Problem with multiple PST's

Post your bug reports and support issues here.
gsouders
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:36 am

Post by gsouders »

Hi Admin,

Sorry for the slow response. I have very busy. I have also been working on this problem. Thanks for explaining what is actually going on with this one. I do understand why you create your own profile. This list of potential problems of using the default profile is convincing.

Thanks for your suggestions on how to get around this problem. Unfortunatly this will not work for my client. I had him setup just as you suggested. I setup Outlook to archive all emails that were older than 6 months on the source machine only. I set the frequency to archive every day. I then used EZOS to sync the main PST and also the archive PST. So I had two profiles in EZOS, one for the main and one for the archive. Unfortunately this is what got me in trouble. His archive PST grew to large and blew over the 2GB limit. I should mention that Outlook gave no warning that the archive was approaching 2GB. When this happened the archive PST was corrupted and not repairable. Fortunately I sync every night so I had another copy of the archive file on his laptop which is the target machine. The targets archive was slightly under 2GB so we only lost a few messages.

That is the history and this is why i decided to split his email into 5 PST's. I have the main PST and 4 others (one for each of his email accounts). What I have noticed is that if EZOS opens the main PST first, then I can open all the other PST's without having the additional special folders created (i.e. Sent Items, Outbox). I started investigating using REGMON for Sysinternals. I found the EZOS Profile key in the registry that is created when EZOS attaches to the source and target PST's. I decided that this is the answer to my problem. If I can make sure that this registry key is present before I launch EZOS then it will not matter which PST I open becuase the special folders will not be created.

Here is my implimentation. I wrote a command script that will sync all 5 profiles. The command script will run nightly via the task scheduler. I first exported the EZOS Profile registry key into a .reg file after launching EZOS with the default Outlook profile (main PST). The command script will use regedit to load the .reg file into the registry. The script will then run a command line sync on the profile. I set this up in a loop so that for each EZOS profile that I sync, I will first load the .reg file. This works great and it keeps EZOS from creating the Sent Items and Outbox folders.

I do still have a problem with manual sync's. Since EZOS keeps track of the last EZOS profile on display, I have to make sure that I always load the default profile (main PST) before exiting EZOS. If not then the next time the program is launched, it will create the special folders for one of the other PST's.

I was wondering if perhaps you could add a switch to instruct EZOS to allways load the default profile (main PST) when running the GUI? This would solve the problem. I am certain that my client will forget to load the default EZOS profile before exiting the GUI.

I realize this reply is long and winded but I wanted to let you no what I am doing to get around this problem. Would you please give me some feedback on this stuff? The only problem that I can see is when processing the main PST from my command script. Since I am preloading the EZOS Profile registry key with the .reg file, will EZOS overwrite the keys when processing the main PST? I hope that it will in case something has changed in the main PST that will change the keys created when EZOS creates it's own profile.

Thanks for your support and I look forward to your reply...
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 660
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:21 pm

Post by admin »

EZOS will always start with the default profile if EZOS.ini is mentioned in the command line. For example:

EZOutlookSync Pro.exe с:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\EZOutlookSync Pro\EZOS.ini

You can either create a BAT file for yoru client or add EZOS.ini in the shortcut's parameters depending on where he used to start the program from. Hope that helps. Thanks.
gsouders
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:36 am

Post by gsouders »

Hi Admin,

I tried as you suggested and could not get the result I desire. I assume that you are talking about the username.ini file and not EZOS.ini. There is no EZOS.ini, there is only username.ini. I my clients case that would be Harvey.ini. I added the Harvey.ini as a parameter on the shortcut and EZOS still opens with the last EZOS profile or last source target combination. However your idea gave me an idea. I added the EZOS profile for the default Outlook profile as a parameter on the shortcut. In my case I named the profile Default.ezo. This approach works just fine. Everytime I open the EZOS GUI it opens with the default profile.

I would still like to get some feedback on my workaround to keep special folders from being created. The only problem that I can see is when processing the main PST from my command script. Since I am preloading the EZOS Profile registry key with the .reg file, will EZOS overwrite the keys when processing the main PST? In other words if EZOS allready finds an Outlook profile in the EZOS registry key will it overwrite it with new keys.

Thanks again for your support...
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 660
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:21 pm

Post by admin »

Concerning your workaround - this can be done in a simpler way. All the pogram's profiles are stored in G:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\EZOutlookSync Pro
EZOS.ini - is the default one. If you copy this file into any other file (EZOS.old) or into any other directory before running your script and then when synchronization is finished return it to its original location (filename). This way you get all the settings that were active before the synchronization back. Hope this answers your question. If not, please let me know. Thanks.

P.S. There should be EZOS.ini - the program wouldn't work without it. Try searching your computer for the file.
gsouders
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:36 am

Post by gsouders »

Hi Admin,

Thanks for your reply. I now understand that the username.ini file is obsolete. Each user will have his own EZOS.ini file located in the Users EZOS application data folder. Thanks for clearing that point up.

Back to my work around script. I see several problems with renaming the EZOS.ini file. First of all the EZOS options are contained in this file. Options that I need like "Clear folders after sync" and "Allow deleting folders" will not be set correctly when I run a sync. Secondly, if I do not load the EZOS Profile registry key with the default Outlook profile, then the Sent Items and Outbox folders will be created when I run sync's for all EZOS profiles other than the default or main profile. This would be the one with all folders including Contacts, Calender, etc.

This brings me back to the point of inconsistent behavior when EZOS opens an EZOS profile. Lets go back to running interactive sync's. As I have stated the first EZOS profile that is opened will create the Sent Items and Outbox folders if they do not exist. The inconsistency is when a second EZOS profile is opened while still in the program. In this case EZOS will not create the Sent Items and Outbox if they do not exist.

You have stated this behavior mentioned above occurs because MAPI rules state these folders are required when an Outlook Profile is created. You have also stated for very good reasons that EZOS creates a new Outlook Profile under the EZOS profile registry key instead of using the default. What I do not understand is that when I open a second EZOS profile while still in the program, the folders are not created. I would expect that when you open the second EZOS profile using MAPI, you will also create a new profile under the EZOS profile registry key. One would expect that MAPI would require the special folders to be created for this second EZOS Profile as well but this is not the case.

Can you please try to explain to me why the above behavior happens? I really would like to fully understand what is going on here. Thanks again for your support and I will look forward to your response...
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 660
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:21 pm

Post by admin »

Sorry I wasn't clear enough. I was talking about MAPI profiles, not the ones EZOS uses for saving settings. Files cannot be opened directly in MAPI. We can only connect to a MAPI profile and then work through it.

In other words - if you create another profile from within EZOS it has nothing to do with the MAPI's one as the program's already connected (or going to be connected) to it.
gsouders
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:36 am

Post by gsouders »

Hi Admin,

Thanks for the clarification. I think I now understand. I think what you are saying is that the first time EZOS is launched it creates a new MAPI profile. The MAPI profile is stored under the EZOSProfile registry key. This profile is temporary and is used by EZOS to gain accesss to the source and target PST's.

When I open a second EZOS Profile from within the program, EZOS just adds keys to the existing MAPI profile stored under the EZOSProfile registry key. The new keys reflect the Personal Folders of the source and target PST's associated with the second EZOS Profile. EZOS will not create a new MAPI profile for each EZOS profile that is opened. This process will continue for each subsequent EZOS profile that is opened while still in the program. When the program is exited the temporay MAPI profile stored under EZOSProfile will deleted from the registry.

It would seem that when EZOS creates a new MAPI profile that is linked to existing source and target PST's, the Sent Items and Oubox special folders will be created if they do not exist. However if the MAPI profile allready exists, then EZOS adds keys to the MAPI profile for the additional PST's that need to be accessed. Adding keys to an existing MAPI profile does not create the additional folders if they do not exist in the source and target PST's.

Since I now understand how this stuff works I decided to test renaming the EZOS.ini file. I have confirmed that renaming EZOS.ini does not keep the folders from being created. When I launch the program, a temporary MAPI profile is created under the EZOSProfile registry key. However the MAPI profile is not linked to any PST's at this time. As soon as I select a source and target then the folders are created.

When I load the EZOSProfile key with my .REG file before running EZOS, then the special folders will not be created. This is because EZOS will use the existing MAPI profile that my .REG file has loaded. In this case since a profile allready exists, EZOS will just add new keys to the MAPI profile for the EZOS profile that I am running. This simulates loading a second EZOS profile when running the program interactively.

Please let me no if I am correct about all this stuff. Thanks for your
patience in helping me get to the bottom of this. Thanks for your support and I look forward to your response...
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 660
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:21 pm

Post by admin »

gsouders, yes, you're absolutely correct.
Post Reply