Can't open imported OE Sent Items.dbx

[DMD guy]

I have OE 5 Sent Items.dbx and Folders.dbx (from my old ME laptop) with my
Windows Mail directory files on my new Vista laptop, but Sent Items won't
open. When I click on it, my new WM Inbox opens instead. My old Sent Items
file retained its 221mb size in the move. When I open the WM program and
see my Inbox, the old Sent Items aren't showing as folders on the left side.
But if I search in the directory path: C drive\users\my name\Application Date\
Local\Microsoft\windows mail\local folders\sent items -- it is there full
size.
I have placed it there by itself, then dragged and dropped into the other sent
items folder with folder.dbx -- either way, the 221mb of sent items do not
appear.
Thanks in advance for any help. I've spent many hours and days trying to get
this to work.

 

[Guest]

I have OE 5 Sent Items.dbx and Folders.dbx (from my old ME laptop) with my
Windows Mail directory files on my new Vista laptop, but Sent Items won't
open. When I click on it, my new WM Inbox opens instead. My old Sent Items
file retained its 221mb size in the move. When I open the WM program and
see my Inbox, the old Sent Items aren't showing as folders on the left
side.
But if I search in the directory path: C drive\users\my name\Application
Date\
Local\Microsoft\windows mail\local folders\sent items -- it is there full
size.
I have placed it there by itself, then dragged and dropped into the other
sent
items folder with folder.dbx -- either way, the 221mb of sent items do
not
appear.
Thanks in advance for any help. I've spent many hours and days trying to
get
this to work.

Just moving the .dbx files into Windows Mail's storage folder doesn't work.

<http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/email/import-dbx-files-outlook-express-windows-mail-vista-86458.html>

<http://www.vista4beginners.com/Migrate-from-Outlook-Express-to-Windows-Mail>

After you copy the files to a directory on the hard drive of your new
computer, make sure the copies are read-write instead of readonly,
then tell Windows Mail to import them.

 

[DMD guy]

Thanks for Replying Robert: I did uncheck read only for the sent items FOLDER
and tried to import it and got the following message: " No messages can be
found in this folder or another application is running that has the required
files open. Please select another folder or try closing applications that may
have files open." The only thing open is Inbox or my new Sent Items from
which I am launching my "Import". When I go back to the Sent Items folder I
find that the Read Only is checked again - no matter how many times I uncheck
it. So I check the old Sent Items.dbx FILE that is in my new Sent Items
FOLDER and find that read only is NOT checked on the file. But, when I try to
import just the file and do a browse to find it, I can never find the file. I
have copies of it both in my new Sent Items folder and on my desktop, but
neither show up when I am browsing for them.

 

[Guest]

I'm not sure it is able to report just one file at a time. Try putting the
..dbx files
you want to import, plus the .dbx file that contains no messages but acts as
an
index to the other .dbx files, into the same directory and then telling
Windows
Mail to import the entire directory. Make sure it doesn't treat the
directory
as if it had a subdirectory with the same lowest level name inside it.

 

[DMD guy]

I don't know what you mean? Where do I right click? from desktop? from WM
inbox?
I clicked on your link, Internet Explorer could not open it. Thanks

 

[DMD guy]

I don't know how to make a directory without using folders. Everytime I make a
folder it takes on read only status and I can't get rid of the read only?
Thanks.

 

[Steve Cochran]

Go to your Documents folder. Then create a new directory called Old Mail.
Then copy all the dbx files to that directory and select all of them and
make sure they are not read only. Then follow the steps to import from that
directory and see if you get anything from the sent items folder. If not,
then its likely the folder is either empty (full of zeroes) or its corrupt.

steve

 

[Guest]

The directory can have read only status. Only the files inside it
need read-write status.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I rue the day that Microsoft made "folder" synonymous" with "directory".
It still causes confusion.
To me, a folder is internal to a program, like WM's mail folders,
while a directory is a storage place on your hard drive.

 

[DMD guy]

Steve: Thank you for replying. I tried this and got the same message
" No messages can be found in this folder or another application is running
that has the required files open. Please select another folder or try closing
applications that
may have files open."
I'll give more background about how I got to this point, hoping it will help.
Jan 18, 2007 I used Storage sync software to do a full backup of my ME/Outlook
Express system to an external Hard Drive. 2-29-08 I did an incremental backup
of the same sys which was suppose to add any files newer than 1-18-07 to my
external HD. By this time I had the Vista/Windows Mail sys, so I did a
restore to
it from my external HD. Everything looked fine. My OE 5 Inbox, subfolder, Sent
Items etc were all listed on the left side when I open WM. The dbx folders are
listed below the WM folders. Therefore, I have 2 Inboxs, 2 Sent Items etc.
Everything opens and works fine both in WM and the old dbx folders. As I
used the old dbx email I noticed that the Sent Items had not been fully
updated
on 2-29-08, because my newest email was 1-18-07. As I looked at the sent
items on my old computer, they are all still there and useable. So, now I am
trying to get the full version of just my sent items to the new computer which
is about 2,900 sent items emails consuming 221mb of space.
Can you tell me what the directory path would be to get to my Inbox.dbx files,
Sent Items.dbx etc. ? I can find the dbx files on the HD of my old
computer and
I can find the WM Inbox etc. on my new computer, but I cannot find the
directory path to the dbx files on my new computer, even though they are
visible
and useable and accessable on the left side when I open my WM program.
When I check properties on the dbx folder or files I'm only shown the size
of the
file and in the case of folders, I'm shown how many files are in it -- no
address.
Thanks again, LDL

