The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on October 31, 2024.
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Today's Highlights »
- Not All Appointments Visible in Monthly Calendar
- Moving PST Files
- Calendar Weirdness with Daylight Saving Time Change
Not All Appointments Visible in Monthly Calendar
The issue: some users see an appointment or two in each day of the monthly calendar, and a number at the bottom of the day with the number of hidden appointments. A few users only see numbers, no appointments are visible.
This issue affects classic Outlook, Outlook on the web and new Outlook.
This behavior is because the height of the calendar is not tall enough to view all of the events. The ones that can't display are represented by the number. Clicking it opens the calendar to the day view, so you can see all of the appointments in their time slot.
This problem is more noticeable when the month spans 6 calendar weeks as Outlook will squeeze the full month on the screen.
The only “fix” is to make the Outlook window taller. If the Outlook window is maximized, using the simplified ribbon or showing only tabs will add one to three events to the calendar.
If that is not enough to show all events, you have a couple of options: use the day or week view instead or show the To-Do car calendar in classic Outlook or show the Agenda pane in Outlook on the web or new Outlook. These sidebars will list all events for the selected day.
To show the To-Do calendar in classic Outlook: right click on the calendar icon in the left vertical rail or at the bottom of the folder list. Choose “Dock the Peek” to the display the calendar on the right. Select a date in the small calendar at the top of the To-Do bar to view the events for that date and the next seven days.
To show the Agenda pane in Outlook on the web or new Outlook: click the small rectangular icon in the lower right corner of the calendar to show the Agenda pane. Click the icon again (it’s now on the lower left of the Agenda pane) to close the pane. Selecting a date in the calendar will list the events for that date.
Classic Outlook users have another option: show only two or three weeks on the screen. Select two or three weeks in the navigation calendar on the left (above the list of calendar names). The only drawback is this view is not persistent. If you switch folders, when you come back to the calendar, you’ll need to reselect the weeks. More information and screenshots are in this article: View a Two Week Calendar
Moving PST Files
I had a couple of questions this week asking about finding and moving PST files.
By default, current versions of classic Outlook uses Documents > Outlook files path for PST files. If you enable OneDrive to “backup” your documents folder, the PST files will be moved into OneDrive too. Some users store PST files on another drive or in a different folder.
While it is better to keep all the PST files in the same folder, Outlook doesn't care where the PSTs you have in your profile are stored, as long as they are on a drive in your computer, not a removable drive.
To find where a data file that is open in your profile is stored, right click on the PST name (may be your email address) in the folder list and choose Open File Location. This opens File Explorer with the data file selected.
Or, open File > Account Settings > Account Settings > Data Files tab. While you can see the path here, select the data file then click the Open File Location button to open File Explorer with the data file selected.
If you keep your PST files in a non-default location, when you open File > Open & Export > Open Outlook Data, Outlook will open the default location. You can set a registry key to change the default. (Note: it will apply to IMAP OST files too, if the IMAP account is added after you set the key.)
More information and the registry key you need to set is here: Move an Outlook Personal Folders .pst File
If you don’t want to set a registry key, you can add a shortcut to the correct location in the Outlook Files folder. When Outlook opens the default location in the Open (or Save) explorer window, click the shortcut to open the correct folder.
To create a shortcut to a folder, right click on the folder then click Create Shortcut. In Windows 11, click Show more options at the bottom of the menu to see Create Shortcut command. Copy or move the shortcut to Outlook's default PST location in Documents > Outlook Files.
Enabling the (poorly named**) backup option in OneDrive will move PST files into OneDrive. While this is problem-free for many users, it can cause problems if you have large PST files (over 10 - 50 GB). They either won’t sync, will take “forever” to sync, or send your OneDrive space over quota. They can also be corrupted. For this reason, I don't recommend storing active PST files in OneDrive, only PST files you don’t have open in your profile.
Trying run ScanPST on large PST files stored in OneDrive can cause ScanPST to hang. Move the PST file out of OneDrive then try opening it in Outlook before running ScanPST on it.
** Why do I think OneDrive Backup is poorly named? It’s misleading. Too many users think it is a true backup, with the files copied to OneDrive, in much the same manner as copying files to an external drive for backup. When it is enabled, the files are moved into OneDrive and the “backup” is the file in OneDrive.com. It’s great for documents and spreadsheets, especially because of versioning - you can view an older version of a file or revert to it. It’s just not great for PST files.
Calendar Weirdness with Daylight Saving Time Change
Clocks “fall back” in much of North America this weekend and classic Outlook has an interesting display bug that hits the week the time changes and is gone after one week. It affects more users in the spring but is visible in the fall under specific conditions.
The bug: When you display two or more time zones, start the week on Sunday, and the default time zone is west of the additional time zones – and use the week view – the time scale is not correct. As a result, appointments may display on the calendar at the wrong time. (The appointments have the correct time when you open them.)
The solution: use the day or work week view or don’t start the week on Sunday.
Screenshot: Daylight Saving Time Calendar Display Bugs
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