Identify number of items in folder Outlook Cached Exchange Mode and Exchange

This blog post shows you how to identify if a folder within your Outlook OST file has become out of sync with your Exchange server for Outlook clients which are running under cached Exchange mode.  To do this we will look at the item count both of the cached outlook client and the Exchange server.

To get the item count of a folder in Outlook, this can be done in two ways.  The first method is by using a VBS script such as the one from David Lee's blog:

http://techniclee.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/exporting-outlook-message-counts-to-excel/

A copy of this script can be found below.

'Declare some variables
Dim olkApp, olkSes

'Connect to Outlook
Set olkApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set olkSes = olkApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
olkSes.Logon olkApp.DefaultProfileName

'Call the export process once for each folder count to be exported
'Format is ExportMessageCountToExcel <Path to Outlook Folder>, <Path and filename of the Excel file to export to>, <Number of the sheet the count goes on>
'The following lines are examples.  Edit them as needed.  Add additional lines as desired.
ExportMessageCountToExcel "Mailbox - Doe, John\Inbox", "C:\Message_Counts.xlsx", 1
ExportMessageCountToExcel "Personal Folders\Projects", "C:\Message_Counts.xlsx", 2

'Disconnect from Outlook
olkSes.Logoff
Set olkSes = Nothing
Set olkApp = Nothing
WScript.Quit

Sub ExportMessageCountToExcel(strFolder, strWorkbook, intSheet)
    Const EXCEL_COL = 1
    Dim olkFld, excApp, excWkb, excWks, lngRow
    Set olkFld = OpenOutlookFolder(strFolder)
    Set excApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
    Set excWkb = excApp.Workbooks.Open(strWorkbook)
    Set excWks = excWkb.Worksheets(intSheet)
    lngRow = excWks.UsedRange.Rows.Count
    If lngRow = 1 Then 
        If excWks.Cells(lngRow,1) <> "" Then
            lngRow = lngRow + 1
        End If
    Else
        lngRow = lngRow + 1
    End If
    excWks.Cells(lngRow, EXCEL_COL) = olkFld.Items.Count
    Set excWks = Nothing
    excWkb.Close True
    Set excWkb = Nothing
    excApp.Quit
    Set excApp = Nothing
    Set olkFld = Nothing
End Sub

Function OpenOutlookFolder(strFolderPath)
    Dim arrFolders, varFolder, bolBeyondRoot
    On Error Resume Next
    If strFolderPath = "" Then
        Set OpenOutlookFolder = Nothing
    Else
        Do While Left(strFolderPath, 1) = "\"
            strFolderPath = Right(strFolderPath, Len(strFolderPath) - 1)
        Loop
        arrFolders = Split(strFolderPath, "\")
        For Each varFolder In arrFolders
            Select Case bolBeyondRoot
                Case False
                    Set OpenOutlookFolder = olkApp.Session.Folders(varFolder)
                    bolBeyondRoot = True
                Case True
                    Set OpenOutlookFolder = OpenOutlookFolder.Folders(varFolder)
            End Select
            If Err.Number <> 0 Then
                Set OpenOutlookFolder = Nothing
                Exit For
            End If
        Next
    End If
    On Error GoTo 0
End Function

This script will output the results to an Excel spreadsheet as shown in the following screenshot:

The second method is by selecting all items within the Outlook folder by pressing "CTRL + A" then pressing "ENTER".  Make sure you select NO!

Now to check the number of items in my Sent Items on the Exchange server.  This is done with the following PowerShell command:

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics -Identity "clint" -FolderScope "SentItems"

This shows the number of items on my Exchange server matches my Outlook client meaning my Outlook Cached Copy is indeed in sync!