I just upgraded Outlook 2007 to Outlook 2010.  I had about 20 Favorites (all of them folders in various PST's).  When I opened Outlook 2010 for the first time, they initially appeared correctly (meaning: as they did in Outlook 2007) but then after Outlook finished opening, some just disappeared.  So I added them back and closed and restarted Outlook.  Same result and this time, they reordered.

So then I started Outlook from the Run Command Lin using the /resetnavpane switch.

I then added back some folders (15) and closed and restarted.

It went down to 13 folders.  Closed and restarted.

It went down to 11 folders.  Closed and restarted.

It went down to 9 folders.  Closed and restarted.

It went down to 8 folders.  Closed and restarted.

It went down to 7 folders.  Getting the picture?

I have screen shots to validate this.

Any ideas any one?

Thanks in advance.

Ron McIntyre

Montreal, Quebec Canada

No because ... well ... YUCK! ... I have 15 different PST's to add and about 10 different accounts I monitor so have to add ... so ... YUCK!

<sigh>

But I guess I'll try!

So far, after creating new profile and adding back some of the PST and accounts ... 1 restart with the favourites reordered (1st one immediately after 1st close) and 4 restarts that kept the order.

I'll try adding back in all the other files and accounts and see how it goes.

Other "ick" is that the folders in the Mail Folder pane do not remain expanded after a restart.

And yes, I know that expanded folders in the Folder List are "supposed" to remain expanded on a close/open but that is not the case.

And yes, I know I can expand the folders easily using the "*" on the numeric keypad.

However, this was not happening in Outlook 2007 before the migration and because of my obsessive/compulsive filing habit, I need the folders expanded.

Even after the profile change (and so far the Favourites are stable after the change), expanded folders do not remain expanded after a close/re-open.

So far, after creating new profile and adding back some of the PST and accounts ... 1 restart with the favourites reordered (1st one immediately after 1st close) and 4 restarts that kept the order.

I'll try adding back in all the other files and accounts and see how it goes.

Other "ick" is that the folders in the Mail Folder pane do not remain expanded after a restart.

 

 

Add those in one-by-one and test in between.  Also, how often do you have Outlook checking for new mail on those 10 accounts?  Are all 10 accounts with the same ISP/Server?

Ben, I guess the issue for me is that all this was working completely fine in 2007 but now in 2010 it's all screwy.

I did add in the folders slowly and no difference.

Yes, all on the same Exchange server. 

O.K., so the favorite folders is working right now?

There are all MAPI accounts or are you using something else like POP or IMAP against that Exchange server?

There are all MAPI accounts or are you using something else like POP or IMAP against that Exchange server?

Just MAPI.

O.K., so the favorite folders is working right now?

<sigh>

It *WAS* for a couple of days ... now no longer.

Time to uninstall Office 2010.

I have the same problem with Favorites disappearing completely or different Favorites displayed on every start of Outlook.

Computer #1 - clean install of system as well as Office, new profile, 1 PST file sized 600MB, 1 exchange account with delivery to PST folder, offline folders disabled, computer is running daily 24/7, restarted once a week.

Computer #2 - clean install of system as well as Office, new profile, 1 PST file sized 1GB, 4 gmail POP3 accounts , 3 own domain POP3 accounts, computer is restarted every day.

Both computers are running Windows 7 Ultimate & Office Professional Plus 2010 all updated to most recent versions, both computers have same issues :-(

Any idea what's wrong and how to fix this annoying issue?

Same thing occuring here, I have tried re-creating profiles even re-installing.  When I start Outlook favourites end up in one of the following conditions:

1. Favourites are re-ordered (although the re-ordering criteria that Outlook has chosen all on its own still eludes me)
2. I get a partial list
3. I get no favourites at all
4. I get only those favourites linked to folders that exist in my Exchange mailbox
5. I get my full list of favourites (but rarely on the first attempt of opening/re-opening Outlook)

This was happening in Beta and did happen in Office 2007 and 2003 from time to time but is worse in 2010.  This is extremely frustrating and a huge time sink; more importantly this will prevent me from recommending deployment throughout my company (which  I want to do) as it will cause too many operational and support headaches for me.  I would like to see this fixed sooner rather than later.  Any information required I will happily supply on request.  I would not advise anyone deploying 2010 until this has been fixed, it is a major headache.

Just to add my five cents: my favorites (IMAP + Hotmail) disappeared today for the first time. This with Outlook 2010 installed from scratch with a new profile. It worked correctly for more then a week since installing before it went kaput.

Outlook seems to think the favourites are still there. To regain access to them, I have to first remove them from the favourites list and then add them again.

Now everytime I start Outlook, the list is either cleared or re-orderd. I did not install any software in the mean time.

As there are so many problems with Outlook 2010. Is this still beta software we are paying for to test? No way I am advising any clients to upgrade from 2003 to this version.

I am having this happen too.

Interestingly when I go to add the folders back, if I right click on them, sometimes it says "Remove from Favorites" as if it thinks its still in there, when it really is not.  So I then have to click Remove then right click and Add back again to get it to work. At least until I close Outlook 2010 the next time.

I actually reported this problem in beta2, complete with screenshots, using the feedback program. They haven't fixed it.

It happens with me with a new profile, 5 IMAP accounts, and 5 favorite folders. Sometimes some of them won't appear. I just close and reopen outlook, and usually they're back. Really annoying. Seems to be a widespread problem.

I'm having this same issue, with Outlook in Office Pro Plus 2010, running on Windows 7 Enterprise.

Started Outlook this morning and all but about 6 of my favorites were gone.  Went to add one of them back by right-clicking on it, but it only has the option to remove from favorites.  So, Outlook thinks that folder is still in the favorites, even though it doesn't show.

