On Sat, 20 Apr 2024 03:44:42 -0700, ...w¡ñ§±¤ñ <winstonmvp@gmail.com> wrote:

>If you open Control Panel and click on the Outlook created cpl item 'Mail
>(Microsoft Outlook)' a dialog box opens with multiple setup type items:
> Setup email accounts and directories
> Data files
> Profiles

OK, some good progress today.

The Control Panel cpl is called "Mail (Microsoft Outlook 2016) (32-bit)", which
is interesting because the installed version is Outlook 2019 (32-bit). Perhaps I
upgraded from Outlook 2016 at some point, but I don't remember ever doing that
and I'm not thinking that that's an indicator of an issue. It just seems like
the cpl label should have been updated if the underlying product was upgraded.
Moving on...

>Data Files:
> When opened shows the default pst file that outlook opens(it has a
>check beside it) and other pst files loaded at when Outlook opens.

The default file is actually an .ost file, named after one of the lesser-used
email accounts, a hotmail account. There are also .ost files for each of my 3
other email accounts. There's a .pst for Internet Calendars, and I left that one
alone.

There were also a couple of .pst files in the profile that I had been using for
email archive purposes. One was on a networked drive, and I've removed it from
the profile, and the other two .pst files were actually just two entries for the
exact same (locally stored) file. I removed both of those entries for now in
order to simplify things. So now, with 4 email accounts, I have 4 .ost files in
the profile and a .pst file for Internet Calendars, whatever that is.

With the networked .pst and the dual entry of the archive .pst also removed from
the profile, Outlook started successfully and has continued to run for several
hours now! That's very good progress. The two non-Gmail accounts are working
properly.

The two Gmail accounts appear to be broken now, however. They both worked fine
before the BSODs started happening, but now they are in a loop where they ask
for my password, I enter it, then they ask for permission to access my Google
account. I select Allow, and then they say "Sorry, we could not sign you in to
Google - IMAP. Please try again later"

Outlook 2019 isn't supposed to need an app password to access Gmail accounts,
but I tried that anyway and Outlook said I needed to use my Google password.
This seems to be the last hurdle before things possibly get back to normal.

>The usual default data file(.pst) created is Outlook.pst
> - there may be more than one Data *.pst file
> => it could be a renamed previous Outlook.pst file
> => it could, depending how email accounts are setup, a *.pst where the
>* is an email username or username.com.

Right, I've got one .ost file per each of the 4 email accounts, each named after
the associated email account. No .pst files for any of the email accounts.

>Here's a not so brief overview of what
> Outlook does on first use:
>#1 - The first POP account configured will have it's PST file
>automatically set as the "default data file" and will any include
>contact/calendar folders

All of my calendar entries are gone, for now, possibly because they were located
in one of the .pst files that I removed from the profile. The account-specific
..ost files apparently don't have calendar info.

> - if an earlier Outlook.pst file is already present(copied from an
>earlier system or earlier version of Outlook) in the default
>location(e.g. ..Documents\Outlook Files) the first POP3 account will have
>the choice of using the Outlook.pst file or create the first pst with the
>email name.
>
>#2 - For any subsequent POP accounts configured, you will have the option
>to use an existing PST file or have Outlook create a new one. Any new PST
>files will not contain contact/calendar folders.
>
>#3 - Be default, contacts will be created in the default contact folder
>(same for calendar)

I don't store contacts, but I did have quite a few calendar entries that acted
as reminders. Hopefully I'll be able to get those back.

>#4 - Any PST file that has standard Outlook contact/calendar folders in
>the folder tree was at one time set as the "default data file" - not
>necessarily in the current version of Outlook being used but at any point
>in its past in any version of Outlook.

I'll look for that when I add back the now-removed .pst files, one at a time,
assuming the system stays stable. So far, so good.

>#5 - Anytime you set a different PST file as the default data file,
>Outlook will automatically add contact/calendar folders to it if those
>folders don't exist already.

I'm not able to select any of the other 3 .ost files to be the default data
file.

>#6 - Changing which PST file is the "default data file" has no negative
>connotations - just need to be aware of what that means (see point #3).
>You can do that all day long without hurting anything

I'm guessing that doesn't apply to .ost files. One of them is the current
default data file, but I can't select any of the other three .ost files to be
the default.

>#7 - The name of the PST file has no impact on the name of the email
>account. Outlook just uses the email address as the PST file name when it
>first creates the file. Can change the name of the file if you wanted to
>without losing any data. If you did that, Outlook would whine about not
>being able to find the old file name and ask to pick the one you want to
>use. That's it.

OK

>#8 - The "default data file" is separate and distinct from the "default
>email account". One doesn't impact the other. What you can't do is remove
>an email account from the Outlook profile if it's associated data file
>(for any account type) is set as the "default data file".

Agreed. I've noticed that before.

>#9 - Removing a POP account from the profile does not remove it's PST
>file. In other words, it continues to show in the Outlook Nav Pane until
>you explicitly remove the file from the profile which in turn, does not
>delete the file from the system.

OK

>10. When setting up an IMAP account, current versions(including 2019,
>2016) setup with an *.ost file. But earlier Outlook versions(2013 or
>earlier or 2010 and earlier) created or could be configured to use their
>own *.pst or the default *.pst file.

I don't appear to have a default .pst file. My default data file is the hotmail
..ost file.

>Show Profiles
> - That is name within the default pst file. It is not the name of the
>Data file. When an account is setup, the profile is given the name Outlook.
> - One can have multiple profiles, but caution, if you previously
>renamed an Outlook.pst file and adds that to the Data file option, when
>that pst is opened in Outlook(since it was previously and usually the
>earlier default data pst file, it also would have a profile name Outlook.
> - if one uses the Show Profiles option 'Add' to create a new profile,
>the ability to give it a different name than Outlook is available.

I only have one profile.

>Thus if if you've multiple pst spread out across different locations(main
>drive, mounted, networked) only one can be the default.

Can none of the .pst files be the default data file? Can a .ost file be the
default data file, because that's sure how it looks here.

>If more than
>exist, then more than one may have the same profile name(Outlook).
>
>One of the tricks,I learned a long time ago...since I've been using
>Outlook since Outlook 97...is when moving/upgrading to a later
>Office?Outlook version, always create the Outlook Files folder(in
>userprofile\Documents\) and place the earlier Outlook.pst file in that
>folder ***and always before first use of the newer Outlook version..that
>way my main Outlook.pst file contains all the prior contacts and calendar
>content and subsequently adding any new POP3 account to always choose
>that same Outlook.pst file to avoid having multiple emailname.pst
>files(because email addresses come and go be they isp provided or
>free(like GMail) or free or add free or Microsoft 365 subscription(using
>an Outlook, MSN, Live, Hotmail)MSA account for the purchase/activation
>etc - this way no matter what changes 'Outlook.pst' as the Data file
>remains the same and the default. I keep the size of it controlled by
>Archiving content to a unique name pst file that can be opened if
>necessary and cleaning out the trash(no longer needed emails, contacts,
>calendar content) once or twice a year. My current Outlook.pst data file
>in used for all these years is still only 2.5 GB(I've seen some Outlook
>pst files on other devices inthe 50-60 GB range and users having no clue
>what they don't need - emails, contacts, etc).

I like your approach, but I don't know how I would get there from where I am
now.