OL97: Calendar or Task Reminders Do Not Appear

Microsoft Outlook 97 Calendar or Task Reminders do not appear as scheduled.

There are five common causes for this behavior.

Cause 1

Outlook is not running. Unlike Microsoft Schedule+, which has a separate file to handle reminders, the main Outlook program controls reminders. If Outlook is not running, reminders do not appear.

Cause 2

The Calendar or Task reminder is not in your primary folder. Reminders only trigger from within the primary Calendar or Task folders. Primary folders reside where you receive mail. At the time you set up a Service, you designate either your Mailbox Inbox or your Personal Folders Inbox as the mail delivery point.

For example, if you receive mail in your Personal Folders Inbox and you create an appointment reminder in your Mailbox Calendar, the reminder does not appear. If you create the same reminder in your Personal Folders Calendar, the reminder appears at the appropriate time.

Cause 3

The Delivery option of the e-mail service is set to None. In order for reminders to be processed a default delivery location must be specified.

Cause 4

The Outlook user's mailbox was moved from one Microsoft Exchange Server to another. This behavior does not exist when using Outlook 8.01.

Cause 5

The Reminders folder is damaged or contains corrupt reminder items. There are five possible workarounds. For each cause, use the same-numbered workaround.

Workaround 1

If Outlook is not running, start Outlook and keep it running all of the time.

Workaround 2

When you create reminders, make sure that they are saved in your primary Calendar or Task folder. To check where your mail is delivered to follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Services.
2. On the Delivery tab, your message is delivered to the location listed in Deliver new mail to the following location.

Workaround 3

To set a delivery location, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Services.
2. On the Delivery tab, click to select a location from the Deliver new mail to the following location list.

Workaround 4

Upgrade to Outlook 8.01, shipped with Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0.

Workaround 5

If the Reminders file is damaged, run the /cleanreminders start-up switch. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Quit Outlook.
2. Right-click the Outlook icon on your desktop, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu.
3. On the Shortcut tab, type a space after the Outlook.exe path (outside any quotation marks that may be present), followed by, /cleanreminders in the Target box, and then click OK.
4. Restart Outlook.
5. Repeat these steps and remove the /cleanreminders switch.

For more information on setting delivery options, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: