According to some posts:

Don't export your pst as a pst, it loses data?
Don't import a pst, it loses data?
Is this function broken and unfixable?
Don't copy your pst to another machine, then connect with it because it will
create duplicates if the messages are still on the server? Something about
the messages being downloaded already isn't stored in the pst.

From long ago, you could run more than one machine against the same pst as
long as they both were connected at same time. Is that still true?

Is there a list of these do's and don'ts somewhere?

Norman

Norman wrote:
According to some posts:

Don't export your pst as a pst, it loses data?

Correct

Don't import a pst, it loses data?

Correct

Is this function broken and unfixable?

No - it's not designed to transfer data from Outlook to Outlook - it's
designed to transfer data to/from Outlook to/from third-party applications.

From long ago, you could run more than one machine against the same pst as
long as they both were connected at same time. Is that still true?

A pst can only be accessed by a single instance of OL

DL wrote:
From long ago, you could run more than one machine against the same
pst as long as they both were connected at same time. Is that still
true?

A pst can only be accessed by a single instance of OL

at any one time. A pst file can be accessed by more than one instance of
Outlook, but not at the same time!

Thanks for clarifying that point. It might only be useful if I should use it
as some sort of alternate access restricted to self (still hard to be two
places at same time) and another machine backup in case one goes down. That
is having a second machine set up to constantly be backing up a copy of the
pst from the first machine where the shared pst exists. (probably a bad idea
to be backing up while it is being accessed from either)

Norman
"Gordon" wrote in message
...
DL wrote:
From long ago, you could run more than one machine against the same
pst as long as they both were connected at same time. Is that still
true?

A pst can only be accessed by a single instance of OL

at any one time. A pst file can be accessed by more than one instance of
Outlook, but not at the same time!

Norman wrote:

(probably a bad idea to be backing up while it is being accessed from
either)

This is very correct.
--
Brian Tillman

Norman wrote:

According to some posts:

Don't export your pst as a pst, it loses data?

Correct

Don't import a pst, it loses data?

Correct.

Is this function broken and unfixable?

While some would consider it broken, I doubt it will ever be "fixed" because
there are better ways to transfer data from Outlook to Outlook. You don't
export and import a Word document from Word to Word. Likewise, you don't
export and import an Outlook-native file with Outlook. There are situations
when exporting and importing are appropriate and when you understand the
limitations of those operations, they work perfectly, so in that sense,
nothing's broken. They're not suitable for "imaging" a pst, however, and
that's how most people try to use them.

Don't copy your pst to another machine, then connect with it because
it will create duplicates if the messages are still on the server?

Sometimes, yes.

Something about the messages being downloaded already isn't stored in
the pst.

Correct. Data about what server items have been downloaded already and
which have not, whether kept in the PST or elsewhere, is strictly Outlook
instance-specific and cannot be transferred between Outlook instances.

From long ago, you could run more than one machine against the same
pst as long as they both were connected at same time. Is that still
true?

I don't know if that's ever been true. As far as I know, PSTs have always
been able to be opened only by a single instance of Outlook at any one time.
--
Brian Tillman

Thanks for trying to get me up to speed on this.
I made a fat finger error in that the last statement should have read, "were
NOT connected at the same time."
Thanks again.
Norman

"Brian Tillman" wrote in message
...
Norman wrote:

According to some posts:

Don't export your pst as a pst, it loses data?

Correct

Don't import a pst, it loses data?

Correct.

Is this function broken and unfixable?

While some would consider it broken, I doubt it will ever be "fixed"
because
there are better ways to transfer data from Outlook to Outlook. You don't
export and import a Word document from Word to Word. Likewise, you don't
export and import an Outlook-native file with Outlook. There are
situations
when exporting and importing are appropriate and when you understand the
limitations of those operations, they work perfectly, so in that sense,
nothing's broken. They're not suitable for "imaging" a pst, however, and
that's how most people try to use them.

Don't copy your pst to another machine, then connect with it because
it will create duplicates if the messages are still on the server?

Sometimes, yes.

Something about the messages being downloaded already isn't stored in
the pst.

Correct. Data about what server items have been downloaded already and
which have not, whether kept in the PST or elsewhere, is strictly Outlook
instance-specific and cannot be transferred between Outlook instances.

From long ago, you could run more than one machine against the same
pst as long as they both were connected at same time. Is that still
true?

I don't know if that's ever been true. As far as I know, PSTs have always
been able to be opened only by a single instance of Outlook at any one
time.
--
Brian Tillman

Norman wrote:

I made a fat finger error in that the last statement should have
read, "were NOT connected at the same time."

You are correct, then. As long as only one mail profile is accessing a PST,
you can have that PST defined in more than one profile, including a PST that
is network-shared, although that has attendant problems and is not
supported.
--
Brian Tillman

Attendant? Do you mean making sure only one access is occurring?

Saw something about accessing a pst over a network could be slow I think.
Certainly poses the question in my mind if that would be like accessing any
file across a network or if there is something special relating to pst
files.
Some problems including that may have went away with 2K3 with the move to
unicode? Seems I need to look into what that is. Right now my best guess for
speeding up in that fashion is some sort of preshared translator chart so
you don't have to send every bit of data.
Thanks
Norman

"Brian Tillman" wrote in message
...
Norman wrote:

I made a fat finger error in that the last statement should have
read, "were NOT connected at the same time."

You are correct, then. As long as only one mail profile is accessing a
PST,
you can have that PST defined in more than one profile, including a PST
that
is network-shared, although that has attendant problems and is not
supported.
--
Brian Tillman