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# Thursday, June 21, 2007

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A data file did not close properly...

image

I see this message every time I launch Outlook.

I have deleted my ost file. I have run scanpst on every single store. Still no luck. I have searched the web, and only found other people with similar problems.

Anyone know how to make this stop?

Software
Posted Friday, June 22, 2007    Permalink    Comments [45]  View blog reactions

 

Thursday, June 21, 2007 11:17:57 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Outlook used to take lot of time to exit the application (the UI goes off immediately though).

If in case you are restarting Windows, close the outlook manually. Open the task manager and watch for Outlook.exe to exit and then restart the Windows. I always follow this to avoid "data file did not close properly" error. BTW, I am using Outlook 2007 on Win XP.
Ravindran
Thursday, June 21, 2007 11:41:21 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Got any MAPI applications installed alongside Outlook? ActiveSync/WMDC, Sidebar based Outlook checkers etc...

They all keep an instance of Outlook open and when you shutdown Windows, they don't give the outlook instance time to clean up before they close themselves.

Dave
Friday, June 22, 2007 5:09:38 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I have faced the same problem before and I follow what Ravindran mentions in the first comment.
Anando
Friday, June 22, 2007 7:00:13 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I read a post that mentioned let Vista take down Outlook when you Shutdown instead of you closing it prior. Like a previous person mentioned, OUTLOOK.EXE tends to hang around after the GUI closes and then when Vista shuts down it kills the process. I havent tried this yet, but looking in TskMger and making sure OUTLOOK.EXE has closed before shutting down the OS should do the trick.
Chris Haaker
Friday, June 22, 2007 8:26:17 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Also, I wondered about apps like yahoo desktop search AKA X1.com that keeps the .pst files open for indexing.
Mike B
Friday, June 22, 2007 10:09:17 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Well, in my case I'm not restarting windows or shutting it down. Also this problem started happening a few weeks ago.
Omar Shahine
Friday, June 22, 2007 11:47:10 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
A couple of things.

First off. Outlook can sometimes develop a nasty habit of not really closing but instead jumping off into an instance of svchost.exe. As you're using Vista, just fire up task manager (rather than procexp like in the good old days) and check each instance of svchost.exe to see whether or not it's actually outlook.exe that's hiding in there.

This is a problem I've faced on and off with XP and 2003 for a long time.

Then there are the basics. Do you have any PSTs? are you sure it's referring to your OST? Try removing all PSTs from your profile, testing and then adding them back one by one. If you've still got problems with no PSTs then try blowing away your MAPI profile and starting again fresh.

I've also found Copernic occasionally does nasty things to OSTs while Outlook is not watching. Doesn't harm the OST but doesn't half piss off Outlook. As you have Vista, you're unlikely to be using Copernic but worth checking.

All a bit straw clutchy I'm afraid so best of luck.
Matt Povey
Friday, June 22, 2007 1:59:04 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
happend to me too , under windows xp with outlook2007
looking for solution...
Dror Engel
Friday, June 22, 2007 11:13:47 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I use KnockOut for this issue but haven't tested with 2007 http://sunflowerhead.com/software/knockout
Mark
Saturday, June 23, 2007 9:02:36 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I reverted back to Outlook 2003. Problem solved and my whole system is a lot faster now.

Ellis
Monday, June 25, 2007 5:17:08 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I noticed that Skype was keeping a connection open to Outlook and causing the problem. Look for other applications that are pulling data from Outlook and close them before you close Outlook, this would include any sidebar gadgets.

