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Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP

I’ve been using Outlook as an IMAP client for a long time (I know, I know, there are better IMAP clients out there, but I work in an Outlook/Exchange shop, so I’m not particularly inclined to use a different tool). One of the things that has driven me crazy for ages is that periodically Outlook would stop being able to access the IMAP server. Doing a “Send/Receive” would display the wonderfully helpful error:

“Task 'Checking for new mail in subscribed folders on <servername>.' reported error (0x8004DF0B) : 'Outlook is unable to download folder (null) from the IMAP e-mail server for account <account>. Error: The connection to the server is unavailable. “

Also, the “Connect to <account>” menu, though enabled, would have no effect. Only restarting Outlook would fix the problem – no fun if you’ve got 20 message windows open. I googled like crazy, but could never find a solution to the problem.

Finally one day I noticed something about the computer right before the problem occurred – it had momentarily lost and then restored it’s wireless network connection. Could this be the trigger that I’d been looking for? After a little more experimentation, I’m pretty convinced that it is.There are two common times when a network connection is momentarily unavailable on a laptop – during a wireless dropout, and while coming out of sleep mode. By avoiding doing a send/receive in Outlook at those moments, I’ve pretty much eliminated the folder (null) problem.

The moral  of the story? Make sure you have a network connection before doing a Send/Receive to an IMAP server.

Hopefully this problem will be fixed in Outlook 2007.

Published Thursday, July 13, 2006 6:51 PM by kevindente

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Comments

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Wednesday, August 02, 2006 5:02 PM

Same issue here and we are hard-wired. This is an Outlook issue as none of the alternative mail clients have this issue. Once again Microsoft wins the encrypted ambiguous error message award! BTW, the microsoft knowledgebase does feature this error message though the only "cause" is Exchange caching?

Uh... I am using IMAP.... not Exchange. ;-) thanks for the write-up...

James

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Tuesday, August 15, 2006 7:46 AM

Hi,

Thanks for the post, it helped me.

I had the same problem, and confirm that it is probably a lost (even temporary) of the connexion.  I have a WiFi connexion, some time lost for an hibernate for example.

Jean-Marc

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Wednesday, June 06, 2007 2:08 PM

Yep, same issue here too, also hard-wired, and Outlook is driving me crazy with this error. Regular IMAP, no Exchange, happens intermittently. Anybody comes up with a solution, please share!

Tim

Tim

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Wednesday, June 20, 2007 4:27 PM

I am having same error.  This doesn't happen with Thunderbird.  I get it because I am trying to share one IMAP folder on the server between 3 Outlook 2003 clients.  Apparently it's just Outlook 2003's problem and other clients work fine.  See this link:www.lvllord.de

Have not tried it.  Not working yet.  I'll keep you posted.

www.gemtech.info

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Wednesday, July 11, 2007 5:28 PM

I am having the same exact problem.  I am hard wired via ethernet LAN to the router so there is no loss of connection from that perspective.  This only happens with outlook and vista as I have an XP machine with identical connections and outlook configuration that works perfectly.  At times, the vista machine seems to work which leads me to the ISP but then both machines are on the same ISP connection??  I have tried the "detect and repair" as well as turning off the fax add-in option but thus far nothing has cured the problem.

Hope someone comes up with the solution.....thanks.  

j e paul

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Wednesday, August 22, 2007 11:41 AM

running vista, outlook 2007, am hard wired nOT USING WIRELESS, and problem is there.. very irritating... just switched back back from Mac to Vista for work... I hate myself for it.

HD

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Thursday, August 30, 2007 3:03 PM

Hi all,

I run Vista in a LAN behind a router.

Outlook 2003 and IMAP at STRATO via DSL works fine. BUT!! In the same network I've a XP machine, again Outlook 2003 and this ugly problem. Sometimes another message tries to say me "no network" which cannot be proved, because ping to the imap and smtp server works. Strange thing. No solution until now.  

turnaway1

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Monday, September 10, 2007 4:34 PM

I had the same problem in our offices.

For the Server Port Numbers, in the Outgoing (SMTP) section the old webmaster at my work used 5151, but everyone from time to time had the cannot connect the mail.*****.com server. I believe that was the wrong outgoing port number so I just put the defaults back and I don't have any errors. I was wondering if this kind of error would occur when the port numbers are incorrect?

tolga

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Wednesday, April 02, 2008 2:28 PM

I am running a PC with XP using Office SP3 and a wireless card.

Was getting this error for weeks! (but never restarted comp or outlook).

Simply rebooted and restarted Outlook and problem solved... 100 messages came crashing in!

Thx

Trev

Trevor

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Monday, April 07, 2008 9:30 AM

We've had the same problem. Outlook 2003 running on Vista, we removed Exchange Extensions and iTunes AddIn which appear to have cured the problem for us.

Outlook2003/Tools/Options/Other/AdvancedOptions/Add-In Manager/Untick Exchange Extensions property.

Also,

Outlook2003/Tools/Options/Other/AdvancedOptions/COM Add-Ins/ remove anything that isnt essential, (we removed everything)

Hope that helps.

Shahid Hafiz

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Friday, May 09, 2008 9:49 PM

Thank God for a helpful post! I've been frustrated by that for so long (and disgusted that Microsoft is ignorant enough not to have fixed it yet, even in 2007). So far this is the only suggestion I've seen that actually worked. I simply unchecked the box for Exchange Extensions and restarted Outlook, and voila! No more errors. If you're getting the same errors (which you probably are if you're reading this), try this.

Once again, thanks for the helpful tip!

-Sean

(And props to Kevin Dente for having a blog that you don't have to become a member of to leave posts!)

Sean

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Tuesday, September 02, 2008 6:05 AM

We have just installed a new system online, and setup the IMAP folder so we can drop and drag emails, etc into this folder, but I still constantly get the error:  the connection to the server is unavailable, but my internet is on!!! No one at this stage wants to help with a solution, so any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

Lisa

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Monday, October 13, 2008 7:05 PM

Same problem here.  We just switched from POP3 to IMAP on Outlook 2007.

C'mon, Microsoft, get with it.

Mr. X

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Wednesday, January 28, 2009 6:27 PM

My firm is a small 10 employee shop sharing a single IP address with a Linksys WRT54GS.  Some stations connect via WiFi, and others ethernet.  When I started to migrate employees from POP to IMAP the Outlook error (0x8004DF0B) and/or (0x800CCC0E) would apear.  Event ID 26 showed up too.  I tried adding "INBOX" to the path, run the patch from www.lvllord.de, unchecked Exchange Ext., and even changed the SEND/RECEIVE times from 5 to 10 mins.  Nothing worked.  I found this article about it being a courier-imap setting and to correct the issue, look for the following flag on the email server: MAXPERIP=4, increase the number and restart the courier services.

willsani.com/.../outlook-and-imap-error-0x8004df0b

My email services are provided by my web host, so I called them and to my surprise they said only 2 IMAP connections can be made to their servers from a single IP address.  I tested and confirmed this limitation.  2 Outlook IMAP clients work great, but start a third client and the errors appear.

My solution is to switch web hosting providers.  I will update my post if I'm successful.

Alex

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Saturday, February 14, 2009 1:45 PM

Thanks so much for the advice on disabling iTunes add in!

That was the solution for me as well! I had been looking for a fix for quite a while!

Tinyan

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Monday, February 23, 2009 12:01 AM

unchecked the box for Exchange Extensions and restarted Outlook

That fixed my problem!

Christian Quilliam

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Friday, September 11, 2009 3:38 AM

Brilliant!  Removed check on Exchange Extensions, restarted Outlook.  That old nightmare is now distant bad memory! Thanks Shahid!!  

dbugg

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Friday, October 02, 2009 6:25 AM

I want to develop my own IMAP client. Can you please provide code related to it. Provide more information over hostory of IMAP development.

r4 dsi

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Thursday, December 03, 2009 4:59 AM

I had the same problem, but it was due to Windows having a maximum size limit on the COMBINED mail files.   After purging the administrator account of its' store, all was ok again :)

R2D2

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Thursday, February 18, 2010 9:31 AM

You guys are awesome!  Thanks for sharing the fix worked perfectly...no more errors!  Yeah!!!!!

Rekishia

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Thursday, March 04, 2010 12:33 PM

This tip seems to have fixed it for me. Thanks Shahid:

Outlook2003/Tools/Options/Other/AdvancedOptions/Add-In Manager/Untick Exchange Extensions property.

Also,

Outlook2003/Tools/Options/Other/AdvancedOptions/COM Add-Ins/ remove anything that isnt essential, (we removed everything)

Hope that helps.

Shahid Hafiz

Doug

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Saturday, March 27, 2010 2:54 PM

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Kaniel

# re: Avoiding the dreaded "unable to download folder (null)" error with Outlook 2003/IMAP@ Monday, October 04, 2010 10:54 AM

Outlook2003/Tools/Options/Other/AdvancedOptions/Add-In Manager/Untick Exchange Extensions property.... worked for me!!!

Darren