Creating a new profile is not an acceptable solution.  Since MS hasn't fixed this, who is to say that after I go through all the trouble to create a new profile, that one won't exhibit the same screwy behaviour?

Just for the heck of it, I closed Outlook and restarted it.  All the favorites are back where they were before.

PLEASE Microsoft - Get this fixed!!!

Some of my favorites are disappearing. The remaining ones sometimes appear in a rearranged order.

This is really annoying.

Is Microsoft going to fix this problem?

What can I do before Microsoft issues a fix?

• Proposed as answer by ShogunPatch Monday, November 15, 2010 10:04 AM

Same problem here.

Window7 Home Premium 64-bit, Office Professional 2010 (upgraded from 2007) 32-bit. IMAP folder in favorites disapper. When I right-click the missing folder in the nav pane, I have to choose *remove from favorites*, then *add to favorites* and they stay. But the next time I open Outlook it might be gone.

I instead of doing the remove then add sequence, I close and restart Outlook, they might reappear by themselves.

Update: It's not just IMAPs. I have 12 favorites. Sometime when I open Outlook fewer (like 5) will appear. So I just keep re-opening Outlook until I see them all.

• Proposed as answer by gkcmilner Thursday, December 02, 2010 1:01 PM

• Proposed as answer by dragonfrostbyte Friday, January 07, 2011 9:28 AM
• Unproposed as answer by David WoltersModerator Friday, January 07, 2011 3:08 PM

http://blog.palehorse.net/2007/09/26/outlook-ate-my-favorite-shortcuts/

• Proposed as answer by dragonfrostbyte Friday, January 07, 2011 9:45 AM

Ok. I am not highly literate on this but I can tell you what happened to me this evening. I do think that's  a seamless glitch from MS Outlook 2010. 

I restarted outlook and my navigation pane was not showing my favorites. It was only showing the "(name) data file" folder selected and the sub-folders below (inbox, sent ....). I clicked on the "Mail" shortcut that is below the folders listing and all of a sudden the favorites came back. I retested that several times and I found this as a pattern. So, simply click on the "mail shortcut" and you should see your favorites back. 

No clue why this is happening but it seems beyond my tech intelligence, yet it doest seem that my data or software is corrupted with is what I should be more concerned about. 

Hope that helps!

• Proposed as answer by OMurdock Tuesday, February 08, 2011 5:47 AM

Hello from Austria

also here same problem. Outlook 2010 against a SBS2008, same user on several PCs, (no roaming profile), favorits are messd up or missing on every start.

Microsoft please help fast!

Wilhelm

I am having the same issue, as well as about 7 other users in my office. As stated by about 6 other posters, my Outlook Favorite Folders disappear when Outlook is launched. No combination of anything brings them back. I have to find the folders, right click them, and "Remove from Favorites" then, right click and "Show in Favorites" to make them come back. This will work for some time, then I have to do this again. I've found that, usually when this happens, is while Outlook is open, when a Shut Down command is issued. Though sometimes it happens after I've closed Outlook, and issued the shutdown after. I've tried closing Outlook, and waiting for 5 - 10 minutes for any pending file-writes to occur before shutting down, no luck.

This is very, very frustrating. Especially considering that this has been an open topic since 5/14/2010, with users posting replies in this thread as recently as 6 days ago, and there has been no reply from anyone at Microsoft stating that there is a fix in the works, or that they've identified the issue, or anything. We should see some action here! This is an expensive suite of applications, to have it flake out like this consistantly for this many users across the board, and have no reply from any developer that this is *at least* a known issue and that they are working to resolve it, is insanity.

CAN WE GET SOME HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why is it always suggested that we "create a new profile", or "run this complicated process", and the software that we paid a bit of money for, created by a multi-billion-dollar software giant, who owns a vast majority of the market share, simply doesn't know how to remember favorites that are setup as part of it's feature set?

Keep in mind, if a folder has been set as a favorite, and it disappears, simply right-clicking on that folder again and selecting "Remove from Favorites", then once again and re-adding it will make it come back.

Yet... I am always amazed that with these types of UI issues that are part of the documented feature set, we as users run into a problem - continue to run into it for years - and as soon as the typical "reboot the system"-like responses are issued and found not to work, there is dead silence.

Just my .02...

And.. I am still experiencing this problem.  Have ever since Office 2007.

Frustrating.  If it weren't for the fact that a vast majority of those I work with use the software, I'd be on to Open Office.

Just to chip in as well, I have the same problem.

2 IMAP accounts, Windows 7 32 bit.

April 2011, almost a year into the topic, issue still not solved.

Another add, same problem.

Win7 Ultimate x64. Office 2010 Pro Plus.

Microsoft? Are you reading? I've been a dedicated PC user and IT Professional, but am leaning heavily on jumping over to the Mac side. I'm tired of losing hours, days, even weeks of my life because of stupid random things like this. It isn't worth the frustration.

I have been trying to sort this problem for the last few weeks and still no solution

i have tried all sorts of different ways from creating brand new mail profiles, brand new roaming profiles and also the reset navpane switch and although these work for a couple of days it eventually goes back to removing  random folders from the favourites list.

and like one user said before if you go to the folder that you know should be in the favorites list and right click on it you only get the option " remove from favorites" so outlook seems to think it should be there but its not displaying.

i guess there will be no workaround and we will have to wait for MS to provide a hot fix for it.

very fustrating esspecially when you are dealing with multiple mailbox's and public folders

 

i guess there will be no workaround and we will have to wait for MS to provide a hot fix for it.

 

very fustrating esspecially when you are dealing with multiple mailbox's and public folders

 

 

I think this little bit more than frustrating. This particular thread about this specific problem has been opened almost one year ago. No comments from Microsoft, nothing. Have they even acknowledged this problem or not?

