How do I move my Outlook Express folders to my new machine?

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Before trying to export or copy OE files elsewhere, be sure to compact everything. (File>Folders>Compact All Folders) I was having all sorts of trouble transferring my data until I did that first. That one step solved everything for me!

I found the answer to the "No messages can be found in this folder or another application is running that has the required files open." issue: There must be a non-corrupted Folders.dbx file in the directory that contains the messages that you are importing. Also, the dbx files must not be read-only.

My hard drive boot sector crashed so i installed a new drive and set the old one to slave. My old operating system was ME, I now run Xp.
Do a search for files with a DBX extention (*.dbx) on the old drive.this should list all of your seperate email folders as a different file (inbox, sent items,whatever else). This search will give you a folder location (path)
call up your new outlook express and select file/ import/messages. select the relevant program from the list. hit next. hit browse and using the results of your search, locate the folder where the dbx folders are located. select either the individual folders or select all. follow the prompts and your messages and local folders will be added to your new outlook express aplication. the messages in the inbox will be added to those already there, they won't be over written.

I found this site on google search. We had the same problem as Andy Leahy (19 Jan 2006) & Rob Myers (22 Jan 2006) and following your instructions (along with those posted by Jon V (29 Jan 2006)) managed to import the emails, which has ended a week of hair-pulling...THANK YOU! I have book marked this site. It's amazing these steps are not detailed in Outlook Express help, which only details how to compress to dbx files, not how to access them afterwards. Thanks again, Sarah.

hi leo,
i am Dr. Mittal from india.
i have a hotmail id.
i want to receive and send Hotmai e-mails from my outlook express pop3 server.
What should I do?
can u help me plz.
bye.

To Dr Mittal

If you have a hotmail email address then you are not using pop3, which is a type of mailbox normally associated with internet service providers like aol (or BT, Virgin, Tiscali etc. in the UK). To set up Outlook Express to send/receive via Hotmail, do this:

1. In Outlook Express go to the Tools menu and select Accounts.
2. In the top right corner of the box that has appeared, click Add and then Mail.
3. Type your name and click Next.
4. Type your email address and click Next.
5. Select "My incoming mail server is a [HTTP] server", and then in the new options that appear select "My HTTP mail service provider is [Hotmail]". Click Next.
6. Put your whole email address (including "@hotmail.com" in the Account name box, and enter your password in the next box. Leave the checkbox "Log on using Secure Password Authentication" blank. Click Next.
7. If you have done everything correctly, the account should now work just fine.

Hope this helps.

I am clearly doing something wrong. I have followed the instructions and made a CD containing the folders and address book. When I did so a message popped up saying there was a problem but I clicked that and went on anyway. Explorer reveals that the files are there on the disk. However, when I follow your import instructions for the address book I get to 'import' and a message tells me that 'an error occured during the import process. the import process could not be completed'. Similarly when trying to import the messages folder I reach import and get 'No messages canbe found in this folder or another application is running that has the required folders open. Please select another folder or try closing applications that may have files open'. So far as I can tell the only application I have open is Outlook Express.

Any thoughts that might help me, please?

I have been using microsoft office outlook. Last week I formatted my C: hard disc and copyed inbox.dbx, outbox.dbx on the seperate drive (D:). Now I want to restore those files on my microsoft ofice outlook. could you please suggest me?

The ".dbx" files are not Microsoft Office Outlook files, they're Outlook Express files. So I'm a little confused as to what you are trying to do.

Dear Leo

Actually I want to restore those dbx fiel, which are in seperate folders. Now I am using new outlook express. I tried to restore through microsoft outlook, by the following steps:1. click on FILE, then IMPORT and EXPORT, after that I found number of options to restore the file. But, unfortunately there is no option to recover those files which I have copied on my seperate drive. I just want to copy those old dbx file to my new outlook. Hope you understand

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