Vanished Emails

I posted this in the outlook group also,but no solutions yet. My customer is
in desperate need of help so I am posting it here also.

I have a customer who lost email in outlook 2007 (SBS 2003 server with
exchange). They are gone. The retension policy for email is 60 days, I looked
in deleted email from the deleted folder and the emails were not there.
Archive is not turned on - no archive folder is present.

Here is her descripion of the problem: "The only e:mails I have are from
about 10:00 yesterday morning, nothing before then. All of my old e:mails
that were still in the “inbox� are gone someplace and I was not even doing
anything in the e:mail program when they disappeared. I had read an e:mail,
then minimized the screen, went to Dynamics to do some other things, got a
telephone call regarding an e:mail and maximized the screen to look at it and
it was no longer there, along with dozens of others. And the system is
working online. When I clicked on the “File� section it did not give me a
“work offline� selection. And I have searched everything that I knew to
search. "

Any idea of what happened here?

"Joe#2" <> wrote in message
news:CEBFFE3E-AFE9-4C43-8349-...
>I posted this in the outlook group also,but no solutions yet. My customer
>is
> in desperate need of help so I am posting it here also.
>
> I have a customer who lost email in outlook 2007 (SBS 2003 server with
> exchange). They are gone. The retension policy for email is 60 days, I
> looked
> in deleted email from the deleted folder and the emails were not there.
> Archive is not turned on - no archive folder is present.
>
> Here is her descripion of the problem: "The only e:mails I have are from
> about 10:00 yesterday morning, nothing before then. All of my old
> e:mails
> that were still in the “inbox� are gone someplace and I was not even
> doing
> anything in the e:mail program when they disappeared. I had read an
> e:mail,
> then minimized the screen, went to Dynamics to do some other things, got a
> telephone call regarding an e:mail and maximized the screen to look at it
> and
> it was no longer there, along with dozens of others. And the system is
> working online. When I clicked on the “File� section it did not give
> me a
> “work offline� selection. And I have searched everything that I knew
> to
> search. "
>
> Any idea of what happened here?
>


Are there any errors in the client's machine or in the SBS server's Event
logs?

Are you using a third party spam solution on the client machine tied into
Outlook? If so, does it have a quarantine folder?

Any rules created?
If so, close Outlook (make sure the icon in the systray disappears), then
try starting Outlook from a start/run line with the following switch:
outlook.exe /cleanrules
Outlook will start normally and flush all rules, even those that you cannot
see out of the mailbox.

Emails in the JunkMail folder?

Do you have any PSTs created?
If so, in the email account properties, is the profile set to store all
emails in the Mailbox or to the PST?

Do you see the same empty Inbox when you log in using your OWA (webmail)?
Check it, please. Connect to your SBS Exchange server using a browser. From
inside the network, connect to it using (assuming using SSL):
https://SBSinternalComputerName/exchange


--
Ace

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
confers no rights.

Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum for collaboration benefit among
responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.

Ace Fekay, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007, MCSE & MCSA
2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
Microsoft Certified Trainer

For urgent issues, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check
http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your post, also thanks for Ace and Brain's great suggestions.

In addition, just a reminder that have you configured and used any POP3 client like Outlook Express etc. non MAPI client to connect that user's Exchange mailbox? Because
POP3 client will download all emails in the user mailbox to the local computer which POP3 client(OE) is installed without leaving copy on the Exchange server.

More information:

Recovering Deleted Items in Exchange Server 2003 (Part 1)
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/...003-Part1.html

Recovering Deleted Items in Exchange Server 2003 (Part 2)
http://www.msexchange.org/articles_t...003-part2.html


Hope this helps.


Best regards,
Robbin Meng(MSFT)
Microsoft Online Newsgroup Support

================================================== ================
Please post your SBS 2008 related questions to the SBS newsgroup on Connect website:
https://connect.microsoft.com/sbs08/...i/default.aspx

Please post your EBS related questions to the EBS newsgroup on Connect website:
https://connect.microsoft.com/ebs08/...i/default.aspx

If you want to use a newsreader other than a web forum to access these newsgroups,
please refer to the following blog to apply NNTP password and configure a newsreader:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/arch...ewsgroups.aspx
================================================== ================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
================================================== ================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
================================================== ================

ACE, thanks for the suggestions

I will check logs, no third party spam solution, Outlook in stored in .ost,
I did log in using OWA same results, no rules I "noticed" but I will be
onsite today and I will try starting outlook with the /cleanrules.