Let me correct. This is over one year old thread about similar issue:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/outlook/thread/b8cd00e3-3822-4a34-9fa1-70a9a6dd8b96

It happened me too is thare is any solution?
my boss is mad at me because of this
he thinks I'm deleting his shortcuts

Same problem here.  Have reported it to our "in-house" Office 2010 deployment team but they're just as baffled as everyone else.

As others have reported, you can get the favorites back by "removing" them (although they're already not there) then adding them back in.  The trouble is, that's only a temporary solution.  They just disappear again later.

I have a very good idea. The other day I asked a IT-pro very close to MS-Austria if he cannot do something that an expert from MS takes a look at this thread. He told me that he cannot do anything about it, someone has to open a (paid) ticket to get this solved.

As I am a very small company and in my partner programm are no free calls and I dont want to pay for it I want to ask if maybe someone here can open a case at MS and tries to get this thing fixed.

As a comensation for this effort I offer to send a bootle of one of the best Austrian beers to this hero. If only 50% of the persons concerned here do the same this could be a very interesting collection of special beers :-)

Anyone thirsty?

Regards,

Wilhelm

Same problem here. We have spent a couple of days working only on solving this issue but to no avail.

Well, not sure if it will work for all BUT here is my solution to the issue :

Press File the Exit Outlook first

find your Outlook.xml file here : C:\Users\(your username)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

rename "outlook.xml" to "outlook.old"

Restart Outlook

If your station works as mine (win7 enterprise, outlook 2010) your shortcuts should come back

Well, not sure if it will work for all BUT here is my solution to the issue :

 

Press File the Exit Outlook first

find your Outlook.xml file here : C:\Users\(your username)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

rename "outlook.xml" to "outlook.old"

Restart Outlook

If your station works as mine (win7 enterprise, outlook 2010) your shortcuts should come back

That would be similar to starting Outlook with the /resetnavpane switch;
Start-> Run; outlook.exe /resetnavpane
(note the space in the command)

The problem here is not a single corruption but the corruption coming back over and over again after restarting Outlook.

As the settings are being written when Outlook is closed, the most common reason for the corruption is that an add-in or other application does not let Outlook close properly. In those cases the outlook.exe process either continues to run or crashes. To troubleshoot shutdown issues see;
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/outlookdoesntclose.htm

Another reason could be that you have used special characters in the folder/file names that you have added to your Favorites section, Calendar/Tasks/Contacts groups or the Shortcuts Navigation. Some characters seem not to translate well to the xml-file and will cause the writing or loading of it to abort. If it fails when writing, the xml-file is usually 0KB.

In rare cases I've seen it happen with IMAP folders where the server was slow to respond or had issues but that issue has been fixed a long time ago already by an update.

Noticed as of May 20th nothing else had been said about this.  Anyone ever find a solution? I know am throwing my name into the hat I have a client who has the same issue.  would GREATLY appreciate a solution.  And if I find answer will

I've had the same issue, and have figured out a solution for me that didn't involve changing anything.  Thought I'd post this to see if others are experiencing the same thing.  Each time the favorites have vanished from Outlook 2010, I've noticed I've also had sync issues.  The issues almost always have to do with either a contact or calendar.  If I go into the calendar, fix the problem entry by either re-entering it, or deleting it altogether, and resync to resolve the sync issue, it resolves that problem.  But, the favorites usually are still hidden.  So then, I click on the calendar button under the folders, and presto.  Favorites instantly appear.  And they stay there until there's another sync issue.

Now, why sync issues appear is a whole other issue.  But I thought I'd share what I found to be a solution to the favorites folder.  Hopefully it helps some of you with your issue.  Personally I love Outlook 2010, and think that many of the issues it has are related more to issues between the program and the server and less to the actual program itself.

• Proposed as answer by jcTW Thursday, June 23, 2011 8:48 PM

I've seen a couple variations of this issue reported.  There is a fix in Outlook 2010 SP 1 for one of these issues.  It was first fixed in a hotfix, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2281463. 

• When you use Outlook 2010 in online mode, the folder list becomes unsorted frequently, and the folder locations change randomly.

Install SP 1 from the Microsoft Download Center:

32 Bit, http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26622
64 Bit, http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26617

Microsoft does not have an in house repro of any other variations of this issue.  If you still experience it after installing SP 1, please open a support case so support can investigate, http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/.

• Proposed as answer by Gabriel BrattonMicrosoft employee Thursday, August 11, 2011 9:00 PM

I wasn't having this problem at all, but then I installed SP1 last week, and now I'm experiencing this problem! Every time I start Outlook, my favorites are in a different order.

One possible factor is that I also recently relocated all of my PSTs and OST files to a different drive. 

That would be similar to starting Outlook with the /resetnavpane switch;

Start-> Run; outlook.exe /resetnavpane
(note the space in the co

having the same problem @ office 2010 plus 32 bit on win7 x64

additionally i have noticed that they disappear when i just hide outlook (ie. minimize + hide OTL when min. = on)

this is really crap

• Proposed as answer by Jehaygo Friday, October 21, 2011 8:25 AM
• Unproposed as answer by Jehaygo Friday, October 21, 2011 8:25 AM

Keeping public folders visible in Outlook 2010 - not perfect solution, but OK for me...

Having had the same problem with public folders disappearing from Favorite Folders, I had a look around at other approaches.  I found an article about the Shortcut bar from an older version and thought I’d give it a go – see http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/exchange-server/outlook-adding-public-folder-shortcuts

I’ve added my inbox, sent items, drafts and deleted items to a group under shortcuts called “Mail”.  I may get round to adding all my archives here later too.

And then I created a group for Public Folders and added these from the Favorites folder in Public Folders (it is important to add from the favorites otherwise you can’t see how many new messages you have).  I did this a few days ago and it hasn’t disappeared.  It is quite easy to get used to clicking on the Shortcuts bar (which I’ve moved up nearer the top) after I switch to/from the calendar, and it is certainly better than going through the public folders folder again.

