Another workstation has modified a PST file?

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I use Outlook 2010 version 14.0.6023.1000 (32-bit), part of Microsoft Office Click-to-Run version 14.0.5139.5005, to send and receive four POP3 mail accounts.

A couple of weeks ago (I wish I’d noted the exact date), Outlook stopped exhibiting one annoying behavior and began displaying another, much more annoying, behavior.

The annoyance that went away: If there was only one message in my in-box and I deleted that message, the message would disappear from the list of messages (the middle column), but would remain displayed in the Reading Pane. I had to click on another e-mail account, or go to Calendar or Contacts, then return to the original e-mail account to clear the Reading Pane display. That was a minor nuisance, but I was able to work around it.

The new annoyance that won’t go away: Every few hours (the timing seems to be totally random), Outlook begins throwing up Send/Receive errors. When I display the details, the error message reads “Receiving ‘reported error (0x800300FD): ‘Unknown Error 0x800300FD.'”

When the Send/Receive errors pop up, clicking on one of the accounts, and sometimes on Calendar and Contacts, causes the following message to be displayed on a gray background in the Reading Pane: “The file c:users(username)appdatalocalmicrosoftoutlookaccountname.pst cannot be accessed because another workstation has modified it. Close and then restart all mail-enabled applications. You might need to restart your computer.” The POP3 account that gives me the error on any one occurrence seems to be random.

What other workstation? This is a home PC. I have a WiFi network with another workstation and a laptop, but neither of the other PCs runs Outlook, and the Send/Receive errors occur whether or not either PC is running. The PC with the problem does not have anything running in the background that monitors file status (I’m thinking of backup programs like Carbonite). For backup, I use Cobian Backup, which does a batch backup once a day. In addition, as far as I’m aware nothing else, in terms of new programs being installed or given major updates, happened around the time these errors started appearing.

Outlook checks four different POP3 accounts every 5 minutes. The Send/Receive errors seem to occur with any of the four accounts, at random. Investigating the “unknown error” part of the problem, I saw claims that the PST file in question had been corrupted, and recommendations to use SCANPST.EXE to repair the file. I tried that, several times, but the Send/Receive errors continued to occur.

In fact, I’m convinced the PST files are not corrupt and never have been: When the Send/Receive errors pop up, the (temporary) solution is simply to shut down and restart Outlook. That has worked every time, but it’s annoying to have to keep rebooting Outlook.

I also tried to resolve the problem by going to the Programs and Features control panel and doing a repair on Microsoft Office. The repair successfully completed, but it did nothing to resolve the problem.

Has anyone else been experiencing this problem? More importantly, does anyone have a suggestion as to how to make it stop?

Larry

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Do you have Office 2010 SP1 installed?

Have you tried emptying your Temp folder?

Have you tried emptying your Outlook TIF? Hidden folders in your TIF structure.
C:UsersYOUR USER NAMEAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet Files. Open a command windows. Enter DIR /A. Enter CD Content.MSO. Emtpy this folder.

Joe

--Joe

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Do you have Office 2010 SP1 installed?

Yes.

Have you tried emptying your Temp folder?

Hadn’t tried it; just did.

Have you tried emptying your Outlook TIF? Hidden folders in your TIF structure.
C:UsersYOUR USER NAMEAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet Files. Open a command windows. Enter DIR /A. Enter CD Content.MSO. Emtpy this folder.

Joe

Hadn’t tried it. Just did.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed and report back. Thanks!

–Larry

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Thanks for the suggestions, but none of them helped. I just now got another Send/Receive error and had to restart Outlook to make it work again. Same symptoms, same temporary solution (restarting Outlook).

Anything else I can try?

–Larry

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Sometimes a mail profile becomes corrupted and nothing seems to fix it. You can create a new mail profile. See How to create and configure a new mail profile for details.

Joe

--Joe

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I would still like to know what other “workstation” is reputedly grabbing hold of or modifying the PST file(s) to cause this error. Or is that message not to be trusted as to accuracy?

–Larry

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Sometimes a mail profile becomes corrupted and nothing seems to fix it. You can create a new mail profile. See How to create and configure a new mail profile for details.

