Missing/lost message, Outlook/Exchange, where has it gone?

Question

One Outlook user claims to have not seen one mail message. It is not in any of his mail folders, not in the deleted folder, not in the list of recoverable deleted items (items held by exchange after deletion).

It is really not in his mailbox. Checked on OWA, (and on another workstation using Outlook 2003 with a different login).

Exchange message tracking tells me that the message was delivered to his mailbox.

His mailbox is not full or even very large, he deletes his completed mail.

It was delivered yesterday, well within the Exchange recovery interval, and there are older items in his recoverable email list.

There aren't any relevent rules shown, (looking through Outlook Web Access).

Outlook 2007, Exchange 2003 SP2 (6.5.7638)

What can you do in Outlook 2007 that has the effect of removing a message from your mailbox, without leaving it in the recoverable deleted items? Where has it gone?

Solution

The "Deleted Items" folder and the "Junk E-mail" folder have seperate recoverable items lists.

You can see a recoverable items list for the "Mailbox" in Outlook when using an Exchange connection, but not in Outlook Web Access, and not when using a IMAP connection.

So, to answer the question: One way to remove a message from your mailbox, without leaving it in the recoverable deleted items, is to move it to Junk E-mail, then delete it. It will be in recoverable junk items, not recoverable deleteted items.

Another way is to do "Shift Del" (also known as hard delete) from your inbox. This leave the item in recoverable inbox items.

To see recoverable inbox items in OWA, use the url to go directly to [the inbox folder]:
http://[myserver]/exchange/[my user]/inbox
then add the command "showdeleted"
http://[myserver]/exchange/[my user]/inbox/?cmd=showdeleted
This also works for other folders:
http://[myserver]/exchange/[my user]/deleted#20items/?cmd=showdeleted
But not for subfolders:
http://[myserver]/exchange/[my user]/?cmd=showdeleted does not show anthing, even though inbox and deleted#20items do.

To see recoverable items in any mail folder in Outlook 2000+ (using an Exchange connection while logged in as the actual user), enable the "DumpsterAlwaysOn" registry connection: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/178630

Comments

[joeqwerty]

Start Outlook from the Run command like this: outlook.exe /cleanviews, then check for the message. If the Message Tracking Tool shows it as being delivered to his mailbox then it was delivered to his mailbox.

[Ward - Reinstate Monica]

"deletes his completed mail." makes me think he did it himself... Or does he have an assistant who might have moved it to an obscure folder?

[user165568]

I'll try cleanviews, but -- I've tried OWA. It's not an outlook view.

[user165568]

I've checked all the Exchange folders. It's not deleted or it would be in the recoverable mail list. He's checked archive folders, I'm going to do that again. Would moving a message to an archive folder make it unrecoverable on exchange?

[Rex]

out of curiosity, how many folders/subfolders does this user have? Have you checked the view filters (in both outlook and owa)?

[john]

Has it been moved to a non-mail folder (ie. Calendar, I think that's possible). Maybe it was just accidentally dragged and dropped somewhere?