Can't open or save a pdf attachment in outlook 2003
Here are the symptoms:
A user subscribes to several mail lists that deliver a pdf file. User has been using these pdf files fine.
Starting last week, the user can not open the pdf file from one of these mail lists
The message is:
"Can't create file: Rate.pdf. Right-click the folder you want to create the file in, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu to check your permissions for the folder".
Other users subscribe to this mail list and can open or save the file without error.
The user in question can open the file when logging on to other machines
The user in question can open the file when using OWA from their own desktop
I have done the following to try and resolve:
- Reinstall Adobe reader
- Reinstall Office 2003
- Checked user permissions
- Run full A/V scan
- Updated patches
Any suggestions to resolve this?
Thank you
Answers
Similar to the previous post, I resolved by doing the following:
1. Open REGEDIT.EXE and go to Edit -> Find... In the Find dialog box type "OutlookSecureTempFolder" without the quotes and locate that registry key.
2. That key will contain the actual folder location, and will look like:
C:\Documents and Settings\%USER_NAME%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK#\ (where # is a random letter or number)
3. Copy the location of that folder.
4. Click on Start -> Run... and paste the folder location from step #4 then click OK.
5. Windows Explorer will open that folder. Please, delete all files present.
6. Restart Microsoft Outlook and you should be able to open your attachments.
All Replies
- I have the same problem buit with a excel file any idea to solve this??
I too have this problem. I gave the user a new laptop with all the latest updates running for Office 2003 and Windows XP SP2. When I make the user a local admin, he is able to open the files attached to the email.
Perhaps the key is in the new laptop. I transferred his Windows 2000 profile over the XP machine. I am also wondering about AV. Could be blocking the process to save the attachement (creating a file) but the local admin rights might disprove this.
Any similarities that you guys can find with your systems?
Andre
I was able to resolve this by deleting the Local Settings folder from the user's profile. I guess one can be specific and delete the Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft folder (or even deeper), but since this was a profile that I copied over from another machine, I figured that it is better to allow the computer to recreate this again completely.
I wanted to also keep the user's profile from Windows 2000 so that the user did not have to go and recreate all the settings from scratch.
Hope this helps you.
Similar to the previous post, I resolved by doing the following:
1. Open REGEDIT.EXE and go to Edit -> Find... In the Find dialog box type "OutlookSecureTempFolder" without the quotes and locate that registry key.
2. That key will contain the actual folder location, and will look like:
C:\Documents and Settings\%USER_NAME%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK#\ (where # is a random letter or number)
3. Copy the location of that folder.
4. Click on Start -> Run... and paste the folder location from step #4 then click OK.
5. Windows Explorer will open that folder. Please, delete all files present.
6. Restart Microsoft Outlook and you should be able to open your attachments.
- Is this a permanent solution and do you have to clear out the folder continously?
- I had this same issue that you have described with a user that recieves pdf faxes as an attachment in Outlook 2003 that are named file1.pdf. The way I finally got it to open was to recreate the users profile locally on the computer. The user can now open up those attachments with out errors. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks
I have assessed this issue by examining the files being opened. In my case the file in question always has the same name. The file is a work-order generated from Crystal Reports. The file is always generated with the same name and emailed to a coordinator.
Ideally, the Outlook Temp folder should always be empty, because when a file is closed, the file should disappear from said folder. This is not always the case, though.
That's why you will end up with several files like this in the temp folder:
workorder(1).doc
workorder(2).doc
.
.
workorder(99).doc
If Windows is trying to create a file with an identical name to one already there, it will suffix the name with a number like above.
When you've opened the same file so many times, Windows can apparently not continue the count from (100)+ and will result in an error. The method cleaning out the temp folder can't always do its job (the file is possibly still locked for some reason) resulting in garbage getting piled up in OLK2 or OLK75 and similar folders.
After clearing out the OLK folders, attachments could be opened successfully again.
Mind you, it took the user about a year to collect all this garbage resulting in the error. A large number of work-orders flow into that particular mailbox every day, so it does take a while for it to "throw up"
I hope that helps.
Hi! I had a problem opening .doc files with outlook 2003... and what bmdvt90 mentioned worked just fine!!!
Thanks! bmdvt90
I am experiencing this problem with a user from our legal department. This user receives 20 to 30 PDF files each one different and all called document. PDF. This file is generated from a scanner and uses the same "document. PDF: file name for each document. By the end of the week the user is no longer able to open another document. PDF attachment now that the OLK temp folder has reached document (99).PDF limit.
Clearing the OLK temp folder or just the PDF files will fix the problem. The issue is that the user does not want to manually delete these files. Is there a switch, parameter or option to enable in Outlook to delete these files automatically the same way that IE does for example? I could create a script to delete the temp files each time the computer restarts, but I want to avoid that and use it as a last resort. I know that there are many 3rd party tools that you run independently to clear-out temp files like CCleaner, but I do not want to have the user use them. Any ideas?
Thanks
John Lucas.
