Try again! problems with oe

[Alan Holmes]

I didn't give the right information before, so:-

I tried to delete an email, and when I did it, the whole inbox emptied and
then I found I could not delete anything from any newsgroup at all, so the
whole thing has seized up.

But I seem to be receiving emails, they are just going into an unknown place
and I do not know where.

I am still able to send emails, but if people reply then I do not see the
reply.

But it is not just the emails it is the block on trying to alter the
contents of newsgroups, someone did say contact the isp but how can I do
that if I do not see any replies.

Please can someone hep?

Alan

 

[Bruce Hagen]

I didn't give the right information before, so:-

I tried to delete an email, and when I did it, the whole inbox emptied
and then I found I could not delete anything from any newsgroup at all,
so the whole thing has seized up.

But I seem to be receiving emails, they are just going into an unknown
place and I do not know where.

I am still able to send emails, but if people reply then I do not see
the reply.

But it is not just the emails it is the block on trying to alter the
contents of newsgroups, someone did say contact the isp but how can I do
that if I do not see any replies.

Please can someone hep?

Alan

You have dbx file corruption. Create a new identity.

You may have a damaged identity especially if it is the default Main
Identity. File | Identities | Add New Identity. Create a new one and test
it. If all is well, you can import your messages and Address Book from the
old identity and delete it.

Note: Do not use the word Main in the name of the new identity.


For your messages:

In the new identity: File | Import | Messages. Select Microsoft Outlook
Express 6 and Import from the old identity.

For your Address Book:

Open the Address Book in the old identity and File | Export | Address Book
(wab) to any place on your HDD that is easy for you. My Documents is fine.
Then, open the Address Book in the new identity and File | Import |
Address Book (wab) and point to where you saved it.


For News Account Settings:

In OE: Tools | Accounts, select the account and export it to the Desktop.
In the new ID, Import the settings. Specific newsgroups will have to be
resubscribed to.

*************************************************

General precautions for Outlook Express:

Do not archive mail in the Inbox or Sent Items. Create your own user
defined folders and move the messages you wish to save to them. Empty
Deleted Items folder daily. Although dbx files have a theoretical capacity
of 2GB, I recommend about a 300MB max for less chance of corruption.

Information about the maximum file size of the .dbx files that are used by
Outlook Express:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=903095

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually while
working *offline* and do it often.

Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no folders are
open. Then: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the
Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything
until the compacting is completed.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant
layer of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems
such as time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program
will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

And backup often.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx

 

[Bob F]

I didn't give the right information before, so:-

I tried to delete an email, and when I did it, the whole inbox
emptied and then I found I could not delete anything from any
newsgroup at all, so the whole thing has seized up.

But I seem to be receiving emails, they are just going into an
unknown place and I do not know where.

I am still able to send emails, but if people reply then I do not see
the reply.

But it is not just the emails it is the block on trying to alter the
contents of newsgroups, someone did say contact the isp but how can I
do that if I do not see any replies.

Please can someone hep?

Did you delete the Inbox?

 

[Alan Holmes]

Did you delete the Inbox?

No, I cannot delete anything!

 

[Alan Holmes]

I've printed this out so I can read it properly, but:-

You have dbx file corruption. Create a new identity.

I tried that but it wouldn't work.

I will try again.

 

[Char Jackson]

No, I cannot delete anything!

Yes, you can.

Hint: Exit OE, then use Windows Explorer to delete the inbox file. OE
will recreate it the next time you start it.

You've been given very detailed instructions several times now. Maybe
it would help if you'd describe EXACTLY what you're doing so we can
see the exact step where you're failing to follow the provided
guidance.

 

[Bruce Hagen]

Yes, you can.

Hint: Exit OE, then use Windows Explorer to delete the inbox file. OE
will recreate it the next time you start it.

You've been given very detailed instructions several times now. Maybe
it would help if you'd describe EXACTLY what you're doing so we can
see the exact step where you're failing to follow the provided
guidance.

That will fix the Inbox, but all messages will be lost.

 

[Char Jackson]

That will fix the Inbox, but all messages will be lost.

Right. That's why I suggested he try to follow the detailed
instructions you guys have provided.

 

[Alan Holmes]

Right. That's why I suggested he try to follow the detailed
instructions you guys have provided.

That is not easy for an 85 year old idiot, if the instructions were in VERY
simple language it might, just, be possible for me to understand them, but I
will try, and believe me I am VERY VERY trying!

Alan

 

[Bruce Hagen]

<snippage>

That is not easy for an 85 year old idiot, if the instructions were in
VERY simple language it might, just, be possible for me to understand
them, but I will try, and believe me I am VERY VERY trying!

Alan

Two questions.

1: What happened when you tried to create a new identity?

2: Do you have any messages you need to save, or can you afford to lose
them all.

 

[Bob F]

That is not easy for an 85 year old idiot, if the instructions were
in VERY simple language it might, just, be possible for me to
understand them, but I will try, and believe me I am VERY VERY trying!

I'll go back to my question. It's very easy to accidentally delete the inbox.
Are you sure you did not just delete the inbox, causing the problem?

If you bring up OE, and a message shows up that you don't want, you hit delete.
If the actual emeil you want to delete is not actually highlighted, the inbox
still is, so the inbox gets deleted.

 

[Bruce Hagen]

I'll go back to my question. It's very easy to accidentally delete the
inbox. Are you sure you did not just delete the inbox, causing the
problem?

If you bring up OE, and a message shows up that you don't want, you hit
delete. If the actual emeil you want to delete is not actually
highlighted, the inbox still is, so the inbox gets deleted.

