Outlook Express Messages lost when I compacted

1. On three occasions , in the last few months, some of my Outlook Express messages have vanished when I have clicked 'OK' for my messages to be compacted.

Fortunately, by the time that this happened for the third time, I had discovered that the 'lost' messages were still in the recycle bin so on that occasion I was able to recover them.

However, I now normally click 'cancel' when I am given the option to compact messages, so that I don't lose more of them.

2. I don't know what has caused the messages to be lost. I have not interrupted the compacting process but during it I have had an error message from Outlook Express which I suspect is probably the probelm. (I don't remember the exact details but it was something about a location or file that could not be found.)

3. I have also read that Outlook Express can have problems when there are a lot of files in folders, especially in the 'sent' folder. I have about 10,000 files in my 'sent' folder and about another 10,000 in one of the folders for messages received and dealt with. I'd like to keep all of these messages, but they don't need to all be kept in the two folders mentioned above.

I tried reducing the size of my 'sent' folder by moving some of my 'sent' messages to a new folder that I had created and called 'sent_1990', but Outlet Express would not let me make that move.


I would welcome any advice you have on:

a) whether I am likely to have problems by waiting a long time between compacting my messages (except for the amount of disk space that Outlook Express is using).

b) what, if anything, I should do to reduce the size of some of my Outlook Express files in some way, but without deleting any of my messages.

Thank you.

- Peter Stubbs.

 

Helo Christer:

Thanks for the quick reply.

It looks as if I may be coming up against the maximum size limits for Outlook Express, based on what you tell me.

I've done the *.dbx search as you suggested, including hidden files, and the total size of my .dbx files seems to be about 2.5 Gb.

The two largest folders are about 1,251.000 kb (sent) and 1,201 kb (for the folder where I store most of my e-mails received after I have dealt with them). All my other *.dbx files, in other folders amount in total to about 160,000 kb.

If you tell me that it is the overall size of the Outlook Express folders (added together) that is likely to be the problem, rather than the size of any individual folder, then I'll not spend any more time trying to split my 'sent' folder or any other folder into two or more parts.

Do you have any suggestions as to what I should do next?

Thanks:

- Peter

 

Hi Christer:

I think we're making good progress, even though nobody else has chimed in yet.

I don't think my 'in box' is likely to be a problem at all. I try to deal with messages as they arrive then move them out of the 'in box' to a different folder completely. My 'in box' is currently only about 20,000k.


HOwever, you said that all folders handeld by OE during receiving and sending should be kept below the size limit, so perhaps it is my large 'sent' folder that has been causing the error messages to occur.

I have just tried again setting up a separate folder (NOT within the sent folder). I've called it sent_OLD. My plan would be to move all my messages that I sent more than a year ago into that folder.

I tried moving a couple of messages there a moment ago, and it worked, this time! So perhaps I should now remove about another 8,000 messages from 'sent' into 'sent_OLD', then run 'compact' so that my 'sent' messages folder reduces to about 20% of its current size.

Does that sound, to you, like a good plan?


LATE NEWS:

I've just found a disadvantage with my plan above. When I currently view what's in any of my folders, the view includes a 'From' field (except for the 'Sent' folder which, instead, shows a 'To' field).

his makes sense, and is what I want. It enables me to sort the files in the folder into alphabetical order of 'From' or 'To' as appropriate.

However, when I view the 'Sent_OLD' folder that I have just created, it has a 'From' field, so if I do as I had planned, I'll end up with 8,000 messages, all with my own name against them!


Best wishes:

- Peter

 

Thanks Christer:

That sounds to be just what I need.

You have been very helpful. I appreciate it.

- Peter

 

A word of warning about compacting OE folders. When you compact OE's folders, always click file>work offline first. If you don't and mail starts downloading while you're compacting, data loss is a possibility.

