Outlook 2003 Shortcuts periodically vanish -> can I back these up?

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jfaughnan - 26 Mar 2008 15:45 GMT

Yesterday I launched Outlook 2003 and my large collection of custom
Groups and Shortcuts were gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Zapped.

This happens to me every six months or so. I don't have any unusual
characters in the names of the Shortcuts.

It is a pain to recreate these.

I don't know the cause, based on Google searches I don't think this is
a known Outlook 2003 bug. There's no appropriate entry in Microsoft's
knowledge base.

It's probably something arising from my environment (a toxic mix of an
advanced personal desktop and our ugly corporate infrastructure with
lots of stuff being pushed to my desktop). I have very large PST files
and I index using Microsoft's Live indexing (once called Windows
Desktop Search).

So my questions are (all answers much appreciated):

1. Where are the shortcuts stored? Can I back them up? (If I could
back them up it wouldn't bother me when they vanish).
2. Is anyone else seeing a recent spike in this problem?

Thanks!

jfaughnan@spamcop.net

tags: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, outlook, shortcut, shortcusts, outlook
2003, exchange, bug, problem, defect

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jfaughnan - 26 Mar 2008 21:51 GMT

In follow-up my own post, I've learned a bit more.

1. These are specifically "navigation pane" shortcuts. I've changed
the title of the post to reflect this.
2. The fragility of Outlook 2003 navigation pane shortcuts has been
discussed before:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.outlook.general/browse_thread/th
read/663c8e637abdc498/6b07cd2949e5efcd
3. They are supposedly stored in the outlook.xml file. Microsoft has a
kb article describing where key Outlook configuration files are
stored:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP030822101033.aspx:
drive:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
\Outlook.xml

When I look in c:\Documents and Settings...Microsoft\Outlook there's
no Outlook.xml file there at all!

I think that's a clue :-).

The disappearance of my Navigation Pane Shortcuts is presumably a side-
effect of whatever is deleting my Outlook.xml file.

So now I know how to backup shortcuts (backup outlook.xml), but I
don't know why Outlook.xml is being deleted.

john
jfaughnan@spamcop.net
tags:jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, outlook, shortcut, shortcusts, outlook,
2003, exchange, bug, problem, defect

> Yesterday I launched Outlook 2003 and my large collection of custom
> Groups and Shortcuts were gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Zapped.
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> back them up it wouldn't bother me when they vanish).
> 2. Is anyone else seeing a recent spike in this problem?

> tags:jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, outlook, shortcut, shortcusts, outlook
> 2003, exchange, bug, problem, defect

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jfaughnan - 26 Mar 2008 22:22 GMT

Well, this is getting even weirder.

The directory that contains the XML file is indeed:
C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Microsoft
\Outlook

However, I've found a different file name in actual machines vs. the
documentation:

1. According to Microsoft's documentation the file name should be
outlook.xml
2. A colleague has it stored in "username.xml" where username is the
XP login name.
3. I have it stored in "Default Outlook Profile.xml" with the form
(changed angle brackets to square parens):

[userdefined]
        [linkgroup name="Shortcuts"]
            [wdLnk]
                [ltype]shortcut[/ltype]
                [eid]45253 ... 54352145[/eid]
                [name]Microsoft Office Online[/name]
                [webfolder]1[/webfolder]
                [clsid]86F0060...0000046[/clsid]
                [icondata][/icondata]
            [/wdLnk]
        [/linkgroup]
        [linkgroup name="test"]
            [wdLnk]
                [ltype]shortcut[/ltype]
                [reckey]000000002B...000[/reckey]
                [eid]00...33C90000[/eid]
                [name]Inbox[/name]
                [storeid]1[/storeid]
                [clsid]007806...0046[/clsid]
                [icondata][/icondata]
            [/wdLnk]
        [/linkgroup]
    [/userdefined]

So I'm not sure the outlook.xml file is vanishing really ....

Very odd.

john

> In follow-up my own post, I've learned a bit more.
>
[quoted text clipped - 42 lines]
> > tags:jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, outlook, shortcut, shortcusts, outlook
> > 2003, exchange, bug, problem, defect

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Brian Tillman - 27 Mar 2008 02:07 GMT

> The directory that contains the XML file is indeed:
> C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Microsoft
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> 3. I have it stored in "Default Outlook Profile.xml" with the form
> (changed angle brackets to square parens):

The name of the file always matched the name of your mail profile.