So here’s what to do:

1.       Add the public folders to favorites (right-click and add to favorites).

2.       Open your Shortcut folder (may just be a small icon in the bottom right of the navigation pane.

3.       Delete the Outlook today and Microsoft Website shortcuts (right-click -> delete shortcut).

4.       Right-click on Shortcuts and New shortcut group.  Name this something sensible.

5.       Right-click on the shortcut group and choose new shortcut.  Find the public folder in the favorites.

6.       Repeat step 5 for all public folders.

7.       Right-click on the smaller icons in the bottom-right hand corner of the navigation bar and choose navigation pane options…

8.       Click on Shortcuts and use the Move Up button to bring it nearer the top for easier access.

9.       Now when you switch to mail from the calendar, remember to click on the shortcuts bar to open it up and keep it visible while you work.  Sit back and relax and enjoy having the public folders we knew and loved since 2003 (despite MS concerns of security).

Hope others find this useful.  If there is a better fix, I’d like to know!

How is it well over a year (and one Service Pack) later this hasn't been addressed?  It's a *major* flaw. Every single day I have to restart Outlook three times to get the folders right.

I've noticed this problem is similar to my "Windows Search has been disabled" when I click on the Search window to search emails.

If I close Outlook, and reopen it, the Search works fine, and all my favorites reappear.

This really brings me back to the ol' cntrl-alt-del days.

Microsoft does not have an in house repro of any other variations of this issue.  If you still experience it after installing SP 1, please open a support case so support can investigate, http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/.

Gabriel,

I have never seen this issue until recently--AFTER I installed Outlook 2010 SP1.  I've had to reset my favorites (which I have a fairly large list) 3 times now, so this is getting extremely annoying.

David R.

I'm amazed that after all this time this bug still isn't fixed! I'm using the latest of everything on Windows 7 x64 with Office 2010.

Every time I start Outlook it's like flipping a coin to see what favourite folders I get. None of the supposed fixes work. This is obviously a bug which still hasn't been fixed.

Like many I have lots of accounts and within them many sub folders, so this feature is very important to me.

I'd love to go back to Thunderbird as it works properly and has other useful features which Outlook doesn't but my work insists I use Outlook!

Please fix this Microsoft!

Please fix this Microsoft!

They can't fix this if you do not provide more information by contacting Microsoft Support directly. See the response of Gabriel Bratton who works at Microsoft;

Microsoft does not have an in house repro of any other variations of this issue. If you still experience it after installing SP 1, please open a support case so support can investigate,http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/.

Note that support charges are waived when it turns out to be a bug and not a local machine issue. Referring to this thread may help as well since they want to gather information about this issue, get to the root of it and find a solution for it just as badly as you want.

• Proposed as answer by MarkB33 Thursday, December 29, 2011 5:09 PM

• Proposed as answer by Mick Mousse Friday, July 06, 2012 11:54 AM

a) I can reproduce everything stated in this thread

b) if I change between cache and non cache modus the Outlook.xml file in users\xy\AppData\roaming\microsoft\outlook gets rewritten from scratch

c) if I copy the Outlook.xml file and delete it inbetween two Outlook sessions, I can "switch off and on" the favorites by copying it back

d) if I change from cached to non cached modus, I CAN NOT "switch off and on" the favorites. A look into the Outlook.xml file explains this behaviour: apparently the LID values are created ANEW and are no more compatible.

e) if I copy/rename an Outlook.xml file for the cache and another one for the  non cached mode, I can use and reuse the correct one over and over again. It seems then that the LID values are correct or simply accepted/compatible.

So the question is IS THIS CHANGE OF THE LID values A BUG or is it a wanted "feature" of the programmers?? Or is it simply a side-effect nobody thought about. Then it should be corrected as soon as possible because many many users are still affected.

Here a comparison of LID values:

File one:

 <userdefined>
  <linkgroup name="Verknüpfungen" clsid="21D34B246F46FE4397C83618732A8DDC">
   <wdLnk>
    <ltype>shortcut</ltype>
    <storeid>2</storeid>
    <icondata/>
    <reckey>2610B40FD74BCF4A8EBBEA15D6433F16</reckey>
    <eid>0000000038A1BB1005E5101AA1BB08002B2A56C20000454D534D44422E444C4C00000000000000001B55FA20AA6611CD9BC800AA002FC45A0C0000004D58414D553131002F6F3D46484E572F6F753D45786368616E67652041646D696E6973747261746976652047726F7570202846594449424F484632335350444C54292F636E3D526563697069656E74732F636E3D726F736172696F2E636172636F00</eid>
    <clsid>0078060000000000C000000000000046</clsid>
    <rootfold>1</rootfold>
    <name>Outlook Heute</name>
    <lId>B838CFD3DF0F964FBFD75B57CC37DECF</lId>
    <userdefname>1</userdefname>
   </wdLnk>
   <wdLnk>
    <ltype>shortcut</ltype>
    <icondata/>
    <reckey/>
    <eid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eid>
    <clsid>86F0060000000000C000000000000046</clsid>
    <name>Microsoft Office Online</name>
    <lId>CD595100C824BB43B74D8FB6341E8149</lId>
    <webfolder>1</webfolder>
    <userdefname>1</userdefname>
   </wdLnk>
   <wdLnk>
    <ltype>shortcut</ltype>
    <storeid>4</storeid>
    <icondata/>
    <reckey>000000008D6A4F9D4057ED41AE61BC45B5523A79010061D782572FA1864A95B7DD1DE0F7D7B3005FE861D1390000</reckey>
    <eid>000000008D6A4F9D4057ED41AE61BC45B5523A79010061D782572FA1864A95B7DD1DE0F7D7B3005FE861D1390000</eid>
    <clsid>0078060000000000C000000000000046</clsid>
    <name>Posteingang</name>
    <lId>CD395FCEFCE8F24EADE06AABA82DE651</lId>
    <userdefname>1</userdefname>
   </wdLnk>
   <wdLnk>
    <ltype>shortcut</ltype>
    <storeid>6</storeid>
    <icondata/>
    <reckey>00000000154977D250D38947BC93E8C9DE321F7E010061D782572FA1864A95B7DD1DE0F7D7B3005FE87AAFFE0000</reckey>
    <eid>00000000154977D250D38947BC93E8C9DE321F7E010061D782572FA1864A95B7DD1DE0F7D7B3005FE87AAFFE0000</eid>
    <clsid>0078060000000000C000000000000046</clsid>
    <name>Posteingang</name>
    <lId>86518418C5F19D4AB3FEDA5C26E6250B</lId>
    <userdefname>1</userdefname>
   </wdLnk>

