Outlook Woes

[NETWizz]

I have been getting eaten alive by Outlook with my own account. At work we use 365 Exchnage, and I keep Outlook set to sync 1 year.

I have a few folders I trim keeping only three (3) months worth of emails. One of those is "UPS Alerts" which are exactly what they say. It's a folder where every APC at work that sends an email has that email alert appear. At any rate it has about 4 months of data and had 362,000+ emails!

When I deleted the items, eventually I ended up with either Outlook not responding and eventually giving strange errors.

Thus far... "Messaging interfaces have returned an unknown error. Close and reopen Outlook."

Of course, I ended up deleting my entire OST file, which for some reason did not finish re-syncing last night. This morning I had the same issue again, so I deleted it again. I also went into OWA and emptied that entire folder, which took hours.

***

Outlook is just a dammed mess. I now see I have 892,000 items in my "Deleted Items Folder"

I am thinking about emptying that one on OWA then on the thick client, purging just that folder and resyncing it.


Thoughts? I think the lesson might not be to delete 100,000 emails at a time in the Outlook Client though I have gotten away with it in the past.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Overnight and the OST didn't rebuild? Either you're on dial up bandwidth, or your mailbox size is....really...really huge.
Just to inform this thread...what is the consumed size of your mailbox? Spindle HDD or solid state?

Once this is fixed, I'd change the process for those emails...and/or set up an automatic rules within Outlook to delete emails in XX folder older than XX days/weeks....perm delete, or...archiving solution with similar rules...done upstream in 365.

Myself...I wouldn't want that crazy high volume of noise in my inbox.....get one of them centralized UPS monitoring setups and just peek at that dashboard or set up its cleaner alerts.

 

[NETWizz]

Overnight and the OST didn't rebuild? Either you're on dial up bandwidth, or your mailbox size is....really...really huge.
Just to inform this thread...what is the consumed size of your mailbox? Spindle HDD or solid state?

Once this is fixed, I'd change the process for those emails...and/or set up an automatic rules within Outlook to delete emails in XX folder older than XX days/weeks....perm delete, or...archiving solution with similar rules...done upstream in 365.

Myself...I wouldn't want that crazy high volume of noise in my inbox.....get one of them centralized UPS monitoring setups and just peek at that dashboard or set up its cleaner alerts.

I have 1 Gbps Up/Down on fiber. Outlook takes its sweet time because it seems to do each email as an individual SQL query or something. As for my mailbox size it's outrageous.

 

[Markverhyden]

Sounds like a job for...... New Outlook Profile!

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I have 1 Gbps Up/Down on fiber. Outlook takes its sweet time because it seems to do each email as an individual SQL query or something. As for my mailbox size it's outrageous.

Outlook doesn't take its sweet time due to SQL query...there are in fact many different variables that can impact "sync time". This is my wheelhouse that I live in every day, migrating clients to 365, long standing clients that have been in business for near the 30 years I've been doing this, refreshing new workstations for them, I live and breath in 365 land every day, with Outlook, Teams, etc.

Bigger impacts on "sync speeds" are...first, internet pipe. I have quite a few clients with > 25 gig mailboxes, some with > 50 gigs, even exceeding 75 gigs. The 75 gig one I might expect to take quite a few hours..maybe even a day if structure is a mess. While...naturally size of mailbox can impact Outlooks sync, so will the type of antivirus software, and of course...its granular settings. And....another factor, amount of items within folders...another variable on top of mailbox size itself. Folders with crazy high amounts of individual email items under them cause sync to slow way down. (kinda sounds like this insane APC alert subfolder) Hardware specs of the workstation/laptop of course a major factor also.

And...if you're messing around via OWA at the mailbox...doing things...you'll get Outlook running in circles to try to keep up with changes you do online as it's already downloading what it "thinks" your mailbox was an hour or so ago. Outlook is very regimented as it's syncing...starts at the top...works its way down. Is intolerant of changes happening while its syncing.

