How to check for multiple OBAControlMessages folders

During deployment, Duet creates a hidden folder named "OBAControlMessages" in the user’s Mailbox on the Exchange Server. If Outlook is configured for Cached mode, a Send\Receive will need to be performed to synchronize this folder (and the items it contains) to Outlook’s offline store (.ost).

The OBAControlMessages folder contains 3 items by default:

"OBA SDSBackup" – This item contains data needed to rebuild the Synchronization Data Store (SDS) on the client if the database is lost or if you need to Promote a secondary Duet client to the primary Duet client. Each time the Sweeper runs successfully this item will be updated and the timestamp should reflect the last sweep. If the timestamp is the year 2005 then the sweeper has never successfully run.

 

There will also be an "OBA Personalization" item and one or more "OBA Settings" items stored as hidden items in the folder, which can be seen by using a tool like MFCMAPI to view the "Associated Contents" table of the folder. These items store settings and personalization information used by Duet.

 

Here are some different methods to see if multiple OBAControlMessages folders exist.

 

Using the Web Toolbar in Outlook:

 

1. Open Outlook

2. Click the View Menu, select Toolbars, and then click Web to make sure the Web toolbar is visible.

3. In the Address box on the Web toolbar, type and click enter

4. This should allow you to view the contents of the OBAControlMessages folder.

5. Now change the entry in the Address box on the Web toolbar to be and click enter

6. If you see items, then you have an OBAControlMessages1 folder. You can keep incrementing the number to see if additional folders exist. If the folder doesn't exist then we expect to see feedack in Outlook similar to "Unable to display the folder. Microsoft Office Outlook could not access the specified folder location."

 

 

Using MFCMAPI.EXE:

 

1. Download and extract MFCMAPI

2. Run the MFCMAPI.EXE executable.

3. Click "OK" on the initial dialog that appears

4. Click the Session menu and choose "Logon and Display Store Table"

5. Select your profile

6. In the list of entries double-click the entry that starts with "Mailbox"

7. Navigate to one of the following paths:

     a. Root Mailbox\IPM_SUBTREE\ (if Cached Mode is being used with Outlook)

     b. Root Container\Top of Information Store\ (if Online Mode is being used with Outlook)

8. You should see the OBAControlMessages folder listed as a sub folder.

9. See if there is more than one folder that begins with the name OBAControlMessages

 

If in step 7 above you saw IPM_SUBTREE (instead of Top of Information Store) this means that the Outlook Profile is configured for "Cached Mode". To confirm what folders exist on the Exchange Server you can also do the following steps to bypass the cache:

 

1. Close all MFCMAPI windows.

2. Run MFCMAPI again.

3. Click "OK" on the initial dialog

4. Click the "Other" menu and choose "Options"

5. In the Options dialog check the 2 boxes near the bottom that are labeled:

     a. Use MDB_ONLINE when calling OpenMsgStore

     b. Use MAPI_NO_CACHE when calling OpenEntry

6. Click the Session menu and choose "Logon and Display Store Table"

7. Select your profile

8. In the list of entries double-click the entry that starts with "Mailbox"

9. Navigate to the "Root Container\Top of Information Store\" folder.

10. You should see the OBAControlMessages folder as a sub folder.

11. See if there is more than one folder that begins with the name OBAControlMessages