Joe

I followed your advice and created a new Outlook profile. Nothing changed. Within a couple of hours, Outlook threw the same series of errors, beginning with the Send/Receive error messages. Once again, closing down and restarting Outlook cleared up the errors and the program performed normally, but only temporarily.

I’m now out of ideas and beginning to contemplate using some other e-mail client, since nothing seems to resolve this issue. I would very much appreciate any other suggestions. Thanks for your help so far.

–Larry

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Outlook continues to throw up Send/Receive errors, as described above. I happened to be sitting at the computer when it happened a few minutes ago. When I shut down and tried to relaunch Outlook, I received the following error message, in a window titled simply “Microsoft Outlook”:

“Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The file C:(username)DocumentsOutlook Files(mailfile).pst is in use and cannot be accessed. Close any application that is using this file, and then try again. You might need to restart your computer.”

After waiting a minute or so, I was able to relaunch the program, so whatever it was that had hold of the file had released it.

Given all the wonderful utilities available for Windows, is there any way to find out what program or process is accessing and/or modifying the PST file? I’m still tearing out what little is left of my hair trying to figure out why this continues to happen.

–Larry

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I’ll try that, but the Send/Receive error (followed by the other symptoms) picks on all four of my mail accounts (PST files), seemingly at random. Are you suggesting that all four profiles become corrupted, at random, and need to be recreated when this happens? That could get old very quickly.

And you need to remember that shutting down and restarting Outlook resolves the problem temporarily every time. I would think that a corrupt profile would cause somewhat more consistent errors that a simple restart of the application wouldn’t fix.

–Larry

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All the accounts are in the same email profile. I can’t find any other useful information about the error. Sorry but I’m out of ideas.

I’d say the message may be somewhat generic and not entirely accurate.

BTW, have you run a complete A/V scan?

Joe

--Joe

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Thanks, I wasn’t aware that all the information was stored in one profile. I’ll try recreating them (couldn’t hurt).

Regarding A/V scans, some sort of infection was one possibility I thought of early on. I run Webroot Internet Security Essentials, and have for several years. It does real-time monitoring for bad guys, and I’ve done two full scans since this problem cropped up. In addition, I’ve scanned the PC at least twice with Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. All of these scans have indicated a clean machine.

I don’t have a lot of confidence that rebuilding the profiles will resolve the issue, but I’ll give it a try. In the meantime, I’d be interested in hearing from anyone else who has experienced the same issue, and how (hopefully) they resolved it.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

–Larry

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One thing I thought of after I had quit thinking about this :huh:

If your A/V scans incoming email try disabling it for a time.

Joe

--Joe

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Webroot Internet Security Essentials (the package I use for A/V protection) has an option to scan incoming email attachments. I turned that off a long time ago, because of flaky behavior, the details of which I forget. I just checked, and I still have email scanning turned off. Worth checking, though!

–Larry

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I would say it’s Outlook itself. You can try and open Task Manager and if you do, you will probably find out Outlook is still running.

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I would say it’s Outlook itself. You can try and open Task Manager and if you do, you will probably find out Outlook is still running.

That might well be, but for the sake of troubleshooting, I’m hoping it isn’t. Barring someone here pulling a miracle out of their hat and providing a cause and solution, I’m hoping to “trap” whatever it is that Outlook thinks is modifying the PST files.

I tried to (re)start Outlook several times after that latest occurrence over the course of a minute or so, and got that message several times before Outlook successfully restarted. Could Outlook really still be running all that time, and, if so, what is it doing? This is a simple, stand-alone installation, with very few messages stored at any given time (I empty the “Deleted Items” folder at least once a day, and don’t keep any given message around for very long). Plus, almost every time when I’ve had to restart Outlook, I haven’t had to wait at all between shutting down the program and restarting it, other than the time it takes to mouse over to the icon on the Taskbar.

–Larry

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That might well be, but for the sake of troubleshooting, I’m hoping it isn’t. Barring someone here pulling a miracle out of their hat and providing a cause and solution, I’m hoping to “trap” whatever it is that Outlook thinks is modifying the PST files.