"Ace Fekay [MCT]" wrote:

> "Joe#2" <> wrote in message
> news:CEBFFE3E-AFE9-4C43-8349-...
> >I posted this in the outlook group also,but no solutions yet. My customer
> >is
> > in desperate need of help so I am posting it here also.
> >
> > I have a customer who lost email in outlook 2007 (SBS 2003 server with
> > exchange). They are gone. The retension policy for email is 60 days, I
> > looked
> > in deleted email from the deleted folder and the emails were not there.
> > Archive is not turned on - no archive folder is present.
> >
> > Here is her descripion of the problem: "The only e:mails I have are from
> > about 10:00 yesterday morning, nothing before then. All of my old
> > e:mails
> > that were still in the “inbox� are gone someplace and I was not even
> > doing
> > anything in the e:mail program when they disappeared. I had read an
> > e:mail,
> > then minimized the screen, went to Dynamics to do some other things, got a
> > telephone call regarding an e:mail and maximized the screen to look at it
> > and
> > it was no longer there, along with dozens of others. And the system is
> > working online. When I clicked on the “File� section it did not give
> > me a
> > “work offline� selection. And I have searched everything that I knew
> > to
> > search. "
> >
> > Any idea of what happened here?
> >
>
>
> Are there any errors in the client's machine or in the SBS server's Event
> logs?
>
> Are you using a third party spam solution on the client machine tied into
> Outlook? If so, does it have a quarantine folder?
>
> Any rules created?
> If so, close Outlook (make sure the icon in the systray disappears), then
> try starting Outlook from a start/run line with the following switch:
> outlook.exe /cleanrules
> Outlook will start normally and flush all rules, even those that you cannot
> see out of the mailbox.
>
> Emails in the JunkMail folder?
>
> Do you have any PSTs created?
> If so, in the email account properties, is the profile set to store all
> emails in the Mailbox or to the PST?
>
> Do you see the same empty Inbox when you log in using your OWA (webmail)?
> Check it, please. Connect to your SBS Exchange server using a browser. From
> inside the network, connect to it using (assuming using SSL):
> https://SBSinternalComputerName/exchange
>
>
> --
> Ace
>
> This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
> confers no rights.
>
> Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum for collaboration benefit among
> responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.
>
> Ace Fekay, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007, MCSE & MCSA
> 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
> Microsoft Certified Trainer
>
> For urgent issues, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check
> http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.
>
>
> .
>

Brian, thanks.
I did try tools- recover deleted items. They were not there. As for 3rd
party tools there are noon that I know of. None of the users have admin priv
so I don't think they could install anything without me knowing it.

"Brian Cryer" wrote:

> "Joe#2" <> wrote in message
> news:CEBFFE3E-AFE9-4C43-8349-...
> >I posted this in the outlook group also,but no solutions yet. My customer
> >is
> > in desperate need of help so I am posting it here also.
> >
> > I have a customer who lost email in outlook 2007 (SBS 2003 server with
> > exchange). They are gone. The retension policy for email is 60 days, I
> > looked
> > in deleted email from the deleted folder and the emails were not there.
> > Archive is not turned on - no archive folder is present.
>
> Did you try Tools > Recover Deleted Items?
> This has to be done from the folder that the items were deleted from. "Tools
> > Recover Deleted Items" is correct for Outlook 2003, but may well have
> moved in 2007.
>
> > Here is her descripion of the problem: "The only e:mails I have are from
> > about 10:00 yesterday morning, nothing before then. All of my old
> > e:mails
> > that were still in the “inbox� are gone someplace and I was not even doing
> > anything in the e:mail program when they disappeared. I had read an
> > e:mail,
> > then minimized the screen, went to Dynamics to do some other things, got a
> > telephone call regarding an e:mail and maximized the screen to look at it
> > and
> > it was no longer there, along with dozens of others. And the system is
> > working online. When I clicked on the “File� section it did not give me a
> > “work offline� selection. And I have searched everything that I knew to
> > search. "
> >
> > Any idea of what happened here?
>
> One of our users had a similar experience recently. It turned out to be
> because he was syncing his outlook with a third party tool. In that case the
> software assumed the external (empty) source was the master and blatted
> everything in the inbox. I had to recover from a backup. It might be that
> something similar is happening with you.
> --
> Brian Cryer
> www.cryer.co.uk/brian
>
> .
>