File two:

<wdLnk>
    <ltype>shortcut</ltype>
    <storeid>12</storeid>
    <icondata/>
    <reckey>2610B40FD74BCF4A8EBBEA15D6433F16</reckey>
    <eid>0000000038A1BB1005E5101AA1BB08002B2A56C20000454D534D44422E444C4C00000000000000001B55FA20AA6611CD9BC800AA002FC45A0C0000004D58414D553131002F6F3D46484E572F6F753D45786368616E67652041646D696E6973747261746976652047726F7570202846594449424F484632335350444C54292F636E3D526563697069656E74732F636E3D726F736172696F2E636172636F00</eid>
    <clsid>0078060000000000C000000000000046</clsid>
    <rootfold>1</rootfold>
    <name>Outlook Heute</name>
    <lId>FC65A6F141800745A8E44D5D3282157C</lId>
    <userdefname>1</userdefname>
   </wdLnk>
   <wdLnk>
    <ltype>shortcut</ltype>
    <icondata/>
    <reckey/>
    <eid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eid>
    <clsid>86F0060000000000C000000000000046</clsid>
    <name>Microsoft Office Online</name>
    <lId>DBA36E9319B76B4CB85086F385DC8D2B</lId>
    <webfolder>1</webfolder>
    <userdefname>1</userdefname>
   </wdLnk>
   <wdLnk>
    <ltype>shortcut</ltype>
    <storeid>0</storeid>
    <icondata/>
    <reckey>EF0000008D6A4F9D4057ED41AE61BC45B5523A79008061D782572FA1864A95B7DD1DE0F7D7B3005FE861D1390000</reckey>
    <eid>EF0000008D6A4F9D4057ED41AE61BC45B5523A79008061D782572FA1864A95B7DD1DE0F7D7B3005FE861D1390100</eid>
    <clsid>0078060000000000C000000000000046</clsid>
    <name>Posteingang</name>
    <lId>D5DDE78585767140A077EC777EBC018F</lId>
    <userdefname>1</userdefname>
   </wdLnk>
   <wdLnk>
    <ltype>shortcut</ltype>
    <storeid>1</storeid>
    <icondata/>
    <reckey>EF000000DB6E372B6CE6EE4EA5FFC12BA5735C56008061D782572FA1864A95B7DD1DE0F7D7B3005FE87AA2960000</reckey>
    <eid>EF000000DB6E372B6CE6EE4EA5FFC12BA5735C56008061D782572FA1864A95B7DD1DE0F7D7B3005FE87AA2960100</eid>
    <clsid>0078060000000000C000000000000046</clsid>
    <name>Posteingang</name>
    <lId>96B6B701C2221D45B9CB0335B52419DF</lId>
    <userdefname>1</userdefname>
   </wdLnk>

Another body having this problem.

Outlook 2010, no exchange server, several POP3 accounts and Windows Live. Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.

Sometimes all my favourites are there, sometimes not. Exiting and restarting Outlook several times results in full list eventually being shown in the correct order. Other times only partial sections of the list appear. Any missing entries are still shown as being there if I try adding them again; the only context menu option is remove from favourites.

I will monitor the Outlook.xml file and see if I can spot a pattern.

I had this same problem  from the very first time I installed Outlook 2010 on Windows 7 Professional - 64 Bit.   Microsoft support could not resolve it.   Other problems I begain having almost instantly were

2) Cannot use backspace when attaching Adobe PDF file to email via 3rd party program without generating random Chinese characters instead of backspacing.  Microsoft blamed ScanSnap software and refused to acknowledge problem with outlook. 

3) Outlook 2010 randomly replies from any number of my 10 or so email accounts.  Microsoft shrugs their shoulders at the problem.

Microsoft can't reproduce the reported error?

The office 2010 was a step back to constant errors. It was a bad choice.

Possible solution: Uncheck most (if not all) Addins. I do not know if this will work for anyone else, but it worked for me: - Go to FILE / OPTIONS / ADDINS / Manage: COM Add-ins [Go...] - Uncheck as many Add-ins as possible (I disabled everything except for one external program that I use with Outlook) Hope this helps someone else.

Possible solution: Uncheck most (if not all) Addins. I do not know if this will work for anyone else, but it worked for me: - Go to FILE / OPTIONS / ADDINS / Manage: COM Add-ins [Go...] - Uncheck as many Add-ins as possible (I disabled everything except for one external program that I use with Outlook) Hope this helps someone else.

Mark3395's solutions worked for me.  Just disabled all addins, then closed and opened Outlook 2010... all Favorites have now returned.

I have the same issue - my 'favourite' folders disappear - sometimes some of them, sometimes all of them. They usually re-appear if I restart outlook.

I guess it would help if we could fined the common link between those of us who report the issue.

I run Windows 7 Professional 32 bit (I have just reinstalled Windows as 32 bit - the issue also happened when I was running the 64 bit version).

