Yesterday I launched Outlook 2003 and my large collection of custom Groups and Shortcuts were gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Zapped.
This happens to me every six months or so. I don't have any unusual characters in the names of the Shortcuts.
It is a pain to recreate these.
I don't know the cause, based on Google searches I don't think this is a known Outlook 2003 bug. There's no appropriate entry in Microsoft's knowledge base.
It's probably something arising from my environment (a toxic mix of an advanced personal desktop and our ugly corporate infrastructure with lots of stuff being pushed to my desktop). I have very large PST files and I index using Microsoft's Live indexing (once called Windows Desktop Search).
So my questions are (all answers much appreciated):
1. Where are the shortcuts stored? Can I back them up? (If I could back them up it wouldn't bother me when they vanish). 2. Is anyone else seeing a recent spike in this problem?
In follow-up my own post, I've learned a bit more.
1. These are specifically "navigation pane" shortcuts. I've changed the title of the post to reflect this. 2. The fragility of Outlook 2003 navigation pane shortcuts has been discussed before: http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.outlook.general/brows... 3. They are supposedly stored in the outlook.xml file. Microsoft has a kb article describing where key Outlook configuration files are stored: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP030822101033.aspx: drive:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook \Outlook.xml
When I look in c:\Documents and Settings...Microsoft\Outlook there's no Outlook.xml file there at all!
I think that's a clue :-).
The disappearance of my Navigation Pane Shortcuts is presumably a side- effect of whatever is deleting my Outlook.xml file.
So now I know how to backup shortcuts (backup outlook.xml), but I don't know why Outlook.xml is being deleted.
> Yesterday I launched Outlook 2003 and my large collection of custom > Groups and Shortcuts were gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Zapped. > This happens to me every six months or so. I don't have any unusual > characters in the names of the Shortcuts. > I don't know the cause, based on Google searches I don't think this is > a known Outlook 2003 bug. There's no appropriate entry in Microsoft's > knowledge base. > It's probably something arising from my environment (a toxic mix of an > advanced personal desktop and our ugly corporate infrastructure with > lots of stuff being pushed to my desktop). I have very large PST files > and I index using Microsoft's Live indexing (once called Windows > Desktop Search). > So my questions are (all answers much appreciated): > 1. Where are the shortcuts stored? Can I back them up? (If I could > back them up it wouldn't bother me when they vanish). > 2. Is anyone else seeing a recent spike in this problem? > tags:jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, outlook, shortcut, shortcusts, outlook > 2003, exchange, bug, problem, defect
The directory that contains the XML file is indeed: C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Microsoft \Outlook
However, I've found a different file name in actual machines vs. the documentation:
1. According to Microsoft's documentation the file name should be outlook.xml 2. A colleague has it stored in "username.xml" where username is the XP login name. 3. I have it stored in "Default Outlook Profile.xml" with the form (changed angle brackets to square parens):
> In follow-up my own post, I've learned a bit more.
> 1. These are specifically "navigation pane" shortcuts. I've changed > the title of the post to reflect this. > 2. The fragility of Outlook 2003 navigation pane shortcuts has been > discussed before:http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.outlook.general/brows... > 3. They are supposedly stored in the outlook.xml file. Microsoft has a > kb article describing where key Outlook configuration files are > stored:http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP030822101033.aspx: > drive:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook > \Outlook.xml
> When I look in c:\Documents and Settings...Microsoft\Outlook there's > no Outlook.xml file there at all!
> I think that's a clue :-).
> The disappearance of my Navigation Pane Shortcuts is presumably a side- > effect of whatever is deleting my Outlook.xml file.
> So now I know how to backup shortcuts (backup outlook.xml), but I > don't know why Outlook.xml is being deleted.
> On Mar 26, 9:45 am,jfaughnan<jfaugh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Yesterday I launched Outlook 2003 and my large collection of custom > > Groups and Shortcuts were gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Zapped. > > This happens to me every six months or so. I don't have any unusual > > characters in the names of the Shortcuts. > > I don't know the cause, based on Google searches I don't think this is > > a known Outlook 2003 bug. There's no appropriate entry in Microsoft's > > knowledge base. > > It's probably something arising from my environment (a toxic mix of an > > advanced personal desktop and our ugly corporate infrastructure with > > lots of stuff being pushed to my desktop). I have very large PST files > > and I index using Microsoft's Live indexing (once called Windows > > Desktop Search). > > So my questions are (all answers much appreciated): > > 1. Where are the shortcuts stored? Can I back them up? (If I could > > back them up it wouldn't bother me when they vanish). > > 2. Is anyone else seeing a recent spike in this problem? > > tags:jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, outlook, shortcut, shortcusts, outlook > > 2003, exchange, bug, problem, defect
jfaughnan <jfaugh...@gmail.com> wrote: > The directory that contains the XML file is indeed: > C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Microsoft > \Outlook
> However, I've found a different file name in actual machines vs. the > documentation:
> 1. According to Microsoft's documentation the file name should be > outlook.xml > 2. A colleague has it stored in "username.xml" where username is the > XP login name. > 3. I have it stored in "Default Outlook Profile.xml" with the form > (changed angle brackets to square parens):
The name of the file always matched the name of your mail profile. -- Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]
Phew. That makes sense. So the microsoft kb article is incorrect, and the variation arises from variations in the mail profile.
