Microsoft KB Archive/923940

Knowledge Base

Error message when you select the inactive Categorized Mail search folder in Outlook 2003: "The operation failed"

Article ID: 923940

Article Last Modified on 4/25/2007

---

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
• Microsoft Office Outlook 2003

---

SYMPTOMS

Consider the following scenario:

• You have an e-mail account in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.
• The Categorized Mail search folder is inactive.
  

Note The Categorized Mail search folder is a new search folder in Outlook 2007. When the folder name appears in italic and the folder is empty, the folder is inactive.

• You access the e-mail account by using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003.

In this scenario, when you select the Categorized Mail search folder in Outlook 2003, you receive the following error message:

The operation failed.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use either of the following methods, as appropriate for your situation.

Method 1: Enable the Categorized Mail search folder in Outlook 2007

You can enable the Categorized Mail search folder in Outlook 2007. After you do this, the Categorized Mail search folder works correctly in Outlook 2003. To enable the Categorized Mail search folder in Outlook 2007, follow these steps:

1. Start Outlook 2007.
2. On the Go menu, click Folder List.
3. Expand Search Folders, and then click Categorized Mail.
   

Notice that the folder name no longer appears in italic. Therefore, the search folder is active.

Method 2: Create a search folder in Outlook 2003 that contains the categorized items

You can manually create a search folder in Outlook 2003 that contains the categorized items. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Outlook 2003.
2. On the Go menu, click Folder List.
3. Right-click Search Folders, and then click New Search Folder.
4. Select Create a custom Search Folder, and then click Choose.
5. In the Name box, type a name for the search folder.
6. Click Criteria.
7. On the Advanced tab, click Field, click All Mail fields, and then click Categories.
8. In the Condition list, click is not empty.
9. Click Add to List.
10. Click OK.
11. In the Custom Search Folder dialog box, click OK.
12. In the New Search Folder dialog box, click OK.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

Additional query words: OL2007 Outlook2007

Keywords: kbtshoot kbprb kbemail kbexpertisebeginner KB923940

---

Send feedback to Microsoft

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.