duplicate Personal Folders

A recent problem occurred at an office we support. New systems using XP Pro (sp2) with Office 2003 developed duplicate Personal Folders in Outlook 2003.

I have googled several solutions to this, but none of them work, or make any change to the problem. These were fresh installs, no importing of old setting was necessary. I have checked, and each PC has only one *.pst file on it, as each is used by only one user. I cannot "close personal folder" as the option ie grayed out. There are two options for "delivery locations" yet they both point to the same *.pst file

While this has not been a large problem over the past couple of months, it is beginning to cause confusion as we have installed a shared calender, and the duplicate folder is creating a duplicate calender. Naturally, the end users don't understand and want it fixed right away.

I'm stumped. Can anyone point the way? :oops:

After getting hardheaded about the problem, I actually fixed it myself. :twisted:

By copying the *.pst file to another location, and then adding it through Options>Mail Setup>Outlook Data Files, then changing it to the default delivery location, I was able to then delete the duplicate entry for the pre-existing *.pst file. This allowed me to close the duplicate Personal Folder. After restarting Outlook, I was then able to return the original delivery location to the original *.pst file and delete my test file.

Sometimes, just posting here helps me think. :lol:

If you are using a server could you have changed the delivery to the server then fixed the PST then change it back to the PST again?

Hmmm, that's a good question. It would stand to reason, in theory, because that is technically what I did, but on a local level.

I shall try it at a different office and let you know what I find.

I was able to finally try that idea, Lexion, and it worked perfectly. So, yes, you can do this with a server.