XCLN: "Unable to Load Personal Free/Busy Data" Error Message When You Quit Outlook (320028)

SYMPTOMS

When a Microsoft Outlook user tries to use the calendar feature or scheduling feature of Microsoft Outlook 98 or Microsoft Outlook 97, the user may experience one or both of the following behaviors:

When the user tries to quit Outlook, the user receiven the following error message:
Unable to load Personal Free/Busy data. Network problems are preventing access to the Exchange Server.
NOTE: The user may also receive this error message after he or she sends a meeting request or schedules an appointment.
The user is prompted for a user name and password when the user tries to quit Outlook or when the user tries to open a public folder.

In addition, other Microsoft Outlook users who view this user's schedule may notice slash marks (/////) instead of the schedule entries.

CAUSE

This behavior may occur when the Microsoft Outlook client is configured to use a Public Folder server that is either unavailable or is in an untrusted domain.

Because Outlook posts calendar changes to the Free/Busy folder when the user quits the program, the user may receive the error message described in the "Symptoms" section of this article if the Microsoft Exchange Server computer that hosts the Free/Busy folder is unavailable or unreachable. Because the user cannot post calendar or schedule changes, other Outlook users may see parts of your calendar filled with slash marks.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, re-create the Outlook profile for the user who experiences this behavior. For additional information about how to create Outlook profiles, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

166778 OL97: Contents of the Profile.doc Readme File

161973 OL97: Troubleshooting Outlook Configuration Problems

162203 OL97: User Profiles and Information Services

MORE INFORMATION

To further troubleshoot this issue, if may be useful to determine which Exchange Server computer is unreachable by the Outlook client. To do so, follow these steps:

Determine which Exchange Server5.5 computer or computers contain a copy of the Free/Busy folder, and then determine which Exchange Server computer hosts the mailbox for the user who experiences this problem.
View the Private Information Store Properties on the Exchange Server computer that hosts the mailbox of the recipient who experiences this problem, and determine the Public folder server for that particular Exchange Server computer. To do this, follow these steps:
1. On the Exchange Server computer that hosts the mailbox of the recipient who experiences this problem, start the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program.
2. Expand the site, expand Configuration, expand Servers, expand the server that you want, and then click Private Information Store.
3. On the File menu, click Properties.
4. Note the name of the server displayed in the Public folder server list.
On the client computer from which the user experiences this problem, start Microsoft Outlook, and then execute the netstat -a command from a command prompt. Notice that connections to the mailbox server are displayed.
Try to schedule a meeting from the client computer. Re-run the netstat -a command during the scheduling process.
Try to quit Outlook. Re-run the netstat -a command during this process.

Notice that computer tries to make connections to another Exchange Server computer. It is this server that is the cause of the error message that is described in the "Symptoms" section of this article.
Verify that the Exchange Server computer to which Outlook tries to connect upon exiting is available and reachable (determine if the correct trust relationships exist in the domain).

For additional information about the netstat command, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

137984 TCP Connection States and Netstat Output