IT Blog

Recently, we come across this error message in a users’ Outlook, which was a perplexing issue as it only appeared to affect emails and contacts that were created or modified after the last scheduled server reboot.

Initially, it was thought to be mailbox corruption, however certain folders such as “inbox” appeared to be completely unaffected by the issue and it was occurring across multiple mailboxes.

After some research, we found that there is a known issue with Exchange and Antivirus packages; In this case, it was Exchange 2010 and “Forefront Protection for Exchange Server”.

As it turns out, the Antivirus package needed to be “disconnected” from exchange and reconnected. In our case with ForeFront, it involved following these steps. Other antivirus applications will have similar actions. Please refer to their documentation for further reading in regards to other AV packages.

1. Stop the following services on your Exchange Mailbox server only.
   – Microsoft Forefront Server Protection Controller
   – Exchange IS
   – Exchange Transport
2. Navigate to the installation directory of Forefront
   – e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Forefront Protection for Exchange Server
3. Run the following command: “fscutility /status”
   – This should show ” Status:  Microsoft Forefront Protection currently integrated.” in the last line.
4. Now run “fscutility /disable”
5. Run the following command: fscutility /status
   – This should show ” Status:  Microsoft Forefront Protection currently NOT integrated.” in the last line.  (Just to make sure the command worked)
6. Now run “fscutility /enable”
7. Run the following command: “fscutility /status”
   – This should show ” Status:  Microsoft Forefront Protection currently integrated.” in the last line.(Just to make sure the command worked)
8. Restart the previously stopped exchange services:
   – Microsoft Forefront Server Protection Controller
   – Exchange IS
   – Exchange Transport

Now you should find that all the previously “broken” items in outlook are working again. No database corruption to contend with, no re-installation, no worries.

Reference: http://forums.msexchange.org/m_1800448451/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm