Found a way to deal with ghost emails...

[jwardl]

It works -- but isn't a perfect solution by any means. First, enable view of
hidden files... and make sure Windows Mail is closed.

Go to your "C:\USERS\yourloginname\APPDATA\LOCAL\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS MAIL"
folder. Copy the entire folder somewhere else... another partition, a CD, a
thumb drive -- whatever. While you actually don't need the ENTIRE folder,
it's easier this way. Plus, you have a backup in case something goes
horribly wrong.

Next, delete "WindowsMail.MSMessageStore". I know -- but you copied it
above.

Start Windows Mail as you normally would. A new message store will be
created. All will be nice & clean; no ghost messages. In fact, NO messages,
period.

Go to your copied folder, and open the "Local Folders" subdirectory. Go
through the individual folders and delete any 0-byte "Windows Mail E-Mail
Message" files you see. Size this window so it's visible on top of your
Windows Mail application, and drag & drop all messages to the places they
should go. You can highlight and drag an entire group if you like, just be
sure that you don't accidentally bring along anything but "Windows Mail
E-Mail Message" files. It's easy to miss the "Winmail.fol" file at the end
of the list, which will cause an error if you miss it. Copy time may also be
lengthy, depending upon how many files you have and your choice of copy
media. Note that really long times may result in a "Not Responding" label at
the top, which isn't necessarily a true statement.

This worked for me. Good luck.

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

It works -- but isn't a perfect solution by any means. First, enable view
of hidden files... and make sure Windows Mail is closed.

Go to your "C:\USERS\yourloginname\APPDATA\LOCAL\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS MAIL"
folder. Copy the entire folder somewhere else... another partition, a CD,
a thumb drive -- whatever. While you actually don't need the ENTIRE
folder, it's easier this way. Plus, you have a backup in case something
goes horribly wrong.

Next, delete "WindowsMail.MSMessageStore". I know -- but you copied it
above.

Start Windows Mail as you normally would. A new message store will be
created. All will be nice & clean; no ghost messages. In fact, NO
messages, period.

Go to your copied folder, and open the "Local Folders" subdirectory. Go
through the individual folders and delete any 0-byte "Windows Mail E-Mail
Message" files you see. Size this window so it's visible on top of your
Windows Mail application, and drag & drop all messages to the places they
should go. You can highlight and drag an entire group if you like, just be
sure that you don't accidentally bring along anything but "Windows Mail
E-Mail Message" files. It's easy to miss the "Winmail.fol" file at the end
of the list, which will cause an error if you miss it. Copy time may also
be lengthy, depending upon how many files you have and your choice of copy
media. Note that really long times may result in a "Not Responding" label
at the top, which isn't necessarily a true statement.

This worked for me. Good luck.

The problem seems to be gone for me in 5744. At least, I haven't seen it
for a while.

 

[Guest]

Thanks much, it worked fine.

 

[Guest]

shouldn't I see files that are O KB before I do this in my local folders? I
don't

 

[Steve Cochran]

You'll see eml files under the various directories under Local Folders that
match the WinMail folders. All you really need to do is to delete the
msmessagestore file in the top Windows Mail directory and then delete the
one in the backup\new directory and then restart WinMail.

See also www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#wm for details on the message store
location.

steve

 

[Guest]

I get this until the part where you delete WindowsMail.MSMessageStore

at this point I get "The action can't be completed because the file is open
in another program" but it isn't?

 

[Steve Cochran]

reboot the computer and try it again.

Don't open WinMail first.

steve

 

[Guest]

Hello,
I have re-booted many times and when I try to delete the "Windows
Mail.MSMessageStore" A pop up opens and says the file is being shared and
will not let me delete the folder.
Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[Steve Cochran]

Do a CTRL-Shift-Esc and see if WinMail.exe is listed as a process. If it
is, then endtask it and see if you can then delete the file.

If you can't then try renaming the file from WindowsMail.MSMessageStore to
WindowsMail1.MSMessageStore and do the same for the copy in the \backup\new
directory.

See if that works. If not, then boot to safe mode and try it.

steve

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

Hello,
I have re-booted many times and when I try to delete the "Windows
Mail.MSMessageStore" A pop up opens and says the file is being shared and
will not let me delete the folder.
Any suggestions? Thanks
--

Right click Windows Explorer and choose Run As Administrator and try again
to delete both copies

 

[Guest]

Thank-you Thank-You
I am so grateful for your information want to thank Jward1 and especially
Steve Cochran. What worked for me was starting in safe mode then I was able
to delete the WindowsMail.MSMessageStore. It worked and can now use my email
again.
Good luck to all of you this is a fantastic group with lots of people trying
to help.
I am so happy

 

[Steve Cochran]

Hi Pam,

Thanks for the nice feedback. Glad to hear you got it working!

cheers,

steve

 

[Guest]

Hi there,

I seem to have a similar(?) problem to the one you've been discussing and
solving - which is that in Vista, Windows Mail has somehow decided that any
mail I write and try to send should stay stuck in my Outbox. Whenever and
however I try to send the contents of Outbox nothing happens, and neither can
I delete or move out any messages there which are waiting to be sent (I get
"an unknown error has occured").

Ah - latest although still nothing can be sent, I CAN now delete all
messages stuck in Outbox EXCEPT the first one, which perhaps triggered the
problem (its body shows "message could not be displayed"). Is this a 'ghost'
of the kind you've been referring to?

any tips very much appreciated!
Steve

 

[Guest]

With the help of Steve Cochran, who I intend on nominating for sainthood, I
appear to have solved this problem. (BTW, for me it seemed to occur when I
put unread emails into the Deleted Items box. Those were the ones I couldn't
erase. MARK ALL EMAILS AS READ, whether you've read 'em or not.)

Anyway, to quote from the note below: "All you really need to do is to
delete the msmessagestore file in the top Windows Mail directory and then
delete the one in the backup\new directory and then restart WinMail."

What happens then is that WinMail rebuilds its database. You'll find the
folders Inbox through Junk E-mail rebuild but empty. You'll find all your
previous emails in the Recovered folder, neatly organized just as you had
them.

You can then either leave your previous emails in their folders under
Recovered, or as I just did, spend 45 minutes making new Local Folders and
then selecting\moving them to a handier location.

Anyway this worked quite neatly and easily.

Many, many thanks to everyone who's contributed to solving this problem.
And please, if anyone knows the names of the people at Microsoft who invented
this glitch, don't tell me. I'm not sure I could be responsible for my
actions.

Thanks again, all.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Thanks for the feedback.

At this point I'm not willing to spend 45 minutes moving messages
from one folder to another, at least until such time as I'm pretty sure
that the problem won't happen again.

I'm hoping someone will come up with a definitive scenario as to
what user actions trigger this problem. I find it hard to believe that
deleting unread emails may cause an outgoing message to become
stuck in my Outbox.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Steve Cochran]

Thanks for the kind words.

Glad you got it working. Hopefully we can come up with a less destructive
fix.

cheers,

steve

 

[Guest]

Great post bud, and it looks like it might be the fix I need....however I
have one issue.

When I restart Windows Mail after following your directions, it pops up a
screen saying that it is restoring Windows Mail....and all emails that have
been deleted are back in there, including the problem child.

I tried disabling System Restore but I still get the same result. Any ideas?

Sure appreciate you going to the trouble of helping us all out.

JR

 

[Steve Cochran]

If you don't want the old messages to be recovered, then move everything out
of the Windows Mail directory. It has nothing to do with System restore.

steve

 

[Guest]

Actually, I deleted the file called "New" in my Windows Mail/Backup folder
and that did the trick. Worked like a champ then. Somehow the
WindowsMail.MSMessageStore file had been backed up in that folder.

Jwardl, you are my hero! I was getting very frustrated until I followed your
help suggestions.

Jeff R

 

[Guest]

I've been reading through the messages on this forum because I also started
getting error messages when trying to empty my deleted emails folder. I
bought a brand new computer with Vista/Windows Mail a month ago. I just got
hit with the email glitch a few days ago.

After a little hesitation I tried the suggestion of deleting the
WindowsMail.MSMessageStore file. It was successful but not without it's own
share of headaches. It did relaunch with the recovered messages folder but
some of the folders I created were renamed. I moved the folders out of the
recovered folder and gave them back their original names. I had to relink all
my message rules to the folders they go to. After I did all that I closed out
Windows Mail. I relaunched it and got a message saying the database was
corrupt. When it opened all the work I'd just done was gone and I had a new
recovered messages folder that no longer had my original folders from before
I even started the procedure. What a mess. Luckily, somehow or another (I
went through so many steps I've forgotten what I did) I was able to restore
those folders. However, I was NOT able to drag emails from the backup copy of
Windows Mail I created before I did any of this. When I selected the emails
and tried to drag them into a folder all it did was open a new email with the
files added as attachments (not exactly the results I was looking for!).
Luckily for me, I have a back up copy of my emails from my old computer and I
was able to import them from that CD.

So while this is one way to get rid of the ghost emails, it's not foolproof.
It was about as much of a headache as I expected.

What kills me is that I had no desire to get Vista until at least 6 months
after it was released. I was forced to get it when my old computer died. I
knew there would be bugs to work through.

JR