Troubleshooting

Information Store Properties

I burned several archive folders onto a CD. When I needed to access one of those archive files, I copied the appropriate file back to my hard drive. But when I tried to open it, I received the following message: "Properties for Information Store Service must be defined before use." What's wrong with my Personal Folders file?

When you back up a Personal Folders file to a CD, the file's Read Only flag is set to true. When you restore that file to your hard drive, the Read Only flag is often not set back to false. You can clear this flag yourself by right-clicking on the file and selecting Properties. Clear the Read Only flag and click OK. You should now be able to access the file.

Why Weren't My Items Archived?

I configured my AutoArchive to archive all items in my inbox older than 2 months old. I also specified that AutoArchive should run every 14 days. This morning I saw AutoArchive running, but only some of the old items in my inbox were archived. A number of items that are older than 2 months were not archived. Why?

If you have items that appear to meet the archive criteria but were not archived, it's probably because those items were modified after they were received. The date that Outlook uses to archive an item is the date it was last modified. So, if you received an item three months ago, but modified it only a week ago, that item is not eligible for AutoArchive according to your current settings. If you replied to or forwarded the email recently, that changes the modification date. Other actions that change the modification date are marking the item as read, moving the item to another folder, removing an attachment from an item, and changing the item's importance or Quick Flag.