I have one profile, and three email accounts. Two of them send only and one sends and receives.  

I have four .pst files available to view - one main one and three older ones.

I hope this helps someone get to the bottom of this issue.

Pete

I see this thread has been going for 12 months so thought I would add to it in the hope that MS can see there is a problem out there. I recently upgraded to Win7/64 using Outlook 2010 and after setting up my email accounts again I "sent" several folders to "Favourites" so that they would be more accessible. Close down that night and almost all of them in favourites have disappeared. Repeated the process that day and they disappeared the next day.

All other aspects of Outlook seem to work except the favourites. I am surprised that MS has not found a solution.

Mal 

• Edited by Malrev Sunday, April 29, 2012 9:32 AM

Same issue here, renaming Outlook.xml works for a few weeks, then becomes corrupt again. Clearly a bug that needs to

Same issue here, random across multiple computers.  /resetnavpane rarely fixes it and right clicking something that was in the favorites shows "Remove from Favorites" even though it's not displayed.  So I have to "remove" and "add" to put it back.  Switching to calendar/tasks doesn't help either.  Once I "fixed" them by removing and readding it usually lasts a couple days then randomly they start disappearing although again they think they are there.  How can this be a ongoing bug for over two years???  Why isn't a Microsoft rep checking this like they do most other threads?

-Allan

Having asked the question - I forgot about it.

I still have the problem too. I've tried eveything to no avail.

Outlook will work fine for a while and then without any apparent reason it repeatedly misses out various combinations of favourite folders. Keep restarting and you eventually get them back and it's alright for a while again.

What's frustrating is that Microsoft don't seem to acknowledge this as a problem? I would put in a support call for it but I can't make it happen at will.

Same issue here.  Have to open / close Outlook half a dozen times for the correct folders to appear on XP3.

• Edited by DavidEll Tuesday, July 03, 2012 7:43 AM

I managed to get them back by right-clicking on the 'Mail' shortcut in the nav pane, and clicking 'Open in New Window' Will see if it happens again, and if the same fix keeps working. Cheers

Thanks for that - this "fix" did indeed work immediately for me.

Outlook 2010 used to do this a lot on my laptop, then it stopped.

Now since moving to a brand new desktop, it's re-appeared (I have less add-ons here too which is weird, but I do suspect an addon) - and normally restarting brings them all back ... until just now.

But the "right click open in new window" worked perfectly, thanks for posting!

It is appropriate to place the word 'fix' in quotes since this is clearly a defect in Outlook 2010 and all 'fixes' described on this thread are merely workarounds.

I have Win 7, 64-bit, Outlook 2010 with all the latest Microsoft updates installed.

I use a mixture of IMAP and POP3.

My favorites regularly get pruned on startup, with several missing, including the IMAP INBOX.

I have one other observation that may be of use: Today, when the problem occurred yet again, I noticed Outlook startup was one of those where there appears to be longer initialisation: "Profile loaded plus some other bits, before the main window appears.

Anyway, it is most certainly a longstanding defect.

There seem to be a few issues in Win 7 concerning refresh of lists in general, like the equally longstanding defect where subfolders under Desktop\Libraries fail to show correct contents after changes until you explicitly refresh.

I managed to get them back by right-clicking on the 'Mail' shortcut in the nav pane, and clicking 'Open in New Window' Will see if it happens again, and if the same fix keeps working. Cheers

Yep, EvolutionCapital's "solution" worked for me, too.  +1 to EvolutionCapital.

Interesting that this two-year-old thread is still going strong, and not a peep from Microsoft.  I would agree with jnla's post two days ago that what's been posted here are workarounds - by desperately enterprising end users!  

I try to avoid posting anything that could even remotely be called a "rant."    Sometimes, though, ya gotta just speak your piece.  At present, I'm the only one in my office using Office 2010, because I'm the only one willing to put up with its still-in-beta shenanigans.  There are days when I come close to rolling back to 2007.  As for Outlook, since our office switched to Google Apps for Business, I'm one of only two who is still using it, but I can't blame others for ditching it.  

So am I now way off topic?  Well, most of us have sort of hijacked Ron McIntyre's thread.  On the other hand, two years after Ron's post, there are still tons of people having this problem.  And still no solution from Microsoft?

• Edited by samry Friday, August 10, 2012 3:40 PM

I have 3 solutions for this.  

1)  First, you may restore them buy simply moving from the mail tab to contacts, calendar, tasks, or notes and then returning to the mail tab.   The favorites are still there but hidden and this changing tabs and returning did restore them for me.  I was tired of starting over and adding my many favorites over and over.  Simply rebooting did not work consistently for me and if this works for you will save a lot of time and headache having to start from scratch.

2)Secondly, go to start>Run and type the following into the command box"

outlook.exe /resetnavpane

sometimes you will have to recreate all your favorites one at a time and who knows how long they will last.  This is why the first option is best.

3) There is actually a third way as a last ditch solution.  

navigate to :  C:\Users\Rick\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook    where Rick is your user name.

find the file outlook.xml and rename it to outlook.old   

close outlook, reboot outlook and you will find that outlook has created a brand new xml file.  Now you can recreate your favorites.  Again, who knows how long it will last because of the outlook 2010 problem with this.

The first option is your best choice to try first.  I sure hope this helps everyone having this nagging problem.  Microsoft does not seem to really care about it and ignores the known issue.  Post your results here please and let me know what worked for you.  I am sure one of the three will.

Rick Nelson, Alabama

Unfortunately #1 didn't work for me.  Whether or not any or all of my fav folders show up is really a crap shoot.  The several seconds that pass while Outlook is loading up in the morning is one of the most stressful parts of my day b/c I rely on it so heavily to organize everything I do.