Robin, thanks
Good idea, I will look for that. This user is not prone to working out of
the box, but I will check that today.

""Robbin Meng [MSFT]"" wrote:

>
> Hi Joe,
>
> Thanks for your post, also thanks for Ace and Brain's great suggestions.
>
> In addition, just a reminder that have you configured and used any POP3 client like Outlook Express etc. non MAPI client to connect that user's Exchange mailbox? Because
> POP3 client will download all emails in the user mailbox to the local computer which POP3 client(OE) is installed without leaving copy on the Exchange server.
>
> More information:
>
> Recovering Deleted Items in Exchange Server 2003 (Part 1)
> http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/...003-Part1.html
>
> Recovering Deleted Items in Exchange Server 2003 (Part 2)
> http://www.msexchange.org/articles_t...003-part2.html
>
>
> Hope this helps.
>
>
> Best regards,
> Robbin Meng(MSFT)
> Microsoft Online Newsgroup Support
>
> ================================================== ================
> Please post your SBS 2008 related questions to the SBS newsgroup on Connect website:
> https://connect.microsoft.com/sbs08/...i/default.aspx
>
> Please post your EBS related questions to the EBS newsgroup on Connect website:
> https://connect.microsoft.com/ebs08/...i/default.aspx
>
> If you want to use a newsreader other than a web forum to access these newsgroups,
> please refer to the following blog to apply NNTP password and configure a newsreader:
> http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/arch...ewsgroups.aspx
> ================================================== ================
> When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
> that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
> ================================================== ================
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> ================================================== ================
>
>
>
> .
>

The symptoms sound like what has happened in the past with over-zealous
antivirus applications that quarantine or delete the whole mail store when
viral spam is received.

This shouldn't be possible with a normal SBS setup using OST files, though.

You might look at running the scanpst and scanost processes on the users
mail store.

"Joe#2" <> wrote in message
news:99A984CB-5A08-4900-B05F-...
> ACE, thanks for the suggestions
>
> I will check logs, no third party spam solution, Outlook in stored in
> .ost,
> I did log in using OWA same results, no rules I "noticed" but I will be
> onsite today and I will try starting outlook with the /cleanrules.
>
> "Ace Fekay [MCT]" wrote:
>
>> "Joe#2" <> wrote in message
>> news:CEBFFE3E-AFE9-4C43-8349-...
>> >I posted this in the outlook group also,but no solutions yet. My
>> >customer
>> >is
>> > in desperate need of help so I am posting it here also.
>> >
>> > I have a customer who lost email in outlook 2007 (SBS 2003 server with
>> > exchange). They are gone. The retension policy for email is 60 days, I
>> > looked
>> > in deleted email from the deleted folder and the emails were not there.
>> > Archive is not turned on - no archive folder is present.
>> >
>> > Here is her descripion of the problem: "The only e:mails I have are
>> > from
>> > about 10:00 yesterday morning, nothing before then. All of my old
>> > e:mails
>> > that were still in the “inbox� are gone someplace and I was not
>> > even
>> > doing
>> > anything in the e:mail program when they disappeared. I had read an
>> > e:mail,
>> > then minimized the screen, went to Dynamics to do some other things,
>> > got a
>> > telephone call regarding an e:mail and maximized the screen to look at
>> > it
>> > and
>> > it was no longer there, along with dozens of others. And the system is
>> > working online. When I clicked on the “File� section it did not
>> > give
>> > me a
>> > “work offline� selection. And I have searched everything that I
>> > knew
>> > to
>> > search. "
>> >
>> > Any idea of what happened here?
>> >
>>
>>
>> Are there any errors in the client's machine or in the SBS server's Event
>> logs?
>>
>> Are you using a third party spam solution on the client machine tied into
>> Outlook? If so, does it have a quarantine folder?
>>
>> Any rules created?
>> If so, close Outlook (make sure the icon in the systray disappears), then
>> try starting Outlook from a start/run line with the following switch:
>> outlook.exe /cleanrules
>> Outlook will start normally and flush all rules, even those that you
>> cannot
>> see out of the mailbox.
>>
>> Emails in the JunkMail folder?
>>
>> Do you have any PSTs created?
>> If so, in the email account properties, is the profile set to store all
>> emails in the Mailbox or to the PST?
>>
>> Do you see the same empty Inbox when you log in using your OWA (webmail)?
>> Check it, please. Connect to your SBS Exchange server using a browser.
>> From
>> inside the network, connect to it using (assuming using SSL):
>> https://SBSinternalComputerName/exchange
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ace
>>
>> This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
>> confers no rights.
>>
>> Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum for collaboration benefit
>> among
>> responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.
>>
>> Ace Fekay, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007, MCSE & MCSA
>> 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
>> Microsoft Certified Trainer
>>
>> For urgent issues, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check
>> http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.
>>
>>
>> .
>>

