outlook 2000 wont import

[Vic 970]

I've just got my system up & running after re-format, all has gone well exept that Ican't get outlook to import my backups.

I exported .pst file to CDRW also copied...,

Windows\Favourites
Windows\application data\microsoft\address book
Windows\applications data\microsoft outlook

outlook absolutely refused to import the .pst file (yet I have done it before from hdd but on another pc)

so I copied the above into their proper locations, over-writing the existing,empty,new ones. now it tells me the paths are changed and cannot set them up, saying see the help file. I've looked and there is nothing there to assist.

[Paul Komski]

Hi Vic; was the .pst file read only (having been burned to cd)?
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q258468&

Looks like you'll have to uninstall reinstall Outlook to get the paths back correctly.

[Vic 970]

hi Paul,

Thanks I had'nt seen that, however I did get some of it back last night by accident.
.pst bkp was on CDRW which I had in my rom drive, but after doing a detect & repair (Office disc in rom drive) I put CD in RW drive, got the option to view & both sets of personal folders came up in outlook, I then copied the contents of the old folders to the new and deleted the old.
calender & contacts wouldn't co-operate so I copied the info to put back in later. my folders are in order now but I keep getting the following message when outlook starts...,

" The location messages are delivered to has changed for this user profile. To complete this operation, you may need to copy the contents of the old outlook folders. For information about how to complete the change of your mail delivery location, see Microsoft Outlook Help.
Some of the shortcuts on the Outlook bar may no longer work. Do you want Outlook to recreate your shortcuts? All shortcuts you have created will be removed."

[deddard]

Had problems like this myself. What the solution is is anyone's guess! I had a win 98 machine hooked up to the net via a 56k, using outlook express. On the latest machine I have outlook 2000 and a cable, so naturally i transfered everything over. Well I TRIED to transfer everything! Outlook would not import address books etc, so after much ranting and raving, I gave it up as a bad job, and inputted the things manually.
Don't you just love microsoft?:D

[Vic 970]

Looks like I'll be doing the same. I did get some folders (which I had ceated myself) to import but not calender or contacts, inbox etc. I had to transfer the data.

I have just re-installed w2000 on another partition, I will install outlook on that and try to import into it, then (whatever happens) I will un-install from my main (C) partition and re-install.

If I have Any success I will post back for anyone getting the prob in the future, but I'm not optomistic.

[Vic 970]

well I put w2000 on another partition, installed office 2000 into that, imported pst files from bkp. NO PROBLEM.

so I un-installed office from w98se on the other partition and re-installed. SAME PROBLEMS.

I uninstalled again, did a search, found all items left behind by office (even though it reported "completel;y un-installed) ran reg cleaner, cleaned out all excess entries. then re-installed office.
SAME PROBLEMS.

but all my folders were there, mail accounts etc. whereas it should have come up clean & empty.

it's really annoying me now :mad: when you un-install something, it should no longer be there, right? then you do a re-install & start from scratch?

I,ve even d/l a utility (from M$ office site) to modify the user profile, but guess what, it doesn't exist (according to M$ instructions)

so where do I go from here?

[Vic 970]

well the problem seems to hinge on multiple users on a network pc, as far as I can figure, but none of that applies.

However I notice that when I access the net a thing called 'connection manager' appears, checks my connection, states that it's ok, then connects.
Never had this (prog) before !!!

and it appears that there is a problem with it, (multiple network users)

I can't find it anywhere though to do anything with.

anyone know more about it? and how to disable, delete or whatever?
------------------------------
another prob is that I dont get any sound from web pages (whereas I used to) I have been into options and the relative boxes are checked.

[Paul Komski]

If it's M$ Connection Manager, this is a program that MS distributes and is mostly used by some ISPs, which they distribute to their clients. It is, if you like, a customised DUN. I stopped using my own ISP's one because it always dialled-up and then loaded it's own homepage (over-riding my own homepage). So I just configured my own DUN with the correct settings and set it as default; the only trick was to not call it the same name as the one provided by the ISP (having deleted that one) or it would access the installed Connection Manager software and work as before. Later-on I also uninstalled CM from AddRemove.

Are you getting sound OK from the same sound file types, when using your pc? It sounds likely that the File Associations maybe wrong for which ever file type the website is using.

[Vic 970]

Hi paul,

I have the sound back, it was a prob with media player so I ran w setup which cured it.

I have looked in add/remove, all I could find was bt dialler manager, which I think is the one I was looking for, I un-installed it but the outlook prob still persisted. I have put it back now, as it controls the surf time/day time connections. didn't show before though until I set the account up again, perhaps bt has changed the prog since I last did it.

still puzzled with outlook, I found the 'fix' for the prob on the outlook site, but it is supposed to only ocurr if on a network with multiple users which I'm not, so I cant do the fix, as the things I'm supposed to fix aren't there.

I'd like to know how outlook picked up my old .pst file file though, after I'd un-installed, searched and deleted all refs and cleaned the reg.:confused:

[Paul Komski]

Well if it found them they must have been somewhere. Best guess is that they were in one of M$s super hidden location. Either is some index.dat file or (if like with OE) still in such as .dbx files, where they are likely to remain until compacted. You can always try opening such files (that appear to be empty in the application) and view them with Notepad and you find all sorts of stuff you think had been long gone. Sometimes the only way to truly "clean" them (especially if they have been corrupted) is to delete them. If you delete an OE inbox.dbx (for example) it will be newly created when the app is next loaded.

I think that possibly the messages can be retained for a good reason. If mail programs, when downloading the messages from the server are set to leave the messages on the server, then (unless they have some way of keeping a record of what has been downloaded previously) they would keep downloading the same messages each time you collected your mail. They don't do this - though one would have thought that the only record they needed to keep was the header information and not the whole message.

;)

[Vic 970]

I would have thought that all such files (even though hidden) would have been retained in the outlook folder, somewhere, and that (along with others) was deleted, after un-install/before re-install.

[Paul Komski]

Uninstalling programs, as we all know, seldom leaves the slate clean. Uninstalling programs that contain personal or personalised data is dealt with differently by different software. If the uninstall process was better designed it should prompt you to retain such data or not; but mostly the decision has been made for us. Hopefully an uninstall will have removed that which runs the program and its associated registry entries, but in some programs like OE and Outlook too I guess, the data files are retained and one must delete them manually.

With programs that have different folders for different Users and for different Identities (which is not the same thing) it gets more complicated and I can see why an uninstall by one user/identity might "be afraid of" deleting those data files of other users/identities, whilst in the process of removing the program itself.

Since you are using Win2K then you are a User by definition - even if multiple users have not been formally setup. Why not setup another User Profile with Admin Rights and log-on to it, (rather than install a second copy of the OS). If you are running Outlook it will setup a new set of folders for you with a new Main Identity, when you first start to use it. If you can then import the relevant files from CD or from the other old User Profile and when you are happy with things as this new User - go and delete the old User. Having done that you may delete all the old User's Folders as well.

I doubt if the connection manager is related to Outlook at all and there may be some settings you could change in DUN to avoid these prompts at Dial-Up.

BTW: Users are set-up and maintained by the OS; identities are ascribed a specific CLSID, by which they are identified. If that CLSID was included in the files you pasted over the installed ones; one might expect things and paths to get confused.

As far as getting the contacts imported from the Address Book. Have you tried renaming your xyz.wab to .old and paste in the backup one as xyz.wab. If that doesn't work you can Export Other Address Book AS ... then choose CSV (comma separated values). Then Import Other Address book and choose the same CSV file.

[Vic 970]

well the situation just got worse.

Firstly, I am using w98se as my primary o/s and have w2000 set up on another partition. w2000 set up outlook ok and imported the folders no prob, but not address book or contacts, but back to 98.

I tried setting up another user, but the problem remained in outlook and all folders were still there, I deleted the 'new user' but then I got a log on propmt each time I boot with no user defined, password field blanked, and ok field blanked, therefore only a 'cancel' option (which of course lets me in) there is no .pwl to delete either.

now when I first accessed my mail I had to put all the passwords in again, (for each e-mail account), but I still have to enter my password each & every time to connect to my isp with no option to save, also when I have put my password in I get the same windows logon promt which I have to cancel before I connect.

[Vic 970]

I have just done scanreg /restore, and it now seems I'm back where I was.

[Vic 970]

having done a search it seems that uninstalling outlook is somewhat of a problem. M$ have a prog for d/l which is to be used after removing (by add/remove) to clear up whats left behind. It warns though that you are likely to lose data and not start the pc afterwards.

I was thinking to try add/remove, then reg cleaner, them remove whatever traces I can find, such as .pst files .wab .dbx

are there any others?

[Paul Komski]

I know there are people that swear by it, but I have hated Outlook for sometime now - it's tentacles stretch everywhere and are badly controlled. The first thing I do when installing Office is to ensure it IS NOT installed - ever.

Good luck with your endevours nonetheless! :D

[Vic 970]

Hi Paul,

unfortunately I have to use this **** at work, and as I bring work home (and take it back) well !!!!!

anyway I have eventually got rid of that damn error message, it came to me as I was kicking the pc down the street,

there are some .FAV files, no not the usual favourites, these are hidden in somewhere like

:\windows\microsoft outlook\application data\administrator\settings

any having found them I added .old to the extentions and the error was gone, outlook 'seems' to perform now like it did before.

now to clean up the mess and see what does & doesn't work.

[Paul Komski]

Fascinating stuff Vic. Just had to go and read up on the fav files and in the process found this page (http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm), which I've bookmarked. You may now know all this stuff anyway but I thought it was interesting not only with regard to backing-up Outlook but also for Dual-Booting. Nice detective work. Good Luck. :)