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Magical disappearing messages with Outlook 2002

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If you're really bored, here's one way to amuse yourself in Outlook 2002 or earlier:

1. Start Outlook and turn off the preview pane (View | Preview Pane)
2. Select a folder with a lot of unread messages in it
3. Go to Tools | Options | Other | Preview Pane
4. Check "Mark messages as read in preview window", change the interval to 2 seconds, and OK out of all dialogs
5. View | Current View | Customize Current View
6. Click on the Filter button
7. On the "More Choices" tab, check "Only items that are unread"
8. OK out of all dialogs
9. Turn on the preview pane (View | Preview Pane)
10. Watch the items in the folder disappear every two seconds

(wiping tear from eye) gee whiz, that gets me every time. Whoo-boy that's some funny stuff.

P.S. This was fixed in Outlook 2003 (in order to make the 'unread items' search folder actually useful if you have the 'mark messages as read in reading pane' option enabled).

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Exchange-faq.dk - Uofficiel Microsoft Exchange Server Ressource
  • Anonymous
    December 23, 2003
    Yeah, that was always a really bad "feature". I once panicked and thought Outlook was deleting all my messages... I swear I made a liar out of Einstein in my attempt to get to the power button as fast as possible.
  • Anonymous
    December 28, 2003
    KC, I did it! I made the spam magically disappear! But WHERE did they go?
  • Anonymous
    December 30, 2003
    Why are reading pane options "when selection changes" and "when viewed" mutually exclusive?

    Also, when "Mark item as read when selection changes" is on, moving or deleting the item does NOT mark it as read. Thus, I get a message, view it in the pane and wish to save it in a folder. When I move it (Ctrl+Shift+V), it retains it's unread state in the new folder, which bothers me.

    Thanks for a wonderful blog.
  • Anonymous
    January 12, 2004
    Question - can you explain why you'd want them to not be mutually exclusive? Why would you want "move when selection changes" and "Move when viewed in preview pane after X seconds" both enabled? I kind of see the selection change one as a superset - if the case where the item maintains its unread state during move/copy was addressed so that it was marked read, would that address your concern?

    Thanks.
  • Anonymous
    March 03, 2004
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    April 22, 2004
    So.. wondering if this is the same issue. All of a sudden (without warning, so he says) Outlook is removing messages from the inbox. I can reply to a message and when I do, it is deleted (not in deleted items file)
  • Anonymous
    April 22, 2004
    ZM: Yes, it sounds like there's a filter to hide messages marked as read from the view. Go through the steps above to see if such a filter exists on the active view.