Not true. That only can happen for user created folders. The only way to
delete a default folder is by deleting its corresponding dbx file in the
message store.

 

[Paul]

That is not easy for an 85 year old idiot, if the instructions were in VERY
simple language it might, just, be possible for me to understand them, but I
will try, and believe me I am VERY VERY trying!

Alan

If our instructions aren't helping, perhaps one of the web sites
have the answer.

http://www.codeconscious.com/outlook-express/corrupted-oe-inbox.html

"Steps:

1. Ensure OE6 is closed before starting.

2. Create a folder c:\data and copy the entire contents of my
"C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Application Data\
Identities\{YOUR_IDENTITY_STRING}\Microsoft\Outlook Express"
to c:\data

3. Rename C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\
{YOUR_IDENTITY_STRING}\Microsoft\Outlook Express\inbox.dbx to inbox.dbx.old

4. Start up OE6; it will create an empty Inbox and will show only one message
"Welcome to Outlook Express 6".

5. From the menu, open File->Import->Messages.
Choose Outlook Express 6. Click Next.

6. Choose Import mail from an OE6 Identity and select your identity
(Mine was Main Identity). Click OK.

7. Browse to the folder c:\data. Click Next.

8. Choose Inbox. Click Next.

9. Messages from your Inbox should appear in your new Inbox. Click Finished.
"

Now, as far as I'm concerned, if the old Inbox was corrupted, step 9 might
not necessarily succeed. You may or may not get access to the old messages
that were in the Inbox. But step 4 should have at least given you a
working but empty Inbox. You would not attempt to fetch new mail, until
*after* step 9, so that any new messages coming in, arrive in some
kind of order.

In Step 3, the file path there is pretty long, and it contains variable
parts. For example "Owner" would be "AlanHolmes". And YOUR_IDENTITY_STRING
is pretty random looking. It'll be a GUID something like {12345DF6-7C8F-654F-B1CF-F654321D1234}.
To make it easier to find that folder, you can do a search for "inbox.dbx",
and when the file search finds the file, right click on the file
name and select "Open containing folder" from the right click
context menu. That will get you to the folder a bit easier perhaps.
Just make sure the Owner part of the path is "AlanHolmes" before
deleting things or whatever

Generally, you want to work non-destructively, not deleting
anything until the job is done. As that makes it easier to
backtrack if necessary.

Now, if I look at the steps involved above:

1. Closing the Outlook Express program with the X in the upper
right hand corner, should do the job. You can also look in
Task Manager, for msimn.exe and see if it is no longer running,
under the Process tab.

"The executable file for Outlook Express, msimn.exe, is a holdover
from the Internet Mail and News era"

2. Use the file search, and search for inbox.dbx.
Perhaps that will help you find the folder with the inbox.dbx a
little easier. Verify the path is correct, as there could be
several user accounts on the same computer, and we only want
to fix the AlanHolmes one.

To create a new folder, you can open the C: drive first. Then,
from the File menu, select New Folder and overtype the name field
with "data" so that you end up with a C:\data folder to work with.

My "Outlook Express" folder has four files in it, but yours could
have more of them. That's what they want you to copy for safe
keeping. Select whatever items are in the folder, then do "copy"
from the menu. Move to the Explorer window showing C:\data and
do "paste" from the menu. That way, you'll have copies of the files.

Folders.dbx, Inbox.dbx, Offline.dbx, Outbox.dbx

3. In this step, we're asked to rename inbox.dbx to inbox.dbx.old
This is only going to work easily, if you have file extensions viewable.

If you're in the Explorer (file manager thing), Tools : Folder Options : View
gets you here. And unticking the "Hide extensions for known file types"
box, will make the file extension visible, so you're better able
to verify you've done the edit of the name properly.

http://www.cadinternational.com/cad...view-hide-extensions-for-known-file-types.gif

4. Starting OE is pretty easy.

5. When doing File->Import->Messages , I assume you have to click
or be in the new Inbox, for that to work. That is, unless this
importation function is fixed to only work with the Inbox. You
want your old Inbox messages, if they're available, to be copied
into the new empty Inbox first seen in Step 4.

The rest of the steps look OK.

Paul

 

[Bob F]

Not true. That only can happen for user created folders. The only way
to delete a default folder is by deleting its corresponding dbx file
in the message store.

Thanks for the correction. I never use the default mailbox, so I hadn't
encountered the difference.

 

[Char Jackson]

That is not easy for an 85 year old idiot, if the instructions were in VERY
simple language it might, just, be possible for me to understand them, but I
will try, and believe me I am VERY VERY trying!

It's no crime to be 85 years old and not proficient with your
computer, but we do politely ask that you tell us when our suggestions
are confusing. Help us to help you.

 

[Hot-Text]

I didn't give the right information before, so:-

I tried to delete an email, and when I did it, the whole inbox emptied and
then I found I could not delete anything from any newsgroup at all, so the
whole thing has seized up.

Tried to delete an email or a News message..
If a News message you need to reset newsgroup by,

Right Hand Click on the newsgroup,
Click on Properties,
Click Tab Local File,
Click Reset..

This will delete all header and message bodies
and will reset the folder so that headers will be re-downloaded

 

[Alan Holmes]

<snippage>




Two questions.

1: What happened when you tried to create a new identity?

It kept rejecting the password, clearly I was not aware that I could not
chose the password!

2: Do you have any messages you need to save, or can you afford to lose
them all.

I would like to keep them all as I have not put them in another folder, I
shall not make that mistake again.

When I have a new account set up I will post again to find out how to
recover the original emails.

Alan