Knowledge Base

FIX: You receive a "Can't open this item. Operations on message headers can not be performed in this folder" error message when you try to open an e-mail message in Outlook 2002

Article ID: 814377

Article Last Modified on 7/28/2006

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Outlook 2002 Standard Edition

SYMPTOMS

When you try to open an e-mail message, you may receive the following error message:

Can't open this item. Operations on message headers can not be performed in this folder. All message headers in this folder will be deleted.

Then, all of your e-mail headers disappear.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if all of the following conditions are true:

You are using a rule to move messages from the Inbox to another folder.
Your account is set to use the Download only item description option. For more information about how to change this, see the "Workaround" section of this article.
Your message has been processed by both of these options. For example, a rule moves the message from the Inbox to another folder, and the message is larger than permitted by the Download only item description option. Therefore, only the message header is downloaded.

The problem occurs because Outlook cannot process message headers unless the headers are located in the Inbox.

RESOLUTION

Service pack information

This problem is corrected in Office XP Service Pack 3. To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Office XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

307841 How to obtain the latest Office XP service pack

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Only apply it to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next Microsoft Office XP service pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS

Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question. The Global version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

   Date           Time        Size       File name     
   -------------------------------------------------------
   24-Jan-2003    20:48:29    2,393,096  Outlook.msp
   24-Jan-2003    22:17:02    5,208,592  Outlookff.msp

After the hotfix is installed, the Global version of this fix will have the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table.

   Date        Time     Version     Size      File name     
   -------------------------------------------------------
   08-Aug-2002 19:22:19 10.0.4406.0 137,800   Impmail.dll
   19-Sep-2002 13:23:05 10.0.4517.0 105,032   Envelope.dll
   11-Oct-2002 14:14:24 10.0.4608.0 92,744    Outlmime.dll
   08-Nov-2002 13:47:31 10.0.4705.0 121,416   OutlPH.dll
   25-Nov-2002 10:50:20 10.0.4721.0 47,688    Recall.dll
   09-Jan-2003 14:31:38 10.0.4907.0 346,696   Exsec32.dll
   23-Jan-2003 17:04:52 10.0.4921.0 543,304   OutlCM.dll
   23-Jan-2003 17:04:55 10.0.4921.0 6,314,568 Outllib.dll
   23-Jan-2003 17:04:58 10.0.4921.0 47,688    Outlook.exe

This fix is a post-Office XP Service Pack 2 (SP-2) fix. To install the fix, you must have Office XP SP-2 installed. For additional information about Office XP SP-2, click the following article number to see the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

325671 OFFXP: Overview of the Office XP Service Pack 2

Additionally, you may have to install Windows Installer 2.0 to install this fix. For additional information about the Windows Installer requirement for post-Office XP SP-2 fixes, click the following article number to see the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

330537 OFFXP: Office XP Updates and Patches Released After September 2002 May Require Windows Installer 2.0

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, do not use both the move rule and the size-limit option at the same time. Instead, use either of the following methods:

Turn off the rule to move messages. To change a rule, follow these steps:
1. Click Inbox.
2. On the Tools menu, click Rules Wizard.
3. In the Apply changes to this folder list, click the Inbox that you want.
4. In the Apply rules in the following order box, click the rule that you want to modify.
Disable the Download only item description option. To do this, follow these steps:
1. On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/Receive Groups.
2. Select a group that contains your e-mail account, and then click Edit.
3. Under Accounts, click your e-mail account.
4. Click to clear the Download only item description for items larger than check box.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Office XP Service Pack 3.

Keywords: kberrmsg kbbug kbfix kbqfe kbemail kboffice2000presp3fix kbopenfile kbhotfixserver KB814377

Microsoft KB Archive/814377

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