 

[NETWizz]

That’s what I ran into. One folder had 892,000 emails. Ultimately I had already deleted the OST and it was in a rebuild then I went in to OWA and emptied it.

It kept saying 1B left then I would close and reopen and or would say 3.99 G…

I gave up. And closed outlook then deleted 892,000 emails in OWA. Then I add a Windows firewall rule to block Outlook, so it doesn’t connect to O365. I knew if had many 100k emails more than Exchange and it would take hours to remove and sync the deletions…. Instead…

From there I went to the properties of each respective folder and clicked “clean up offline content” or whatever it said to scrub that out of my OST. Effectively making two folders with no data in Ourlook. I followed this by closing Ourlook, removing my block rule, and launching the client.

It seemed to have no issues syncing folders wirh only now a few hundred items down down from exchange instantly.


What’s the fix? My mailbox size was 94 Gigabytes.

 

[callthatgirl]

1B is corruption. I can only offer help if I can remote in. You're a good member here so I'll do it at no charge.

 

[callthatgirl]

Plus I need to see this monster in person

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

That’s what I ran into. One folder had 892,000 emails. Ultimately I had already deleted the OST and it was in a rebuild then I went in to OWA and emptied it.

It kept saying 1B left then I would close and reopen and or would say 3.99 G…



What’s the fix? My mailbox size was 94 Gigabytes.

*First...you're approaching the 100 gig limit. Outlook will start getting pretty cranky as you approach it...yes as soon as the low 90's...which...you're approaching mid 90's. You need to figure out what to do with all that email. A quick fix is to go to your sent items folder...pick a date as to how far back you need to KEEP ...and then all email prior to that..delete. And then....don't forget to go and delete your deleted items folder...
**NOW...you need to keep the rest of your email? Go do your ONLINE ARCHIVING! It's a WONDERFUL thing. Set a rule, such as....all email older than (pick an age...like 3 years...or 2 years...or 5 years)....move to archive. Exchange does all the work for you, perfectly replicates your folder structure in the archive. And I say "online archive"...because Outlook won't sync those folders locally (so not OST to contribute to your max OST size for Outlook)

*So when Outlook is open and trying to sync a new OST....when you're OWA'd in and chopping away at things with an axe on the back end, and Outlook is trying to sync and keep up with these changes you're doing on the back end through OWA....it turns into a death spiral. Outlook is very..."One at a time...from top folder...to last folder..and then circle back to the top again and repeat the process" like..when it's syncing. Go do your chopping away at email through OWA....give it a little bit of time for the dust to settle on the mailbox end..go and delete your OST again and launch Outlook..and let it rebuild the OST. Since your mailbox will be settle down and standing fairly still....Outlook will be happier syncing that OST.

*Figure out something else for that crazy high volume of email flow for APC alerts...I'd take that out of the email....put it into something else, you must have a ticketing system, no? Or...I mentioned above..there's a few options for a centralized dashboard to monitor all your UPS's spread all around different sites....and let that thing be a funnel for your alerts.

 

[NETWizz]

Plus I need to see this monster in person

I Closed Outlook.

Then I made a rule to Block Outlook, so it couldn't check-in (it's disabled now):



Then I emptied the two offending folders in 365 (emptied Deleted Items Last):



Next I went to the deleted folder that kept giving me the 1B error and purged it...

Then I cleared the folder from the OST



... Closed Outlook

Disabled the Firewall Rule on Windows

Launched Outlook....


That took care of it

I did finally compact my OST in Outlook, too.

 

[NETWizz]

1B is corruption. I can only offer help if I can remote in. You're a good member here so I'll do it at no charge.

I do appreciate it though, but I figured it out. At worse, I just delete the OST file. Problem was this time it was getting caught dealing with over 1 million items and didn't finish.

I managed to fix it by pruning the heck out of my account.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

FYI..just to save time and keep things simple next time, you can set Outlook to "offline mode". Just a millisecond to push the button. This keeps it from sending/receiving.