Signature

Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

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jfaughnan - 27 Mar 2008 15:00 GMT

Phew. That makes sense. So the microsoft kb article is incorrect, and
the variation arises from variations in the mail profile.

My best guess now is that I'm losing my Navigation Pane shortcuts
because something is trashing my "Default Outlook Profile.xml" file.
Now that I know where this file is, I can back it up (beauty of XML --
I can even simply restore a portion of it).

Have you heard of anything recently that would trash that file?

john
jfaughnan@spamcop.net

tags: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, outlook user profile xml, corruption,
deletion, navigation pane shortcut, bug, defect, problem

> > However, I've found a different file name in actual machines vs. the
> > 1. According to Microsoft's documentation the file name should be
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> The name of the file always matched the name of your mail profile.
> Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

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Brian Tillman - 27 Mar 2008 16:00 GMT

> Phew. That makes sense. So the microsoft kb article is incorrect, and
> the variation arises from variations in the mail profile.

You'll notice that for all the other files that article mentions, with the
exception of outlprnt, no other file's name is mentioned, only the
extension. Many of the files have names derived from the profile name.
Some, like outcmd.dat, have fixed names, but most do not.

> My best guess now is that I'm losing my Navigation Pane shortcuts
> because something is trashing my "Default Outlook Profile.xml" file.
> Now that I know where this file is, I can back it up (beauty of XML --
> I can even simply restore a portion of it).

This might also be of some benefit:
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.asp

> Have you heard of anything recently that would trash that file?

No, I haven't. Sorry. I don't think you're alone, however.

Signature

Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

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jfaughnan - 28 Mar 2008 04:39 GMT

Thanks Brian!

I never figured out why they vanished, but now I know how to backup
and restore those shortcuts.

I wrote up the procedure here:
http://tech.kateva.org/2008/03/case-of-vanishing-outlook-navigation.html.

All the best,

john
tags: outlook 2003, xml, config, corruption, deletion, truncation,
navigation pane shortcuts, vanish, disappear, gone, zapped profile.

> > Phew. That makes sense. So the microsoft kb article is incorrect, and
> > the variation arises from variations in the mail profile.
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> --
> Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

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jfaughnan - 27 Mar 2008 15:49 GMT

Since my last post we've figured out that the XML file in

drive:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
\

where Outlook stores the Navigation Pane user defined shortcuts is
named after the Exchange profile when Exchange is used, and may be
named "outlook.xml" when Exchange is not used. In my case it is named:
"Default Outlook Profile.xml".

Reviewing backups I found this file was truncated from 19K to 3K about
3 days ago.

I used a text editor to put the old userdefined data into the new
file.

This restored the shortcuts -- but the shortcuts that reference my
local PST files no longer work. Clicking on them produces this error
message:

"The messaging interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem
persists, restart Outlook".

I thought then to add a new instance of an existing Shortcut so I
could compare the XML and see what was broken. Once I did this,
however, the error went away. I'm guessing that adding the new
Shortcut caused Outlook to refresh some binary file that was out of
sync with the XML file.

So now I've restored my old Navigation Pane Shortcuts and I've defined
a restore procedure to follow:

1. Restore old file.
2. Copy and past in user defined section.
3. Create one new shortcut to cause Outlook to rebuild some hidden
binary and remove the messaging error.

I don't, however, know why they disappeared in the first place. This
XML file stores a number of items and references, so it's possible
that the problem lies in that domain, and my Navigation Pane Shortcuts
were merely innocent bystanders wiped out by an unrelated bug.

john
jfaughnan@spamcop.net
tags: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, outlook, bug, defect, error, navigation
pane shortcuts, vanish, disappear, XML file, configuration data,
outlook 2003, gone

> [userdefined]
> [linkgroup name="Shortcuts"]
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> > drive:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
> > \Outlook.xml

[The kb is wrong here, the name of the file is not necessarily
"outlook.xml". It may be named with the string Outlook associates with
the Exchange user profile. I think if Outlook is not used with
Exchange server it may be "outlook.xml".]

> > > Yesterday I launched Outlook 2003 and my large collection of custom
> > > Groups and Shortcuts were gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Zapped.
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> > > a known Outlook 2003 bug. There's no appropriate entry in Microsoft's
> > > knowledge base.

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