Email inbox

[Alan Holmes]

I've suddenly found that I cannot delete messages from my inbox any more,
why can't I do that, I used to be able to?

Alan

 

[Bruce Hagen]

I've suddenly found that I cannot delete messages from my inbox any
more, why can't I do that, I used to be able to?

Alan

What e-mail program/client are you using?

 

[Paul]

Contact your unnamed email provider. It is not a WinXP issue.

Message header says "Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5931".

This might be a question about .dbx, suited to an Outlook Express
news group.

Not all the suggestions in here would be appropriate, but the list
may be used for further searches. If in doubt about the side
effect of things like this, *back up your C: drive first*.
You can't go wrong, with a backup in hand. Using a backup method
you've tested and know it works.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2398839

If the emails are indeed kept on the email server, then it's an
email provider issue. But just as possible, a bloated and un-compacted
..dbx might be at fault. There's a cottage industry out there,
of people willing to sell you a solution to this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlook_Express#Database_corruption

And you wouldn't expect a good answer to an email question,
in a non-email group Hell, I don't even know the
difference between "Outlook" and "Outlook Express"

Paul

 

[Alan Holmes]

What e-mail program/client are you using?

What is an e-mail program/client ?

Alan

 

[Bruce Hagen]

What is an e-mail program/client ?

Alan

What you use to read mail. Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail,
etc.

 

[Bruce Hagen]

Looks like lots of good links and reading there!

I'd suggest he try running Compact All Folders if he's using Outlook
Express. A backup first would be a very good idea as you said,
however, just in case anything goes awry with the compacting. Best
option: backup the C: drive as you said; second best: just back up the
dbx folder for OE (containing all the dbx files) in another folder.

The option to compact is in OE under the tabs File, Folder, Compact All
Folders. I'd suggest he do this by first closing down all other apps,
and then opening OE to do it. And finally, he could open the Recycle
Bin, and delete the old OE dbx files now in there if there were no
issues just to get rid of its clutter.

Outlook Express (OE) is a simplified and stripped-down version of
Outlook, but with the added feature of supporting NNTP news servers and
newsgroups, unlike Outlook (as I recall).

If he's using OE, he needs to create a new Deleted Items folder, but no
sense explaining how until he says what he is using.

 

[Alan Holmes]

What you use to read mail. Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail,

Outlook Express.

Alan

 

[Bruce Hagen]

<Snip>

Outlook Express.

Alan

Deleted Items is probably corrupt. In the off chance that you are keeping
messages you want to save in Deleted Items, (a garbage pail), move them to
a local folder you create and then do the following.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and navigate to it in
Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.

In WinXP, the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are by default marked as hidden.
To view these files in Windows Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files
and Folders under Start | Control Panel | Folder Options Icon | View, or
in Windows Explorer | Tools | Folder Options | View.

With OE closed, find the DBX file for Deleted Items and delete it. A new
one will be created automatically when you open OE.



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

In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background
and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}.

And backup often.

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

 

[Bruce Hagen]

True enough. But just for the sake of discussion:

Maybe he's already got one, but it's full, and compacting would take
care of it.
That was/is my initial guess.

But I'm just curious, Bruce - what made you think he needs to create a
new one instead? I guess you're assuming it's either gone, or so
corrupted so that compacting can't resolve this issue.

It's corrupt and you can't fix a corrupt dbx file. You can only replace
them.

 

[Alan Holmes]

Thanks for all that, will do as much as I can manage!-)

Alan

 

[Bruce Hagen]

I stand humbly corrected, Bruce.

In fact, if that's the case (a corrupted deleted files folder), trying
to initially compact OE might just create more issues!

Hopefully OE would balk at the attempt with a corrupted folder inside,
but who knows. (Or possibly it would proceed to compact some folders
before reaching Deleted Folders and then abort midstream? Just
curious).

It might go till it reaches Deleted Items, but if compacting doesn't
complete for all folders, the counter isn't reset to zero. The big problem
is that when OE was written, no one conceived of the amount of e-mail that
one would or could receive. The dbx file system was reasonable back in the
day. There was no such thing as spam at that time either.

MS was taking the right steps when developing Windows Mail for Vista. All
messages stored as an eml file by itself. The only problem was they
stopped all development of WinMail in June 2006 and Vista was still in
beta.

Ironically, the reason they stopped development was to take all the
developers and have them design Windows Live Mail (Desktop), which a lot
of people despise, including myself, and now that is not even used in
Windows 8.

Now that I have two Win7 machines and no XP, I am using Thunderbird for
mail and hacked in WinMail for news.

 

[Alan Holmes]

<Snip>

I am now getting no emails at all, I get a message saying

An unknown error has occurred. Account: 'mail.virginmedia.com (ah)',
Server: 'pop.virgin.net', Protocol: POP3, Port: 995, Secure(SSL): Yes, Error
Number: 0x800C0133

What does this mean and what can I do about curing it?