 

[Steve Cochran]

Windows Mail does not use dbx files as does OE. See
www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#wm and the section on Windows Mail.

If you have a backup, then create a directory under Documents and copy the
entire backup (it has to include the folders.dbx file) and clear the
readonly attribute and the import according to the instructions on that
webpage following the steps exactly. That should let you then import from
that particular sent items backup. Otherwise you could try extracting the
messages from the file with one of my dbx extraction programs, but you
should be able to import the file.

steve

 

[DMD guy]

Steve: Thanks again for your reply. I went to your site before I posted here.
I think I have done everything right, except for the registry keys. I have
been
told to leave them alone or I can do irreversible damage to my computer.
That's no problem for me, because I don't know what they are, how to find
them and I sure can't export them.
In your previous reply, you suggested my file could be full of zeros or
corrupted. Is there a way I can check this?
I've made many copies of my sent items and folders.dbx files. I always have
to copy and paste them because Export and Import will not work. I have
placed them in the "documents folder", on the desktop, and directly into the
windows mail folder.
Larry

 

[DMD guy]

Thanks for the links Bob. There was interesting info there, but I didn't see
anything about moving to Windows Mail; it was all OE Express or OE.

 

[DMD guy]

The problem with that is that then all of the emails will say that they are
from me. I am using them like a reference library and the names of the
person they are to or from are very important to me. Thanks

 

[Guest]

Have you tried putting them both in the same directory, with nothing
else except perhaps some more .dbx files in that directory, making
sure the copies in that directory are read-write instead of readonly,
then telling Windows Mail to import that entire directory instead of
just one file at a time?

 

[DMD guy]

Robert: Yes, I have tried this many times. I have Sent Items.dbx and
Folders.dbx
in the same folder and every time I have checked those files, they have never
had readonly checked. My files do not have a read-write option, just readonly
or hidden and neither of those has ever been checked. When I try to import I
get the following message: " No messages can be found in this folder or
another application is running that has the required files open. Please
select another folder or try closing applications that may have files open."
Even though the Sent Items
..dbx consumes 221mb and folders.dbx consumes about 76kb. Thanks

 

[Guest]

There's a possibility that Windows Mail requires a full set of .dbx files
in the directory you are importing, rather than just a few of them.

 

[Steve Cochran]

As Robert says, it may require all the dbx files and not just sent items and
folders.dbx. But your folders.dbx file is very small to the point of it
looks like its got nothing in it, so import won't work at all.

In that case I think your only shot would be to extract from the dbx files
(DBXtract should work if the files still have messages in them--
www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/) and then you can drag the messages and drop them
into WinMail folders. If the files aren't corrupt then my OEX program
(www.oehelp.com/OEX/) would work, but they might be corrupt.

steve

 

[DMD guy]

Robert: I replied to you and Steve both in my reply to him a few minutes ago.
The info I forgot to mention is that Steve has paragraph on his site titled
"Importing single dbx files into OE" . Maybe you both are saying it works
from
OE to OE, but not from OE to WM? I still think it would be helpful for me
to know:
1. Is there are way for me to know wheather the "copy" of my OE Sent Items
is corrupt?
2. What is the file extension on the dbx files that I have already moved to
Vista/
WM that are working fine? I know they are no longer dbx and not .eml,
but I
don't know what they are? When I do a search on the HD I can't find them,
but they are in the WM program working fine. The smaller version of Sent
Items, subfolders, etc.

 

[Guest]

Robert: I replied to you and Steve both in my reply to him a few minutes
ago.
The info I forgot to mention is that Steve has paragraph on his site
titled
"Importing single dbx files into OE" . Maybe you both are saying it works
from
OE to OE, but not from OE to WM?

I would suspect that, but I don't have any .dbx files to try it with.

I still think it would be helpful for me
to know:
1. Is there are way for me to know wheather the "copy" of my OE Sent Items
is corrupt?
2. What is the file extension on the dbx files that I have already moved
to
Vista/
WM that are working fine? I know they are no longer dbx and not .eml,
but I
don't know what they are? When I do a search on the HD I can't find
them,
but they are in the WM program working fine. The smaller version of
Sent
Items, subfolders, etc.

I would suspect .fol for the folder index files, and .eml for the messages.