Duplicate Personal Folders referance (OL2003)

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Need help with an annoying problem. I have two sets of personal folder references in OL2003 and I only have one .PST file. It is like a mirror image and contains all the folders and subfolders but it does not take up any extra space. I would love to delete this reference and have tried everything. I believe the genesis was the Ol 2003 installation. When I copied my PST file over to the default OL folder, it did not have the “Update the link” message like in previous versions, but I am not sure. Pulling my hair out cause its annoying. Help appreciated.

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If it is the same PST showing twice, have you right clicked it and closed it?

In Outlook 2002, the duplicate service can be Removed without messing up the PST. From memory in Outlook 2002, this is accessed through File | File management | select the “shadow” PST, and Remove it. I hope this helps with Outlook 2003, but post back if not.

(It would help if you told us exactly what you tried as far as “have tried everything”.)

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John,
I have exactly the same problem (OL2003). In my Folder List, the top item is Personal Folders, followed by Calendar, Contacts, Deleted Items and so on right down to Search Folders. Then, directly under that is another Personal Folders with exactly the same folder hierarchy as the one above – everything is duplicated, including the contents of each folder.

When I look in Explorer under Documents and Settings……., there is only one Outlook.pst. I looked at your suggestion (file management) but again, there is only one “Outlook.pst”. I have the option to delete this but my concern is that this will delete everything. Any suggestions would be helpful.

One other point – in OLXP, one of the folders in the folder list was “Archived Folders”. I could view any of these folders from there. In 2003, although I have archived once or twice (again, in Explorer, Documents and Settings……, there is an Archive.pst file), the Archive folder is not displayed. The only way I can look at these archives is to rename Outlook.pst to something else and then rename Archive.pst to Outlook.pst. Any ideas?

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(Edited by JohnBF on 29-Jan-04 11:48. Clarification that only one of the duplicate PST needs to be closed.)

John, unless there are some other underlying problems in your setup (such as with profiles or other issues):

– for the PST that displays twice, all you should need to do is Right click on the top level of one of them and select Close.

– for the Archive Folders you want to see, all you should need to do is open them via the File Open dialog (browse to wherever they are). When you close Outlook it remembers which PST’s it last had open and should reopen them when next oopened.

Post back if this doesn’t help or you encounter a problem.

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Some progress John. Did what you suggested re. Archive Folder and now it appears in the folder list. As for the duplicate Personal Folders however, the “Close” option is greyed out for both of them.

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My mistake, since that PST is the same single physical file appearing twice it can’t be closed. I don’t have access to 2002 or 2003 now, so can’t be precise about the menus, but did you try the “Remove” suggestion I offered to the original poster in this thread?

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Didn’t try this. As I said, under file management, only one .pst file is displayed. I’m afraid that if I remove this, everything will be gone.

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Didn’t try this. As I said, under file management, only one .pst file is displayed. I’m afraid that if I remove this, everything will be gone.

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My mistake, since that PST is the same single physical file appearing twice it can’t be closed. I don’t have access to 2002 or 2003 now, so can’t be precise about the menus, but did you try the “Remove” suggestion I offered to the original poster in this thread?

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Some progress John. Did what you suggested re. Archive Folder and now it appears in the folder list. As for the duplicate Personal Folders however, the “Close” option is greyed out for both of them.

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(Edited by JohnBF on 29-Jan-04 11:48. Clarification that only one of the duplicate PST needs to be closed.)

John, unless there are some other underlying problems in your setup (such as with profiles or other issues):

– for the PST that displays twice, all you should need to do is Right click on the top level of one of them and select Close.

– for the Archive Folders you want to see, all you should need to do is open them via the File Open dialog (browse to wherever they are). When you close Outlook it remembers which PST’s it last had open and should reopen them when next oopened.

Post back if this doesn’t help or you encounter a problem.

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John,
I have exactly the same problem (OL2003). In my Folder List, the top item is Personal Folders, followed by Calendar, Contacts, Deleted Items and so on right down to Search Folders. Then, directly under that is another Personal Folders with exactly the same folder hierarchy as the one above – everything is duplicated, including the contents of each folder.