Alan

 

[Bruce Hagen]

I am now getting no emails at all, I get a message saying

An unknown error has occurred. Account: 'mail.virginmedia.com (ah)',
Server: 'pop.virgin.net', Protocol: POP3, Port: 995, Secure(SSL): Yes,
Error Number: 0x800C0133

What does this mean and what can I do about curing it?

Alan

Error Number: 0x800C0133 = a corrupt Inbox.

Move any mail you wish to save to a local folder you create. Then delete
the problem Inbox as follows.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and navigate to it in
Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.

In WinXP, Win2K & Win2K3 the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are by default
marked as hidden. To view these files in Windows Explorer, you must enable
Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start | Control Panel | Folder Options
| View.

With OE closed, find the Inbox.dbx and delete it. A new one will be
created automatically when you open OE.

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

Or, you might want to consider using a completely new identity. This will
give you all fresh dbx files and a new registry hive.

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.

 

[Alan Holmes]

Error Number: 0x800C0133 = a corrupt Inbox.

Move any mail you wish to save to a local folder you create. Then delete
the problem Inbox as follows.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and navigate to it in
Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.

In WinXP, Win2K & Win2K3 the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are by default
marked as hidden. To view these files in Windows Explorer, you must enable
Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start | Control Panel | Folder Options
| View.

With OE closed, find the Inbox.dbx and delete it. A new one will be
created automatically when you open OE.

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

Or, you might want to consider using a completely new identity. This will
give you all fresh dbx files and a new registry hive.

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.

I have tried all that but it hasn't helped at all, I have no idea what I am
doing wrong

Alan

 

[Bruce Hagen]

I have tried all that but it hasn't helped at all, I have no idea what I
am doing wrong

Alan

You moved all your Inbox messages to user created folders and then deleted
the Inbox.dbx file with OE closed?

If you did that, you would have a new Inbox, empty and uncorrupt, and the
error message should no longer appear.

Likewise, if you create a new identity and import all your messages and
deleted the old ID, that should fix it as well as long as you moved your
Inbox messages to user created folders before importing.

As I stated earlier, if you let folders get too large they become corrupt
so importing a bloated Inbox to a new Inbox will bring the bloat with it.

 

[Char Jackson]

Outlook Express (OE) is a simplified and stripped-down version of Outlook,

I think that's a bit of an oversimplification. OE and OL have little
or nothing to do with one another.

but with the added feature of supporting NNTP news servers and newsgroups,
unlike Outlook (as I recall).

That's correct.

 

[Nil]

Really? I thought Outlook and OE were both (primarily) email
clients.

Yes, but other then that basic function and and some superficial
interface similarities (that they both share with a number of other
email programs,) they're separately designed programs, written (I
assume) by different programming teams. The fact that they share a
similar name is an unfortunate coincidence.

You might as well say that OE was a simplified and stripped-down
version of Lotus Notes.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Yes, but other then that basic function and and some superficial
interface similarities (that they both share with a number of other
email programs,) they're separately designed programs, written (I
assume) by different programming teams. The fact that they share a
similar name is an unfortunate coincidence.

Although I agree with your major point here, let me make the following
two points:

1. A basic disagreement: I don't think their sharing part of the same
name is a coincidence at all. I think Microsoft meant Outlook Express
to partly have the same name as Outlook, because they wanted people to
think of it as a "Lite" version of Outlook. And as so often happens
with Microsoft, they did the naming so poorly that they confused
thousands (maybe millions) of people who thought Outlook and Outlook
Express were the same program. That confusion still exists today.

2. A basic agreement: Although both programs do e-mail, in all other
respects they are very different. Outlook is a Personal Information
Manager, not just an e-mail program, and Outlook Express was a
newsreader as well as an e-mail program.

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP

 

[glee]

Although I agree with your major point here, let me make the following
two points:

1. A basic disagreement: I don't think their sharing part of the same
name is a coincidence at all. I think Microsoft meant Outlook Express
to partly have the same name as Outlook, because they wanted people to
think of it as a "Lite" version of Outlook. And as so often happens
with Microsoft, they did the naming so poorly that they confused
thousands (maybe millions) of people who thought Outlook and Outlook
Express were the same program. That confusion still exists today.

2. A basic agreement: Although both programs do e-mail, in all other
respects they are very different. Outlook is a Personal Information
Manager, not just an e-mail program, and Outlook Express was a
newsreader as well as an e-mail program.

....and Outlook Express is the descendant of Microsoft Internet mail and
News... it even shares the same executable name (msimn.exe). It was
developed by the Internet Explorer team, while the totally unrelated
(except by name) Outlook was a child of the Office team.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

...and Outlook Express is the descendant of Microsoft Internet mail and
News... it even shares the same executable name (msimn.exe). It was
developed by the Internet Explorer team, while the totally unrelated
(except by name) Outlook was a child of the Office team.

But the two teams must have talked with each other, at least a little.
There are lots of similarities in how the e-mail portions of both
work.

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP