Solution for Outlook error: This is not a valid file name

Outlook client giving error when replying or forwarding email chain, with or without attachment and getting an error: “This is not a valid file name”. The issue could be local outlook setting, plugin as well links, or images broken. The best way to check via Web outlook is to test your issue, if the web works then look at the settings of outlook. Here are some options that may help fix your issues.

Error messages:

This is not a valid file name
Cannot send this item

Look at the body of the email:

Look at all links and empty areas of the body to see if there are any hidden links, Like the example below

Once removed any broken links, your issue should be fixed

Also, you can try converting the HTML to Plain Text, which will remove all formatting and links

Convert HTML to Plain Text or Rich Text

Check outlook in Safe mode:

Click Start > Run.

Type Outlook /safe, and choose OK

Take a look at the Plugin of outlook:

You can get to it by going to File>Options>Add-ins

Just uncheck to disable whichever you don’t use or causing the issue

Add-ins

That’s it, hope it helps some people



How to map a network drive via Group Policy

Map network drive via GP

Map a network drive via group policy is a much easier and faster process than manually or logon scripts. user does not have to wait for the logon script to load or if the network path changes it automatically updates. It makes admin and user’s life much better and makes changes to the network without having to update each user. It should plan out the process, users, or groups it’s going to apply this network drive.

This is my process for this post

  1. File server: FileServ1
  2. Share Name: Accounting
  3. Drive Letter: S
  4. Group that’s applying to: Accounting
  5. how-to-delete-policy

Create a new GPO

Start>Windows Administrative Tools>Group Policy Management

or from Server Manager: Tools>Group Policy Management

Right-click on your OU (Organization Unit) where you want to create and link your Group Policy

Select Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here …

You will see New GPO, name it whatever you want, something that makes sense, I am going to call it Accounting Network Drive

Configure GPO

Right-click on the Group Policy Object and select Edit

Expand User Configuration>Preferences>Windows Settings
Then right-click on Drive Maps and select New>Mapped Drive

Filling the details

You can see there are many options to select from

Based on select above you will see other options

How to Delete policy

First unlink from OU that’s linked

Then Delete from Group Policy Objects:

If you try to delete while still linked GPO, you will get this message, which also works fine too

That’s it, hope this help others



How to convert a mailbox to a shared mailbox on o365

Shared mailbox

There are many cases you can use the shared mailbox on office 365 and save money on license costs. You will still need a license for those who are accessing the shared mailbox. At the time of converting a user mailbox, will need a license assigned to it before you convert it to a shared mailbox. Also, shared mailboxes have limited to 50 GB of data without a license assigned to them. Besides that, it’s like a normal mailbox. Here is how to convert steps

Note: Unless Microsoft adds to new GUI, you will need to use Classic admin center:
https://outlook.office365.com/ecp/

Once you are logged into the admin center, click on recipients>mailboxes>search for user mailbox to be converted

Once selected the mailbox to be converted, on the right side you will see an option Convert to Shared Mailbox”, click Convert

Once clicked Convert you will see a message, Warning are you sure you want to convert this regular mailbox into the shared mailbox? if you are ready click Yes

You will see Converting process bar, once done it will show Completed, it’s very quick, but it might take a while if you have a lot of emails

That’s it, now you can remove the license from this account, but make sure to keep the account, if you delete it, it will delete the shared mailbox

You will be able to see under Teams & groups>Shared mailbox

For classic admin center, you will see under: recipients>shared

In some cases, you may want to save a Copy of sent Items to a shared mailbox or on behalf of this mailbox, by default it’s not saved on the shared mailbox. It’s saved on whoever has access to it, in their sent items folder.

Bonus point to note, you can do the same in reverse, to convert from shared mailbox to Convert to Regular Mailbox



How to clean up old emails quickly from office 365

email box almost full

One of the very common communication is via emails, they do fill up our Inboxes and some of us don’t have time to clean up, which you can do it automatically or manually.  Just carefully when setting automatically to delete, because we as human beings forget and take automation as a privilege, and sometimes it deletes some things we want to keep as history. Here is how to clean up your old email manually or automatically.

Option 1: Manually

Option 2: Automatically via a set of rule

Option 1: Manually

First, Sign-in to your Office 365 by going to https://outlook.office.com
Once you have signed in go to Gear Icon at the top left then go all the way to the bottom, select View all Outlook settings

View all Outlook settings

You will see another pop-up window

Go to Settings>General>Storage>Then select the folder you want to clean up old emails

Then on the right side, you will have an option to choose from, All, 3 months and older, or 6months and older, or 12 months and older

As, soon as you select the option, it will start deleting your old emails

Note: Items will be permanently deleted

Settings>General>Storage
Storage almost full

After you delete your old email, you will see, the overall size will decrease, in this example, I have deleted Sent Items

After delete old sent Items

That’s it, if you want to set up an automatic rule to delete, you can follow the steps below

Automatically via a set of rule

Once you have signed in go to Gear Icon at the top left then go all the way to the bottom, select View all Outlook settings

You will see another pop-up window

Go to Settings>Mail>Rules>Then click Add New Rule

Settings>Mail>Rules

Name your rule, something like “clean up old email 12 Months and older” or something that makes sense to you.