I am tremendously disappointed to say the least.  As a developer and IT manager I can confidently say that if myself or one of the members of my team put out a product like this we would be fired.  Yet somehow at Microsoft this level of stability is acceptable for an Enterprise product. 

• Edited by L S Tuesday, August 28, 2012 6:03 PM

I have had the same issue on both office computers and at home.

In Outlook 2010 favorites connected to IMAP accounts disaper.

I just set up Office on a new Windows 8 computer. After ONE day the favorites starts to disapear again.

It's defenitly a bug in Outlook 2010.

One simple way restore them is to go to the original folder in Outlook and right click and select "Remove from favorites" and the right click again and the "Show in favorites". Now it is back. But be prepared to this every day mor or less.

/Ulf

solution 2 worked for me - splendid!!!

win XP 32 Office 2010

Same problem as everybody else. My guess is that it Might have something to do with non-regular characters. The rest of you guys that have this problem:

- Does the profile or the mailbox that you are adding to your favorite contains any chars except a-z and 0-9?

• Proposed as answer by Gov11 Monday, September 10, 2012 3:23 PM
• Unproposed as answer by Gov11 Monday, September 10, 2012 3:23 PM

I am having the exact same issue.  You would think that after TWO years, they would have it resolved by now

Not even changing the name of the outlook.xml file fixes it.  This is horrendous.  Please do something

Outlook 2013 Has The Same Problem

Hi Everybody,

Look at it as a consistent user experience :-)

The favourites problem continues in Outlook 2013!

Oh dear...

So its now October 2012 and this problem is still occuring and it does not get fixed.

My only consolation is that this thread has listed fellow sufferers and informed me that there is not a fix.

This reflects very poorly on Microsoft.

I find the issue of the disappearing favourites in Office 2010 a time consuming and frustrating problem.

i had four inboxes in favorites.

then three disappeared leaving one but that one then suddenly added other folders from that profile that i did not want like delete, sent etc.

you could right click and remove the 'invisible' favorite and then re add it.

i did remove as many add ons as possible and now open outlook from a run box with outlook /resetnavpane.

when i did that all favorites came back plus the folders that i did not add, but i am too pissed off to keep removing them.  hope this fixes it for the most part.

This is unbelievable.  Two years later and still this is happening.  I just upgraded from 2007 to 2010.

I am now getting the same thing.  I made my 3 PST files appear in "Favorites" and not all the time, but occasionally, right in the middle of using Outlook, they would just disappear, but show as being in Favorites by right clicking the folder.

I have to "remove" then "show" to correct each PST.

I am guessing there still is no solution.

I have had this same problem periodically since I installed Outlook 2010 on my new system last year. It will go months without an issue and then suddenly the Favorites will disappear again, only to return as soon as Outlook opens again. 

Let me also add another Outlook issue that may be related...doesn't hurt to have more information. This only started within the past month. When I go to mail in the Junk folder and mark it as Not Junk and "Always Trust....", the mail is moved automatically to the Inbox.  However, once in the Inbox, the mail still behaves as if it is in the Junk folder.  Certain features are disabled and I get a message that asks me to move the mail to the Inbox...where it already resides.  When I close Outlook and reopen it, the moved mail is fine. Related?  Perhaps........

Wish I could be more specific...will try to post more once I get another piece of junk mail that needs to be moved to Inbox.

I've had Kaspersky AV on my system all along.

• Edited by C-squared2 Sunday, November 11, 2012 5:41 AM

      To Microsoft - I have experienced this issue for years, and like some others, have many accounts that make outlook ONLY practical to use if i can navigate within favorites, scrolling through 100 folders to check between 2 inboxes is ridiculous. I eventually did find that a full computer restart(not outlook restart) brought the folders back 90% of the time. Which of course requires me to close every single work project and window i am working on my four monitors. Interesting enough after i setup an exchange account this got worse, so i found this thread. Office 2013 around the corner and no fix, what kind of message does that send users about investing in 2013 with same issues, i really had faith in my favorite tech company that any day this was going to be fixed for 2010.. what do i say to my apple friends? Also spent 3.5 hours yesterday on tech support for exchange, 2.5 was on hold.

     To users - I have spent today researching options, and found this as the best process to take for a solid start. (creating new profile is not the answer and a waste of time it seems many vouch for including my situation).

(Skip to step 5 to try and quickly bring back favorites now)

    1. Disable all addons not in use

    2. Clean up contacts/calendars (for less possible sync issues)

    3. install sp 1 32/64bit (google easily).

    4. Restart your comp, open outlook only, set all your favorites folders accordingly, close outlook and give it a minute to properly close and save configuration, then restart again.(my safegaurd not fact)

   5. Click a shortcut such as calendar or contacts, and then click back to mail.  

   6. Right-click on the 'Mail' shortcut in the nav pane, and clicking 'Open in New Window' 

   7. Start-> Run; outlook.exe /resetnavpane

   8. Press File the Exit Outlook first

find your Outlook.xml file here : C:\Users\(your username)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

rename "outlook.xml" to "outlook.old"

Restart Outlook

PLEASE EVERYONE DO THIS TO GET A REAL FIX.

this goes to the microsoft team, the link given to me from a microsoft exchange team member.

NO LOGIN - super quick - one click submit

http://support.microsoft.com/common/survey.aspx?scid=sw;en-us;2222&altStyle=MFE&renderOption=OverrideDefault&showpage=1&fr=1&nofrbrand=1

I also have this same problem. And so do many of my Outlook 2010 users. May be a coincidence, but this all started for me when I migrated these users from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010. When they were using Outlook 2010 with their mailboxes living in Exchange 2007, no one seemed to have this problem.

I have been directed to test KB2687608.  It lists in the notes, "After you add many folders to the Favorites list in Outlook 2010, some folders are not displayed in the list. Then, after you restart Outlook, some folders are still not displayed."

