Why can't I drag-and-drop e-mails between Outlook 2007 folders?

Question

For some reason, I can't simply drag e-mails from my inbox to a folder within Outlook 2007. When I try to do it, I get a circle-with-a-line-through-it icon. I used to be able to do this, and I can still right-click and Move them, but that's not as efficient as simply dragging and dropping.

How can I get the drag-and-drop behavior back?

Answer 1

Give this a shot, it fixed some strange behavior for me after an SP update.

1. Find Outlook.pst and Archive.pst and move (DON'T COPY) them to a folder on your desktop.
2. Right click on Outlook's icon and select properties.
3. Select Profiles and remove the one that is acting up. There should only be one.
4. Restart Outlook and set up your email account again.
5. Go to File - Import and Export
6. Select Import from another program or file
7. Select the one that says import from .pst
8. Find your outlook.pst file opn your desktop from step 1 and let the machine import the files.

Answer 2

Where are your folders? Is this an Outlook / Exchange setup or are you using pst files?

If the folder you are dragging to is in a pst which is corrupt, it may prevent you dragging items there. Using scanpst should help fix things if that is the problem.

In a domain environment it is possible to use group policy to control use of pst files, for example to prevent them being used at all, or to stop you writing to them (so you can still read data in existing ones), as well as specifically control archives and auto-archiving features. It might be that your system administrator has changed some of these settings so something that used to work may no longer do the same.