Help Us Track Down A Missing Property

  • Article

Some of you may have seen this:

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2849083

The title of the KB is “"Could not complete the operation. One or more parameter values are not valid" error message when an organizer updates a recurring meeting” and it concerns an issue where we find PR_SENT_REPRESENTING_NAME to be missing on various calendar entries, which in turn leads Outlook to complain when you try to update the meeting. We’re working on a fix for Outlook that should be out soon, but I’m still trying to track down why that property went missing in the first place. Here’s where I was hoping the community could help. I know several of you out there have encountered this problem. I need data from a mailbox where the issue has been seen. In particular, I need to get the Calendar Version Store and Calendar Logging  that Exchange keeps. In that data I hope to find some clues as to where the property went.

What I need

What I want to get is the Calendar Logs for a user who has seen the problem, but I don’t want to get them the usual way, using Powershell. Instead, I want to get them directly using MFCMAPI. Here are the instructions:

  1. Build a profile for an affected user.
  2. Add a new, empty PST to this profile.
  3. Open MFCMAPI, go to Tools/Options, and check the two options, “Use the MDB_ONLINE flag when calling OpenMsgStore” and “Use the MAPI_NO_CACHE flag when calling OpenEntry”. Hit OK to close the dialog.
  4. Session/Logon, then open the mailbox.
  5. In the tree view, expand Root Container and locate the folder “Calendar Version Store”.
  6. Right click on this folder and select Copy.
  7. Back in the main window for MFCMAPI, open the PST store.
  8. Right click on Root Container in the PST tree view and select Paste.
  9. Accept the defaults and hit OK on this and the next dialog.
  10. MFCMAPI will take some time finishing the copy. When it becomes responsive again, it’s done.
  11. Back in the mailbox, expand Dumpster and locate the folder named “Calendar Logging”. (This folder might be missing – that’s OK)
  12. Repeat steps 6-10 on this folder.
  13. Close MFCMAPI (and Outlook if it’s open).
  14. Locate the PST, zip it, and send it to me.

You can do this on any user who has seen the problem, regardless of whether you have “fixed” the appointments by restoring the property via MFCMAPI.  If you happen to know the subject of an appointment which was broken to help me focus my research, that would be helpful, but not essential.

Can you help?

If you can – great! I can offer my undying gratitude in return. Just contact me through this blog and I’ll arrange a secure means to transfer the logs to me. The data will be kept securely here while I analyze it, then will be deleted. I’ll keep you updated on anything I find in the data that may help us track this problem down.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help us track this issue down.