Outlook 2003 error trying to open .msg saved emails on server

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We save emails to network server in specific job folders as .msg files to preserve all header info and attachments.

Recently found that I could only open the saved attachments once if I tried a second time it would give the following error:

Can’t open file: <file path>. The file may not exist, you may not have permission to open it, or it may be open in another program.

Permissions were fine for the files and if I closed outlook and reopened outlook, I would be able to open each message once but once closed and reopened I would get the same error message. If I closed outlook and left it closed, then I would be able to open and close the saved .msg file as many times as I wanted – i.e. normal file behaviour. The minute I opened my Outlook 2003 and then opened the .msg file it seemed to place some kind of lock on the file and never clear that lock until I closed outlook. If I looked at a list of all open files on the server, the .msg files in question were indeed locked out to my username even though I had closed the email viewing window.

Some suggestions were rogue Outlook plugins or add-ons. I had a look in Tools->Other->Advanced and only had a few basic ones in there that I no longer used so deleted all them, closed outlook and still got the same error message trying to open the messages for a 2nd time.

Eventually I found it was due to Outlook Junk Mail filtering, or a bug with the Junk Mail Filtering shall we say. Since all my junk is filtered by the IMF filter on the Exchange server I don’t think I’ve rolled out any Junk Mail updates to the Outlook installations on my system. I went to Microsoft and downloaded a more recent (but still 2006 and hence old) Junk Mail patchUpdate for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB925254)” and this resolved the issue and I can now open .msg files saved on our server without it locking the file out for myself and others.

see also

Disabling addons http://blog.techhit.com/5527-how-to-find-and-disable-outlook-2003-add-ins-and-plugins

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