importing .dbx to outlook, troubles, any answers?

G

Guest

read many of the "import" or ".dbx" posts and do not see any that answer
this multi step inquiry. have old email from outlook express and or previous
microsoft email program on cd. have treid to open them in outlook express 6
so they could be then imported to outlook, but there is a trouble whereby the
cd stored email will not transfer (cannot include the error window here). i
would presume that some knowledgable person would know what the error message
is and that such has happened to others before. so there must be a simple
solution. step by step response please. this is not a suggestion but a
complaint about an original problem using outlook and a complaint about the
quality of microsoft help files included with ms outlook. you do owe us.
the warrantee company refused the salesmans represetation to hel me with
"software" issue and recommended this site.
 
V

Vince Averello [MVP-Outlook]

You might want to check in one of the Outlook Express newsgroups about how
to get the DBX files back into Outlook Express. Once they're recognized by
Outlook Express you can export the data to Outlook.
 
G

Guest

read many of the "import" or ".dbx" posts and do not see any that answer
this multi step inquiry. have old email from outlook express and or previous
microsoft email program on cd. have treid to open them in outlook express 6
so they could be then imported to outlook, but there is a trouble whereby the
cd stored email will not transfer (cannot include the error window here). i
would presume that some knowledgable person would know what the error message
is and that such has happened to others before. so there must be a simple
solution. step by step response please. this is not a suggestion but a
complaint about an original problem using outlook and a complaint about the
quality of microsoft help files included with ms outlook. you do owe us.
the warrantee company refused the salesmans represetation to hel me with
"software" issue and recommended this site.

The fact that Outlook Express files are not able to be transferred from
a CD onto a hard drive, into Outlook Express, has nothing to do with
Outlook.
 
G

Gordon

millipede said:
read many of the "import" or ".dbx" posts and do not see any that
answer this multi step inquiry. have old email from outlook express
and or previous microsoft email program on cd. have treid to open
them in outlook express 6 so they could be then imported to outlook,
but there is a trouble whereby the cd stored email will not transfer
(cannot include the error window here). i would presume that some
knowledgable person would know what the error message is and that
such has happened to others before. so there must be a simple
solution. step by step response please. this is not a suggestion
but a complaint about an original problem using outlook and a
complaint about the quality of microsoft help files included with ms
outlook. you do owe us. the warrantee company refused the salesmans
represetation to hel me with "software" issue and recommended this
site.


Copy the OE files into a new folder on your machine. You must ensure that
the copied files include a file called folders.dbx otherwise the import into
OE won't work
Remove any read-only Attributes.
Open OE and go to File-Import. Navigate to your folder.
When all folders have been imported, in OE go to File-Export to export to
Outlook.

HTH

PS - in future you MUST include any error messages in your post - otherwise
how are we to know what has gone wrong?
 
G

Guest

it was some help, the message below; however you will have to reveal the
method to copy to the post; however I had seen the same error contents in
another discussion group thread

there is one set of emails that will not transferr to outlook express and
are .dbx; those I am working with now and wonder if there is a simple fix
that is not obvious
 
G

Gordon

millipede said:
it was some help, the message below; however you will have to reveal
the method to copy to the post; however I had seen the same error
contents in another discussion group thread

there is one set of emails that will not transferr to outlook express
and are .dbx; those I am working with now and wonder if there is a
simple fix that is not obvious

I'm sorry, I don't know what you are getting at with the above!
 
G

Guest

uWhen the old computer email was copied onto a CD there were more than one
folder that subsequently were apparent. Only one folder of a greater
heirarchy was sucessfully transfered to OE the other folder and maybe two
folers will not transfer using the various choices offered in the import
function of OE. My question is should the other folders copy and or is there
nothing in the other folders that is considered worthwhile by OE and thus
Outlook? Another folder appears to have old address book and all sorts of
files that are not .dbx, can those be copied to OE then Outlook? The one
folder that did copy to OE had files that pertained to OE4 and some that were
predating OE4, internet Mail and or Microsoft Exchange, that is what makes me
guess that the other folder with a "email" subflder may be already accounted
for by the "email" sub folder that did copy to OE, but I am unsure. That is
another fault with the MS file information system and or help files as
descriptions of the various files and or folders is lacking. I hope this is
more help to a person that can interpret what is going on and or has
experienced the same thing himself. I do not see that gordon has experienced
any similar events and appears to be hawling the conversation somewhat,
further I have no idea what gordon refers to as read only attributes.
 
G

Gordon

millipede said:
uWhen the old computer email was copied onto a CD there were more
than one folder that subsequently were apparent.

I suspect, then, that you had more than one Identity. There should have been
a number of files (not folders) corresponding to your email files in OE -
Inbox, Sent Items, and all your manually created mail files.
Only one folder of
a greater heirarchy was sucessfully transfered to OE the other folder
and maybe two folers will not transfer using the various choices
offered in the import function of OE.

There are only two reasons this happens: 1) the folder containing the files
does NOT contain a file called "folders.dbx" (OE 5 or later) or you are
trying to import ther files directly from the CD


My question is should the
other folders copy and or is there nothing in the other folders that
is considered worthwhile by OE and thus Outlook? Another folder
appears to have old address book and all sorts of files that are not
.dbx, can those be copied to OE then Outlook?

Yes - use the OE version 4 option on the OE import dialog.

