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Users cannot post to public folders - 1.May2007 5:53:21 PM

ChrisBT

Posts: 6
Joined: 1.May2007
Status: offline

Hi everyone,

I'm having a few problems with Exchange 2000's public folders. Recently, a user became unable to post appointments under a public folder calendar (error message below). We checked the permission settings, and nothing had changed. We tried using that user account/exchange mailbox on another computer, thinking it was a local problem, but he still could not post. We tried deleting the account and mailbox and recreating it - same problem. We tried creating a new account with a different name. Still, the problem exists. We then tested a few other accounts, and they have the same problem. Currently, only one account works properly out of five. The only thing that was done was about a month and a half ago, when we repaired Exchange to get the Exchange e-mail working again. This seems to have happened a few days after that repair.

The error message he gets is:

"The item could not be saved to this folder. The folder has been deleted or moved, or you do not have permission. Do you want to save a copy of it in the default folder for the item?"

This error message comes up on Outlook 2000, and a slightly different one comes up on Outlook 2003 (I will post that error message when I get it). Any help that can be provided will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance,

Chris

Post #: 1

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RE: Users cannot post to public folders - 9.May2007 12:48:15 PM

jassyca

Posts: 224
Joined: 20.Jul.2006
Status: offline

Hope you figured this one out by now. But just incase..

Basically, you're looking at all the wrong places to solve the problem. It's not the user, it's not the user's computer / version of Outlook, it's not the user's mailbox. It's the public folder itself.

Logon as yourself, open the public folder in Outlook then right click on it and look at "Properties". Click the "Permissions" tab. What do you see? What are the default permissions for the folder and are there any specific permissions for user accounts? If you are your company's Exchange administrator, make yourself the "Owner" of the folder. (Note: You may need to do that in Exchange System Manager.) Once you are the owner, you can change the folder's permissions. "Reviewer" (as you can see if you choose that) means that the person / persons will only be able to view messages or items, they can't add or delete any. "Contributor" means they can add items and edit their own items but can't delete or edit anyone else's items. So on and so forth.

Let me know if that's not it.

(in reply to ChrisBT)

Post #: 2

RE: Users cannot post to public folders - 10.May2007 10:51:56 AM

ChrisBT

Posts: 6
Joined: 1.May2007
Status: offline

quote:

Hope you figured this one out by now. But just incase..

Basically, you're looking at all the wrong places to solve the problem. It's not the user, it's not the user's computer / version of Outlook, it's not the user's mailbox. It's the public folder itself.

Logon as yourself, open the public folder in Outlook then right click on it and look at "Properties". Click the "Permissions" tab. What do you see? What are the default permissions for the folder and are there any specific permissions for user accounts? If you are your company's Exchange administrator, make yourself the "Owner" of the folder. (Note: You may need to do that in Exchange System Manager.) Once you are the owner, you can change the folder's permissions. "Reviewer" (as you can see if you choose that) means that the person / persons will only be able to view messages or items, they can't add or delete any. "Contributor" means they can add items and edit their own items but can't delete or edit anyone else's items. So on and so forth.

Let me know if that's not it.

That was the first thing I checked when we started having the problem. But none of the permissions have changed. Changing them to a lower status, removing the account from the permissions altogether, even creating new accounts with administrator permissions and giving them owner access to the public folder does not work.

Here's something else that is strange. My account works fine with this public folder. I can do everything. Yesterday, my boss came on to my computer to update the calendar. He got the same error message everyone else is getting. Today, he showed me that if the calendar is accessed from the folder list, [Public Folders>All Public Folders>Calendar], you get the message, and cannot modify the calendar. If you click the Calendar button on the sidebar, and click on the public folder listed under 'Other Calendars' (I selected the public folder as a favorite years ago), it works fine.

(in reply to jassyca)

Post #: 3

RE: Users cannot post to public folders - 10.May2007 1:50:56 PM

jassyca

Posts: 224
Joined: 20.Jul.2006
Status: offline

When you are looking at the permissions for that calendar, you're not looking at its permissions on the M: drive, right? You're looking using Outlook or Exchange System Manager, yes??

When you repaired Exchange a few weeks ago, what was wrong? Did it find something that needed fixing in the public.edb / .stm files?

(in reply to ChrisBT)

Post #: 4

RE: Users cannot post to public folders - 10.May2007 11:07:05 PM

ChrisBT

Posts: 6
Joined: 1.May2007
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: jassyca

When you are looking at the permissions for that calendar, you're not looking at its permissions on the M: drive, right? You're looking using Outlook or Exchange System Manager, yes??

When you repaired Exchange a few weeks ago, what was wrong? Did it find something that needed fixing in the public.edb / .stm files?

Yes, I am looking at the permissions under Outlook, not the M: drive. The reason I did a repair was about a year ago, I did a repair on Internet Information Services. From then on, we could not use the email server for interoffice e-mail. Last month, I decided that I wanted that capability back, so I did a repair. I do not remember any messages coming up regarding .edb/.stm files.

(in reply to jassyca)

Post #: 5

RE: Users cannot post to public folders - 11.May2007 9:24:58 AM

jassyca

Posts: 224
Joined: 20.Jul.2006
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: ChrisBT
Yes, I am looking at the permissions under Outlook, not the M: drive.