I tried to (re)start Outlook several times after that latest occurrence over the course of a minute or so, and got that message several times before Outlook successfully restarted. Could Outlook really still be running all that time, and, if so, what is it doing? This is a simple, stand-alone installation, with very few messages stored at any given time (I empty the “Deleted Items” folder at least once a day, and don’t keep any given message around for very long). Plus, almost every time when I’ve had to restart Outlook, I haven’t had to wait at all between shutting down the program and restarting it, other than the time it takes to mouse over to the icon on the Taskbar.

–Larry

Larry,

Outlook many times keeps running after the interface is gone. In version 2007, there was even a small app (that I bought), that would make sure Outlook would die, by forcing add-ins to shutdown properly. Even with 2010, I sometimes kill it manually, when I want to shut it down and restart it again, so I have seen Outlook “refusing” to shutdown for a while, after the interface has already been closed.

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You can use a tool such as Process Monitor. It produces an enormous amount of data and you’ll have to play with it a bit to get the filtering down but it is very good. Plus, the bonus of being free.

Joe

--Joe

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You can use a tool such as Process Monitor. It produces an enormous amount of data and you’ll have to play with it a bit to get the filtering down but it is very good. Plus, the bonus of being free.

Joe

I have Process Monitor, but I’ve never used it much. I’ll see if I can get it to help me troubleshoot this mess.

In the meantime, I’m open to any and all other suggestions and/or inspiration.

–Larry

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I’ve resolved the issue, but its origin is a mystery. The culprit appears to have been Windows Search.

Over the course of several hours, I ran the Process Monitor application, with a filter set for the PST file that is usually the most active. I determined that, other than a couple of other system processes that occasionally appeared, the most interesting entry was Windows Search (unfortunately, I’ve deleted the log file, so I can’t give the exact name of the process, but it pointed directly to Windows Search).

From Outlook, I went to File, Options, Search, then clicked on Indexing Options. As I quickly learned, this took me to the Indexing Options Control Panel. I unchecked the Outlook Files entry, then continued monitoring with Process Monitor.

Outlook has now been running smoothly for almost 48 hours. I haven’t experienced the Send/Receive or “Another workstation has modified a PST file” errors since excluding Outlook files from Windows Search. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the issue is finally resolved.

Excluding Outlook files from Windows Search is, fortunately, no big deal for me, since I don’t maintain massive amounts of important information in Outlook which I might need Windows Search to find. Others who encounter this issue might be more inconvenienced, but In my case I’m a happy camper.

My curiosity being what it is, I have to wonder what changed a couple of weeks ago to cause this conflict in the first place. I may never know, but I’m certainly glad the problem has gone away.

My thanks to everyone who provided helpful advice, especially JoeP517. Process Monitor turned out to be exactly the tool I needed to troubleshoot this issue.

–Larry

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That’s quite an interesting finding. Well done for persevering.
Glad you sorted your problem.

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The saga continues; more weirdness now, related to the above…

I restarted the PC earlier today. A few hours later, Outlook again began throwing up the Send/Receive and “Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The file C:(username)DocumentsOutlook Files(mailfile).pst is in use and cannot be accessed” errors.

I immediately visited the Indexing Options Control Panel. Somehow, “Outlook Files” was once again selected for inclusion.

I restarted the machine, but didn’t yet launch Outlook. Checking the Indexing Options Control Panel, “Outlook Files” was not selected.

I launched Outlook, then opened the Indexing Options Control Panel (from Windows, not from inside Outlook). “Outlook Files” wasn’t included in the list.

From Outlook, I I went to File, Options, Search, then clicked on Indexing Options. There it was: “Outlook Files” was once again in the list.

I tried simply quitting and restarting Outlook; this does not cause “Outlook Files” to be re-included.

The bottom line seems to be that every time I restart this PC, then launch Outlook, “Outlook Files” is added back into the indexing, and that causes the Send/Receive and other errors to return.

Once again, any ideas as to how to make this stop would be much appreciated.

