• Click and drag existing fields and controls to new locations on the form if desired. Click 'File' and 'Save as' in the menu. Type a name for the file in the 'File name' field. Select 'Outlook Template (*.oft) from the 'Save.
• How To Create, Compact, Repair Or Delete Offline Folders (How To Rebuild OST File). You may need to create a new.ost file in order for Outlook to work properly.

1. Move Ost File

So I have been having this problem in my org for the last year. Basically, at certain times, for instance this morning, outlook will create and download a brand new OST file when a previous one already exists. It also creates a new mail profile and has all these 'backupX of outlook' sitting in there under control panel - mail The situation today was that exchange server 2013 has rebooted during the night for normal updates and such. My outlook stayed running overnight, however lost connection and prompted me for credentials when i unlocked the workstation this AM. I then restarted outlook, to fix the credential problem and at that point, outlook 'touched' and locked all the OST files, and started creating a new OST file. I cannot even delete the OST files that are old unless i close outlook first. So it was almost like it looked quickly at them, for some reason thought it could not use them, and then decided to make a new profile and redownload the entire OST file from the server again.

And of course its still at it. This is a problem because many people in our company have SSD drives and they fill up fast with all these multiGB OST files being re-downloaded over and over. Not to mention it lags out the server when people all come in at the same time and have to download gb's and gb's.

'I'm trying to programmatically create a mail msg from an Outlook Template file (.oft). I had no problems on.net 1.1 but now, using the System.Net.Mail namespace, I.

This does not just happen to me, but many many users in the org. Probably all of them. We are all using cached exchange mode.

There must be some setting or something? Anyone seen this or can explain the rationale that outlook uses to build these 'backup of outlook' profiles? Basically, at certain times, for instance this morning, outlook will create and download a brand new OST file when a previous one already exists. It also creates a new mail profile and has all these 'backupX of outlook' sitting in there under control panel - mail the only other thing i can think of is that we are using a VB script to set the signature on logon which does open outlook 'behind the scenes' programmatically.

That script (or something else) is doing more than just setting a signature - Outlook would never create a 'backupx of Outlook' on its own. Is a new profile is getting created or somehow the account in the profile is getting reset then everything regarding the.ost file is behaving normally since a new one would get created each time. Karl Timmermans Outlook MVP 'Outlook Contact Import/Export/Data Mgmt' http://www.contactgenie.info. Well the only time i have seen the script cause problems is when a user tries to open outlook before its done making the signature. Then they get 'outlook is already open' or some such message and have to wait a few seconds for the signature creation. Since the issue does not occur with regularity, its hard for me to test to see if the vbs script is the problem.

I see people are now doing the same thing (setting the signature populated with AD info) with powershell scripts, but I think they would do a very similar thing. It doesnt do anything to the outlook profile except load it. But you are saying that simply trying to open the same profile twice should not create a backup by itself, so I dont think that is the cause. It doesnt do anything to the outlook profile except load it. But you are saying that simply trying to open the same profile twice should not create a backup by itself, so I dont think that is the cause. Whatever the cause, you have multiple Outlook profiles (along with mulitple associated OST files) that based on the description are not being created manually and Outlook certainly doesn't create them so.

What is installed on these systems that creates backup profiles and which one is being opened since from the Outlook UI perspective? There would be no visible difference in terms of accounts/data file etc if the 'backup' is an identical copy of the original.

Karl Timmermans Outlook MVP 'Outlook Contact Import/Export/Data Mgmt' http://www.contactgenie.info. It just takes up space, and peoples favourite folders are lost from the top of the left hand menu. Other than that there is no problem with it creating these. Well and there is some lag downloading the entire mailbox again. I am not convinced that the script is the problem. Is there any sort of log file for outlook, like say on opening?

Any way to enable some sort of diagnostic mode that might track what might be causing this? We do have some plugins installing, cisco viewmail, some people have skype.

But other than that outlook 2013 is pretty stock. We do set peoples signature with vbscript, but as i said, you get an error message if you open outlook to fast that outlook is busy and cannot open a second copy. Outlook must create these somehow. We dont back up users machines. There are no other softwares on all the machines that i can think of that would touch outlook other than what i had mentioned. I am not convinced that the script is the problem.

Is there any sort of log file for outlook, like say on opening? Any way to enable some sort of diagnostic mode that might track what might be causing this? Outlook must create these somehow.

Well, if you can ever replicate the issue without your script - please don't hesitate to post the steps involved. To date, this is only reported instance I've ever seen where Outlook creates backup profiles and have never seen it happen on the myriad of test configurations I use nor has it come up from any of the other Outlook MVP's who also have countless test systems. If it is Outlook that's doing it - has to be something really, really, REALLY obscure (but then again have also never used Cisco Viewmail). Karl Timmermans Outlook MVP 'Outlook Contact Import/Export/Data Mgmt' http://www.contactgenie.info. Since you said that you didnt think outlook created this file, i started thinking what else configured outlook or touches it on logon. Then i remember the PRF file. So i go looking up docs and what do you know, this page lists a so called 'hidden property' of prf files: BackupProfile=False or BackupProfile=No Then i started hunting around for other people who have used this string in their PRF files, and lo and behold found this: which sounds quite similar to my issue.

I am going to try putting this string in the PRF file on monday (i hate making changes to essential configs at 4pm on a friday:P) but i am optimistic that this may solve the issue. I will post back after a week or so with that in there and see if it does prevent the creation of these backup profiles! Since you said that you didnt think outlook created this file, i started thinking what else configured outlook or touches it on logon. Then i remember the PRF file. So i go looking up docs and what do you know, this page lists a so called 'hidden property' of prf files: BackupProfile=False or BackupProfile=No Will be the first to acknowledge that I wasn't aware of the property - live and learn.

Karl Timmermans Outlook MVP 'Outlook Contact Import/Export/Data Mgmt' http://www.contactgenie.info.

'I'm trying to programmatically create a mail msg from an Outlook Template file (.oft). I had no problems on.net 1.1 but now, using the System.Net.Mail namespace, I'm not sure how to do it.

Below is my code (excerpts from relevant part). I've tried so many different ways, I've forgottten where I started.any help would be appreciated. I'm not sure I'm even on the right track!:-) After the line in Bold (CreateItemFromTemplate), I'm getting the following error: 'Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.ComObject' to class type 'System.Net.Mail.MailMessage'. Instances of types that represent COM components cannot be cast to types that do not represent COM components; however they can be cast to interfaces as long as the underlying COM component supports QueryInterface calls for the IID of the interface.'

It appears that you want to use an Outlook Template, but send the email without Outlook, is that correct? The System.Net.Mail namespace is for creating email from scratch, and sending directly to a server, thus bypassing the need for Outlook (or a mail client) completely. Do you want to send the messages with Outlook or directly to the mail server from your code? If you just want to use Outlook, then you should be able to manipulate Outlook as you did in the past leaving out any calls to system.net.mail, if you want to create a mail message and send it directly then use SMTPClient and MailMessage and bypass Outlook completely. Casting the Outlook message to a MailMessage looks ugly at best. If you want to send directly, but use the template from Outlook, you'd have to figure out how to manipulate the text in the object that's returned from CreateItemFromTemplate, and then manipulate that into a format that can be used in a MailMessage.

Move Ost File

It would be considerably easier to just create a text template of some sort and do the work directly if that's the route that you want to take. HTH, Rob Lee.