to my knowledge this only looks for problems with the installed copy of Outlook, not problems on the Exchange store.  As this problem persists across two different Outlook versions on two different workstations and OWA I didn't think this would help.  If you think otherwise though just let me know and I'll run it on Client2.

 

by: endital1097Posted on 2009-08-04 at 12:34:32ID: 25017330

isinteg -s servername -fix -test alltests
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301460

 

by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-05 at 10:07:14ID: 25025592

Unfortunately everyone needed to work late last night, specifically on e-mail and then didn't want us interrupting last night's brick-level backup either so the DB maintenance got put off until tonight.  I will update again tomorrow after the DB maintenance has been completed.

 

by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-06 at 09:14:30ID: 25035143

We were given the same delay excuse yesterday saying we'd have to wait until today to perform maintenance.  As I'm starting to think this is going to happen each night until the weekend I'm going to hold off on updating this thread until the maintenance is completed.  I'll re-post in 1 - 4 days when completed.

 

by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-07 at 10:03:11ID: 25044851

Last night we were able to successfully run isinteg -s servername -fix -test alltests on both stores of the exchange server.  Watching it's output it does appear to have fixed a small number of errors, unfortunately the Deleted Items folder is still missing in Outlook/OWA.

Any additional ideas?

 

by: endital1097Posted on 2009-08-07 at 10:29:49ID: 25045090

a mailbox move is not supposed to move corruption, so if you have a second database you may want to consider moving the mailbox

 

by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-07 at 11:06:26ID: 25045424

No second database, we're running Small Business Server 2003 so everything is on one box/one database.  Anything else?  Is there any feasible way to manually setup the properties on the deleted items folder using mfcmapi or is that just asking for trouble?

If ultimately we can't fix this mailbox and I just have to erase it and create a new one then re-import all of the messages into a new box, is there anyway to get the items currently in the deleted items folder out?  We have daily backups of the entire Exchange DB but I'd rather not go that route if possible because it's a pain in the ***.  This office doesn't have brick-level backups of the mailboxes - only the entire DB.

 

by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-11 at 11:38:34ID: 25071970

Using MFCmapi I have been able to move everything out of the Deleted Items folder into a secondary "Recovered Deleted Items" folder I created.  At this point I can export everything out of Outlook into a PST, erase the exchange mailbox, recreate it, then import from the PST using Outlook.  Is this the recommended course of action or is there something else left that we can try before going to this extreme?

 

by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-19 at 08:58:16ID: 25134161

The experts appear to have abandoned this question.
I attempted to use MFCmapi to erase the entire deleted items folder so that isinteg may be better able to repair the problem but as I expected I was not allowed to delete that folder.  Having no other ideas, I backed up the entire Exchange mailbox to a PST file, erased the mailbox from the user account, purged it from Exchange, then recreated a new mailbox for the user and re-imported the contents from the PST file.

Unfortunately this did require erasing and recreating the Exchange configuration on every device that was connected to that mailbox as it knew it was no longer connected to the same mailbox.  As such, I needed to reconfigure that users desktop, laptop and iPhone to restore connectivity.

 

by: swallsvcsPosted on 2009-08-19 at 09:03:44ID: 31611570

Ultimately we weren't able to come up with a solution to the problem other than to erase/recreate the mailbox however your suggestion of using MFCmapi did allow us to save the contents of the deleted items folder before erasing the mailbox (and gave us a new tool to keep in our toolbox).  Thanks for all your help!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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