–Larry

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I have the same exact configuration (no mail search) and experience no problems. Have you tried to click the advanced button and unchecking pst from the indexable file types?

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After my last post (#21), I discovered that I could also exclude the PST file type from the indexing process. I unchecked that file type in the hope that it might finally prevent the Send/Receive errors from occurring. So far, anyway, excluding “Outlook files” and excluding the PST file type seem to have stopped the errors, but it’s still early days. The errors often don’t occur until hours after launching Outlook and letting it run.

I’m curious: Is there a reason you’ve omitted mail files from the search index? I seem to be the only person so far who has experienced these problems, and if there are others, I would be interested in sharing experiences. Also, have you unchecked PST from the file types that are indexed?

Thanks for responding!

–Larry

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After my last post (#21), I discovered that I could also exclude the PST file type from the indexing process. I unchecked that file type in the hope that it might finally prevent the Send/Receive errors from occurring. So far, anyway, excluding “Outlook files” and excluding the PST file type seem to have stopped the errors, but it’s still early days. The errors often don’t occur until hours after launching Outlook and letting it run.

I’m curious: Is there a reason you’ve omitted mail files from the search index? I seem to be the only person so far who has experienced these problems, and if there are others, I would be interested in sharing experiences. Also, have you unchecked PST from the file types that are indexed?

Thanks for responding!

–Larry

I don’t like Windows Search. Probably the most annoying thing it does is to start indexing during the boot process, contributing to delay what is already a not very fast boot.
Anyway, when I search email, I just want to search email. When I search for a file, I just want to search for a file, not email messages. To solve the email searching issue, I use Xobni, that is much more accurate and the interface is much more intuitive and friendly than the one that comes with searching email from Outlook.

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I don’t like Windows Search. Probably the most annoying thing it does is to start indexing during the boot process, contributing to delay what is already a not very fast boot.
Anyway, when I search email, I just want to search email. When I search for a file, I just want to search for a file, not email messages. To solve the email searching issue, I use Xobni, that is much more accurate and the interface is much more intuitive and friendly than the one that comes with searching email from Outlook.

If the Windows Search service is not set to delayed start it can be without affecting other services. See Startup processes and delayed automatic start for more information. Note, that the article talks about Windows Server 2008 but is applicable to Vista, Server 2008 R2, & Win7.

If you use Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 and use the search within the product all you search is what is indexed for Outlook.

Joe

--Joe

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@Larry – is your user account an admin account?

Under which account is the Windows Search service running?

Have you changed the UAC settings?

Joe

--Joe

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@Larry – is your user account an admin account?

Yes.

Under which account is the Windows Search service running?

The one and only account on the machine, which is the administrator account.

Have you changed the UAC settings?

Not since I first received the PC from Dell, several months ago. I certainly haven’t messed with those settings since long before this issue cropped up.

–Larry

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I have PST files indexed on multiple machines without a problem. Is your PST file very large? Is this a new PC where indexing may not have had a chance to complete yet? Do you turn the machine off regularly so the initial indexing will take longer to complete?

Joe

--Joe

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I have PST files indexed on multiple machines without a problem. Is your PST file very large?

I have Outlook set up to send and receive messages using four different POP3 accounts. The e-mail account I use most of the time is 4,233KB as of this writing. The other three, which I keep “clean” (I delete most messages after I read them), are each 265KB.

As you can see, my copy of Outlook doesn’t exactly handle massive amounts of information, which is one reason I’m mystified as to why I’m experiencing these difficulties.

Is this a new PC where indexing may not have had a chance to complete yet?

I wouldn’t think so; this PC has been up and running (pretty much 24/7) since April of this year.

Do you turn the machine off regularly so the initial indexing will take longer to complete?

No, not counting occasional restarts and the rare weekend away from home, the PC is always on.

–Larry

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The Windows Search service which shows up as the Search Indexer in the Task Manager Processes tab should be running under the System account not a user account.

Joe

--Joe

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The Windows Search service which shows up as the Search Indexer in the Task Manager Processes tab should be running under the System account not a user account.

