Error Message: "HTTP 500 Internal Server Error" When You Use Outlook Mobile Access (296247)

SYMPTOMS

When you use Microsoft Outlook Mobile Access to view a subfolder, you receive the following error message:

HTTP 500 - Internal server error

CAUSE

This issue occurs if the name of the parent folder of the subfolder that you are attempting to view contains a semi-colon (;) or some other special character. If you are using an Outlook client, you can create a folder that includes a special character in its name; however, you cannot access the folder if you are using an Outlook Mobile Access client or a Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) client because these clients do not recognize folder names that include special characters.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, give the parent folder a name that does not include a special character. Special characters are normally punctuation marks, or other extended ASCII characters. Some of the more commonly used characters that cause this problem are:

Brackets ([])
Forward slash mark (/)
Backward slash mark (\)
Ampersand (&)
Tilde (~)
Question mark (?)
Asterisk (*)
Pipe or vertical bar (|)
Angle brackets (<>)
Quotation marks (")
Number sign (#)
Semicolon (;)
Colon (:)
Plus sign (+)

NOTE: If your account name includes one of the preceding characters, you cannot log on to Outlook Mobile Access.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.