When I look in Explorer under Documents and Settings……., there is only one Outlook.pst. I looked at your suggestion (file management) but again, there is only one “Outlook.pst”. I have the option to delete this but my concern is that this will delete everything. Any suggestions would be helpful.

One other point – in OLXP, one of the folders in the folder list was “Archived Folders”. I could view any of these folders from there. In 2003, although I have archived once or twice (again, in Explorer, Documents and Settings……, there is an Archive.pst file), the Archive folder is not displayed. The only way I can look at these archives is to rename Outlook.pst to something else and then rename Archive.pst to Outlook.pst. Any ideas?

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Thank you for your reply. There does not seem to be a shadow PST as only one PST file is listed and I have never archived. The PST file cannot be closed. The option is not available in either file. Any other ideas??
Tim

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Thank you for your reply. There does not seem to be a shadow PST as only one PST file is listed and I have never archived. The PST file cannot be closed. The option is not available in either file. Any other ideas??
Tim

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If it is the same PST showing twice, have you right clicked it and closed it?

In Outlook 2002, the duplicate service can be Removed without messing up the PST. From memory in Outlook 2002, this is accessed through File | File management | select the “shadow” PST, and Remove it. I hope this helps with Outlook 2003, but post back if not.

(It would help if you told us exactly what you tried as far as “have tried everything”.)

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Have a look at this post. Set a Restore Point and it should work. HTH

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Thanks for the solution. I’m still sure that in some cases there’s a manual way to fix this, but I can’t find it right now, and my work day has gone to .

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Thanks for the solution. I’m still sure that in some cases there’s a manual way to fix this, but I can’t find it right now, and my work day has gone to .

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Have a look at this post. Set a Restore Point and it should work. HTH

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Just a thought — are you connected to an Exchange server? Could the duplicate set be the offline folders, which are an .ost file? If this is the case and the offline folders are are set to synchronize with the online folders, this would make sense. If you are working with POP accounts, I don’t know what’s going on — I use 2003 and have only one set of personal folders. Good luck, I hope you figure this out.

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Just a thought — are you connected to an Exchange server? Could the duplicate set be the offline folders, which are an .ost file? If this is the case and the offline folders are are set to synchronize with the online folders, this would make sense. If you are working with POP accounts, I don’t know what’s going on — I use 2003 and have only one set of personal folders. Good luck, I hope you figure this out.

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Okay, the problem is solved. I deleted the profile called “outlook” and launched outlook 2003 where it pro,pted me to create a new profile. I created a profile called tim lucas and then imported the pst file called outlook into the new PSZT file created called “outlook1”. After teh 860MB outlook pst file was imported, there was only one PST file. However, the new PST file is 200MB larger. Any ideas for that one??? It seems the import went well, I am going to archive the old PST just in case. Thanks for your help. In case it helps, running windows XP pro SP1 with OL 2003 professional.

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Seems to me that everyone missed the simplest solution.
Just copy (in Explorer) the “original” file to the same directory, rename it (example: OldOutlook.pst). then change the Original Outlook.pst to anything you like.
I usually use my own name (helps in identifying the .PST file.
Outlook will complain and ask where the file is – Point it to your newly named file.
I have several .PST files for different assignments (jobs, personal, family). Each one has only the components I need for that assignment.
Not one HUGE file and all are backed up once a week automatically.

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Seems to me that everyone missed the simplest solution.
Just copy (in Explorer) the “original” file to the same directory, rename it (example: OldOutlook.pst). then change the Original Outlook.pst to anything you like.
I usually use my own name (helps in identifying the .PST file.
Outlook will complain and ask where the file is – Point it to your newly named file.
I have several .PST files for different assignments (jobs, personal, family). Each one has only the components I need for that assignment.
Not one HUGE file and all are backed up once a week automatically.

Reply | Quote

Okay, the problem is solved. I deleted the profile called “outlook” and launched outlook 2003 where it pro,pted me to create a new profile. I created a profile called tim lucas and then imported the pst file called outlook into the new PSZT file created called “outlook1”. After teh 860MB outlook pst file was imported, there was only one PST file. However, the new PST file is 200MB larger. Any ideas for that one??? It seems the import went well, I am going to archive the old PST just in case. Thanks for your help. In case it helps, running windows XP pro SP1 with OL 2003 professional.

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