Joe

SearchIndexer.exe is running under the account named NT AUTHORITYSYSTEM.

–Larry

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I’ve really exhausted my guesses now. I just don’t know what to ask or suggest now.

Joe

--Joe

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I’ve really exhausted my guesses now. I just don’t know what to ask or suggest now.

Joe

Thanks for all the suggestions. The only thing I can think of is the possibility of some weird interaction/conflict with another program or process, or some subtle change caused by a recent Windows Update. I’m still open to any and all suggestions or inspired guesses.

–Larry

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Maybe some “background processing” overnight will turn something up.

Joe

--Joe

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Maybe some “background processing” overnight will turn something up.

Joe

Please don’t do what I do when I’m struggling with a problem: Wake up in the middle of the night with the solution. I’ve lost more sleep that way… :rolleyes:

–Larry

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The problem still remains, and it still somehow involves Windows Search.

Every time I restart the PC, then start Outlook, if I wait long enough (usually a couple of hours; it varies), the Send/Receive errors return and I’m forced to shut down, then relaunch Outlook.

I tried unchecking PST files from the types of files that are indexed (from the Indexing Options Control Panel, Advanced, File Type tag), but that wasn’t enough. Even with the PST file type excluded from indexing (but with Microsoft Outlook files included in the list of “Included Locations”; this gets reset somehow every time I restart the PC), the Send/Receive errors popped up again eventually.

I’m still looking for any assistance I can get on resolving this maddening issue.

–Larry

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The Microsoft Outlook files are the .PST files. I guess that the inclusion of Outlook in the included Locations overrides the PST exclusion.You need to change the indexing to exclude Outlook.

Joe

--Joe

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The Microsoft Outlook files are the .PST files.

I’m aware of that; that’s why I tried excluding PST from the File Types list.

I guess that the inclusion of Outlook in the included Locations overrides the PST exclusion. You need to change the indexing to exclude Outlook.

That’s what I just found out the hard way, and I have to remember to do that every time I restart the PC.

Every time I restart the PC, something (I fervently wish I knew what) is adding Outlook Files back into the list of Included Locations in Indexing Options. However, it does NOT cause the box in the File Types list to be checked for PST files. I had hoped that simply unchecking PST in the File Types list would resolve the issue (or at least not require me to manually mess around with Indexing Options every time I restart the PC). That’s not enough; even with PST files remaining unchecked in the File Types list, as long as the Outlook Files entry is forced back into the Included Locations list after a PC reboot, Outlook sooner or later throws up the errors. I’m getting tired of having to reset it every time I reboot the machine.

–Larry

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I’ve never seen the search locations automatically reset on a home PC. Do you have some third party software that prevents permanent registry changes?

Joe

--Joe

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I’ve never seen the search locations automatically reset on a home PC. Do you have some third party software that prevents permanent registry changes?

Joe

This is what mystifies me. I don’t have any sort of third party software that would block that sort of thing, and I certainly didn’t install anything like that around the time this issue began to appear. All I can think of is that some automatic update or another (Windows? Office? Webroot? totally-obscure-and-otherwise-ignored-software?) at about that time is causing a conflict. And I seem to be the one person bitten by it, which I find very strange.

Curiouser and curiouser.

–Larry

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Just a wild thought from someone with a similar problem. I got the same message about “Outlook.pst cannot be accessed because another workstation has modified it” and am running OL 2010 on a local computer without Exchange where I am the only user, so, on the surface, the message didn’t make sense.

The wild thought I had was wondering if, depending upon how gMail users might have configured their relationship with Outlook, might changes made from the gMail client, once migrated to OL, be considered to be modifications made by “another workstation”? A case in point (perhaps) might be why I started receiving this message: I was travelling for a week or so and wasn’t going to have my desktop with me, so rather than setting an OL calendar reminder for a task I wanted to stay on top of, I set up a repeating Google Calendar item, which, with my settings, eventually got pushed to OL whenever I got back home.

I haven’t verified any of this – just throwing it out for consideration.

Jeff

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This thread has gone pretty quiet. Has anyone found a solution? I have developed exactly the same problem in the past month.

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