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I still cannot delete the an email with a 25 meg attachment I sent yesterday. Tried all the tricks above...any other ideas? Outlook 2007.
Posted by: Nancy G. at January 12, 2008 11:04 AMJust found an idea on another site and it worked like a dream. Drag the file into the Draft folder - then delete!!! Yeah!!!!
Posted by: Nancy G. at January 12, 2008 11:27 PMGreat advice!! The trick to unplug the network should have been a no-brainer. However..... I hadn't thought of that. Thank you so much for your help!!!
Posted by: Stephanie at January 15, 2008 7:19 AMGo to the File Menu and click on Work offline. Now you will be able to delete the message stuck in the outbox. Once done change to Work online.
It worked for me so sharing it here.
Posted by: N.Subramanian at January 16, 2008 1:35 AMJust an FYI, I just had someone try sending a HUGE attachment and it got stuck. The only thing that worked is taking Outlook offline, unplugging the network cable, disabling send/receive, AND (most importantly in this case at least) changing the SMTP server settings to something that wouldn't resolve. Then I could open the message (couldn't delete it still) highlight the attachment, delete it, close the message. Then I could delete the message itself. That was painful for such a "simple" thing.
Posted by: IT Guy at January 21, 2008 11:18 AMGoing to File Menu and clicking to Work Offline was the best solutions. Thanks for whoever suggested that above, genious!!!
Posted by: Nera Polkinghorn at January 21, 2008 12:07 PMI had a similar problem, where an email in my outbox would not send while I was disconnected, however it would not let me open the email either due to "Can't open this email. Outlook has already started transmitting this message"
Connecting to the VPN was impossible, and all of the tips above did not allow me to delete/open the email.
So, I created a new folder off my inbox, and selected "Copy Outbox to..." to my new folder.
This created a copy of the email I needed, I was able to open, copy the contents and attachment, and send via webmail.
I still cannot delete the original, but at least a copy has been sent
In Outlook 2007 you can Close Outlook and reopen it and then go to the Outbox quickly and delete the email! It worked for me.
Posted by: Sheri Wood at March 7, 2008 11:20 AMGood call. Simple but yet effective. After searching MS tech site as well as others, nothing worked except this simple "disable or unlpug your network" remedy. Also, it might help if run Outlook in safe mode. (Start, run, Outlook /safe)
Thanks again. You saved me some frustration.
I've found the following solution works for me quite well.
Select the "Send/Receive" option in the Outlook toolbar.
Select "Send/Receive Settings".
Select "Show Progress"
Click "Cancel All" when it brings up the e-mails attempting to be sent. This works just like canceling a print job in a queue. I kind of like it. I do move the canceled e-mail to the drafts folder as a next step so that I can modify the size.
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