Hi All, Just a weird situation which causing a lot of pain to users. 1. Precondition: there is a Public Folder with about 4500 emails of different sizes. 2. In the attempt to find and remove duplicates a user tried to do the following: 2.1 Added "Message-ID" field to the list of columns in messages list view for this folder (using Outlook 2010). 2.2 Selected "Message-ID" field in the "Group by" dialog box and enabled grouping emails by this field. The problem: each time this or another user tried to open this Public Folder outlook effectively hangs (standard message "Retrieving data from server"). Any other folders are OK, only this folder is affected. On the server side it is obvious that some long database request is executed as public folder database transaction log keeps growing bigger and bigger. The only way to stop it is to restart Exchange Server itself (Store.exe). What can be done in this circumstances to resolve this issue? Maybe there is some way to reset grouping? The same public folder displayed OK using OWA, only accessing via Outlook causing problems. The same problem exists even when this folder accessed from the different PC and from the different user account. Thank you. Regards, Alex.

Try adding the public folder as a favorite in Outlook and cache it locally. Once cached, try changing the views.

Thanks AndyD_. I did as you have suggested, - no luck. When added to Favourites, folder works fine - no Message ID column and no grouping by this column exists, opens almost instantly. When I go back to open the same folder in the All Public Folders tree - all the same problem shown again. It looks like Outlook stores some information about the folder view/outlook properties in the Exchange Server itself.

Thanks AndyD_. I did as you have suggested, - no luck. When added to Favourites, folder works fine - no Message ID column and no grouping by this column exists, opens almost instantly. When I go back to open the same folder in the All Public Folders tree - all the same problem shown again. It looks like Outlook stores some information about the folder view/outlook properties in the Exchange Server itself. You can add the necessary columns to the view in folder favorites. My point was to use the folder favorites instead of changing the views on the online public folder.

There is one problem - each time someone trying to access this folder from the All Public Folders tree Outlook hangs and Exchange must be restarted to be fully operational again.

There is one problem - each time someone trying to access this folder from the All Public Folders tree Outlook hangs and Exchange must be restarted to be fully operational again. Try removing all the added columns and set it back to its original view.

This is exactly what I'm asking - how can I do it without actually opening folder because each time I'm trying to open folder Outlook hangs. Alternative question: is there any way in outlook to open public folder from Exchange without actually loading list of messages in it?

THe only way I know how from the server side is: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216076 Accessing information store folders may become slow in Exchange I have never tested this with Exchange 2007 however so I dont know if still applies.

Hello, Since OWA works and the issue only occur to Outlook, I suggest we also create a new thread to Outlook forum via: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/outlook/threads Thanks, Simon

I do not think that this is purely Outlook problem. Anyway, I have found work around based on the earlier suggestion from A_D_: 1. Added folder to Favourites. 2. Created another new empty folder. 3. Moved all emails from the problematic folder accessing it via Favourites shortcut into the newly created folder. Had to move messages in small batches as Outlook hangs for several minutes if I tried to move a whole lot. 4. Opened now empty folder which caused problem via the All Public Folder tree. Outlook again freeze for a while even so folder was empty. 5. Reset grouping and columns to default. And it works fine now. Simon_Wu, the original problem with the Exchange 2007 here is that when Outlook hangs there no way to correctly cancel request. If I cancel server request from the Outlook then the whole Public Folder tree became not available to all users from all computers. On the server side Public Folder database transaction log keeps growing and the only way to bring everything back to normal operation is to restart Exchange Server. Thanks.