Sent emails do not get saved to Sent Items mailbox

I am using Outlook Express. Last year I had problems with the entire contents of my Inbox and Sent Items suddenly disappearing. Finally I think I have managed to work around those isses.

But recently I have had another annoying problem appear. Every now and then, an email that I send does not get saved to the Sent Items mailbox. As near as I can tell, this happens only very occasionally, perhaps one in a hundred times.

But it is a real problem. Some of these emails were important. Not having a copy makes it very difficult.

Any idea how to solve this problem? Or even what the problem is?

Thanks.

 

Daanii--Specific to your latest problem, have you looked in your Outbox? The email you wanted to send may be stuck there.
If you continue to have this and the earlier problems, perhaps you have too many emails stored in OE. Deleted Items, especially, cause problems because even though you think you have deleted them, they are still stored on the hard drive.
One thing would be to delete all emails in all the OE "boxes" that you really do not need anymore (or send them elsewhere first using File|SaveAs if they are something you might want to see again and then delete.).
Now, turn off your internet connection. Then in OE File|Folder|Compact All Folders. When finished, you can connect to the internet again.

 

Welshjim,

Thanks for the ideas. The messages are not in my Outbox. They have, in fact, been sent. (Recently, I have included myself as a blind copy, so I know the messages go out.) But the sent messages do not appear in the Sent Items box. They are just gone.

My problems with Outlook Express came during compacting. Many people commented that I should be sure to keep my Inbox and Sent Items box small. So I archive the messages in those boxes regularly, and the problem during compacting seems to have disappeared.

But now this problem. I mentioned before that it happens to about one in a hundred messages. Looking more closely, it happens, although randomly, to about one in ten messages. So it is something that I cannot ignore.

 

Your sent items.dbx file may be corrupt although I would expect it to be a problem with all emails sent if this were the case. That said, I'd save any emails that are in the sent items folder and then close OE. Then, in windows explorer, delete the sent items.dbx file. A new one will be created the next time you open OE. Then it's just a matter of keeping your eye on it for a while and see if it works as it should.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, Zander. I tried to delete the old Sent Items.dbx, and found an interesting problem.

My Outlook Express files have two "Sent Items" boxes, one called Sent Items.dbx and one called Sent Items (1).dbx. I deleted both. While the Sent Items (1).dbx did go away, and was replaced, the Sent Items.dbx remains.

Do you know how I can get both Sent Items.dbx and Sent Items (1).dbx to go away? Then I can start from scratch.

Thanks.

 

Daanii--I understand you deleted both of the Sent Items files and on reopening OE found only the one.
Now that you only have the one Sent Items.dbx folder it should work properly. Have you tried sending an email and seeing what happens?
If it still does not work, delete the Sent Items file and reboot.
P.S. I suspect all your Sent Items were going to the (1) file and that you did not look in it.

 

Something went wrong with your original sent items.dbx. When this happens OE will create sent items (1).dbx to replace it with. The old one isn't deleted however. I imagine they do this so you have an opportunity to try to recover the emails in the old one if you wish. You can just keep the sent items (1).dbx if you wish. No harm will come from it. That said, if you want to get rid of it do the following.

First close OE. Then in windows explorer delete the sent items.dbx, sent items (1).dbx and the folders.dbx files. Then, when you open OE it will create a new sent items.dbx, a new folders.dbx, and the sent items (1).dbx should remain gone.

There a couple of gotchas here though. When you delete the folders.dbx file, you'll lose your folder structure in OE. By that I mean, all of your folders will still be there (in OE) and the emails you have in them will remain also but any folder you had that was a subfolder of another one will no longer be a subfolder in the list. You can fix this easy enough in OE by just dragging the folders back into the folder they are supposed to be in. Not a big deal unless you have a really complicated folder tree in OE.

Also, if you use OE for reading the newsgroups and are subscribed to any newsgroups you'll have to re-subscribe to them again. Other than that, there shouldn't be any other problems from doing this and you should get rid of the sent items (1).dbx by doing it.

 

Thanks for the information, Zander. I decided to leave well enough alone and not delete the old Sent Items box. Now sent emails are going to the Sent Items (1) box, which I deleted and Outlook Express restored. The original Sent Items box lies dormant.

So perhaps the problem of disappearing Sent Items has been fixed. I have not had a problem with the last 20 or so emails that I sent. I will keep an eye on it, though, and if the problems recurs, delete the folders.dbx file and clean everything up as you outlined.

Thanks again for the help.

 

Welshjim, my apologies for overlooking your second message until just now. With Zander's message having come in after it, I somehow did not see it.

As it turns out, I still have two Sent Items boxes. One is Sent Items (1). That appears to be the active one. I moved most of its contents out and deleted it. That wiped out the remaining contents. Since I did that, I have not had a problem with my sent emails being saved. But it is still early days, so I will keep an eye on it.

The original Sent Items box stubbornly remains even if I delete it. It appears to be dormant. I have not looked at its contents. Zander described how to delete it, but for now, I have decided to leave well enough alone.

It is possible that some of the sent emails -- those that were lost -- were going to Sent Items instead of Sent Items (1). I'll check in the next day or two to see if they are in Sent Items.

Thanks for your comments.

 

Daanii--Yes, please do let us know. Sounds like progress.
OE functions best with only one Sent Items.dbx file. Both Zander and I assumed your Sent Items.dbx file was corrupt and that is why it was "replaced" (as far as OE was concerned) with Sent Items (1).dbx. By now, after you have deleted the two .dbx files several times, they both should be uncorrupt.

The box at the extreme left of the bar in OE right below the Create Mail toolbar item would tell you whether you are seeing messages in Sent Items (1) or Sent Items.
I have only quickly scanned the various messages in this thread, so I am not sure I know from where you have been deleting the various Sent Items.dbx files. The correct place is from your Store Folder, the location of which is found by clicking OE Tools|Options|Maintenance tab|Store Folder.
Once you determine which Sent Items folder is really functioning, I think you can delete the other one from the Store Folder.

 

I don't think the original sent items.dbx will show up in OE. Could be wrong but this is what I remember when dealing with it in the past. The sent items.dbx is just a dead file now. The sent items (1).dbx is now the sent items folder in OE. At least, as I said, this is the way I remember it.

The only way that I know of to get rid of both and just have the sent items.dbx again is the way I mentioned in my previous post. There may be another way that I'm not aware of but if so, I've never come across it. The extra sent items.dbx should cause no harm though. You should be able to leave it the way it is if you want.

 

I decided to try to get rid of the Sent Items (1).dbx and just go with Sent Items.dbx. Already I regret that, since I have lost some messages. But they seem to still be there, if I can just get them back.

The problem is that I've got a bunch of .dbx files that I cannot get to show up in the Locals Folder in Outlook Express. How do I get a .dbx file to show up there? I know I have done it before, but I do not remember how.

Thanks.

 

That's odd. I've done this many times and have never lost folders in OE. That said, to get the other dbx files to show up in OE, try this. First, in windows explorer, move the the dbx files you're talking about to a different folder. Then, open OE and create new folders in OE and give them the same names as the ones you moved. Once you've done that, close OE and then go back to the folder that contains OE's dbx files and delete the new ones that were created when you made the new folders in OE. Then, move the old ones back in (the ones you previously moved out), open OE and the folders should be there with the messages in them.