In the case of Skype, I disabled pulling in Outlook contacts and this fixed my issue.
Roger Wilson
Monday, June 25, 2007 11:34:36 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Simple. Stop using Outlook :-)
Brett Lee
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 9:36:14 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I started getting this error after I got my iPhone. I think the iPhone/Outlook sync process is buggy but I havent really found a workaround.
Pedro
Friday, July 20, 2007 9:05:30 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I get this same issue on my vista install on my tablet. Having something similar happen with XP and office 2003 getting multiple instances of outlook because it won't close all the way. Look at this: Outlook multiple instances screenshot.
Matt B
Thursday, July 26, 2007 7:17:09 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Have XP with Outlook 2007, problem just started a few days ago, tried to shut down and reboot which solves 95% of all issues, but to no avail. Looked at add ins and deactivated Google search bar, but still doesn't close the personal file and message comes up all the time, whether I shut down or restart the laptop. Sounds like a bug that MSFT needs to fix.
John N.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007 8:04:21 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Besides looking for the root cause, these procedures from Chris Wolf should actually fix the issue once it occurs. I notice the problem after installing GDT as well. I'm going to re-enable to see if the problem reoccurs.
Steve E
Thursday, November 01, 2007 6:09:12 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I have ALL of the above techniques (let Vista close O/L, close O/L and check task manager, look for svchost masquerading, and on and on). The last suspect I can think of is contention. Are any other "victims" keeping their OST or PST in an offline-files-enabled (OR network-homed Documents directory) location?

Paul B
Wednesday, November 07, 2007 10:14:46 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Hah! I finally nailed the problem too - it was SKYPE. I had been going round the twist trying to solve this, until reading Roger Wilson's post: thank you Sir!
nesjo
Wednesday, November 07, 2007 2:37:55 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Disabling the Skype "Show Outlook Contacts" option fixed the problem for me too - thanks Roger!
Jason
Saturday, January 12, 2008 7:33:17 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Go to your Send and Receive options and choose the button that says; "Perform an automatic send and receive upon exiting". Works for me.
Terence Milbourn
Friday, January 25, 2008 3:13:29 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
I am having this same problem only Outlook will not open at all. I get the error message, Outlook opens for just a moment, then closes. I have tried all of the above suggestions. Any thing else that might work?
DeDe Jones
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 11:47:58 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
I have noticed the problem after installing quick Books Pro outlooks sync option. hmmm
Jay
Thursday, February 07, 2008 2:24:24 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Had the same problem with Outlook 2007. After removing Google Desktop from my machine, the error message was gone. Guess it had something to do with the indexing...

Hope this helps.
Bee
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 1:32:34 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I have just found that Vista Mobile Sync was the offending program, killed sync centre and problem stopped...Issue caused by PDA with Windows Mobile 5 not working well with Vista.
Dave
Wednesday, May 07, 2008 7:40:08 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Skype B******s!

I uninstalled it and outlook is now working correctly.

thank you!
Marco Baldanza
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:29:10 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Steve E's comment with a link to Chris Wolf solved my data file problem.... Thank you Steve E. :o)
AWW
Thursday, July 17, 2008 5:41:11 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
ah ha! this issue started after the iphone 2.0 sw update and thus itunes 7.7 and quicktime update. I'll disable those add-ins to see if I can get rid of the issue.

(repairing the .pst and rebooting with and w/o outlook closed didn't resolve the issue.)

-msbobo
msbob
Sunday, July 20, 2008 8:24:11 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Same problem for me. As soon as I installed Itunes 7.7 for iPhone 2.0 upgrade it hosed Outlook from closing and booting properly. Have tried everything (disabling all add-ins, reset sync history in itunes, 3 reinstalls of itunes) nothing works. Only thing that works is to deinstall itunes. I can then get Outlook to perform properly and just like it did before itunes 7.7 was installed. How can Apple get away with this, what a horrible software release? Does anyone have a solution to fix this, it's really important as I use for business and I can't even sync calendar anymore. Please help, Apple tech support is horrible.
Adam
Tuesday, July 29, 2008 8:19:27 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Same issue here...problem started as soon as itunes 7.7 with mobileme was installed.
Steve
Sunday, August 03, 2008 11:54:32 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I have also had this issue, after installing ITunes for the iPhone 3G, there is an add in in Outlook which you can removed from the TOOLS>TRUST CENTRE>ADD INS

Maybe if you remove this it will help?
Martin
Saturday, August 16, 2008 1:53:38 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Has anyone solved this issue? :)

I'm running Vista 64-bit, Outlook 2007, and have an iPhone 3G. Outlook worked perfectly until my first sync with the iPhone (via iTunes 7.7). Ever since then I get the following error message ...

