Wrong dates on OE email

Wrong dates on Outlook X

I am using IE / Outlook Express 5. All of all my inbox messages are dated wrong. This includes emails from this site! I have checked my system clock and it's right on. I find it hard to believe that respectable sites like this one and Ebay have clocks out of adjustment. Is this caused by my system, my ISP or is the program corrupt?
Thanks in advance
Hammer
PS Most of the dates are 12/1/2000. with a few dated 1/1/2000. An occational few have different years such as 2007...

 

Hammer,

I think this points to corrupt DBX files - which happens more easily the larger the mailboxes get.

I'd be tempted to "archive off" your present mailboxes and then start from a clean slate, see if that fixes the date trouble. If so, then you know it's the mailboxes and not something else wrong with the program itself.

just my suspicion but - by default, OE compacts the mailboxes as a background task - you can turn this off from Tools>Options>Maintenance; if you turn off the automatic compacting process, you can then compact them yourself manually every once in a while. (select a folder and do File>Folders>Compact All folders)

if you do that you know when it's doing it - and thus keep the process under control better.

I have a strong suspicion that when I ended up with corrupt DBX files it was because the computer was in the process of background compacting the folders when it crashed... and the larger the DBX files get, the longer they take to compact so the larger the chance of something going wrong while it's doing it.

(particularly Sent Items and Deleted Items)

large DBX files are well known to be a bad idea. I don't know whether my explanation of it is the reason - but since I decided to go for non-automatic compacting I haven't had any more problems.

best wishes, HJ.

 

Hugh,
I changed the compact setting like you suggested with no results. I also removed the entire OE folder from the archives and moved it to a different folder. I sent myself several messages from yahoo and I still have the same results. I did notice that the "Welcome to outlook express" message has the proper date. However, anything received through my ISP's POP3 server is misdated. Is it possible the problem lies with my ISP?
Also I ran the repair program on my Office2K disc with no results. Any other suggestions?
Thanks, Hammer

 

Hammer

the suggestion about changing to doing the compacting yourself wasn't meant to be the cure, more like a safety measure which might help stop the problem recurring in the future...

...but it seems from what you say as though even from a "clean start" you are still getting incorrect dates. This puzzles me.

Hmmm. You can see what's going on date/time-wise as the email is in transit. To do this, select a message and do "Properties ", go to the "headers" tab.

Here's the sort of thing you'll see, the bit I've highlighted in purple corresponds to the date/time for the message I see in Outlook Express - in the "Received" column I see 06/01/04 02:17

Return-Path: <nobody@infinisource.com>
Received: from infinisource.com ([64.246.42.33]) by mta05-svc.ntlworld.com
(InterMail vM.4.01.03.37 201-229-121-137-20020806) with ESMTP
id <20040106021757.VUZB19387.mta05-svc.ntlworld.com@infinisource.com>
for <get.the.real.one.from.my.BBS.user.details@ntlworld.com>;
Tue, 6 Jan 2004 02:17:57 +0000
Received: from infinisource.com (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1])
by infinisource.com (8.12.10/8.11.6) with ESMTP id i062I5mc022285
for <get.the.real.one.from.my.BBS.user.details@ntlworld.com>; Mon, 5 Jan 2004 21:18:05 -0500
Received: (from nobody@localhost)
by infinisource.com (8.12.10/8.12.10/Submit) id i062I5cY022284;
Mon, 5 Jan 2004 21:18:05 -0500
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 21:18:05 -0500
Message-Id: <200401060218.i062I5cY022284@infinisource.com>
To: get.the.real.one.from.my.BBS.user.details@ntlworld.com
Subject: Reply to post 'Wrong dates on Outlook X'
From: "Windows BBS Mailer" <webmaster@windowsbbs.com>
X-Infini-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information
X-Infini-MailScanner: Found to be clean
X-Infini-MailScanner-SpamCheck:


...if you did this you could at least confirm or dispel your worry about your ISP's clock

If I can think of anything else I'll let you know.

best wishes, HJ.

**edited to remove the real email address to try to beat the spambots - get a "real" one from my user details if you are a genuine BBS member**

 

back again! I finally found this thread which suggests a more comprehensive "repair" process.

summary:
- fix registry;
- repair IE (also repairs OE)
- delete the DBX files (as important ones recreate themselves)

which looks as it covers most possibilities...

best wishes, HJ.

 

Thanks Hugh.
I tried everything you suggested with no results. However, after installing "Win2K service pack 3" the problem mysteriously fixed itself... Go figure...
Hammer

 

I dunno!

still you got it working - and have posted back in case someone with the same hassle searches the thread...

best wishes, HJ

 

Hammer,
This problem occurs at your ISP, not in your machine. Apparently someone at ISP caught it and made the correction which you noticed after that "Win 2k SP3" installation. Time and date stamp come from the ISP only.

 

umm - would that not have shown up by checking the headers as suggested? - although at the time I was thinking more along the lines of expecting the time in the header to be different from the time shown by OE...
...but if the same, it would have pointed to ISP timestamp problem

best wishes, HJ.