Appointment Won't Leave Server (Outlook 98/Windows NT 4.0)

[misharenu99]

Have a user who created an appointment from April 24 through November 12 rather than creating a recurring appointment. He deleted the original appointment and created a new one correctly.

Unfortunately, now when you view his calendar in the "Meeting Request" dialogue box, he is sporadically busy all day every day for weeks. At other times it shows his calendar as it is in reality.

Any ideas? <img src=/S/brickwall.gif border=0 alt=brickwall width=25 height=15>

[JohnBF]

Run OL from his machine from the command prompt with these switches

/CleanFreeBusy /CleanReminders

If it doesn't help, post back.

[misharenu99]

John, I'd love to try but I'm not schooled in the terminology used.

What are switches and how to I access the Clean commands...Does OL stand for Outlook?

Sorry to be a pain

[JohnBF]

Apologies for my abbreviations, Meredith. OL = Outlook. To be more specific:

Close Outlook, and any Outlook child windows (such as an open message or calendar window)
Open the command prompt window
Using the 'cd' command-line command, navigate to where Outlook.exe is, usually crogram filesmicrosoft officeoffice
Run the following command on the command line: outlook /cleanreminders /cleanfreebusy
Outlook will restart in GUI mode
Close Outlook after it has completely loaded, restart Outlook the usual way, and then see if the problem has been solved

If not post back

[misharenu99]

Thank you, John, for the long-hand version.

I'll try it and let you know what happens.

With fingers crossed,

[JohnBF]

For your reference: MS KB 182112.

[misharenu99]

John,

Tried the above solution and it worked...only too well.

The appointment we wanted to get rid of certainly was erased, only so was everything else. If we want to republish the calendar, how would we do that?

[JohnBF]

Ouch, that's not what those switches should do.

And all the items are gone from the user's calendar? First back up the users calendar by archiving it. Try going into the users Tools, Synchronize, Mail and Calendar, and see if that restores. Also be sure that Tools, Options, Calendar Options, Free/Busy Options is set to publish 3 or more months Calendar information on the Server (which I bet is how the problem arose in the first place; the user has the default 3 months, set up a 7 month long item, and when he deleted, the meetin got orphaned on the server).

If my advice has been responsible for irretrievably wiping the users calendar, I'm sincerely sorry. The advice that I gave you does not have that effect on my installation.

[misharenu99]

Didn't mean to frighten you...sorry.

The user's calendar is fully intact. The only thing wiped out is his public calendar. If I try to invite him to a meeting it appears as though he is always free until June 1st and then there is nothing published.

I'm just looking for how to re-publish what IS on his calendar. I'll the check the Free/Busy settings.

Thanks again,

[JohnBF]

The user's published server calendar should be restored a few minutes after the user reconnects to the Server with Outlook, depending on the setting in Tools, Options, Calendar Options, Free/Busy Options, Update Free/Busy Information on the Server Every 'n' Minutes.

[JohnBF]

One last note. My earlier advice to select Tools, Synchronize, Mail and Calendar does not apply to the publishing of Free/Busy Information to the Server; that menu serves to synchronize folder data to any activated Offline Folder. What I should have said is, to manually update the Free/Busy information on the server, click the Calendar, and select Tools, Send/Recieve, and click either Free/Busy Information, or Exchange Server.