If you compact your mail manually (file>folder>compact all folders) on a fairly regular basis you'll not see the prompt to compact when you close OE. Compacting them manually resets the counter in the registry so as long as you do it once in a while (before the counter hits 100) , you shouldn't see it again.

 

Hi Christer and Zander:

1. I disconnected my internet connection.

2. I moved all the e-mails that I sent up to 2003 from my 'sent' folder into a new folder called 'sent_OLD'
I did this because I thought my 'sent' folder might be too large, and that might be what was causing Outlook Express to give me the error message ( "Outlook Express has encountered a problem and needs to close ") sometimes when I send e-mails.

3. I clicked 'OK' on the message that asked if I wanted my e-mails to be compacted (so I should not see that message again for a while).


RESULTS:

A.
During the compacting, I got a messge twice saying "The folder is currently in use by Outlook Express or another Application ". (This is probably the same message as I have seen while compacting on previous occasions, even though I try to ensure that no other programs are open while I'm compacting). I clicked 'OK' both times and compacting continued.

B.
I checked my Outlook Express folders, after the compacting had run. This time I did not find any large batches of e-mails missing (good), but in one of my Outlook Express folders, I found 8 files where the 'sent' date had changed. All my 'sent' dates should be between 1999 and 2007, but there are now e-mails listed with sent dates of 27/8/1956 (two), 05/07/1990, 31/07/1993 (two), 07/01/2009, 30/01/2024 and 31/01/2024.

C.
Changing column headings to show 'to ' rather than 'from' in my 'sent_old' file (as you suggested, Christer) worked well, but the change seemed to affect some other folders as well as the folder that I was trying to change, but not all others. I tried several times and it seemed not very predictable. So I've now set Outlook Express to display both 'from' and 'to' in all floders. It's not very elegant but it gives me the data that I need.

D.
I had hoped that by doing 1, 2 and 3 above I would avoid the error message ( "Outlook Express has encountered a problem and needs to close ") that I sometimes get when I send e-mails. But the first time I tried to send a message after doing 1, 2 and 3, I got the same error message again.

I'll be pleased to hear what anybody has to say about any of the points above.

Thanks:

- Peter.

 

I don't know for sure but I'd say move everything out of your sent items folder then close OE. Then, using Windows Explorer, delete the sent items.dbx file in OE's store folder. A new one will be created the next time you open OE. Then try sending an email and see if you get the error. It's possible the sent items.dbx file is corrupt and may be causing this problem somehow.

As for files in use when compacting, if you have the folder list showing in OE, scroll to the top and click on Outlook Express before compacting folders. If that doesn't do it, turn off any email monitoring functions that your antivirus, firewall or any other programs you use have. Then try compacting them.

 

Hi Zander and Christer:

ZANDER:

1. You suggest that I should move everything out of my 'sent' folder.

- Do you mean, move it to a different folder, perhaps one that I'll name 'sent_2' but not part of the sent folder. If that's what you suggest I could do that and I would still be able to access the e-mails that are currently in my sent folder - but by doing that would I not just be moving possibly corrupt e-mails from one place to another.

- However if by "move everything out of the 'sent' folder" you mean delete everything that is currently in my sent folder, that would cause me a real problem because I constantly refer back to what is in that folder.


2. Thanks for advice on what to do next time I compact my e-mails. I'll read your advice next time I compact them, but I hope that won't be for a while!


CHRISTER:

1. I have Microsoft Office 2003, including Outlook 2003, but I have checked and my default is still Outlook Express. About 2 or 3 times a year, I have turned on my PC and found that it has opened Outlook rather than Outlook Express, so I have then opened Outlook Express. It has asked if I want Outlook Express to be the default, and I have clicked OK, then all has gone well for the next few months.

Do you think it would be a good idea for me to uninstall Outlook, or would that cause problems for me? e.g. are there components in Outlook that Outlook Express or any other programs rely on.