"Joe#2" <> wrote in message
news:6F934185-E32D-4720-A27F-...

That's a good suggestion, by Robbin. If you are allowing POP3, and a user
has a machine at home that configured it to use POP3 (and left it running
when he/she went to work), or even a mobile handheld using POP3, it could
pull all the mail out of the mailbox.

If this is the case, or even if not the case, and you do not use POP3 or
IMAP4 for that matter, I would highly suggest to disable those two services
Under Services.

Ace

> Robin, thanks
> Good idea, I will look for that. This user is not prone to working out of
> the box, but I will check that today.
>
> ""Robbin Meng [MSFT]"" wrote:
>
>>
>> Hi Joe,
>>
>> Thanks for your post, also thanks for Ace and Brain's great suggestions.
>>
>> In addition, just a reminder that have you configured and used any POP3
>> client like Outlook Express etc. non MAPI client to connect that user's
>> Exchange mailbox? Because
>> POP3 client will download all emails in the user mailbox to the local
>> computer which POP3 client(OE) is installed without leaving copy on the
>> Exchange server.
>>
>> More information:
>>
>> Recovering Deleted Items in Exchange Server 2003 (Part 1)
>> http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/...003-Part1.html
>>
>> Recovering Deleted Items in Exchange Server 2003 (Part 2)
>> http://www.msexchange.org/articles_t...003-part2.html
>>
>>
>> Hope this helps.
>>
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Robbin Meng(MSFT)
>> Microsoft Online Newsgroup Support
>>
>> ================================================== ================
>> Please post your SBS 2008 related questions to the SBS newsgroup on
>> Connect website:
>> https://connect.microsoft.com/sbs08/...i/default.aspx
>>
>> Please post your EBS related questions to the EBS newsgroup on Connect
>> website:
>> https://connect.microsoft.com/ebs08/...i/default.aspx
>>
>> If you want to use a newsreader other than a web forum to access these
>> newsgroups,
>> please refer to the following blog to apply NNTP password and configure a
>> newsreader:
>> http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/arch...ewsgroups.aspx
>> ================================================== ================
>> When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
>> that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
>> ================================================== ================
>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.
>> ================================================== ================
>>
>>
>>
>> .
>>

Try turning on the Outlook DumpsterAlwaysOn registry
key. It makes the recover menu work in any folder (check all possible
folders - inbox, sent items, etc.) and can let you recover "hard-deleted"
items.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/246153

