Outlook can't move messages to folder

drdan3 · #1 02-03-2004, 10:10 AM

Hopefully someone can help me understand what I need to do to get Outlook 2002 to move messages in the inbox to folders. I have tried to do this by highlighting several messages at once and then dragging them to the folder, but I get a "can't move the items" message without elaboration. Any help would be appreciated...

blizey · #2 02-03-2004, 07:25 PM

You can create a new message rule. Go to Tools>Message rules>Mail and move the mail to a specific folder within Outlook.

OR

Highlight the message, hit File>Save As... and select a folder where you want it saved in My Documents, Desktop, whatever.

drdan3 · #3 02-03-2004, 08:26 PM

Your thoughts are useful as work-arounds, but I am wondering if the underlying problem is a defect in Outlook, or some special circumstances (a complex interaction effect) based on my installation. Obviously, it is a whole lot more convenient to be able to drag and drop messages into a folder than to have to put them elsewhere. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

slauhter · #4 02-04-2004, 10:38 PM

Hi one question first, what mail format are you using, is it just a normal dial up with a POP3 Account.
Also when you first installed did you set it up in Exchange mode or Internet only mode.

You could try changing these around.
Unfortunately there is no easy was to uninstall/re-install outlook properly as it keeps its settings hidden when you un-install.

You could try re-installing anyway, as outlook should not operate like that, although I have found Outlook 2002 to be very buggy.

trettinb · #5 02-11-2004, 05:59 AM

All of our Outlook 2002 users get this message when they try moving messages from one folder to another. It seems to be an Outlook 2002 problem and not an Exchange server problem, it started when we upgraded to Office XP.

Microsoft.com doesn't have any information on it, has anybody else come across this problem?

Bill

TheDA · #6 02-25-2005, 07:30 PM

Okay, THIS IS NOT A WORK AROUND!!!

Best way to fix this problem is as follows:

1) Find Outlook.pst and Archive.pst and move (DON'T COPY) them to a folder on your desktop.

2) Right click on Outlook's icon and select properties.

3) Select Profiles and remove the one that is acting up. There should only be one.

4) Restart Outlook and set up your email account again.

5) Go to File - Import and Export

6) Select Import from another program or file

7) Select the one that says import from .pst

8) Find your outlook.pst file opn your desktop from step 1 and let the machine import the files.

That should do it and fix the problem.

Happy computing!!! (This took me 3 hours to figure out, so I just saved you all some time)

ModelCitizen · #7 03-03-2005, 08:34 AM

Thanks TheDA for all your work, but I am afraid your method did not work for me. This is probably because I am using Outlook 2000 SP3 (on XP Pro) though.

Like the original poster, my problem is I cannot move any of my emails to one particular folder. Outlook says: "Can't move the items". I have tried copying the emails (which I want to keep) out of the folder into another folder with a different name but as soon as I move the emails into the new folder the new folder become unwriteable.

I tried your method.
Eventually I found Outlook.pst in C:\Documents and Settings\My Profile Name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.
I did not have an archive.pst as my backups are named purposely OutlookBackup.pst and are saved into my documents.

I moved both to my desktop then right clicked on my Outlook icon and selected Properties. From here there is no Profile tab in 2000, just a Mail tab listing the mail accounts. However, just in case, I deleted my default mail account. Then I tried to start up Outlook. It would not start up without outlook.pst.... and i was presented with a Browse box to find it.... finding my Outlook.pst rather defeats the object so I put everything back where it should be and gave up.

I can find nothing helpful via Google regarding this problem and any help with it would be very appreciated indeed!

ruth · #8 11-19-2007, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDA

Okay, THIS IS NOT A WORK AROUND!!!

Best way to fix this problem is as follows:

1) Find Outlook.pst and Archive.pst and move (DON'T COPY) them to a folder on your desktop.

2) Right click on Outlook's icon and select properties.

3) Select Profiles and remove the one that is acting up. There should only be one.

4) Restart Outlook and set up your email account again.

5) Go to File - Import and Export

6) Select Import from another program or file

7) Select the one that says import from .pst

8) Find your outlook.pst file opn your desktop from step 1 and let the machine import the files.

That should do it and fix the problem.

Happy computing!!! (This took me 3 hours to figure out, so I just saved you all some time)

I've just been very stupid - i followed the instructions above and all wokred perfectly except that the files i copied to my desk top were archived files that have not been updated since April. Have i lost the entire up to date version of outlook.pst by deleting the profile? or is there anyway to recover this? Need help urgently!

thanks in advance.

ruth

Lol · #9 03-11-2008, 04:35 AM

can't move the items. the item could not be moved. It was either already moved or deleted, or access was denied.

I am receiving this message on my outlook when trying to move an email to another folder.

Lol · #10 03-11-2008, 06:43 AM

i moved a mail to a folder and i have to move it back to another folder on my mail box i receive this message "can't move the items. the item could not be moved. It was either already moved or deleted, or access was denied."

rkaroda · #11 06-27-2008, 03:54 AM

Hi All,

I ran into the same problem this evening, am using 2000 Outlook, and tried creating a new folder and moved all the files. Midway was able to copy files into both folders, but when I completed the move, error started happening again. I deleted a bunch of emails that were no longer worth keeping, and it seems to have removed the problem. I have a feeling it is based on the number of emails in a folder, and it errors out at some point. I have been saving files in this for the last 4 years, forgot to check how many emails were in it. Not sure if it is helpful, but seems to be working...for now.

Thanks,

/.rkaroda

UPSGuy · #12 08-12-2008, 10:45 AM

The "Can't Move the Items" message occurs when the default .pst file (usually Outlook.pst) exceeds a maximum size. the solution is to set up an archive folder (which should have a separate .pst file, lsuch as archive.pst) and periodically move emails to it.

Note that the folder most likely to send your .pst file over limit is the Send Items folder. This is especially problematic if you send (or receive) a lot of emails with large attachments. The max size for the .pst file is between 1 and 2 gB - I'm not sure how much but I know it's in that range.

I mention this since I just had the same issue. It turns out that my Sent Items folder had an immense number of items in it. I couldn't move or copy emails within my Personal Folders, since the .pst file containing them was maxed. However, I COULD move them to my archive folder, which told me that the problem was an overflow.

Once I transferred the mass of old sent emails to a Sent Items subfolder in my archive, everything worked fine again.