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Outlook Forms Error

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by rick 1 view

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This is a crazy one. When I update and post a form on our Exchange 5.5 server, Outlook 2000 Clients cannot open it. They get a message "The form required to view this message cannot be displayed." I dutifully delete the frmcache.dat file and try again. Same result. On my PC, I returned the next day and the form begins displaying correctly. On another PC it will not. The form did at one time display correctly on that PC. Permissions are not an issue.
Why is it sporadic and how can I fix it forgood if deleting the frmcache.dat file does not work?

6 replies

by rlevesque

Rick,

Not sure if this is the answer you are looking for, but the few times I had the error, I had no other choice but to reinstall Outlook. I didn't even uninstall, just reinstalled. Once I did, the forms appeared without any errors at all.

by maxwell edison

When you open an item that requires a custom form, Outlook stores a copy of the form on your local hard disk. The next time you need to use the form, Outlook checks this forms cache. If the form is in the cache, Outlook goes to the form's original location to check the form's Modified timestamp. If a user has modified the form since Outlook cached it, Outlook opens the form from its original location and updates the cache with the modified version. If no one has modified the form since Outlook cached it, Outlook loads the form from the cache, which is usually much faster than opening it from the original location.

If the required form isn't in the cache, Outlook looks in other locations, in this order:

Current folder's forms library

Personal Forms library

Organization Forms library

Web Forms library (for Corporate/Workgroup mode only, with Outlook Web Access running on the Exchange Server, if you've enabled it by clicking Web Services in Tools | Options | Other |Advanced Options | Custom Forms)

The error messages The form required to view this message cannot be displayed and Can't create item often signal corruption related to a custom form?either in the form itself or in the data file on the client that stores forms cache information. Outlook uses the Frmcache.dat file to maintain a summary of cached forms and pointers to the cached files.

(continued in comments...)

by maxwell edison

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To clear the forms cache, exit Outlook, and delete the Frmcache.dat file. The Frmcache.dat file resides in the Forms folder. In Outlook 97 and Outlook 98, the forms cache folder is the \Windows\Forms folder. In Outlook 2000 without Windows user profiles, the forms cache folder is in C:\Windows\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Forms. In Outlook 2000 with user profiles, look in C:\Windows\Profiles\%username%\LocalSettings\Application Data\Microsoft\Forms.

If you have installed Office 2000 Service Release 1/1a, Outlook 2000 in Corporate/Workgroup mode should have a button to clear the forms cache on the Manage Forms dialog (Tools | Options | Other | Advanced Options | Custom Forms, then click Manage Forms). So does Outlook 2002.

When you restart Outlook, it will create a new Frmcache.dat file with information about the cached forms. If that technique doesn't resolve the problem, try deleting not just the Frmcache.dat file but also the folders for the individual forms. (However, Microsoft warns not to delete the \Forms\Configs folder that appears on Outlook 97 and 98 installations.) In Outlook 98, you'll also need to run Outlook setup and, through the Add New Components function, reinstall support for the Corporate/Workgroup mail component.

For more information and further links cut and paste the following link into your browser:

http://www.slipstick.com/dev/formscache.htm

(REMOVE SPACES from the pasted URL.)

Maxwell

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