Hi All

Simple outlook question.

Since I am doing nothing cloud based with regard to outlook, I am assuming essentially everything is on my computer.

So if I take an image of my system, and then muck about it outlook with email accounts, like say deleting one, creating a new one etc, and generally make a mess, am I correct that if I restore the image I took everything will be back like it was?

Thanks,

Pete

Yes. As far as Outlook is concerned. Of course if you make a new email account, you are creating that elsewhere than Outlook too.
Restoring an image will not uncreate that account. The same would be true of deleting an account. Who is hosting that account?
If you delete it from Outlook, that's fine. If you delete the account from the host, that's a different story.

What are you trying to solve, Pete? It is possible that creating a new profile will solve your issues. Or are you just playing?

_________________
Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Hi Patty

Oh I wish it were just play. See PM.

Pete

Can we help with OL 2010, Pete?

_________________
Best regards,
Manny Carvalho
MS-MVP since 2002

Thanks Manny

I had PM'd Patty, but let me take a shot here

On both of the old computers, When I set up Office 2010 I had setup 3 email accounts. They were(

Account@comcast.com (My main business email)
Account2@comcast.net (just a 2nd personal account)
Account@peoplepc.com(This was an email for forwarding Voicenation Voicemails.)

The third account was setup as I couldn't get the Voicenation to forward to Comcast.

In Outlook I had one set of folders under the name Outlook and all the emails came into this set of folders.

Then when I got the first of the new computers back in august I downloaded a more recent Office 2010 from the partners site. Install was clean and went well. The email accounts and folder setup all looked okay. But I never did test the send receive, as I've learned not to do that except from the computer I am actively using. (Note all three of these accounts were POP3 accounts.

Then over thanksgiving I replaced the computer I'd been using for business use. Again using the lastest download of Office Professional Plus 2010 I did a clean install, and then did a transfer of my Outlook settings. Everything looked okay, well almost. All the outlook files ended up where I'd expect, except for Outlook.pst. I moved it and managed to convince Outlook it was to use the new locations. Deleting the other files, said that now Outlook was indeed opening the correct PST. Emails looked okay, accounts looked okay. All seemed well.

Then I did a send receive. Ouch All three accounts through up error messages, that the accounts couldn't access the Outlook.pst file. Next thing I did was take an AX64 snapshot.

Then googling the error I came across a Microsoft support topic that seemed spot on. I talked about setting up a new profile, email accounts etc. So I waded in following each step to the letter. When I got done, my Outlook display looked like it had been scrambled. I literally didn't recognize it. So AX64 to the rescue, I reset back to where I'd been.

Then to simplify things, I deleted the PeoplePc account and the Account2 accounts. Did need them actually.

So now I had the one account Account@comcast.net a POP3 account that didn't work.

Then I remember in all the stuff that Microsoft article had me do was create a new account, and when I had it automatically setup up the Account@comcast account, but as an IMAP account. So I added a new email account Account@comcast.net, and let Outlook get the server setting, and it created a new IMAP account.

So now in email accounts I have two accounts.

Account@comcast.net (POP3) that doesn't work
Account@comcast.net (IMAP) that does work.

BUT....

Now in my navigation bar, I have all the regular folders I had, and a new set under Account@comcast.net, which is just an abbreviated set. My sister recognized what was going on. The new set were being treated as a secondary account.

So incoming emails go into the new set, an outgoing email is in the old folders and once sent it ends up in the sent folder of the new folders. Also every time I do a send receive, the old email account throws up the errors.

SO.......

Is there an easy way to put the whole thing back into one set of folders.

If not, how can I disable the old account send receive so I don't get the error.

And going back to my first question, as long as I have the backup, what would happen if I just deleted the old account?

Thanks Manny. You head might be spinning at this point.

Pete

I think that I got all of your email addresses edited out. *Never* post email addresses in forums as you are inviting spam by harvesting!

-steve

p.s. My head is spinning, so I can't offer you advice at the moment. If this is unanswered when my brain has had some time to rest I will take a stab at it for you.