Name of Rule

Now add a condition

There are so many options, select whatever you like, I am selecting “Before 4/8/2022”

Note: you will need to just update the date in the rule later on.

Then select the Action, you want to do, I am selecting “Delete

You can get your emails back from Deleted Items unless the default email deleted policy will clean up have permanently deleted, which most cases 30, 60, or 90 days from the date it was deleted

Also, added an exception so I can keep Importance with “High” or whatever you like.

Once you are happy with everything click Save

That’s it, don’t forget, if you set to delete or whatever condition you have selected, it will automatically do just that, in case later in time you might be wondering what’s happening to my old emails

To change the Date or Turn off the rule, just go to Mail>Rules and click on the pencil icon to change or the Toggle button to turn off.

Double-check all selections before running, because there are no ways to stop, once it started the action you have selected in the rule. If you are unsurely tested on some test account(s).



How to upgrade osTicket to v1.15.4

osTicket v1.15.4

osTicket v1.15.4 is released on October 7, 2021, its open-source ticket system. You can find full release notes at https://github.com/osTicket/osTicket/releases. For osTicket version v1.15.4 PHP version PHP 7.2-7.4 the process is the same as before just make sure you have a good backup of the database and osTicket files. There are many Enhancements, Improvements, and Security from 1.15.1 to 1.15.4.

In this post: upgrade osTicket to v1.15.4:

How to backup osTicket files on Ubuntu

How to backup osTicket database

How to upload osTicket installation files to the server from Windows 10 via PowerShell

The Upgrade process is very simple, I am doing 1.15.1 to 1.15.4

  • Make sure you have a good backup of the Database and files of osTicket
  • Then put the system in the offline mode: by going to the URL of your osTicket support ticket /scp/settings.php
  • Download the new version from https://osticket.com/download/ and choose the osTicket Core, v1.15.4 (Latest Release) don’t download any Languages or plugins, you can add them after to void issues with the upgrade process.
  • Upload to your server v. 1.15.4 and replace current files/folders from the Upload folder from your downloaded, and exclude the script folder/files. Also, Maintain the directory hierarchy any changes could cause an issue with the upgrade process or something might not work well.
    • Optional: Script folder only needed if you are using remote piping, so if you are not using remote piping you don’t need to upload.
  • Make sure NOT to replace your \include\ost-config.php which does not include in the download.

official Plugins can be downloaded and installed after the upgrade

official Documentions can be accessed, which will give you more details

Upgrade Process starts

Here is my current version: v.1.15.1:

Put the system in offline mode:

So, no one accessing the system or making any changes

Download the new version from https://osticket.com/download/

Select the osTicket Core, v1.15.4, then click Next Step

Click Next Step

Language packs, don’t add any at this time, just click Next Step

The Plugins, don’t add at this time, just click Next Step

Then you should see Subscribe to osTicket Mailing Lists, if you already subscribed, you can click on No Thanks and it will start downloading. If you have not subscribed, do filling, so you will get notification of any upgrades and security patches.

Now that you have downloaded, you can upload the installation files the best way you know of and override those that are on the server. If everything goes well you will not see anything, since this version doesn’t have any database changes.

If you look at your Dashboard Information, it should show Up to date

You can look at the system logs to see if there are any errors reported or your web server or PHP logs. You will need to update any customization you may have, test it, then once all is good you can put the system back online. Also, remove the write permission to \include\ost-config.php to secure your config. If you have customized PHP core files, those need to be re-applied after the upgrade. Also, make sure your plugins are good, if a needed upgrade to do so, make sure it supported version. if you don’t see some functions, make sure to check the permissions under Agents>Roles>PermissionsGood luck

There are many ways to backup, upload an osTicket, here is one I used that may help you, otherwise, you are all good to go, enjoy your osTicket system, Thank you to osTIcket Team for making it open source and keeping up to date.

How to backup osTicket files on Ubuntu:

Login to your server and run the following command use -r (copy recursively), and specify a current location and backup location. Note: this command is just doing backup of current osTicket files and dumping to another directory within the same server.

command: sudo cp -r /path/to/directory /path/to/backup-Location/NameOfBackup

How to backup osTicket database:

Login to your server and run the following command, Note: this is doing backup of database and dumping on the same server.

command: mysqldump NameOfosTicketDataBase > backupNameOfosTicket10.11.2021.sql -u SQLuserName -p

When you hit Enter, it will ask to enter a password, once done if you do ls command, you will see backupNameOfosTicket10.11.2021.sql or whatever you named your backup file

How to upload osTicket installation files to the server from Windows 10 via PowerShell:

This is the quickest way to upload and replace files. Please make sure the path is correct, before running the command, when you hit enter, it will ask for a password for your server.

Command: scp -r C:\Users\UserName\Downloads\osTicket-v1.15.4\osTicket-v1.15.4\upload\* userName@IPorFQDN:/var/www/osTicketDirectory

Note: the \* after the upload, if you don’t put * it will create a new directory called upload

After the upgrade, if you don’t see some functions, make sure to check the permissions under Agents>Roles>Permissions