Need help with Outlook

[DocGreen]

Client is having problems with his email. He's using Frontier (ISP) POP3 email, Outlook 2003 on his desktop, Windows Live Mail on his laptop, and I'm not sure what client on his Android phone.

Guy has something like 20k+ messages in his inbox, plus countless subfolders under the inbox.
It's a complete disaster.

Initial problem was that he couldn't send/receive on the desktop. I tried using the built-in Mailbox Cleanup tools to archive old emails, but the AutoArchive doesn't seem to be working. What I ended up doing was taking everything prior to 10/1/16 and moving it to a new subfolder named "Old Emails." That made it so he could send/receive again, but...

It's still trying to download tens of thousands of emails from the server. I had him log into his webmail and we deleted around 15k emails. We had it down to about 150 unread emails (and quite a bit more marked as read), and decided to try again in Outlook... no dice. Before we canceled, it was up to 350 unread emails in Outlook.

Oh, and the best part? It's downloading the emails multiple times in both Outlook and Windows Live Mail (see screenshot).

I'm at a loss. Personally I think it would be best if he just wiped it all out and started fresh, but all of those subfolders in his inbox have important emails that he HAS to keep, so... I'm definitely going to need some advice here.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

There's nothing wrong with storing a ton of e-mail in Outlook..that is what it's designed for, it's a business class e-mail client.
While it's not the best at doing POP and IMAP, it's does OK for them. After all it's designed for Exchange first and foremost..

First..what is the size o the PST? And what format it is using, the old (2 gig max), or the new format (20 gigs I think for 2k3) ?

How much memory in this workstation? Is the hard drive in good health? check for an intrusive antivirus that pokes its nose too deep into Outlook....symptoms can occur as the PST/OST gets larger.

 

[Markverhyden]

If he has 15k emails in webmail then IMAP is probably enabled. Archive everything and setup again with IMAP. You may have to do it manually rather than with auto discover.

 

[DocGreen]

There's nothing wrong with storing a ton of e-mail in Outlook..that is what it's designed for, it's a business class e-mail client.
While it's not the best at doing POP and IMAP, it's does OK for them. After all it's designed for Exchange first and foremost..

First..what is the size o the PST? And what format it is using, the old (2 gig max), or the new format (20 gigs I think for 2k3) ?

How much memory in this workstation? Is the hard drive in good health? check for an intrusive antivirus that pokes its nose too deep into Outlook....symptoms can occur as the PST/OST gets larger.

His PST is about 10 GB. I'm not sure what you mean about what format... (he's using Outlook 2k3, if that helps).
Workstation has 3 GB of RAM, and I do believe the hard drive is healthy... though it's not here for me to test thoroughly.
Next time I have him on a remote session I'll try disabling A/V and see if anything changes.

If he has 15k emails in webmail then IMAP is probably enabled. Archive everything and setup again with IMAP. You may have to do it manually rather than with auto discover.

I wanted to switch him over to IMAP from the start, but I couldn't find any IMAP settings for Frontier. Although, now that I know they've switched over to Yahoo mail, I do see settings specifically for Frontier on Yahoo's help pages.

 

[allanc]

His PST is about 10 GB. I'm not sure what you mean about what format

Ansi vs Unicode

 

[GTP]

Hey, just a small thing, but their email address is visible.

 

[DocGreen]

Ansi vs Unicode

Thanks. I assume it's Unicode, but I'll double check at the next session.

Hey, just a small thing, but their email address is visible.

Oops! Didn't notice that. I would hope no one here would take advantage of that.

 

[carmen617]

Personally I think, regardless of whatever else works or doesn't work here, you should recommend he upgrade from Outlook 2003 and Windows Live Mail. He's many years behind, Office 2003 is no longer supported, WLM is no longer supported, and he has too much going on (and at stake) to use older, unpatched clients.

 

[DocGreen]

Personally I think, regardless of whatever else works or doesn't work here, you should recommend he upgrade from Outlook 2003 and Windows Live Mail. He's many years behind, Office 2003 is no longer supported, WLM is no longer supported, and he has too much going on (and at stake) to use older, unpatched clients.

Heh, I'm still trying to get this guy to upgrade from XP

 

[GTP]

Thanks. I assume it's Unicode, but I'll double check at the next session.



Oops! Didn't notice that. I would hope no one here would take advantage of that.

No-one here would but a large part of this forum is publicly searchable.

 

[NJW]

He's many years behind, Office 2003 is no longer supported, WLM is no longer supported, and he has too much going on (and at stake) to use older, unpatched clients.

Not to mention using ISP's POP3 mail service, based on Yahoo, at that.

Heh, I'm still trying to get this guy to upgrade from XP

Ah, okay ...

 

[DocGreen]

Not to mention using ISP's POP3 mail service, based on Yahoo, at that.

LOL... Frontier just "upgraded" to Yahoo. I think that's actually where the problem started for him. (Or at least, where the symptoms started. The problem was that he's using POP3 with the setting "leave a copy on the server [for all of eternity]")

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

LOL... Frontier just "upgraded" to Yahoo. I think that's actually where the problem started for him. (Or at least, where the symptoms started. The problem was that he's using POP3 with the setting "leave a copy on the server [for all of eternity]")

Remember they have to be on the server for his other devices to retrieve them

 

[Diggs]

If you are not aware, you can run his POP3 Frontier account through a Gmail account so that you have better control and multiple device access. I've had it with POP3 accounts and are starting to merge them into Gmail accounts where ever possible.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

His PST is about 10 GB. I'm not sure what you mean about what format... (he's using Outlook 2k3, if that helps).
Workstation has 3 GB of RAM, and I do believe the hard drive is healthy... though it's not here for me to test thoroughly..

Ouch..he's in the hole x3 with paging that file. Ugh....10 gig database file on a 32 bit rig with 3 gigs.

 

[DocGreen]

If he has 15k emails in webmail then IMAP is probably enabled. Archive everything and setup again with IMAP. You may have to do it manually rather than with auto discover.

Looks like this is the route I'll have to take. What's the procedure for manually archiving?