-steve

_________________
stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Thanks Steve. I thought about that a bit and decided it didn't much matter. The main account does get some spam thanks to clients carelessness. The other two don't really matter.

It may come down to how to merge the two accounts. I just wanted to be complete.

Pete

OK. Sounds like you have multiple .pst files, and that the default location for sending email
was not changed when you made the new .pst file.

You may have used Outlook File/Open to open other .pst files and those are now
showing in the folder list. Close Outlook, go to Mail in Control Panel. Under Data Files,
you can set which set of personal folders will be the default folder for receiving email.
If you haven't been to the Mail Control Panel Applet, you might find it enlightening and you may
be able to figure out how to straighten out the whole mess.

I can't give you exact steps as I am no longer using a .pst file but a hosted Exchange .ost file.

Your email accounts are not stored in the .pst file, it's the one thing that isn't, and frankly
I'm not sure why Microsoft did it that way. So you can have a new .pst file that Outlook is
opening, while mail is still being routed to an old .pst file. If that old .pst file is still on the
computer, you can actually open it and find that all the new mail is in there.

Let me know if this info helps at all, and if I'm anywhere near your actual situation.

_________________
Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

You are very very close

There is indeed two pst files. There is the original Outlook.pst, and the new email@comcast.net.pst file. That is where the mails from the working email account is going.

So the next question is how to get this puppy back on track.

Pete

Morning all.

Did some homework last night.

1. Confirm the answer to my original question is yes. As long as I don't mess with the email accounts online, restoring an image does put back anything I may mess up on my computer.

2. In a nutshell there are three issues.

a) Two pst files. There is a lot on how to merge them together, either with Outlook itself, or a couple of well regarded external utililties
b) Two email accounts, with using the same Email address. One a POP3 account linked to Outlook.pst, that doesn't work, and another an IMAP account linked to the 2nd pst file that does work.
c) The bad email account allows changing target pst. The good one does not offer this option.

What I Propose doing (and I need your thoughts on this)

1. Image the system.
2. backup all emails by exporting them to PDF files.
3. Delete both email accounts.
4. Merge the pst files into one, Outlook.pst as it probably contains all the other information like contacts etc
5. Recreate the email account in outlook.

The first two are pretty for sure, your thoughts on the rest.


Pete

I'm not aware of any way to merge two PST files externally without potentially recreating your issues or making them worse.

Since you have two PST files, what you can easily do is create a brand new profile, and a new PST file. Then add your email account(s) to the profile.
The default location for receiving mail will be the new PST file.

Go to Import/Export, Import from a File, Personal Folders, navigate to one of the old PSTs and select to import to the new PST in the same folders. Contacts will import to the Contacts, Inbox to Inbox, etc.
Repeat the process for the 2nd PST file.
Expand the view to show all folders. If you see all three PST files in the list with a branch of folders, right click the old ones and select Close. Restart Outlook.

Or, open one of your other PST files. (File Open) Expand the folders.
Copy the folders (where they don't already exist on the new PST file) from the old PST to the new PST.
After completing, close the old PST and repeat for the other.

Or, choice 3... Close all PST files except the one you want to use as your newly merged PST. remove all email accounts. Add one back. Make sure that the delivery location for mail is that current PST. Check that Contact and Address Book work for this PST. (you can change what address books are used for addressing and adding to. The ideal configuration is to have it show one Contacts as the address book within that PST. Now use option 1 or 2 above to copy the stuff or import the stuff from the other PST into this one and then close that other PST.

-steve

_________________
stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Hi Steve

Thank you so much. I may wait until this weekend to give it a go. I've got the folders so there is no overlap in the date range of the emails.

I'll keep you posted.

Pete

As far as copying content from one .pst file to another, open the one you want to use and make sure it is the default. Open the other pst file using File/Open.
You will see the second set of personal folders listed under the first. Go to Folder view, expand all folders. Now select a folder from the bottom set, select all,
and drag it into the same named folder in the top set of personal folders. In other words, select everything in the Inbox, for example, of the bottom set, then
drag it up into the inbox of the top set. Do that for all folders, including contacts, calendar, notes, etc. Then all your stuff will be in the top set, and it will be
your default .pst file. Close the now empty (or pretty much) set of old personal folders (old .pst file). You can delete it if you wish.

