For much of the last year my calendar randomly dropped appointments. Since many of my meetings are with customers, this became a major problem. I've discovered that many of my friends and colleagues suffer from the same calendar issues but assume there is no cure. If this sounds familiar, read-on!
Introduced with Outlook 2003, Cached Exchange Mode produces huge performance gains, and search really works! Disabling cached mode completely eliminated my random issues, but Outlook became completely unusable - particularly with our remote server farm. Each click was an 80 km round-trip, and search was again useless.
[What I really
want is the ability to cache only email while leaving the calendar
tethered to the server, but this is not currently an option with
Outlook.]
The
IT server support team eventually suggested a fairly simple fix: exit
Outlook, delete any .ost file(s) and then re-start Outlook. No re-boot
required. This eliminated the calendar problems and allowed
me to re-enable cached mode with confidence. The support team further
recommended proactively deleting the .ost file(s) every 2-3 months;
apparently corruption risk increases with .ost file age. Microsoft
provides a tool to fix .ost files (Outlook 2003 & 2007), but simply deleting the file is fast, 100% effective, and Outlook is available for use immediately.
Just
be sure to rebuild your .ost file only while on the high-speed LAN, as
this takes my laptop several hours over a GbE connection. If you can't
easily connect over the corporate LAN, then the Microsoft tool is
probably a better choice, but the tool is also a very lengthy
proposition and only available while Outlook is closed. The .ost file
is located by default in following obscure location: C:\Documents and
Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\.
The root issue is a corruption in the .ost file due to "unplanned" disconnection of Outlook from the Exchange server. Hot un-docking is a prime culprit, as is losing VPN with Outlook open (?!?!). This suggests that the best practice while on a flaky VPN connection is to work in offline mode, and periodically initial a manual sync.
I had the same problem and could solve it with OutlookFIX. It also allows us to fix software outlook pst file
Posted by: juan | November 02, 2009 at 04:05 AM