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687608

I have installed and restarted Outlook 2010 over 30 times now with no issue.  I am about to install on a few users' workstations for additional testing.  If this solves anyone else's issue, I would like to know.  Thanks.

Thanks for the link, installed it on mine and so far so good.  I'm going to give it a week and if I don't have any issues I'm going to push it out to my Office 2010 users.

-Allan

In case it gets lost in the shuffle of these hundreds of replies, the simple solution for me is what a couple of others noted, and it's not at all obvious: clicking the "mail" button in the left nav pane brought the favorites back for me, too. Go figure! But don't miss it, if it would solve it for you.

That said, i realize there are a LOT of other issues around this "loss of favorites", so I don't mean to dismiss all the other discussion.

Hope that helps someone. I almost missed the couple of references to this, myself.

im having this same issue I have installed the hotfix and service pack 1 for outlook 2010, no luck.  There are quite a few users that called in with this issue today, so could this be related to exchange server???

I have recreated outlook profiles, and renamed the outlook.xml file, but no luck.

Let me know if you have nay other ideas..

thanks so much

      To Microsoft - I have experienced this issue for years, and like some others, have many accounts that make outlook ONLY practical to use if i can navigate within favorites, scrolling through 100 folders to check between 2 inboxes is ridiculous. I eventually did find that a full computer restart(not outlook restart) brought the folders back 90% of the time. Which of course requires me to close every single work project and window i am working on my four monitors. Interesting enough after i setup an exchange account this got worse, so i found this thread. Office 2013 around the corner and no fix, what kind of message does that send users about investing in 2013 with same issues, i really had faith in my favorite tech company that any day this was going to be fixed for 2010.. what do i say to my apple friends? Also spent 3.5 hours yesterday on tech support for exchange, 2.5 was on hold.

     To users - I have spent today researching options, and found this as the best process to take for a solid start. (creating new profile is not the answer and a waste of time it seems many vouch for including my situation).

(Skip to step 5 to try and quickly bring back favorites now)

    1. Disable all addons not in use

    2. Clean up contacts/calendars (for less possible sync issues)

    3. install sp 1 32/64bit (google easily).

    4. Restart your comp, open outlook only, set all your favorites folders accordingly, close outlook and give it a minute to properly close and save configuration, then restart again.(my safegaurd not fact)

   5. Click a shortcut such as calendar or contacts, and then click back to mail.  

   6. Right-click on the 'Mail' shortcut in the nav pane, and clicking 'Open in New Window' 

   7. Start-> Run; outlook.exe /resetnavpane

   8. Press File the Exit Outlook first

find your Outlook.xml file here : C:\Users\(your username)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

rename "outlook.xml" to "outlook.old"

Restart Outlook

• Edited by HLaw Friday, August 02, 2013 1:10 PM

Hello,

One of my users had this problem. He had 15+ Favourites linked from 3 different mailboxes. Some of them disappear on every restart of Outlook. The list of favourites disappearing is very random and vary on every restart of outlook.

I have gone trough every reply on this thread (it took a while to read this gigantic thread). I haven't tried any of the solution posted here except for the resetnavpane. As most of the replies mentioned that none of them were working and even the resetnavpane didn't worked for me.

After thinking hard for a couple of days, this idea came up.

May be the folders linked in favourites are not available when outlook is processing the Favourites list.  Ok, let me make it clear.

Outlook is running in Online mode for us. This means that there will be slight latency for all the folders in the mailboxes to become available when outlook is started. So, I suspected that the outlook might be processing the favourites even before the folders come available and thinks that the folders no longer exits and doesn't list the folder in favourites.

So, to make it work properly, the folders should be readily available for outlook to process the favourites when it is started.  So, I have enabled Cached exchanged mode and restarted outlook. It took a while on the first launch to cache all the folders of all mail boxes and since then the Favourites never disappeared.

It is been a week since Cached Exchange mode was enabled and Outlook was restarted numerous times in this week and everything seems fine so far. The favourites were staying were they belong.

I know that, this might not be a possible solution for a few set of people, as they might be having their policies statins that Outlook should run only in online mode. But, I hope this helps most of the people here as it is not a big deal to enable cached mode.

Thanks,

Lakshmi Srinivas

• Proposed as answer by Lakshmi Srinivas Kommina Monday, August 26, 2013 4:07 AM

@carehart - I've tried that one too.  The only thing that works consistently for me is to just close Outlook, then reopen it.  I don't remember a time when that hasn't worked.

FWIW, I haven't had this issue in at least a couple of months.  We are now running Office Professional Plus 2013, with Outlook 2013 (15.0.4481.1508) MSO (15.0.4481.1001) 32-bit.  I'm not about to say that this issue has been fixed, but just realized I haven't had this happen in a while.

• Proposed as answer by reredou 17 hours 37 minutes ago
• Unproposed as answer by reredou 17 hours 37 minutes ago

• Proposed as answer by reredou Friday, April 17, 2015 1:52 PM
• Unproposed as answer by reredou Friday, April 17, 2015 1:52 PM

Hi All,

If you are in the same case of me, with some favorites folders who disappear and reappear, try to outllok.xml in c:\user\youuser\appdata\roaming\microsoft\outlook\outlook.xml read-only in properties.

After that closed and reopen Outlook, make your favorites folder...ta da da da it works.

Sorry for my english im French.

• Edited by reredou 17 hours 33 minutes ago

Hi All,

If you are in the same case of me, with some favorites folders who disappear and reappear, try to outllok.xml in c:\user\youuser\appdata\roaming\microsoft\outlook\outlook.xml read-only in properties.

After that closed and reopen Outlook, make your favorites folder...ta da da da it works.

Sorry for my english im French.

• Edited by reredou Friday, April 17, 2015 1:56 PM