- There is a flurry of this problem happening recently, likely because of how long people have had their Outlook installations running. The back-log of same-name files in the Outlook Secure Temp folder is finally reaching the 100 file limit for lots of people. Is there any word from the Outlook/Office folks at Microsoft on a Outlook setting to automatically cleanup the Secure Temp folder? Anyone know someone at Microsoft they can ask? If Outlook doesn't have this auto cleanup feature...that is a pretty significant oversight.
bmdvt90 wrote: Similar to the previous post, I resolved by doing the following:
1. Open REGEDIT.EXE and go to Edit -> Find... In the Find dialog box type "OutlookSecureTempFolder" without the quotes and locate that registry key.
2. That key will contain the actual folder location, and will look like:
C:\Documents and Settings\%USER_NAME%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK#\ (where # is a random letter or number)
3. Copy the location of that folder.
4. Click on Start -> Run... and paste the folder location from step #4 then click OK.
5. Windows Explorer will open that folder. Please, delete all files present.
6. Restart Microsoft Outlook and you should be able to open your attachments.
Thanks!! this fixed the problem
- Thank you for your detailed explanation. This did it for me!
- Big thanks to you....worked just like you said!
I've created a batchfile for my users that have run into this problem
del "c:\documents and settings\%username%\local settings\temporary internet files\(OLK folder name)\*.pdf"
The OLK foldername can be found in the registry, as stated before, by searching for "OutlookSecureTempFolder"
Hi,
can you please email me the batch file. i would like to use it on my PC since im not confortable editing registry stuff.
please email it to me at notoriousmax@hotmail.com
thank you
frustrated outlook user.
Netfelix wrote: I've created a batchfile for my users that have run into this problem
del "c:\documents and settings\%username%\local settings\temporary internet files\(OLK folder name)\*.pdf"
The OLK foldername can be found in the registry, as stated before, by searching for "OutlookSecureTempFolder"
can you email me the batch file to notoriousmax@hotmail.com
thanksI have the same problem as everyone else here… and deleting the files from the OLK directory does work but it is a pain. Interestingly this only started after installing Adobe Acrobat 8.0. Users scan many documents to themselves… Prior to installing Acrobat the documents would open in the Acrobat Reader and no temporary files were saved and there was no problem with the OLK folder getting clogged up. Now with the full blown version of Acrobat temporary files are saved… Document(1).pdf – Document(99).pdf … Is there a way to prevent Adobe Acrobat 8.0 from saving temporary files?
Thanks guys.. one of my user was having the same problem in opening scanned pdf files in Outlook 2003 and the registry solution provided here worked perfect.
bmdvt90 wrote: Similar to the previous post, I resolved by doing the following:
1. Open REGEDIT.EXE and go to Edit -> Find... In the Find dialog box type "OutlookSecureTempFolder" without the quotes and locate that registry key.
2. That key will contain the actual folder location, and will look like:
C:\Documents and Settings\%USER_NAME%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK#\ (where # is a random letter or number)
3. Copy the location of that folder.
4. Click on Start -> Run... and paste the folder location from step #4 then click OK.
5. Windows Explorer will open that folder. Please, delete all files present.
6. Restart Microsoft Outlook and you should be able to open your attachments.
This method is usless when you have over 100 users all having the same problem and the OLK folder has a different name on every computer. I need generic batch file that will work on ALL computers regardless of the OLK folder name so it can be run as part of the domain login script.
My problem is a little different. When I try to open a .pdf attachment in Outlook 2003 the message I get is "application not found" . What is up with that? This only just started a couple of weeks ago. By the way, I can save the .pdf with no problem.
I did do the "regedit.exe" method above and there were no files in the folder.
I'm in the same boat you are. Any resolution?
Excellent - thank you.
With your posting, I was able to locate the folder and the culprit.
I had just recently upgraded to Adobe 8.0 Professional.
I do a ton of scanning utilizing a combo printer to save for my electronic copies to reduce way too much hard copies.
The combo printer does not allow me to name the scanned pdf file and automically names the scanned document with a file named "DOCUMENT".
Everytime I opened an e-mail that had a scanned file with the name "DOCUMENT", a copy was automatically saving to the OLK folder, even if I had save the attached pdf file and renamed the file.
Each scanned file name "DOCUMENT" was saved to the OLK and a number was automatically assigns to each doc.
For example:
Document1
Document2
Document3
When the folder reach Document 99, I (at the time did not know) was maxed out on pdfs autosaves and was received an error message that I was able to open the file.
I clear out the auto saved Document files on a daily basis to prevent having the same problem.
Thanks for your suggestions - it worked perfect.
Thanks,
Sunshine2006
I have used this fix with success in the past, but now I have a new problem with the same user. The problem with opening pdf's has now morphed into letting me open normal pdf's that are attached to emails, but when I try to open email/faxes that have been sent from the copier I get the error message "the file cannot be saved, right click .....". Also when I do the search in the regedit it shows the complete path for the OLK# folder, but when I try to open the OLK# folder it is nowhere to be found.