2. I think I probably have upgraded to IE7. I remember doing some upgrade a couple of months ago, but I'm not sure how to check which version I'm currently using. The only difference I really noticed is that it started asking me if I wanted to close all tabs whenever I closed web pages.

- Peter

 

Yes, move it all to a different folder.

No, they'd all be moved out of there. You could access them where ever you moved them too. (see below though)

Possibly but that's not the possibility we're trying to eliminate here. More than likely, if something is corrupt, it's the inbox itself, not the emails in it. This is a way to check that out.

It doesn't have to. Move all of the emails out of the sent items folder. Then delete the sent items.dbx file in Windows Explorer. Then open OE. A new sent items folder will be created. Then, copy the emails you moved out, back into the new sent items folder. Worst case scenario should be that you have everything back where it was to begin with and still have the same problem. On the other hand, it may just fix your problem too.

 

Hi Zander:

Thanks for your reply. That all makes sense to me.

It's 1.15 am here now, so I think I'll go to bed, then try what you suggest when I'm wide awake tomorrow.

 

Hello again Zander and Chriser.

ZANDER:

I have now moved all the files out of my sent file and put them in another of my outlook express files. Then I tried to delete the 'sent' folder as you suggested. But I had a problem.

I tried to delete the 'sent' folder by displaying the list of folders in Outlook Express then right-clicking on the sent folder and clicking on delete. (Is that what you expected me to do).

I found that I could click on delete for almost all of my Outlook Express folders, but for the 'outbox','sent, 'draft' and 'deleted' folders, the delete option was greyed out.


CHRISTER:

Thanks for your reply.

1. I'm not sure just what I should be checking when you say "Check that the Address Book is used by default, and not Microsoft Outlook. "

So far as I have been able to tell, the Guest Book seems to be working well. I can always find the addresses that I look for in it.

2. I think I'll leave Microsoft Outlook alone. I don't want to make any more changes than necessary.


- Peter.

 

Hi Christer:

1. My fault. (I must have been thinking too much about my web site. I typed "Guest Book" when I should have typed "Address Book ".)


2. Thanks for your explanation about how I should delete the 'sent' file. All very clear. I've now done that.

I then opened Outlook Express, and ran the search program again which showed me that my old 'sent' file was now in the recycle bin, and the new 'sent' file had been created today. (That's what I wanted to see.)

I've just sent myself an e-mail. A copy of the sent message went into the new 'sent' (as I hoped it would) and I did NOT get the error message telling me: "Outlook Express has encountered a problem and needs to close ".

If I don't see that message again over the next two or three days, I'll consider the change to have been a success.

Thanks again to you and Zander for the advice you have given me.

- Peter

 

Well, I hope it fixed it for you. Sorry I didn't make my self clear enough. I tried. Sometimes it's easy to miss something in the mix when using a board like this.

 

1. Hi Zander and Christer:

This is just to let you know that I have now been using Outlook Express for a whole week without it closing on me with an error message; so I'll now consider the problem closed. It must have been a corrupt 'sent' file and with your help I was able to solve it. I now have a much smaller 'sent' file.


2. Hi Zander:

I have just been reading through all the posts on this topic and there is just one point that I'm not sure about. In post #10, you said:

"As for files in use when compacting, if you have the folder list showing in OE, scroll to the top and click on Outlook Express before compacting folders. "
(Sorry Zander, I don't know how to make that quote appear in one of the nice little boxes that other people use for quotes.)

Whenever I use Outlook Express or compact it, I have the folder view open, and on the top line is 'Outlook Express', followed by 'Local Folders', 'Inbox', etc. It is usually one of the 'Local Folders' that is highlighted.

When asked if I want to compact the folders, I have usually answered 'Yes'.

I now know, in future, to ensure that I am working off-line before I answer 'Yes'. However, is it important that I also highlight 'Outlook Express" before compacting?

Sorry to come back at this late stage for clarification, but I like to try to understand what I'm doing, and why!

- Peter.