Inbox (4) yet no unopened e-mails ! 1

[chriswatson]

The shortcut Inbox in Outlook 2000 shows 4 unopened e-mails i.e it looks like - Inbox(4)
When I click on Inbox(4) and all the e-mails are displayed, there are no highlighted un-opened e-mails.
If a new e-mail arrives (4) changes to (5), and only the 1 unopened e-mail is highlighted.
Why is this ?
How do i get rid of the (4) ?

MS Exchange 5.5 SP2
MS Outlook 2000

 

[brontosaurus]

forgive me for asking...are you sure you're viewing ALL the emails when you click on the Inbox? maybe there's some unopened down the list? or a filter?

 

[chriswatson]

Yes I have scrolled to the bottom of the list, and have checked my view options to ensure there are no filters on.
When choosing the View Option 'unopened e-mails', no e-mails are displayed.

There are no Rules set up for this inbox.

 

[brontosaurus]

can you try it on a different workstation to see if the problem repeats itself?

 

[chriswatson]

Yes, I have logged onto the 4 Clients who regularly access this inbox. The problem is identical on all 4 Clients. One did have a 7 day filter on, but removing it still didn't reveal the 4 rogue e-mails.

 

[brontosaurus]

ok, let's try something. move all of the messages out of the inbox into another folder (like drafts). Now, check the folder size on that inbox...it should be zero...

 

[rocketlauncher]

They might be going to deleted items. Check to see if there there.

Hope this helps!

Rocket

 

[bp1169]

What, if any, virusscan are you using? We use groupshield at my company and have this same problem occur every now and again.

We have figured out a work around, but don't know why it happens. The only workaround we have found is to logon to Outlook web access and delete the emails from within the web access version of the mailbox. For whatever reason sometimes (very infrequently)messages containing a quarantined virus don't show up in the inbox through outlook, but are visable through OWA. The messages that are missing are almost always messages that contain a virus, or at least the text, less the attachment. It usually only happens on mailboxes with high mail flow.

Hope this helps.

 

[vectrisk]

Use exchange 5.0 client on the exchange client disk (client b4 outlook) and look into the root of the user store. Remember that the Inbox, Contacts, and such are just folders like any other its just that outlook sees them as
vital folders. Just a guess.

 

[chriswatson]

Thanks for all these helpfull suggestions, esp bp1169

Yes we do use Groupshield, so this now looks like the source of the problem. Unfortunately we don't use OWA as we are an ISDN dial up site with no internet presence. I will pursue Network Associates Support for an alternative solution and explanation. Any useful response from them, I will post here. We don't quarantine virus infected e-mails, but have opted for 'Delete attachment without attempting to disinfect.'

I have tried deleting all messages in the inbox but it then just shows Inbox(4) and an empty mailbox. I then moved all the messages back in, and still Inbox (4)

I haven't used Exchange Client before, to my knowledge it's not even installed. I may have a play with that.

 

[chriswatson]

Voila - Problem Solved.

Because this was a general company mailbox, not belonging to any individual, these E-mails didn't show up, as they were sent as 'private' or 'confidential'.

Once I signed onto a PC and Outlook with the User Id of the owner of the mail box, there were the 4 E-mails.

And what were they ?................. Junk Mail !!!!