Re: The OST. Just..delete it. None of that "compact OST crap", don't try to clean it, repair it, massage it, groom it. You'll just keep existing with a glitch/hiccup...may not surface its ugly head today, or tomorrow, or next week..but....there's a chance of it happening down the road. Just..delete the OST. (and empty the trash) Close Outlook...give it a few more seconds to un-stick its fingers from the OST...and then in file explorer..delete the OST.
Location is C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
Username..you can keep the wildcard, or replace it with your profiles name.

Launch Outlook, and Outlook will create a brand new, shiny, clean OST file.

 

[NETWizz]

FYI..just to save time and keep things simple next time, you can set Outlook to "offline mode". Just a millisecond to push the button. This keeps it from sending/receiving.
View attachment 15316
Re: The OST. Just..delete it. None of that "compact OST crap", don't try to clean it, repair it, massage it, groom it. You'll just keep existing with a glitch/hiccup...may not surface its ugly head today, or tomorrow, or next week..but....there's a chance of it happening down the road. Just..delete the OST. (and empty the trash) Close Outlook...give it a few more seconds to un-stick its fingers from the OST...and then in file explorer..delete the OST.
Location is C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
Username..you can keep the wildcard, or replace it with your profiles name.

Launch Outlook, and Outlook will create a brand new, shiny, clean OST file.

Except my OST was so big it usually would not fully sync …I tried that a few times

 

[callthatgirl]

How big was it?

 

[Porthos]

How big was it?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Except my OST was so big it usually would not fully sync …I tried that a few times

Yes I know...94 gigs...that's why I said to clear things up via OWA first...get that mailbox a bit smaller.

And then employ online archiving to finish up the rest.

After archiving kicks in (can take a day or so)....blow out the OST again and let it build again. When an OST gets big...and then you go and delete a TON of stuff that makes your mailbox go down in size...the OST won't shrink...so just blow it away and let a smaller one get created.

 

[NETWizz]

How big was it?

It was around 94 Gigabytes though only 50ish actually synced giving my 1 year setting.

How do you normally fix these problems @callthatgirl ??

Have you ever had luck with the SCANPST utility? I tried that at first and after taking numerous hours it never actually fixed anything. I pretty much went with YeOldeStonecat's solution.


I need to figure out how online archiving works.

 

[callthatgirl]

94 gigs on an OST is def an issue. If I would have seen that, I would have made a copy of it and put it in another directory or external hd. Not that it's fixable but I backup everything before I do any serious repair work.

Then I would have made a new profile, downloaded 1 year. See what happens, sounds like you has corruption from Outlook to the server and vice versa. If it was all jacked up in a new profile with 1 year, I would look at the OST size and see if it approx matches the folders view list size, if so, then it's probably ok. If the OST is way bigger, than I would go into inspection on the webmail and see what I can find. I also would look in the sync settings, that could be it but doubtful. I also would look in the inbox at the 0B files and move them to a PST file and get off the account. So many little things I guess. If hired, I have to fix it. Sounds like you did your best to slay the dragon lol.

Just for reference:

• Things I never do on a clients machine: Compact, compress or delete an OST file. I always make a copy and place somewhere else, this is a 100% must when fixing any broken IMAP accounts.
• I rarely delete profiles, unless it's the last option. I have only done it maybe two times in the last 17 years.
• I almost never need to "repair Outlook" when fixing issues.
• Before I do work with Outlook, I do an onboarding and review everything I can think of, I take a helluva lot of notes about accounts, size, backups I did, etc.
• If I see This Computer Only, I address this asap and offer Exchange instead of me fixing this.

 

[callthatgirl]

ScanPST is for PST files, not OST files, I use the OST to PST converter to get data out of OST files that have corrupted data in them.

ScanPST doesn't work so hot lately so I just run a repair tool online, seems to get all the data better.

 

[callthatgirl]

Online Archiving works for small amounts of data and more simple users. My power users hate it and I offer to migrate data to a 2nd exchange mailbox, works like a dream in Outlook vs online archiving that chokes the shitt out of Outlook.