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Attachment issues in Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007, or Outlook 2003

  • Article
  • Applies to:
    Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Outlook 2010

Symptoms

One of the following issues occurs in Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007, or Outlook 2003:

  • When exiting (or when Outlook closes unexpectedly) while email attachments are open, the attachments remain in the Outlook Secure Temporary File folder. (Even if the attachments are closed.)

  • When you open the attachment from the Reading pane, you do not receive a prompt to save changes when you exit Outlook.

  • When you try to open or save an email attachment, you receive the following error message:

    Error
    Cannot create file: file name. Right-click the folder that you want to create the file in and then click Properties on the shortcut menu to check your permissions for the folder.

Cause

This problem occurs for one of the following reasons:

  • The temporary files or the temporary secure folders that the files are located in cannot be deleted or removed while the attachments are open.
  • The Temporary Internet Files folder is stored on a server on which you do not have sufficient permissions.

Resolution

This problem is resolved in Microsoft Outlook 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and in the Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 hotfix package dated June 29, 2010. These updates are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles.

Outlook 2010

Description of Office 2010 SP1

Outlook 2007

Description of the Office Outlook 2007 hotfix package (Outlook-x-none.msp): June 29, 2010

More information

When you open file attachments that are considered safe, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007, and Outlook 2003 puts these attachments in a subdirectory of the Temporary Internet Files directory as an additional precaution. When Outlook first tries to use a temporary file, it examines the registry to determine whether one of the following value exists, depending on your version of Outlook:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook\Security
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook\Security
Value Name: OutlookSecureTempFolder
Data Type: REG_SZ

The value in <version> is 14.0 for Outlook 2010, 12.0 for Outlook 2007, and 11.0 for Outlook 2003.

If the value exists, and if the value contains a valid path, Outlook uses that location for its temporary files.

If the registry value does not exist, or if the value points to an invalid location, Outlook creates a new subdirectory under the Temporary Internet Files directory and then puts the temporary file in the new subdirectory. The name of the new subdirectory is unknown and is randomly generated, depending on your version of Outlook. In this situation, to locate this subdirectory, depending on your version of Windows and your version of Outlook, follow these steps.

Important

Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

Windows XP clients

  1. Select Start, and then select My Computer.

  2. On the Tools menu, select Folder Options.

  3. On the View tab, make the following changes:

    1. Select the Show hidden files and folders option.
    2. Select to clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box.

  4. Select OK.

  5. Continue with the next set of steps based on your version of Outlook.

    For Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007:

    1. Select Start, select Run, type the following command (including the quotation marks), and then select OK.

      C:\Documents and Settings\ username \Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook

    2. Open the subfolder under the Content.Outlook folder whose folder name is a randomly generated sequence of letters and numbers. For example, FW0B6RID.

      Note

      There may be more than one subfolder with a randomly generated name under the Content.Outlook folder .

    For Outlook 2003:

    1. Select Start, select Run, type Regedit, and then select OK.

    2. Locate and then select the following registry subkey:

      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security

    3. Double-select the OutlookSecureTempFolder string value to examine and then note the specified folder path.

    4. Select Cancel.

    5. On the File menu, select Exit to exit Registry Editor.

    6. Select Start, select Run, type the following command (including the quotation marks), and then select OK :

      C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\<OLKfoldername>

      Note

      The placeholder OLKFoldername in this path represents the last subfolder that you noted for the OutlookSecureTempFolder value in Step 3.

Windows 7 and Windows Vista clients

  1. Select Start, and then select Computer.

  2. Select Organize, and then select Folder and search options.

  3. On the View tab, make the following changes:

    1. Select the Show hidden files, folders, and drives option.
    2. Select to clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box.

  4. Select OK.

  5. Continue with the next set of steps based on your version of Outlook.

    For Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007:

    1. Select Start, select All Programs, select Accessories, and then select Run.

    2. In the Run dialog box, type the following command (including the quotation marks), and then select OK.

      C:\Users\ username \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook

    3. Open the subfolder under the Content.Outlook folder whose folder name is a randomly generated sequence of letters and numbers. For example, FW0B6RID.

      Note

      There may be more than one subfolder with a randomly generated name under the Content.Outlook folder.

    For Outlook 2003:

    1. Select Start, select All Programs, select Accessories, and then select Run.

    2. In the Run dialog box, type Regedit, and then select OK.

    3. Locate and then select the following registry subkey:

      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security

    4. Double-select the OutlookSecureTempFolder string value to examine and then note the specified folder path.

    5. Select Cancel.

    6. On the File menu, select Exit to exit Registry Editor.

    7. Select Start, select All Programs, select Accessories and then select Run.

    8. In the Run dialog box, type the following command (including the quotation marks), and then select OK:

      C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\<OLKFoldername>

      Note

      The placeholder OLKFoldername in this path represents the last folder that you noted for the OutlookSecureTempFolder value in Step 4.