The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on November 11, 2021.
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Today's Highlights
- Delete Ghost OST Files
- Reoccurring Meetings using the Wrong Pattern
- Error: Email client cannot meet the message request.
- UserVoice replacement
Delete Ghost OST Files
A user deleted an IMAP account from his profile, but the IMAP ost file was not removed. When he tried to remove it from the Data Files tab in File > Account Settings, the error message said it was linked to an email account. When he tried to look at the contents of the file, the folders wouldn’t expand.
One option is to create a new profile. While this is easy for anyone with just a couple of accounts in their profile, this user had a lot of accounts and pst files so a new profile was the option of last resort.
Fortunately, I knew how to fix it.
To delete a ghost file, you need to search the registry for the data file name. But the data file name is in hex format, so you need to search for the value it is stored in, then open the value and look for the file name in the data.
Open the registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Office > nn.0 > Outlook > Profiles > Outlook. (Where nn is your version of Office).
Open the Find dialog and enter 01020ffb.
Open each 01020ffb value that is found, scroll to the end of the dialog and look for the data file name. If the name is the same as the ghost data file, delete the entire key on the left side.
Press F3 to continue searching as there are two keys for the data file and you need to delete both.
Around the same time, his search quit working correctly. He could find things using the All Mailboxes search scope but the Current folder scope often failed. After removing the ghost data file from his profile, search started working too.
Reoccurring Meetings using the Wrong Pattern
A user created a recurring meeting In Microsoft Teams and discovered the pattern wasn’t using the correct dates – they wanted the meeting on the Monday of every month, but it was coming up on the last Monday, which is wrong when the month has five Mondays.
There are two solutions: create the meeting in Outlook or start the meeting in a month that has four weeks.
Outlook is the easiest solution. If Outlook and Teams logins are in the same account, you can use the Teams addin to create the meeting. In a hybrid or standalone Teams account, you can copy and paste the meeting link into a meeting request in Outlook.
Error: Email client cannot meet the message request.
A user was trying to use a third party application with Outlook but was receiving an error message:
"Microsoft Office Outlook - There is no standard e-mail client, or the current e-mail client cannot meet the message request."
Outlook was installed and had all the defaults available to it (In Windows Settings > Defaults Apps). But the application could not “see” Outlook. The user tried repairing both Office and the application. No luck.
I asked him to check the value of this registry key, to verify the default value was “Microsoft Outlook”.
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail
The user reported that the default value was “Mail” and when he edited it, replacing Mail with “Microsoft Outlook”, the application could finally “see” Outlook.
The wrong value in this key may also prevent File > Send to menus in other applications from using Outlook to send files.
UserVoice replacement
Microsoft stopped using UserVoice for feedback and suggestions earlier this year, with a plan to build a replacement. While Outlook’s feedback site is not quite ready, the other Office applications are in the new feedback site at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/ Outlook will be there too, eventually.
New & Updated Exchange Server KB Articles
Transport and mailbox rules in Exchange Online or in on-premises Exchange Server don't work as expected
Describes an issue in which transport and mailbox rules don't work correctly in Exchange Online or in on-premises Exchange Server. Provides a resolution.
Other Resources
Office 365: Send using Mailbox Alias Addresses
How to send using secondary addresses on Office 365 Exchange accounts, using Outlook on Winodws, Outlook on the web, or Outlook mobile.
List snoozed reminders and snooze-times
How to use a VBA macro to list all snoozed times for Appointments, Flagged messages, and Tasks.