Whew.. okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to come off all snobby or seem like I think you're a newbie or something. It's just that you can't tell what a person's level of experience might be when you talk to someone on a message board.

quote:

The reason I did a repair was about a year ago, I did a repair on Internet Information Services. From then on, we could not use the email server for interoffice e-mail. Last month, I decided that I wanted that capability back, so I did a repair. I do not remember any messages coming up regarding .edb/.stm files.

Okay, hmm.. so you had to repair IIS because something fouled that up. We had to do that once although I don't remember all the details. In our case it was something about we had the original version of the URL scanner and silly me, I installed the newer version and that screwed things up real nice. Had to uninstall then re-install IIS. But I don't remember having to run Isinteg or .. or that other Exchange util, the name of which escapes me. Still, just for the giggles and grins, you might want to use those Exchange utils. I'm thinking: maybe whatever it was that killed IIS (because the action of repairing IIS wouldn't have done anything to pub.* or else it would've fouled up priv1.* too) must have also done something naughty to the public folder. So, at the very least, you want to check the integrity of the public folder and make sure there isn't any corruption or other problems.

Exchange Command Line Parameters for the Isinteg.exe Tool
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301460/en-us

You'll want to use this thing after hours because you have to take the public folder offline. Then again, you might decide, "well, what the heck, no one can post to the silly folder anyway, won't matter if it's offline" but they can still read posts, of course. So up to you. Depends on how much people need to read the posts vs. how much you hate sacrificing your non-working hours. ;)

Exchange 2000 Server Eseutil Command Line Switches
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317014/en-us
(Oh, that was it's name!)

That's the program that will fix things if there's a problem. Of course, you want to be sure you've got a fresh backup before you do anything. You can use Microsoft's own backup utility if you don't have anything else. How long this thing will take depends on a lot of factors: size of the database being repaired, speed of the server (processor speed, speed of the drive controllers, speed of the underlying drives, etc. all that good stuff). Oh, and of course, make sure you've got plenty of free space on the drive that holds your public .edb / .stm files.

If your Exchange server doesn't have enough free space, you do have another option.

How to Run Eseutil on a Computer without Exchange Server
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244525/

And, last of all, incase anything goes horribly horribly wrong and restoring the backup doesn't work:

How to Use Log Files to Rebuild the Priv1.edb File
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278958/en-us

Everywhere it says "priv1.*", replace with "pub.*" (or whatever your public folder's file name is). Hope it doesn't come down to this, however.

Hey.. had another thought while I was browsing through Support.Microsoft.com. Do you suppose someone might've played around with the store permissions? (I keep thinking our problem is a "permission" thing..)

How To: Add Minimum Permissions Required for Mailbox Stores and Public Folder Stores
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328229/en-us

Delivery Refused for Message Sent to Public Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319753/en-us

Oh, duh, and stupid me.. I keep forgetting to ask: do any errors show up in the Exchange server's Event Viewer when someone tries to post to the folder? That might give us a hint or two too.

Let me know what you find out..

(in reply to ChrisBT)

Post #: 6

RE: Users cannot post to public folders - 11.May2007 4:10:32 PM

ChrisBT

Posts: 6
Joined: 1.May2007
Status: offline

Thank you for the suggestions, I will have to make sure I have a backup made before I try any of those utils. As for the event log, I looked under the windows event log, but I'm not sure if thats the correct log I'm supposed to be looking at. I'm thinking the public folder is corrupted, because when I go into System Manager, through [Servers>SERVER>First Storage Group>Public Folder Store (SERVER)>Public Folders] and click on the calendar folder, I get the following error message:

There is no such object on the server.

Facility: LDAP Provider
ID no: 80072030
Exchange System Manager

I tried looking that error up online, but I couldn't pull up anything useful. Have you ever encountered this error? If the file is corrupt, I'm still surprised that one person can still modify it.

(in reply to jassyca)

Post #: 7

RE: Users cannot post to public folders - 11.May2007 4:28:30 PM

jassyca

Posts: 224
Joined: 20.Jul.2006
Status: offline

Have you tried making another public calendar? Seems to me, you have to use Outlook to make a calendar. Like, I think System Manager only lets you create borin' old folders and nothing else so to create a new caledar, you have to use Outlook. In the "Create New Folder" window, change the drop-down under "Folder contains" to "calendar items". If you can make one, set permissions on it and see if other people can post items to it. Maybe the problem is just that one calendar, you know? I think you can drag items from one calendar to another. (Can you tell I don't screw around with Calendars much?

) If people can post to the new caledar and you can drag items to it, what the hey, move everything over then kill off the bad one. Don't worry too much about the name of the new caledar. You can rename it and use the old calendar's name after it's gone. It might take a little while (10 to 30 minutes, depending on how large 'n complicate your domain is) for the name change to be seen everywhere.

(in reply to ChrisBT)

Post #: 8

RE: Users cannot post to public folders - 19.May2007 8:11:37 PM

ChrisBT

Posts: 6
Joined: 1.May2007
Status: offline

Sorry for taking so long to get back on here. Been busy at work, and I spent a few days assisting fire personnel at a forest fire. Anyway, I decided to try making a copy of the calendar. Thankfully it worked! I have no idea what happened to the original folder, but the copy is working perfectly. Its such a simple fix that I didn't even think of it. Thank you so much for your help!

(in reply to jassyca)

Post #: 9

RE: Users cannot post to public folders - 21.May2007 12:26:59 AM