Questions Regarding /PHYSICALMOVE

In preparation for a potential time zone move, customers may use the Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool with the /PHYSICALMOVE switch, which has promoted some questions as noted here:

Q: Are there negative effects from running the tool multiple times on the same mailbox? (i.e., on the first pass, original time zone = Central & new time zone = Eastern; on the second pass, original time zone = Easter & new time zone = Central)

A: There should be no negative side-effects. In the example here, this would make sense if someone moved from the Central to Eastern time zone and then, some time later, moved back.  

 

Q: Will the tool behave differently if there are appointments created using Blackberry, Live Meeting, OWA, etc…?

A: The intention is that all items are updated correctly. 

 

Q: Can this switch be used when running the Exchange version of the tool?

A: Unfortunately, no.  This is functionality that we did not include in the most recent release.  Customers may run into issues related to new time zones, as may be the case in Venezuela (which is moving to a newly created time zone, -4:30 GMT - see DST Hot Topics and Latest News for more information).  The recommended and supported way to move between time zones is using the client-side tool.

 

Q: I’ve tried researching internally and haven’t found much documentation on the /PHYSICALMOVE switch. Is there a brief overview of how it works?

A: At a basic level, the /PHYSICALMOVE switch is not that much different than rebasing with the Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool: identify future items targeted at the source time zone and, if we detect that being in the destination time zone would affect their start or end time, update them such that they correctly reflect local time in the destination time zone.