If you changed the account to IMAP, you changed it at the host, so the old POP account for the same email address would no longer function. (Which is fine.)

There may still be a bit of tweaking to do, as Steve mentions, making sure you are showing your contacts as an Outlook Address Book. We can get into any
thing that's left when the main work is done.

_________________
Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Hi Guys

Okay and update and a few more questions.

Reminder: There are two pst files, Outlook(the original) and email@comcat.net (the new email file)

1. I checked and everything but the new email is still in the Outlook.pst and working.

2. Question: Patty, you mention opening the other pst with File/Open. When I fire up Outlook both pst files and there folders are already there. Am I missing something?

3. Question: Patty, Reading your instruction on moving stuff makes sense, but implies I don't need to set up a new profile, is this correct?

4. Emails: The old Pop3 account which doesn't work is attached to the Outlook.pst, and the new Imap email account(working) is attached to the new pst file is working.
In doing some google research it seems you can change folders on POP3 accounts but not on Imap accounts. So assuming I can move all the data from the new folders into the old folders in Outlook.pst, without a new profile suggests the following steps. Am I correct

a) Move the emails from the new folders to the old ones.
b) delete all the email accounts.
c) remove the email@comcast.net pst file
d) create a new POP3 email account, and if it creates a new psp, I can then move it to outlook.pst and remove any new pst file

Pete

PS I really do appreciate all the help

Let's see... what happens if you just go up to Comcast and change your account back to POP? Will they let you do that? I don't see why you need to do all
this account deleting. If the account worked as POP, then changing it online back to POP should make it work again.

If both your .pst files are open in Outlook, then you've already done that step and don't have to do it again. They will both open each time you open Outlook until
you actually close one set of folders.

Yes, I don't see why you need a new profile. That's normally used when a profile will not open or is corrupted. I don't see that here.

So you are saying that you cannot drag stuff from a set of IMAP folders to the POP folders, correct? I suppose that makes sense... maybe. Can you copy
from the IMAP set over to the POP set?

You don't need to delete all email accounts. Move (or copy) everything from the new pst file to the old (or vice versa, I don't care, just get it all into one).
Close the unwanted set of personal folders (after making sure it isn't the default - you can't close the default email delivery location). This straightens
out the .pst part of things. I would get a copy of the new .pst file with everything in it.

Getting your email account working again is a separate step, and really has nothing to do with the .pst file as it is not stored in the .pst file. And, btw, if you
wind up with a working Comcast.net pst file, you can rename it later back to Outlook.pst if you wish.

So getting your data all in one place and making it the default delivery location is the first step.

Now go up to Comcast and change your account back to pop3. Let me know if there are any issues with that. Do a send/receive. One of the accounts (or maybe
both) with error out. If POP works, you can just delete the imap account. Not sure why you want to go back to POP if IMAP is working - it is a better system.

Let me know where you are at and what is working/not working.

You're welcome!

_________________
Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Thanks Patty

I am going to wait until Saturday so there is a low probability of new email coming in.

Pete

YES...YES...YES!!!! Got it.

What I did.

1. Backup of course
2. As Patty suggested, I moved all the emails to the Outpost folders. Easy as pie.
3. Only way I could delete the email@comcast.pst, was to delete the email account, so I ended up with a single good pst file with no emails accounts.
4. Went into the control panel>mail set up and first tried an Imap account. It created a new pst file. Cleaned that up
5. Created a new pop3 account, and it wouldn't work.
6. When all else fails, use google. Found set up instructions for comcast and Outlook 2010. Voila, it worked like a charm. Seems a lot of setting worked and on new installs the old setting no longer worked.

The irony in this whole thing was when it started the problem was the email accounts had failed. Had I had been aware I could have gotten the instructions repaired the accounts and good to go. Oh the joy of computers.

Many thanks guys, your support was wonderful.

Pete