--
Allan Williams




Joe#2 wrote:
> Brian, thanks.
> I did try tools- recover deleted items. They were not there. As for
> 3rd party tools there are noon that I know of. None of the users have
> admin priv so I don't think they could install anything without me
> knowing it.
>
> "Brian Cryer" wrote:
>
>> "Joe#2" <> wrote in message
>> news:CEBFFE3E-AFE9-4C43-8349-...
>>> I posted this in the outlook group also,but no solutions yet. My
>>> customer is
>>> in desperate need of help so I am posting it here also.
>>>
>>> I have a customer who lost email in outlook 2007 (SBS 2003 server
>>> with exchange). They are gone. The retension policy for email is 60
>>> days, I looked
>>> in deleted email from the deleted folder and the emails were not
>>> there. Archive is not turned on - no archive folder is present.
>>
>> Did you try Tools > Recover Deleted Items?
>> This has to be done from the folder that the items were deleted
>> from. "Tools > Recover Deleted Items" is correct for Outlook 2003,
>> but may well have moved in 2007.
>>
>>> Here is her descripion of the problem: "The only e:mails I have are
>>> from about 10:00 yesterday morning, nothing before then. All of my
>>> old e:mails
>>> that were still in the "inbox" are gone someplace and I was not
>>> even doing anything in the e:mail program when they disappeared. I
>>> had read an e:mail,
>>> then minimized the screen, went to Dynamics to do some other
>>> things, got a telephone call regarding an e:mail and maximized the
>>> screen to look at it and
>>> it was no longer there, along with dozens of others. And the
>>> system is working online. When I clicked on the "File" section it
>>> did not give me a "work offline" selection. And I have searched
>>> everything that I knew to search. "
>>>
>>> Any idea of what happened here?
>>
>> One of our users had a similar experience recently. It turned out to
>> be because he was syncing his outlook with a third party tool. In
>> that case the software assumed the external (empty) source was the
>> master and blatted everything in the inbox. I had to recover from a
>> backup. It might be that something similar is happening with you.
>> --
>> Brian Cryer
>> www.cryer.co.uk/brian
>>
>> .

Ace, I tried starning outlook with the /cleanrules switch but the mails are
still missing. thanks for that suggestion and tip. I was not aware of that
switch.

"Ace Fekay [MCT]" wrote:

> "Joe#2" <> wrote in message
> news:CEBFFE3E-AFE9-4C43-8349-...
> >I posted this in the outlook group also,but no solutions yet. My customer
> >is
> > in desperate need of help so I am posting it here also.
> >
> > I have a customer who lost email in outlook 2007 (SBS 2003 server with
> > exchange). They are gone. The retension policy for email is 60 days, I
> > looked
> > in deleted email from the deleted folder and the emails were not there.
> > Archive is not turned on - no archive folder is present.
> >
> > Here is her descripion of the problem: "The only e:mails I have are from
> > about 10:00 yesterday morning, nothing before then. All of my old
> > e:mails
> > that were still in the “inbox� are gone someplace and I was not even
> > doing
> > anything in the e:mail program when they disappeared. I had read an
> > e:mail,
> > then minimized the screen, went to Dynamics to do some other things, got a
> > telephone call regarding an e:mail and maximized the screen to look at it
> > and
> > it was no longer there, along with dozens of others. And the system is
> > working online. When I clicked on the “File� section it did not give
> > me a
> > “work offline� selection. And I have searched everything that I knew
> > to
> > search. "
> >
> > Any idea of what happened here?
> >
>
>
> Are there any errors in the client's machine or in the SBS server's Event
> logs?
>
> Are you using a third party spam solution on the client machine tied into
> Outlook? If so, does it have a quarantine folder?
>
> Any rules created?
> If so, close Outlook (make sure the icon in the systray disappears), then
> try starting Outlook from a start/run line with the following switch:
> outlook.exe /cleanrules
> Outlook will start normally and flush all rules, even those that you cannot
> see out of the mailbox.
>
> Emails in the JunkMail folder?
>
> Do you have any PSTs created?
> If so, in the email account properties, is the profile set to store all
> emails in the Mailbox or to the PST?
>
> Do you see the same empty Inbox when you log in using your OWA (webmail)?
> Check it, please. Connect to your SBS Exchange server using a browser. From
> inside the network, connect to it using (assuming using SSL):
> https://SBSinternalComputerName/exchange
>
>
> --
> Ace
>
> This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
> confers no rights.
>
> Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum for collaboration benefit among
> responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.
>
> Ace Fekay, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007, MCSE & MCSA
> 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
> Microsoft Certified Trainer
>
> For urgent issues, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check
> http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.
>
>
> .
>