mgross333
asked on
Solve "Outlook.pst could not be accessed because another workstation has modified it" error
Outlook.pst is on the MS Server 2003 server. A single Outlook.pst file on the server has several profiles (i.e. email addresses) for 4 different users. All users run Outlook 2003 on XP Pro SP2. Three users get no error and send and receive emails all day. The 4th user got the "Outlook.pst could not be accessed because another workstation has modified it" error last Friday, not yesterday at all, and frequently today but still intermittent (i.e sometimes he could receive email and send without the error and sometimes the error occured.)
QUESTION 1: It is implicit in the arrangement above that "another workstation has modified it". ie it happens hundreds of times a day !! IT IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN; THE OUTLOOK.PST IS SHARED AND IS CONSTANTLY BEING MODIFIED BY OTHER WORKSTATIONS (PCs).
So what is the &&%%*** meaning of that error; ie, that is NOT an error condition; it is supposed to happen. Please TRANSLATE the error message to what it REALLY MEANS TO SAY.
QUESTION 2: A Google search on the error produced one match that was VAGUELY related and recomended that I restart the server. It turns out that restarting the server has not been done for a long time BTW. So I did that and they will see if the problem reoccurs; ie it is intermittent so it could be a day or 2 before we know FOR SURE if this fixed it or not.
DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS OTHER THAN REBOOTING THE SERVER noting that 3 of the 4 PCs sharing this file do NOT have this problem and furthermore the 4th PC which now has the problem did NOT have the problem before last Friday and also no changes occured that would relate to Outlook (or firewalls) **SHORTLY** before last Friday.
Regards,
Mike
QUESTION 1: It is implicit in the arrangement above that "another workstation has modified it". ie it happens hundreds of times a day !! IT IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN; THE OUTLOOK.PST IS SHARED AND IS CONSTANTLY BEING MODIFIED BY OTHER WORKSTATIONS (PCs).
So what is the &&%%*** meaning of that error; ie, that is NOT an error condition; it is supposed to happen. Please TRANSLATE the error message to what it REALLY MEANS TO SAY.
QUESTION 2: A Google search on the error produced one match that was VAGUELY related and recomended that I restart the server. It turns out that restarting the server has not been done for a long time BTW. So I did that and they will see if the problem reoccurs; ie it is intermittent so it could be a day or 2 before we know FOR SURE if this fixed it or not.
DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS OTHER THAN REBOOTING THE SERVER noting that 3 of the 4 PCs sharing this file do NOT have this problem and furthermore the 4th PC which now has the problem did NOT have the problem before last Friday and also no changes occured that would relate to Outlook (or firewalls) **SHORTLY** before last Friday.
Regards,
Mike
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ASKER
The customer has chosen to not have me return so that I do not know if simply rebooting the Server with the shared pst file fixed the problem or not in the long term. However, they paid me a fee for this so I am not complaining.
Points assigned because I think that the info here is accurate BECAUSE Microsoft says it is (at the link) and how to revese the situation was also provided.
Points assigned because I think that the info here is accurate BECAUSE Microsoft says it is (at the link) and how to revese the situation was also provided.
ASKER
NOTE: Where I said 4 users share the PST file, I now believe it is only 3. The 4th PC does not run Outlook.
Interesting post !!. The previous IT person did this not too long ago and then left the company forever. He provided printed instructions to move email and contacts from a local pst to the shared PST. HE DID NOT PROVIDE THE REVERSE INSTRUTIONS and I do not know how to do this.
Can you please provide the reverse instuctions to create the 3 local pst files with all email, address book, tasks and calendar for the 3 iindividual email addresses. Otherwise the shared pst will be there forever.
Regarding
> For my customers who want to do something like this, I recommend MAPILAB Groupware Server -
The customer does NOT want to do something like this. This was the idea of the previous IT person. In fact I consider it INSANE. But unless I get a reply here on how to separate out and recreate the 3 local pst files (while Outlook is NOT running on the 3 PCs of course) they will be doing this forever.
IT IS WORTH NOTING THAT THIS WAS WORKING WITHOUT ERRORS FOR A WHILE. So I am still not sure where to go with this. The performance problems noted in your first link may not matter to this customer (and with only 3 users the performance may not be that bad).
I am concerned about a corrupted shared PST file but WE DO NOT KNOW THAT. After I rebooted the Server, each PCs Outlook email worked and I sent an email from the problem PC to itself and that was receivied. So maybe rebooting the server will solve this. But as the problem was intermittent, one email does not prove the problem is gone.
MAG03,
If I have to do something like this I will use AOR (Advance Outlook Repair) a much more powerful tool (and also a very expensive tool but I have a license). And then I MUST separate out the 3 PST files because if the shared PST got corrupted ONCE then it will probably happen again.
Mike