Utility review: Calcheck – Outlook Calendar Checking tool

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In this post, we will have a look at the Calendar Checking tool (Calcheck) for Outlook which is published recently by Randy. This program checks the Microsoft Outlook Calendar and items for problems or for potential problems. It's is a command-line program that checks Outlook Calendars for problems. To use this tool, the Outlook calendar must reside on a Microsoft Exchange Server.

Note: The tool does not work with IMAP, with POP3, or with other non-Exchange mail servers.

The tool opens an Outlook profile, opens the Outlook Calendar, and then checks several things such as permissions, free/busy publishing, and auto booking. Then, the tool checks each item in the calendar folder for problems that can cause items to seem to be missing or that might otherwise cause problems in the Calendar.

It can be used with the following: Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010 and Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010.

To install this download:

1.Click the Download button on this page to download the file and save it to your computer.
2.Unzip the compressed file that you downloaded in a blank directory on your computer.
Instructions for how to use this tool:

After you install this download, open a Command Prompt window in the directory that contains the CalCheck.exe file. To obtain detailed instructions, type the calcheck /? command in the Command Prompt window, and then press Enter.

Calcheck - Usage

Usage:
Here is a list of command-line switches for CalCheck.exe:

CalCheck [-P <Profile name>] [-M <Mailbox name>] [-S <Server name>] [-O<path>] [-A] [-F] [-R] [-V] [-No]
CalCheck -?

-P Profile name (If this parameter is not specified, the tool prompts you for a profile)
-M Mailbox DN (If this parameter is specified, only process the mailbox that is specified)
-S Server name (Process the complete server unless a mailbox is specified)
-O Output path (path to place output files -default is the current directory)
-A All calendar items are output to CALCHECK.CSV
-F Create a CalCheck folder, and move flagged error items to the folder
-R Put a Report message that contains the CalCheck.log file in the Inbox
-V Verbose output to the Command Prompt window
-No To omit a calendar item test
The No parameter works with "org" to omit the “Attendee becomes Organizer” test and works with "dup" to omit duplicate item detection
-? Print this message

To remove this download:
To remove CalCheck, delete the directory where it is installed on the hard disk.

Download:
You can download the utility in two flavors - CalCheckX64, CalCheckX86. You can download it from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28786&WT.mc_id=rss_office_allproducts

What the utility does & what you will see in the report?

When you try the Calcheck.exe, the following Calendar-specific checks are performed and logged in the report:

  • Permissions on the Calendar
  • Delegates on the Calendar
  • Free/Busy publishing information
  • Direct Booking settings for the Mailbox or Calendar
  • Total number of items in the Calendar folder

The following item-level checks are performed and logged in the report:

  • No Organizer email address
  • No Sender email address
  • No dispidRecurring property (causes an item to not show in the Day/Week/Month view)
  • Time existence of the dispidApptStartWhole and dispidApptEndWhole properties
  • No Subject for meetings that occur in the the future or for recurring meetings (a warning is logged)
  • Message Class check (a warning is logged)
  • dispidApptRecur (recurrence blob) is checked for time on overall start and end times, not for exceptions
  • Check for Conflict items in the Calendar
  • Check for duplicate items, based on certain MAPI properties
  • Check if over 1250 recurring meetings (a warning is logged) and 1300 recurring meetings (an error is reported); 1300 is the limit
  • Check if you are an attendee and you became the Organizer of a meeting
  • Check meeting exception data to ensure it is the correct size

Note: If you have a problem with CalCheck - you can post information about it on https://calcheck.codeplex.com/workitem/list/basic

Later I will add couple of screenshots that I tried at my end. I recommend you to try this wonderful utility and make use of it!

Happy troubleshooting!!