Summary: Outlook Express Problems, including folder corruption, can manifest in several ways. I've found a good article on Outlook Express folder corruption, and steps to take to avoid, and recover from it.
I use Outlook Express and all of a sudden all sorts of odd things are happening. A bunch of my email disappeared, my sent mail isn't being saved to the sent folder, more. I think my folders have become corrupt. What should I do?
I'm not going to answer your question.
Instead, I'm going to point you at someone else who's already written a very thorough article on the causes of, and solutions to, folder corruption in Outlook Express.
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The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express is an article on microsoft.com by Tom Koch that goes into a fair amount of detail discussing Outlook Express folders, folder corruption and what you should, and should not, be doing.
Of particular note is the fact that the cause of most corruption in OE is the first email threat: viruses. Not the viruses themselves, but rather the anti-virus software that we all use to prevent viruses from spreading. Yes, if not configured properly, anti-virus software can cause your Outlook Express folders to become corrupt.
One thing that you'll want to pay attention to, well before you have any problem, is this phrase from the article; one of the steps in recovering from corruption:
Copy the latest backup of the DBX file from your backup media into the Store Folder.
You do perform regular backups of your computer, don't you? Backups that include your mail folders? If not, start now before you have a problem.
In fact, backing up is step #9 in the article's Ten Steps of Prevention:
9. Backup your entire Store Folder on a regular basis.
Armed with a good backup strategy in place, Tom's article will help recover many forms of Outlook Express folder corruption.
Related:
Ask Leo! - How do I move my Outlook Express folders to my new machine?
Ask Leo! - How do Outlook and Outlook Express relate?
Article C2746 - August 6, 2006
Lately I am not able to delete messages, unless I push shift delete, which I understand deletes them permanently. Also when I go to the deleted items file it gives me the message that outlook express cannot open this file. Any idea whats going on? I am not real computer savy, so I hope it is something I can fix. Thanks, Bob
Posted by: robert bowers at October 17, 2008 5:43 AMI haven't found a solution to this one:
My OE inbox had about 20 000 messages. Now it only has 14 000. All messages from 10/31/2008 back to 12/30/2007 are longer there. New messages are there, ancient messages, too. But 10 months are missing in all folders. I tried sorting by senders, tried DBXtract. Nothing.
Any ideas?
Posted by: Thomas Richers at November 1, 2008 6:09 PMOutlook Express 6 has blank (white) page on log in and stays in this mode. emails are received but not able to view due to the white screen. drop down menus and icons at top are visable, then below them only blank?? has anyone come across this problem b4, thanks, neil.
Posted by: Neil at November 5, 2008 10:34 AMOutbox in Outlook Express is sending message but it's stuck in my Outbox unless I delete it-it gets sent over and over again. The emails will not go direct to my sent items box. I think the Sent items is corrupted, as it deleted all my emails this morning, fortunately I was able to recover, but it wont allow me to transfer BACK into my Sent Items box... Everytime I send a message, it says error, but list no fault code in the box.... Thanks Leo
Posted by: Dino Barletta at November 14, 2008 7:31 AMIf everything else fails if you cannot find your messages back, have a look at Foxtract.
This tool scans your corrupted dbx file and will extract your e-mails, even if the trees are corrupted (Outlook Express uses tree structures to retrieve the messages).
This tool is free, GPL licensed, the source code are freely available.
--> http://code.google.com/p/foxtract
Posted by: Shardik at November 25, 2008 2:46 AMi set up a gmail account on outlook express every thing works i know im getting the message but nothing shows up in the inbox
Posted by: dan at December 30, 2008 2:20 PMRe Neil Nov 2008
I have the same problem as Neil post! How do you fix this?. I did not see an answer to this problem. Please help!. I have Mc afee and have back up with Norton Ghost Thanks Sue
Posted by: Sue Sawyer at February 3, 2009 2:53 AMProblem
Outlook Express 6 has blank (white) page on log in and stays in this mode. emails are received but not able to view due to the white screen. drop down menus and icons at top are visable, then below them only blank?? has anyone come across this problem
I can't able to view my Inbox mail in outlook exress,
i Restore inbox.dbx but still i have facing this problem, i able to view all mail folder i.e. sentitems,drafts, all folder. but i am facing this problem in just inbox.
plz help me
Posted by: Vishal at March 12, 2009 3:47 AMAll of my emails are going to the deleted folder in Outlook Express. How do I fix this? Please help!
Posted by: Marie Reed at March 19, 2009 9:07 AMI have the exact same problem this guy did....."Outbox in Outlook Express is sending message but it's stuck in my Outbox unless I delete it-it gets sent over and over again. The emails will not go direct to my sent items box. Everytime I send a message, it says error, but list no fault code in the box...."
Posted by: Mark Corradetti at April 1, 2009 3:32 PM