How do I remove a LARGE (undeletable) unsent file from my Outbox?

[Guest]

I tried to send a file with a 20MB attachment. For some reason, Outlook 2003
chokes on this. The file is stuck in the Outbox. I tried deleting it (hit
Delete hit, Shift-delete, etc.) and nothing works. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Place Outlook offline by File-> Work Offline and restart Outlook. You should
now be able to delete it.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Outlook is probably not the cause, but your ISP who probably has set limits
on the size of emails. Check with them for the maximum files size you are
allowed to send. Oh, and listen to Roady.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, CdnHoser asked:

| I tried to send a file with a 20MB attachment. For some reason,
| Outlook 2003 chokes on this. The file is stuck in the Outbox. I tried
| deleting it (hit Delete hit, Shift-delete, etc.) and nothing works.
| Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Hi all,

I tried the recommended solution (going offline), and unfortunately things
did not work. I got some cryptic message like "the message has already been
sent. Can not update headers". Well, I know the message has not been sent.
And, to add to things, since that huge email is in my inbox, other smaller
emails are being held up. Please keep the suggestions coming.

Regards
Cdnhoser

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Use Task Manager to ensure that there are no instances of outlook.exe
running and try it again.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, CdnHoser asked:

| Hi all,
|
| I tried the recommended solution (going offline), and unfortunately
| things did not work. I got some cryptic message like "the message has
| already been sent. Can not update headers". Well, I know the message
| has not been sent. And, to add to things, since that huge email is in
| my inbox, other smaller emails are being held up. Please keep the
| suggestions coming.
|
| Regards
| Cdnhoser
|
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:
|
|| Outlook is probably not the cause, but your ISP who probably has set
|| limits on the size of emails. Check with them for the maximum files
|| size you are allowed to send. Oh, and listen to Roady.
||
|| --Â
|| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
|| the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my
|| personal account will be deleted without reading.
||
|| After furious head scratching, CdnHoser asked:
||
||| I tried to send a file with a 20MB attachment. For some reason,
||| Outlook 2003 chokes on this. The file is stuck in the Outbox. I
||| tried deleting it (hit Delete hit, Shift-delete, etc.) and nothing
||| works.
||| Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Roady [MVP]]

And if it's really tough on you you can also try;
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/messagestuckinoutbox.htm

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

 

[Guest]

Wow, you found a good one. Thanks. However, I stumbled across an even easier
way of doing it:

Say your PST file is called junk.pst
1. with Outlook NOT running, rename junk.pst to junk2.pst
2. start outlook; it will prompt for a file to replace junk. Point to junk2
3. Once in outlook, open the 'outbox' and delete the monster file
4. quit outlook
5. rename junk2.pst to junk.pst
6. start outlook again

Life is good again...

Thanks for all your help.

And if it's really tough on you you can also try;
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/messagestuckinoutbox.htm

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----

Use Task Manager to ensure that there are no instances of outlook.exe
running and try it again.

--Â
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, CdnHoser asked:

| Hi all,
|
| I tried the recommended solution (going offline), and unfortunately
| things did not work. I got some cryptic message like "the message has
| already been sent. Can not update headers". Well, I know the message
| has not been sent. And, to add to things, since that huge email is in
| my inbox, other smaller emails are being held up. Please keep the
| suggestions coming.
|
| Regards
| Cdnhoser
|
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:
|
|| Outlook is probably not the cause, but your ISP who probably has set
|| limits on the size of emails. Check with them for the maximum files
|| size you are allowed to send. Oh, and listen to Roady.
||
|| --ÂÂ
|| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
|| the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my
|| personal account will be deleted without reading.
||
|| After furious head scratching, CdnHoser asked:
||
||| I tried to send a file with a 20MB attachment. For some reason,
||| Outlook 2003 chokes on this. The file is stuck in the Outbox. I
||| tried deleting it (hit Delete hit, Shift-delete, etc.) and nothing
||| works.
||| Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Hi Milly,
How about Outlook 2000, is this way works? My problem is --- I sent a
e-mail with a large attachments and it stuck in the Outbox. Whenever I start
outlook, There is a program "MAPISP32. EXE." Start running, and sure I
couldn't delete the e-mail. I have to use Task Manager stop the running and
close Outlook. Could you please help me!
Regards!
Jian

 

[Guest]

I tried all the suggestions but still cannot delete an email stuck in my
outbox with a 16 mb attachment sent through my hotmail account.

Wow, you found a good one. Thanks. However, I stumbled across an even easier
way of doing it:

Say your PST file is called junk.pst
1. with Outlook NOT running, rename junk.pst to junk2.pst
2. start outlook; it will prompt for a file to replace junk. Point to junk2
3. Once in outlook, open the 'outbox' and delete the monster file
4. quit outlook
5. rename junk2.pst to junk.pst
6. start outlook again

Life is good again...

Thanks for all your help.

And if it's really tough on you you can also try;
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/messagestuckinoutbox.htm

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

-----

Use Task Manager to ensure that there are no instances of outlook.exe
running and try it again.

--Â
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, CdnHoser asked:

| Hi all,
|
| I tried the recommended solution (going offline), and unfortunately
| things did not work. I got some cryptic message like "the message has
| already been sent. Can not update headers". Well, I know the message
| has not been sent. And, to add to things, since that huge email is in
| my inbox, other smaller emails are being held up. Please keep the
| suggestions coming.
|
| Regards
| Cdnhoser
|
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:
|
|| Outlook is probably not the cause, but your ISP who probably has set
|| limits on the size of emails. Check with them for the maximum files
|| size you are allowed to send. Oh, and listen to Roady.
||
|| --ÂÂ
|| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
|| the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my
|| personal account will be deleted without reading.
||
|| After furious head scratching, CdnHoser asked:
||
||| I tried to send a file with a 20MB attachment. For some reason,
||| Outlook 2003 chokes on this. The file is stuck in the Outbox. I
||| tried deleting it (hit Delete hit, Shift-delete, etc.) and nothing
||| works.
||| Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Guest]

I'm having the same problem. I have a message with an 80 mg attachment. Tried
all the suggestions. No luck. It won't delete.

 

[Brian Tillman]

How about Outlook 2000, is this way works? My problem is --- I sent
a e-mail with a large attachments and it stuck in the Outbox.
Whenever I start outlook, There is a program "MAPISP32. EXE." Start
running, and sure I couldn't delete the e-mail. I have to use Task
Manager stop the running and close Outlook.

http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/messagestuckinoutbox.htm

 

[Guest]

I, too, am having the very same problem. I have also tried ALL of the
suggestions offered. But nothing seems to work. DOES ANYONE OUT THERE HAVE
A BETTER SOLUTION??? One thought: Is there a way to just go ahead and
delete the "outbox" folder entirely, like what you would do in Windows
Explorer when you delete a folder there?

 

[Brian Tillman]

I, too, am having the very same problem. I have also tried ALL of the
suggestions offered. But nothing seems to work. DOES ANYONE OUT
THERE HAVE A BETTER SOLUTION??? One thought: Is there a way to just
go ahead and delete the "outbox" folder entirely, like what you would
do in Windows Explorer when you delete a folder there?

You can't delete the Outbox folder, but you can create a brand new PST, make
it your delivery location (which will give it a new Outbox) and then you'll
be able to do what you want with the message. But, since you said "I have
also tried ALL of the suggestions", you already know this, which means I
don't believe you, since it WILL work.

 

[Guest]

You can't delete the Outbox folder, but you can create a brand new PST, make
it your delivery location (which will give it a new Outbox) and then you'll
be able to do what you want with the message. But, since you said "I have
also tried ALL of the suggestions", you already know this, which means I
don't believe you, since it WILL work.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I guess I don't really know how to make a new PST. I thought I did
make one. But I guess not. Can you outline the steps I need to
take in order to make a new PST?? Thanks!

In Outlook, click File>New>Personal Folders File. Browse to an appropriate
folder (or accept the default). Give the file a name (or accept the
default). Click OK. Now, click Tools>Services and choose the Delivery tab.
Select the PST you want as the default delivery location (i.e., the one you
just added) and check the box to make it your delivery location. Stop
Outlook and make sure there are no processes named OUTLOOK.EXE in the Task
Manager. If there are, stop them. Restart Outlook. Now you'll be able to
do whatever you want with the items in the old PST, including deleting the
message in its Outbox. You have two options now. You can either move all
of the stuff in your old PST to the new one or you can select the old one as
the delivery location again (as above) and stop and restart Outlook to make
it take effect.

 

[Guest]

I tried to follow the steps you outlined, Brian, but I could not find the
"Personal Folders File" option when I clicked on "New". I also could not
find the "services" tab under "tools", nor could I find any delivery tab. I
have Outlook 2003 with all the updates, so maybe it is a different version
than what you have. Or maybe I am just missing something. Please help me.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I tried to follow the steps you outlined, Brian, but I could not find
the "Personal Folders File" option when I clicked on "New". I also
could not find the "services" tab under "tools", nor could I find any
delivery tab. I have Outlook 2003 with all the updates, so maybe it
is a different version than what you have. Or maybe I am just
missing something. Please help me.

Somewhere along the line I got the impression you had mentioned you were
using Outlook 2000, but I can see that I was mistaken. You can create a new
one with FIle>New>Outlook Data File. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Moreover, to changhe the delivery location click Tools>E-mail Accounts>Next
and look at the drop-down at the bottom left.

 

[Guest]

Well, I finally got it fixed (I think). I just went ahead and deleted the
file "Outlook.pst". I ended up making six folders called "Personal folders"
and trying all the things that you had mentioned. But the file in the outbox
never would delete -- I actually ended up with six copies of that file in
each of the six outboxes in each of the six new personal folders!!! So I got
mad and just deleted outlook.pst. The only problem now is that I have six
sets of personal folders that I cannot figure out how to make go away. The
delete option does not seem to be available for them, while it is available
for others.

Since I used MS Hotmail and run my Outlook through it, I guess I did not
hurt anything by deleting the outlook.pst and it does not appear that I have
lost any information in the process.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Brian Tillman]

Well, I finally got it fixed (I think). I just went ahead and
deleted the file "Outlook.pst". I ended up making six folders called
"Personal folders" and trying all the things that you had mentioned.
But the file in the outbox never would delete -- I actually ended up
with six copies of that file in each of the six outboxes in each of
the six new personal folders!!! So I got mad and just deleted
outlook.pst. The only problem now is that I have six sets of
personal folders that I cannot figure out how to make go away. The
delete option does not seem to be available for them, while it is
available for others.

You've corrupted your mail profile. With Outlook closed, open the Registry
Editor and remove the profile in the key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
Messageing Subsystem\Profiles. Outlook should create a new profile when you
restart it. You will probably have to set your accounts up again.

 

[Guest]

I tried to send a file with a 20MB attachment. For some reason, Outlook 2003
chokes on this. The file is stuck in the Outbox. I tried deleting it (hit
Delete hit, Shift-delete, etc.) and nothing works. Any suggestions? Thanks!

I have read all the advice given for this query, as i'm new however to
office outlook, i do not even know what a pst. file is! Can someone tell me
and also how to create it.