The one folder that
did copy to OE had files that pertained to OE4 and some that were
predating OE4, internet Mail and or Microsoft Exchange, that is what
makes me guess that the other folder with a "email" subflder may be
already accounted for by the "email" sub folder that did copy to OE,
but I am unsure. That is another fault with the MS file information
system and or help files as descriptions of the various files and or
folders is lacking. I hope this is more help to a person that can
interpret what is going on and or has experienced the same thing
himself. I do not see that gordon has experienced any similar events
and appears to be hawling the conversation somewhat, further I have
no idea what gordon refers to as read only attributes.

All files that are on a CD have a read-only attribute - (CD ROM = CD Read
Only Memory). To enable OE to import those files successfully, you a) have
to copy the files into a new folder on your HDD, and b) right click on each
file, choose "Properties" and ensure that the Read-Only attribute is not
checked. Additionally, if you did NOT copy the file called Folders.dbx (OE 5
or later) then you won't be able to import - the import function will return
a "this is not an OE message store" error. If this is the case, there is
another method, albeit long winded, to get your OE mail into your new
version of OE.
 
G

Guest

See the copy and paste from another psot I did, perhaps this will be
iformation for resolution of this problem (c&p):1) millipede has the same
problems importing to outlook and have followed similar direction to first
import to outlook express and then export to outlook; however there is a
group (folder) of the old email files in .dbx that will not yet import while
another group did successfully import. I get
a message when trying to work with the difficult folder that "No messages can
be found in this folder or another aplication is running that has the
required files open..." get back to me if you find a solution. I have my own
thread on .dbx import so you can help me there if you like. I wonder if you
are experiencing the same sort of trouble.
end c&p

2) I was unable to create new folders on the computer to store the several
folders on CD; well that is the stuff from CD would not transfer to the new
folder that I created on the computer and since that I have deleted the files
and reimported them and now have them by them selves in much larger folder
already on the computer.

3) looking in the Outlook express folder that did not transferr I do see
the folders.dbx file.

4) yes several email addresses over a span of time.

5) yes the non transferring folder does have various files for inbox and
outbox, but does not have a sent box.dbx but instead a offline.dbx; five
files total
 
G

Gordon

millipede said:
I get a message when trying to work with the difficult folder that "No
messages can be found in this folder or another aplication is running
that has the required files open

That generally happens when either the folder does NOT contain a file called
folders.dbx (OE 5 or later). If the folder is from OE4, then there is a file
called (I think) index.* that has the same function. (Can't remember the
extension). If either of those two files are missing, then you will NOT be
able to import.
(The other scenario is that you are trying to copy straight off a CD).

In the first scenario, you can do this:

In OE create manually folders equivalent to the folders you are trying to
import. Then close OE and copy the folders you want to import on top of the
ones you have created. When asked "Do you want to replace or overwrite" say
"Yes". Then when you open OE you should see your old folders in there with
your old email. BE VERY CAREFUL - if you overwrite your current inbox you
will lose what is in there at this time. Do a backup of that first.

HTH
 
G

Guest

I do not know how to iidentify OE4 or OE6 from the file or folder information
given with the data imprted to computer from the CD. However the one folder
that did copy to the current OE was done so by choosing the OE4 import choice
in one of the import windows.
 
G

Gordon

millipede said:
I do not know how to iidentify OE4 or OE6 from the file or folder
information given with the data imprted to computer from the CD.

They are designated by the file extension. OE5 and 6 are *.dbx and OE4 is
*.mbx
 
G

Guest

I was right the subfloder of outlook express does have the MBX files and
apparently all that was transferred with the import process. However the
other outlook express folder in another folder does not copy and I then
wonder why it does not or if it contains any data that was not copied already.

Does this help you, gordon with your analysis?
 
G

Guest

I do not know, as I have said I do not know because there are no identifiers
other than your insistence that dbx makes the difference and the dbx is
there. Read some of the past posts to this string to familiarize yourself
with details, all the information should be there. However there is
obviously some problem as I cannot describe the trouble in enough detail (so
it seems).
 
G

Gordon

millipede said:
I do not know, as I have said I do not know because there are no
identifiers

Well the files must have SOME sort of extension. Are they *.dbx or *.mdx ? I
should have thought that was a simple enough thing to find out! If the have
NO extension, then either they are corrupted or they are not OE mail files!
 
B

Brian Tillman

Gordon said:
Well the files must have SOME sort of extension. Are they *.dbx or
*.mdx ? I should have thought that was a simple enough thing to find
out! If the have NO extension, then either they are corrupted or they
are not OE mail files!

She could also have the WIndows option enabled that hides known file types,
making it appear that the files have no extensions.
 
G

Guest

well Ihate to have to restate myself. Gordon, if you would read my post the
way that I do you would understand that what I am referring to is that there
are no Identifiers for OE 4 or 5 or 6; that I do tell you the.dbx is there.
Here copy and paste from my previous post: I do not know, as I have said I do
not know because there are no identifiers other than your insistence that dbx
makes the difference and the dbx is there. Read some of the past posts to
this string to familiarize yourself with details, all the information should
be there. However there is
obviously some problem as I cannot describe the trouble in enough detail (so
it seems). End copy and paste.
 
G

Guest

No brian, you are reading gordon as the correct source and actually she has
mixed up my description to the point that I continuously repeating myself.
 
G

Guest

Gordon,
I have a question regarding your advice. When you go to OE,Files, Import,
the only places that it gives you an option to import from are other mail
programs. So, how would making a copy of the dbx files and keeping them
somewhere else work exactly?
TIA : )
 

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