You need to do as stated above to find the path because it's hidden, or go my way which is to look for the same path via THE NETWORK PLACES to the computer with the issues, to the user, etc. As an administrator you'll be able to see the hidden folder OLK.....and be able to clear it out.
wanted to thank you this fix my issues too
This has been a headache for some time. Thanks for the great tip!
ITRef
- This solution worked perfectly. It sure beat's Adobe's list of possible solutions which includes reinstalling Windows??!!
Thank you! Once I found the folder using this method, I ended up saving the folder to my favorites. This eliminates having to go through the registry to find the folder next time. Another solution is to use a free program called CCleaner to clean up your temp files regularly. Unfortunately I am not permitted to use the program at work
- This worked like a champ for me as well!
User had over 1800 items in there, and I went ahead and deleted them all. She's now able to open up any attachment. Great find, thanks!
~Shaun Brilliant! Worked first time.
Thanks!
D
Thanks!
It works since then.
- Thanks for the information.
I had the exact same problem with Outlook 2007 on a Windows VISTA workstation.
the files are stored slightly differently but the fix is the same.
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\X30MWG3N - This resolved my problem. I had a gut feeling there was a problem with files named the same thing and a maximum on the number, but I would not believe my instincts because it seems like such a ridiculous limit. Plus the apps shoul be deleting the temp files.
- New local profile did the trick. Nice one jjonte!
- Creating a new local profile is ONLY a short term fix, the problem will continue to reoccur every time the temporary folder reaches its limit. I was continually creating new local profiles for users on a daily basis and often had to repeat the process for the same users multiple times. You need to create a batch file that purges the files in the temporary folder on a regular basis to stop the problem from reoccurring.
I followed these instructions and the problem was solved. Thanks!
- Best way to fix this is to put the script into the logon script.
Example:
c:
cd C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
del *.pdf
del *.jpg
del *.gif
del *.zip
del *.mp3
del *.xls
del *.ppt
del *.pps
del *.doc
del *.png
del *.bmp
del *.txt
del *.wmv
del *.w*
Then all users empty the temp folder when logging on That won't resolve anything because Acrobat saves these temporary files in a hidden OLK folder beneath the Temporary Internet files. You need to enter this in a logout script
del "c:\documents and settings\%username%\local settings\temporary internet files\(OLK folder name)\*.*"
The reason for putting it in the logout instead of the login script is to prevent sensitive documents from being left on the local hard drive over night where they can be easily accessed.
I have emailed it to you.
MarySue wrote: My problem is a little different. When I try to open a .pdf attachment in Outlook 2003 the message I get is "application not found" . What is up with that? This only just started a couple of weeks ago. By the way, I can save the .pdf with no problem.
I did do the "regedit.exe" method above and there were no files in the folder.
Did anyone ever get a solution for this. I can save to my dos.. then open, but can't open directly in outlook
- I have followed all the steps but ...
Here is a problem - under the C:\Documents and Settings\%USER_NAME%\Local Settings\
there is no folder with temporary internet files (only TEMP) and the files are directly under that. Deleted them and nothing worked
There is no "OutlookSecureTempFolder" in the registry either.
Still will the same problem - can`t open the attachment, any other ideas There's a post on page 2 of this thread that gets at the part I'd like to understand and fix.
Setup - we send linking files around, they're all named Link1.ndl
If I watch the OLK directory when opening attachments, you see the following:
Reader pane is closed (this is important).
Open an email and open it's attachment.
You see the attachment show up in the OLK dir.
Open a 2nd email message (leave the first open), open another attachment, see Link1 (2).ndl show up.
Repeat and see more and more (n) files show up.
Start closing down email messages and the temp files go away.
How the heck do you get to (99) files? Nobody in their right mind would be opening 99 emails, leaving them open and opening 99 identically named attachment links in one sitting...
Make the files go away when they're supposed to and this problem goes away.
Anybody know how you'd get to (99) files?
- I deleted the temp files and the user was able to open the pdf attachment, and since there has not been another issue with this problem!
THANKS! it seems a good idea to enter the script in the logout script; can you please assist me in where to find the logout script; I have done many the startup but no the logout.
thanks,
K,
- Dear bmdvt90,
thanks for the quick fix help--it worked like a charm. I can't believe this thing tied me up for months! - what if you do not have regedit access?
- i went to that particular folder as i was not able to paste bigger pdf files into my outlook 2003 messages, smaller attachments seem to work ok
so within the folder i just del some stuffs away and it works - I was wondering if there was an ADOBE fix as this seems to have just started happening to the users that have 8.0 installed and get the same file name for a AMEX travel as a report for their expense account. "MyTravelPlans.pdf"
- This worked for us, I recommend doing it this way.
- I have Outlook 2003, Vista and just put Adobe Reader 9.3 on the computer.
I cleared out regedit outlook temp folder as previous posts suggested.
I still cannot open PDF files in Outlook when people send them to me as attachments in an e-mail. I get a little pop-up box that says "The parameter is Incorrect"
please please help.
i can save the pdf to the desktop, but opening it straight from outlook as an attachment does not work.
