This one is bizarre, but I've read this has happened to other people. Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise SP2 All hotfixes Windows 7 (Build 7600) Outlook 2010 (Version 14.0.4760.1000) My workstation is running Windows 7 and I am using Outlook 2010. Changed security privilege to allow MailAdmin access to User email account Created an Outlook Profile on my workstation to access User email Prompted for MailAdmin credentials, entered information and Profile was created Selected User Profile loading Outlook Prompted for MailAdmin credentials, entered information and User email was presented in Outlook While Outlook was open I noticed messages appearing as if they were being deleted I quickly exited Outlook To the best of my knowledge I did not invoke any process Later User called to say email messages were missing in their Outlook 2003 running on XP SP3, but were viewable on a Blackberry Messages could not be forwarded from Blackberry to any email account I did an exhaustive search in Outlook for all Outlook information, and could not locate messages Auto Archiving is turned off Cache mode is set to off Messages were not in User Deleted Items Messages were not in Recover Deleted Items User message store is 14GB Any thoughts you have will be greatly appreciated. I've used this method to access users' email for trouble shooting in the past without consequence. Thanks!

Sounds like you either used POP3 as the protocol or you have configured Outlook to deliver mail to the PST instead of the Mailbox. Either of those methods will remove mail from the Inbox and move it to the PST on the computer. After you fix the profile, you can use drag and drop to move the mail back into the Mailbox's Inbox folder.Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

Your explination is the most plausable, but I can't locate what I think would be the right .PST file. The logged on user name is SMITH, the user's mailbox name is JONES, and the Mail Administer's account is MAILADMIN. Wouldn't the .PST file be named jones.pst? POP3 is enabled, but we do not use any POP3 clients. Thanks, Jimme

On Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:45:00 +0000, Jimmeq57 wrote: > > >Your explination is the most plausable, but I can't locate what I think would be the right .PST file. > >The logged on user name is SMITH, the user's mailbox name is JONES, and the Mail Administer's account is MAILADMIN. Wouldn't the .PST file be named jones.pst? The PST file can be named anything. It might be "outlook.pst", or "december.pst" or "2010.pst", or anything else the user decided to name it. The pst file may not even be on the machine you think it should be on -- it may be on a machine at home! --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Quote: “While Outlook was open I noticed messages appearing as if they were being deleted” Is it after user reported the missing messages? Although POP3 or IMAP4 is enabled on the server, you haven’t used them to login the problematic mailbox, right? Please check if there’s any connection among the missing messages, like timeline or others Please use the KB below to check if the items have been hard deleted from their original folders How can I recover items that I have "hard deleted" in Outlook? Please use RSG (Recovery Storage Group) to recover the mailbox store that contains the problematic mailbox, and then use ExMerge to retrieve the missing messagesPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

I searched for .PST files on my local machine and none that were even close to the date of missing emails had the messages that went missing. There are several with the server name plus numbers. i.e. email100005.PST although none contained the emails. I haven't used POP3 or IMAP4 to connect to the server. Aside from all missing messages having the same date, there is no correlation between them. I'll check out the KB article. If the procedure requires the recovery of the entire Store, I will not be able to do this. My main concern is that I do not want this to happen again. Secondly I would truly like to have some knowledge of what did happen with the messages. The user is an exec and their email is vital. They will be able to survive without the lost messages, but are concerned about this incident. Needles to say, I will find another way to troubleshoot mailboxes in the future. Thank you for your input. Jimme

Your description of mail disappearing from the Inbox as you watch is completely consistent with an Outlook client somewhere configured to deliver new mail to a PST instead of the mailbox, or any POP3 client downloading mail. Also, an Inbox Assistant rule could do that. I've been doing Exchange for over 15 years, and in just about all that time, this has been a FAQ.Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

Any further update on this case?Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Ed, Has it been that long since the release of 4.0? LOL I have to agree with your explanation; I probably inadvertently had cached mode checked in the profile. My next step will be to disable POP3 support to ensure this does not happen again. Thank you, Jimme