Skip to main content

Cornell University

EZ-Backup: Back Up Outlook Files (Windows)

This article applies to: EZ-Backup

If you are using Microsoft Outlook as your mail client, and you are storing mail on your system, (which means your messages are stored in .pst files on your system, you need to be aware that the TSM client may not consistently backup these files; Outlook can be changing these files while the TSM client attempts to backup the files. In such a case, an error message similar to the following appears in the dsmerror.log:

08/09/09  21:56:30 ANE4037E   File '\\windowspc\c$\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst'  changed during processing.  File skipped.

If you keep all your mail on the Exchange Server, and thus have no .pst files on your system, you will not encounter this issue. However, if you are using Offline Folder files, please see the item at the bottom of the page.

To remedy this situation, you have options:

  1. If space permits, you can move all your mail back to the Exchange Server, as all mail there is backed up consistently.
  2. You can exit Outlook before the backup starts. For example, if your system is on a nightly backup schedule, you can exit Outlook before you leave for the day.
  3. You can enable the "Open File Support" option of the TSM client for Windows v5.1 (and later).

Offline Folder File Users

Note: If you are using Offline Folder files (.ost files) within Outlook, you should exclude these files from your backup. The items in your .ost file are synchronized with the server when a connection is available. So, in a recovery situation, the appropriate action would be to allow the Outlook client to rebuild the .ost file (rather than restore it from a backup). The syntax for the appropriate exclude:

Exclude "*:\...\*.ost"

For help with adding this exclude, please see our Exclude Files from Backup article.

Comments?

To share feedback about this page or request support, log in with your NetID

At Cornell we value your privacy. To view
our university's privacy practices, including
information use and third parties, visit University Privacy.