My best guess now is that I'm losing my Navigation Pane shortcuts because something is trashing my "Default Outlook Profile.xml" file. Now that I know where this file is, I can back it up (beauty of XML -- I can even simply restore a portion of it).
Have you heard of anything recently that would trash that file?
> jfaughnan<jfaugh...@gmail.com> wrote: > > However, I've found a different file name in actual machines vs. the > > 1. According to Microsoft's documentation the file name should be > > outlook.xml > > 2. A colleague has it stored in "username.xml" where username is the > > XP login name. > > 3. I have it stored in "Default Outlook Profile.xml" with the form > > (changed angle brackets to square parens): > The name of the file always matched the name of your mail profile. > Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]
Since my last post we've figured out that the XML file in
drive:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook \
where Outlook stores the Navigation Pane user defined shortcuts is named after the Exchange profile when Exchange is used, and may be named "outlook.xml" when Exchange is not used. In my case it is named: "Default Outlook Profile.xml".
Reviewing backups I found this file was truncated from 19K to 3K about 3 days ago.
I used a text editor to put the old userdefined data into the new file.
This restored the shortcuts -- but the shortcuts that reference my local PST files no longer work. Clicking on them produces this error message:
"The messaging interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem persists, restart Outlook".
I thought then to add a new instance of an existing Shortcut so I could compare the XML and see what was broken. Once I did this, however, the error went away. I'm guessing that adding the new Shortcut caused Outlook to refresh some binary file that was out of sync with the XML file.
So now I've restored my old Navigation Pane Shortcuts and I've defined a restore procedure to follow:
1. Restore old file. 2. Copy and past in user defined section. 3. Create one new shortcut to cause Outlook to rebuild some hidden binary and remove the messaging error.
I don't, however, know why they disappeared in the first place. This XML file stores a number of items and references, so it's possible that the problem lies in that domain, and my Navigation Pane Shortcuts were merely innocent bystanders wiped out by an unrelated bug.
john jfaugh...@spamcop.net tags: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, outlook, bug, defect, error, navigation pane shortcuts, vanish, disappear, XML file, configuration data, outlook 2003, gone
On Mar 26, 4:22 pm, jfaughnan <jfaugh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> [userdefined] > [linkgroup name="Shortcuts"] > [wdLnk] > [ltype]shortcut[/ltype] > [eid]45253 ... 54352145[/eid] > [name]Microsoft Office Online[/name] > [webfolder]1[/webfolder] > [clsid]86F0060...0000046[/clsid] > [icondata][/icondata] > [/wdLnk] > [/linkgroup] > [linkgroup name="test"] > [wdLnk] > [ltype]shortcut[/ltype] > [reckey]000000002B...000[/reckey] > [eid]00...33C90000[/eid] > [name]Inbox[/name] > [storeid]1[/storeid] > [clsid]007806...0046[/clsid] > [icondata][/icondata] > [/wdLnk] > [/linkgroup] > [/userdefined] > > In follow-up my own post, I've learned a bit more. > > 2. The fragility of Outlook 2003 navigation pane shortcuts has been > > discussed before:http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.outlook.general/brows... > > 3. They are supposedly stored in the outlook.xml file. Microsoft has a > > kb article describing where key Outlook configuration files are > > stored: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP030822101033.aspx > > drive:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook > > \Outlook.xml
[The kb is wrong here, the name of the file is not necessarily "outlook.xml". It may be named with the string Outlook associates with the Exchange user profile. I think if Outlook is not used with Exchange server it may be "outlook.xml".]
> > On Mar 26, 9:45 am,jfaughnan<jfaugh...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Yesterday I launched Outlook 2003 and my large collection of custom > > > Groups and Shortcuts were gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Zapped. > > > This happens to me every six months or so. I don't have any unusual > > > characters in the names of the Shortcuts. > > > I don't know the cause, based on Google searches I don't think this is > > > a known Outlook 2003 bug. There's no appropriate entry in Microsoft's > > > knowledge base.
jfaughnan <jfaugh...@gmail.com> wrote: > Phew. That makes sense. So the microsoft kb article is incorrect, and > the variation arises from variations in the mail profile.
You'll notice that for all the other files that article mentions, with the exception of outlprnt, no other file's name is mentioned, only the extension. Many of the files have names derived from the profile name. Some, like outcmd.dat, have fixed names, but most do not.
> My best guess now is that I'm losing my Navigation Pane shortcuts > because something is trashing my "Default Outlook Profile.xml" file. > Now that I know where this file is, I can back it up (beauty of XML -- > I can even simply restore a portion of it).
> jfaughnan<jfaugh...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Phew. That makes sense. So the microsoft kb article is incorrect, and > > the variation arises from variations in the mail profile.
> You'll notice that for all the other files that article mentions, with the > exception of outlprnt, no other file's name is mentioned, only the > extension. Many of the files have names derived from the profile name. > Some, like outcmd.dat, have fixed names, but most do not.
> > My best guess now is that I'm losing my Navigation Pane shortcuts > > because something is trashing my "Default Outlook Profile.xml" file. > > Now that I know where this file is, I can back it up (beauty of XML -- > > I can even simply restore a portion of it).