"A data file did not close properly the last time it was used and is being checked for problems. Performance might be affected while the check is in progress."

I've since tried disabling the iTunes add-in in Outlook (no success). Uninstalling iTunes altogether (no success). And running scanpst.exe on my .pst file (no success).

Any tips on how I should move forward to resolve the problem with be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

-Ann
Ann
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 10:06:33 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I have also had this issue, after installing ITunes for the iPhone 3G, there is an add in in Outlook which you can removed from the TOOLS>TRUST CENTRE>ADD INS

Maybe if you remove this it will help?


Bingo! =) Martin you rock! Itunes you suck!
charles
Thursday, August 28, 2008 1:32:04 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Bingo also!! The iTunes add-in was the cure for me. I also disabled it (iTunes) in msconfig-startup just to be sure. Beautiful.
Double-A
Thursday, August 28, 2008 7:59:46 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
well... spoke too soon. It was fine all day after removing the iTunes add-in, but it just showed up again. No shut downs, no reboots. Just closed Outlook (about an hour ago), re-opened it... file shut-down error as before. Sigh. All other "cures" (scanpst, shutting down windows with Outlook open) have also failed. I never once got this error with Outlook 03... time to revert perhaps.
Double-A
Tuesday, September 02, 2008 6:37:19 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Update - so far so good - removed ALL Outlook add-ins as none of them seemed to be necessary for what I'm doing. 2 days now without the error. Fingers crossed.
Double-A
Friday, September 19, 2008 3:27:02 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I had the same problem on a brand new Acer desktop with a clean setup of Outlook 2007. The sollution I found was simply to remove the "Yahoo! Toolbar". Instantly fixed the problem.
http://puggle91.myopenid.com/
Tuesday, September 30, 2008 3:08:14 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I have found the best solution is to NOT synch my iphone 3G while outlook is open. Also, you must first let outlook repair the file, watching gear icon.

Once it's fixed just don't use itunes and outlook simultaneously.
Brandt
Tuesday, October 07, 2008 11:36:22 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I don't have an iPhone so that isn't the cause. It responded at first to my disassociating from Skype, then the problem returned.

I'm going to try deactivating the "send/receive at Shutdown" step and see what happens.

I guess disconnecting the iTunes link will be Plan B.

I'll try to remember to report on progress
Thursday, October 23, 2008 3:40:06 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Open Outlook, put up with the stupid message, and LEAVE OUTLOOK OPEN for a few minutes. Soon you should get a message stating that the data file check is complete. I just had the same problem and now it's gone.

~
windows_sufferer
Monday, January 12, 2009 11:54:44 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
OK i have just one comment obviously many programs create a problem to outlook so the problem is not other programs but outlook maybe i don' t know... Microsoft should do something... then again its just me...

by the way i also have the same problem with outlook 2007 and vista... (all this not important)
https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawknvIYofCFe9XR7YsQMBpNekY9_vyBB-K4
Thursday, January 15, 2009 4:44:40 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
fixed it i just compressed the database... because when you delete or move emails... the database remains the same size.. so it is recommended that you compress your database for example my database was 7GB even after moving many old emails to another database the size remained 7GB but when i compressed the size was 4GB and the message doesnt occur anymore. of course i fixed also database again with tools of outlook
https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawknvIYofCFe9XR7YsQMBpNekY9_vyBB-K4
Sunday, February 22, 2009 9:38:24 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Check the datafile of your Business contact manager in Outlook. this error ususally occurs after installing SP of you SQL Server Express edition.
Dave
Thursday, March 12, 2009 8:07:49 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Running outlook 07 on XP Pro, I've found uninstalling MSN Explorer, Outlook Express & Windows Messinger cleared up the problem!! Finally!!!
Joe
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 9:58:29 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Im also having a problem with my Outlook 2007,im using XP SP2 it all started when the power trip several times after the they fixed the power the problem occurred..every time i open the outlook my computer is getting slow...plsss help
Glenn
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 2:14:04 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I found if you goto tools > trust center > add-ins > manage com add ins.

and disable exchange exchange unified add-in

works a treat now (vista and office 2007)
Jimbob
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