Deleting Public Folders - Any Definitive Solution?

[Dave Onex]

Hi Folks;

I run Exchange 2000 Enterprise and have run into several instances over the
years where public folders were created but could not be deleted. For the
life of me I've never been able to find a definitive solution to this issue
so if you _know_ how please consider replying and putting me out of my
misery :-)

Example:

Set up a newsfeed, pull all the folders and then later decide to delete the
feed. This leaves hundreds (if not thousands) of public folders. Accessing
them in Outlook 2000 with a mailbox that has administrative rights has
_never_ allowed me to delete them. Going into ESM and right clicking to
Properties and then Security and adding my mailbox account, with FULL admin
priveledges will still not allow me to delete them from the Outlook client.

They also can't be deleted from the ESM unless I delete them, one by one,
through the newsfeed section.

So, there seems to be two issues I can never resolve - one is actually
getting admin rights over public folders such that I can delete them through
the Outlook client and two, is there any way to delete public folders en
masse?

Any answers would be appreciated!

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Dave Onex <da...@onex.com> wrote:
> Hi Folks;
>
> I run Exchange 2000 Enterprise and have run into several instances
> over the years where public folders were created but could not be
> deleted. For the life of me I've never been able to find a definitive
> solution to this issue so if you _know_ how please consider replying
> and putting me out of my misery :-)
>
> Example:
>
> Set up a newsfeed, pull all the folders and then later decide to
> delete the feed. This leaves hundreds (if not thousands) of public
> folders. Accessing them in Outlook 2000 with a mailbox that has
> administrative rights has _never_ allowed me to delete them. Going
> into ESM and right clicking to Properties and then Security and
> adding my mailbox account, with FULL admin priveledges will still not
> allow me to delete them from the Outlook client.

You're in the wrong place. You need to find the client permissions - and
then make yourself an owner.
PFDAVAdmin is a godsend -
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=635be792-d8ad-49e3-ada4-e2422c0ab424&displaylang=en

>
> They also can't be deleted from the ESM unless I delete them, one by
> one, through the newsfeed section.
>
> So, there seems to be two issues I can never resolve - one is actually
> getting admin rights over public folders such that I can delete them
> through the Outlook client and two, is there any way to delete public
> folders en masse?

I recommend you create a single parent folder and then you can delete
*that*. Do not create a bunch of PFs at the root.