Inbox are missing in Outlook even though Mailbox shows right size.

Do you have deleted item retention set on the server? If so,  try enabling the dumpster within outlook and see if the missing emails are shown when you do "Recover Deleted Items".

You can enable the dumpster by altering the registry. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options and add a keyword of dumpsteralwayson, type DWORD, value 1. Once you've restarted Outlook the "Recover Deleted Items" menu item will work in all folders, not just Deleted Items.

Ok so far what I've done is gone to regedit and went  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options  I right clicked options and clicked on New>Key.  This created a subfolder underneath options.  I named  dumpsteralwayson now inside that folder I created a new DWORD value.  I named it DWORD and value 1.  I exited regedit and restarted outlook and clicked on inbox but the 'recover deleted items' was greyed.

I'm not sure i've edited registry can you please verify if I've done this right.

Thanks

Mbavisi

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011165281033.aspx gives full instructions.

Thanks for that link mate.  It has really helped.  After following the instructions I went back to (after a restart) outlook and i've found the option available.  The unfortunate thing there is nothing on the list therefore there is nothing to recover.

Do you really think the mails are deleted?

Please help


Regards

Mbavisi

If they've been soft deleted, then you should be able to recover them through the Deleted Items folder either directly or using Recover Deleted Items.

If they've been hard deleted (deleted using shift-delete) then Recover Deleted Items on the Inbox will allow you to recover them. IIRC a move out of the mailbox is the equivalent of a hard delete.

However bear in mind that the Recover Deleted Items option is dependant on you having set a deleted item retention period within Exchange itself.

Do I find out that from Exchage System Manager?

Assuming you are using Exchange 2003, go to the storage group, right-click on the appropriate mailbox store and pick Properties, go to the Limits tab and it should be at the bottom.

I'm pretty sure my all my missing mail are on the ost file because I've just checked my mailbox and seen the size has reduced.  Maybe it didn't refresh itself and thats why we saw it had the same amount thet we originally had.  My ost file is still about 1.8GB.  I really need to find out how to extract all my mails from that ost file.

Like |i said earlier that I've tried a program called OST2PST  which didn't as it came back with an error saying.


Any solutions to this?  Anyone?


Regards

Mbavisi

It had

'Keep Deleted Items dor (days): 7
'Keep Deleted Mailboxes for (days): 30

and the ' Do Not permanently deleta mailboxes and items until the store has been backed up' was unticked.


Rgds


Mbavisi

Have you looked at the mailbox through OWA? That will show you what the server has available.

Simon.

Hi simon,


Yes I've checked that and I've seen the same issue basically the mails from my inbox is missing. but the mails in the folders underneath the inbox are fine.



Rgds

Mbavisi

Does anyone else have access to these accounts? Very unusual for it to happen on many accounts at the same time. I would be looking at whether it was done by an application or a user - whether in error or maliciously.

If another user had deleted the items then that would explain the lack of content in the dumpster.

Simon.

well basically it all started due to active directory messing up.

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22036878/Active-directory-not-working-after-adding-three-new-users.html

and It hasn't been fixed since then.


Rgds

Mbavisi

Considering that the AD cannot be trusted, the next thing I would probably suggest is to exmerge the mailboxes out, including the dumpster and hidden data and see what that shows.

Simon.

open outlook ....do an advanced find....in the LOOK FOR section choose ANY KIND OF OUTLOOK ITEM.....and see if your missing items will show up.....

Hi Simon,

I'm not sure what would be achieved by doing exmerge.  Its something that I will have to do over the weekend.  I have noticed that my mail backups have only increased and haven't decreased.  This proves that the mails are still in the mailbox likewise in exchange system manager the mailbox size are the normal size of which it had been since tuesday (before the AD disaster).  Now that the AD is fixed I need to find a way of retrieving the mails from the mailbox.  (Please bear in mind that missing mails resided in the inbox folder, the mails in the subfolders are still present).

One of my colleagues yesterday logged into a different computer.  He was using his outlook for a couple of hours and all of a sudden his old emails have started to return to the deleted items box.  This was wierd as me and another colleague have tried afterwards but had no luck.

Vahik I've tried what you have asked me to do and I have had no mails popping up as missing mails.


Please help

Regards


Mbavisi