Outlook 2016 - Public Folders - Cannot Display This folder - Server Administrator has limited the number of items

Question

Currently we have some Public Folders setup on Office 365 and we seem to be having some issues:

• When first trying to expand the Public Folders it can freeze for up to 10 mins (this is happening to users of Office 2013 and 2016 on a variety of internet connections and speeds.)
• Once the users have accessed the public folders, they can navigate them ok (with some lag), however after moving around a couple of different folders the users will receive an error:

Your server administrator has limited the number of items you can open simultaneously. Try closing messages you have opened or removing attachments and images from unsent messages you are composing.

Sometimes if you wait a couple of minutes and try again it starts working again.

At first I thought that this may have been limited to a single user running Windows 10, however I have been able to replicate the issue with the error message on a different computer.

So far I have tried:

• creating a new Outlook profile
• Removing access to a shared mailbox
• Repairing Office
• Reinstalling Office
• Trying under a different user profile (login)
• Tried it while the computer was connected to the domain and on a computer that hadn't been joined to the domain

Answer 1

hi ghunt03,

based on my experience, the issue may be because outlook locally caches all folders to which you have access in the secondary mailbox. you can try the following steps :

1. on the file tab, click account settings in the account settings list.
2. in the account settings dialog box, click the e-mail tab and then double-click your microsoft exchange server account.
3. in the change account dialog box, click more settings.
4. in the microsoft exchange dialog box, click the advanced tab.
5. clear the download shared folders check box. (screenshot below for your reference).

6. click ok two times.
7. click next, click finish, and then click close.
8. restart outlook.

if the issue persist, please do the test below to narrow down the root cause:

create a new account and give it full access of a public folder which don't have much content. check that wheather it can be opened normally. if you are not able to get a new account, remove all permissions from an existed account and give it a public folder's permission. this is to identify whether the issue is related to too many items in the public folders.

thanks,

louis

Answer 2

Hi Ghunt03,

Do you need further assistance? I'll be pleased to help you if you have other needs.

Regards,

Louis

Answer 3

Hi Ghunt03,

Thanks for your updates.

To answer your question, we need the following information:

1. How many public folders does the problematic account have?
2. The size of the public folders. Right click the public folder-> choose Data File Properties-> choose Folder Size. Please post screenshots of the folder size especially the folders you have trouble opening. To upload a picture, please click Use rich formatting under the reply box and then click the Insert Image icon. 

Also, closing Cached Exchange Mode may need some time to take effect. If possible, try to create a new Outlook profile for the affected users with the following steps.

1. Go to Control Panel in Windows.
2. Go to Mail.
3. Click Show Profile then choose Add to create a new profile in Mail Setup.At this time, do not open Outlook until you finish the steps below.
4. After adding a new profile successfully, choose Data Files in Mail Setup.
5. Double click the new Outlook profile you created in the list and choose Advanced column. Clear the Download shared folder check box as mentioned in the previous thread.Then, open Outlook with the new Outlook profile to see if the there is any improvement.

Regards,

Larry

Answer 4

Louis,

I tried changing the cache settings and it made no difference, I then tried another user with only a couple of folders and the public folders expanded quickly. I couldn't test the issue with moving between folders and getting the "too many items opened" as there were enough folders to browse through.

What are the recommended number of sub folders in a public folder? Does this also tie into how many folders are in each public folder mailbox?

Answer 5

Hi Ghunt03,

Have you tried the suggestion? Please let us know if you have any updates.

Thanks,

Louis