How to index Outlook and Exchange messages with dtSearch

Last Reviewed: February 27, 2009
Article: DTS0130

Applies to: dtSearch Desktop

dtSearch includes two ways to index Outlook or Exchange messages, contacts, tasks, and notes: (A) dtSearch can index "live" content in your Outlook profile (such as the PST files you are currently using), and (B) dtSearch includes a command-line tool for forensic and archiving situations to extract Outlook items in bulk from larger volumes of PST or Exchange data.

(A) To index Outlook messages and other information in your Outlook profile,

1.   Open dtSearch

2.   Click Index > Create Index

3.   Enter a name for the index and click OK

4.   In the Update Index dialog box, click Add Outlook to add one or more Outlook folders.

5.   Select the folders to index and click OK to close the Select Outlook Folders dialog box.

6.   Click Start Indexing.

Each message item, including all attachments, is indexed as a single document.  Attachments are appended to the message body.  After a search, you can view retrieved items in dtSearch, with hits highlighted, and launch a message, contact, task, or note in Outlook (press F8 or click the "Launch" button on the button bar to open a retrieved item in Outlook).  For example, you could search for a message in dtSearch, launch the retrieved message in Outlook, and then reply to the message using Outlook.  Outlook indexing and searching work with dtSearch Desktop only and cannot be used with dtSearch Web. Outlook 2000 or later (not Outlook Express) must be installed for Outlook indexing to work because dtSearch uses the Outlook program to access Outlook data.

(B) Bulk indexing of PST or Exchange data

For archiving and forensic applications, we recommend that PST and Exchange data be extracted to .msg files.  dtSearch can index .msg files without going through MAPI, Outlook, or Exchange, so converting the data to .msg eliminates the need for the data to be attached to a profile or for Outlook to be installed when indexing and searching.   The converted .msg files will include all properties of the original Outlook item, including any attachments.

To perform bulk conversion of PST and Exchange data, dtSearch includes a command-line tool, mapitool.exe.  For documentation on mapitool, see mapitool.html in the dtSearch BIN folder.  To convert the data, mapitool.exe relies on Outlook, so Outlook must be installed at the time the conversion is done.  Once the data is converted, dtSearch can index the generated .msg files without Outlook.

Converted .msg files can be indexed and searched in any dtSearch product, including dtSearch Web, just like any other supported document format.

Outlook Express. The above procedure applies to Outlook only, not Outlook Express. Outlook Express messages are stored in archives with a .DBX extension, and dtSearch can index these files like any other files.

Message Properties Indexed

The following message properties are indexed, if present, for each message indexed:   Sender, Recipient, Subject, SentDate, DeliveredDate, CC, BCC.  Additionally, any message attachments will be indexed as part of the message.  

For non-message Outlook items such as Contact or Appointment items, additional properties such as addresses, telephone numbers, etc., will also be indexed.

Troubleshooting Outlook Indexing

When I index my PST file, it does not find anything

Outlook messages are stored on client machines in a file with a .pst extension. (Messages can also be stored on a Microsoft Exchange server.) If you try to index this file directly in dtSearch it will not work because the file is encrypted. Text in a .pst file cannot be accessed except through Outlook.

Instead, add the PST file to your list of Outlook folders. To do this in Outlook,

(1) Click File > New > Outlook Data File

(2) Select "Personal Folders File (*.PST)" in the dialog box that appears and click OK.

(3) Browse for the PST file that you want to index.

Once a PST file is known to Outlook, it will appear in the list of Outlook folders to index in dtSearch.

Message: "Outlook Application could not initialize"

Message: "Outlook Error 800401f3: Invalid Class String"

These errors can indicate that scripting support is disabled or damaged in your Outlook installation.  If Outlook was installed without scripting support, the following steps will fix the problem:

(1) Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs

(2) Locate Microsoft Office in the list of installed programs

(3) Click the "Change" button

(4) Click "Add or Remove Features" and then click "Next"

(5) Check the box "Choose advanced customization of applications" and then click "Next"

(6) Click the box next to "Microsoft Office Outlook" and select "Run all from my computer" from the drop-down list that appears.

(7) Click the "Update" button.

If Outlook was fully installed but the installation is damaged, the following steps will fix the problem:

(1) Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs

(2) Locate Microsoft Office in the list of installed programs

(3) Click the "Change" button

(4) Click "Reinstalll or Repair" and then click "Next"

(5) Select "Detect and Repair errors in my Office installation"

(6) Click "Install"

This error can also occur if you run dtSearch as Administrator while Outlook is running as a standard user.  To prevent this from occurring, close Outlook before running dtSearch, or run both dtSearch without using "Run as Administrator".

Message: "Either there is no default mail client or the current mail client cannot fulfill the messaging request. Please run Microsoft Outlook and set it as the default mail client."

Outlook indexing will not work unless Outlook is your "default" mail client. (You can still have other email programs installed, but Outlook has to be the default.) There are two places this setting has to be changed:

(1) In Outlook, click Tools > Options > Other, and check the box, "Make Outlook the default program for E-mail"

(2) In Internet Explorer, click Tools > Options > Programs, and make Outlook the default program for email.

"The Server is Unavailable"
No messages or items found during indexing

If you have multiple Outlook profiles, either (1) Outlook must be set to always use one of the profiles, without prompting, or (2) Outlook must already be running when dtSearch is started. The reason for this is that dtSearch may not be able to prompt you for the profile to use during indexing (for example, during an unattended indexing job). To set an Outlook profile as your default,

(1) Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Mail

(2) Click Show Profiles

(3) Select the profile to use with dtSearch from the list at the end of the dialog box, and

(4) select Always use this profile.

(There is a checkbox in the "Select Profile" dialog box that appears when you start Outlook that supposedly does this, but it seems to have no effect.)

The ScanPST Inbox Repair Utility

The ScanPST utility is a Microsoft tool for fixing problems with Outlook .PST and .OST files. Please see the links below for details applicable to your Outlook version.

Q287497 OL2002: How to Use the Inbox Repair Tools to Recover Messages
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q287/4/97.asp

Q272227 OL2000: How to Find and Run the Inbox Repair Tool
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q272/2/27.ASP

Q181167 OL98: How to Find and Run the Inbox Repair Tool
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q181/1/67.ASP