Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Stev0W
Stev0WFlag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

asked on

Missing inbox folder in Outlook 2007

One of our users can not see the inbox folder in her outlook 2007 email client. I initially started by setting up a new mail profile for her, but it had the same issue. The same is also true if you view the mailbox in OWA.
However in Outlook 2007, if you click on the root of the mailbox folder to view 'outlook today', the inbox is there, but shows no sub-folders. It is the same for any machine that I open her mail profile on. The 'folder size' button shows the inbox & sub-directories in both the local folders and on the server.
I haven't seen this problem before so was wondering if anybody else had come across this. The mail-server is an SBS2008 setup with Exchange 2007.
Avatar of Scott C
Scott C
Flag of United States of America image

You might want to try exporting the mailbox to a .PST file and see if the folder structure gets straightened out.

http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/jstocker/archive/2010/01/27/how-to-export-mailboxes-to-pst-with-exchange-2007/

Did you try dragging the Inbox out from under the "Outlook Today" area?

You really need to think about getting off of Exchange 2007.  Had you been on a later version, I would have suggested doing a New-MailboxReparRequest.  But that option isn't available in 2007.

Exchange 2007 is at end of life and in the next few months won't be supported or patched anymore.
Avatar of Stev0W

ASKER

Hi Scottcha,
Yes tried dragging the inbox from the 'outlook today' to the folder list. It had the drag icon which looked promising. But when i dropped it, nothing appeared in the folders list. Also Just to test, i tried to create a new folder called 'inbox', and as suspected it said that one already existed.
I will try to export the mailbox to a PST tomorrow to see if that works. But if it does, should i just then import the PST in to the mailbox again?
We are going through an office move at the moment so budget is all tied up in that. But am hoping to upgrade next year.
Don't import just try to open it by adding it to profile.

What about backups?
Hi,
You can use Inbox Repair tool for repairing Outlook PST file. Visit below given to learn how you can use this tool. It is provided by Microsoft free of cost.
http://www.emaildoctor.org/blog/errors-detected-in-outlook-pst-file/
You can also try exporting mailbox to Outlook PST and Open exported file is Outlook and check whether Inbox folder is showing or not which you have already mentioned. If Inbox folder is showing correctly then you can easily import the exported PST file to Exchange Mailbox by using PowerShell Command.
outlook.exe /resetnavpane
Then press Enter (or OK button) to restart Outlook.
 
Note: Make sure there is a space between the words.
It's not a corrupted .pst.  If you read the op he clearly says he looked at the mailbox using OWA which is directly looking at the mailbox on the Exchange server.
Avatar of Stev0W

ASKER

I tried the export of the mailbox and attached as a data file. Still no inbox.
The servers are backed up daily with the native windows backup program. So would you recommend going back to the day before her issue and restoring the mailbox? Or are there some other things we can try first?
I tried to create a recovery database yesterday, but it failed to mount and I ran out of time onsite. So will have another go on Monday. I have run through the process before to recover accidentally deleted emails with no issues, but the failure to mount error message was very generic.

Thanks for you help.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of suriyaehnop
suriyaehnop
Flag of Malaysia image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of Stev0W

ASKER

Mfcmapi sorted it out. For some reason the Inbox was marked as hidden. As soon as I used the tool to un-hide it, it appeared in OWA and then in the Outlook client.

Thanks for all your help, this one had me stumped.