cannot delete or move message from outbox

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Try the following web site and follow the instructions given there. This was
suggested to my be 'Jim W' who posted this elsewhere on the discussion group.
It worked for me.
 
The problem I think is that the message isn't there, so no script is going
to remove it. I think its a database problem.

steve
 
Same problem - have 1 message in outbox, although when I go to outbox folder
through Explorer there is no message (or even a winmail.fol file...). Have
tried to find "WindowsMail.MSMessageStore" in the directory and can't so
cannot delete it.. Any ideas? What should I do about the missing .fol file
in the outbox folder (can I copy and paste from another folder?)
 
If you browse to
"C:\Users\%yourloginname%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Mail" you
will find the file "WindowsMail.MSMessageStore" listed at the bottom.
 
Found it thanks! However, am copying my Windowsmail folder onto a memory
stick and it won't let me copy the messagestore (or 2 other "edb" files)
across to a memory stick. I get an error message coming up saying that I
should close the program (messagestore) down and retry. Nothing is open
apart from Explorer and the memory stick drive. What next???!
 
Just rename the
"C:\Users\%yourloginname%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Mail"
directory to
"C:\Users\%yourloginname%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Mail Old"
with WinMail closed, and then open WinMail and it will start fresh.

Then you can use File | Import | Messages and import them from the Old
directory.

steve
 
Eureka!!!! After 2 weeks I finally got an answer that worked. and it was
from Jan. Thanks very much Jan. This was the most frustrating problem I
have encountered after 20 years of working with computers.

I am very disappointed with the Microsoft techs leading this forum. But
thank the lord we have some good people on this forum to help each other.
Jan's answer to this problem was to click this link and follow directions
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...6E527B0FBA67&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=en-us&m=1&p=1

Steve finally chimed in with a little more help see below. Why did he not
give us this info 2 weeks ago? Guess he is in a learning curve like the rest
of us.
 
One thing is there are almost no MS-techs in this forum. I'm a volunteer.

The reason I didn't say wipe out the message store is that I wanted to find
a less damaging method that fixed the issue. Instead of fixing the issue,
this destroys the entire database so you lose all the abstracted
information.

That's like saying format the hard drive and reinstall to fix the problem.
Its a sledgehammer approach and I was looking (and still am) for a surgical
one.

Plus its very hard to find a fix for something when you can't reproduce it
on your own machine.

steve
 
Just learned two things. 1. I can delete all the previous stuff from the
reply to make a short message and 2. Vista might be smarter than we think. I
didn't follow the steps in Jan's link but tried something similar. Going
into Windows Explorer I simply renamed the message store by putting an X at
the front AND back. I got the message about the perils of changing
extensions but continued anyway. I also deleted everything in the "Backup"
folder simply leaving it blank. Then I restarted Windows Mail and it started
with a message about restoring from database. When it opened all folders
were empty but there were several new "Imported" folders. Inside was
everything from before deleting the message store. I simply dragged all
messaages from the "stock" folders such as inbox and sent and I dragged the
entire folders for my personal folders from import to local. I then deleted
the empty shells and Windows Mail looks exactly like it did two days ago. I
do expect some minor glitches since I have found doing replys, forwards etc
from recovered messages seldom works but cut and paste solves those nicely.
Hope this is helpful.
 
Thanks for the feedback. That's what I suggested in a message earlier.

Delete the database and the backup and it should start fresh. Its nice to
know it recovered the files. Did you have to set up the accounts again?

steve
 
Still no joy. Really grateful to all for the help that I am getting - with
any luck it will get resolved...

1. Have tried Jan's suggestion of saving to desktop but still get files
unable to transfer as "in use with another program." Files are edb (text
doc), edbtmp (text doc), tmp.edb (edbfile) and windowsmail.MSmessagestore.
Don't understand, have looked in task manager (applications) and nothing is
listed - why are they in use?? Everything else will copy across (local
folder and backup and myriad of other files which I do not know anything
about.

2. Have tried Steve's idea of changing the windowsmail folder name to
windowsmail old but it won't let me, comes up with "destination folder access
denied." Why? I am the only user of the computer so should have total
permission to do this. What do I need to change?

Look forward to hearing more!
 
Try this. First close WinMail and then do a CTRL-SHIFT-ESC and make sure
Winmail is not running in the background as a process. If its is, then end
it.

Then go to the message store directory and rename the
WindowsMail.MSMessageStore file to WindowsMail.oldMSMessageStore. Then go
to the \backup\new subdirectory and find the other
WindowsMail.MSMessageStore file and rename it also.

If you can't rename the files, then boot to safe mode and try it.

Then try starting WinMail back in normal mode.

steve
 
Steve,

Thanks again for your perseverance, I now have a working email account
again!! Just for your information, the process did corrupt a number of my
folders, with many now showing the text for all the messages in that folder.
It warned me that ending the process may cause Winmail to become unstable (it
was still running as you suggested) and that renaming the message store could
have adverse effects but I fortunately have all the messages on a disc having
just transferred them from my old computer. Oddly, none of the messages in
the Inbox or sent box were affected, only those in personal folders. Final
questions (I hope) - I now have 2 messagestores (new and old) in the
WindowsMail folder but none in the backup folder (just an edb text document).
Should I delete the "oldmessage store" now the new one appears to work?
Should there be a messagestore in the backup, if so should I copy the new one
into there or will it do this in its own time? Why do I have a Local Folder,
Local Folder(1) and Local Folder(2) - looking at them, it seems that the
original and (1) are missing most messages - Winmail asked to compact each
time on closing and I did this twice so would this tie in (although compact
folder is empty)...Can I delete original and (1), leaving (2) to run as
actual folder? Same with Microsoft Communities folder (I have 3 now).

Sorry to take up your time, but v grateful!

Richard
 
The folders tried backing up your old messages and you can check and see
what's in them. We gave them so much grief about OE that I expect you
didn't lose much, if anything.

Once things are working okay, just delete the files that were renamed as
they won't help at all now.

cheers,

steve
 
Here's the simple way. For a start, don't bother to go and get a mac: I'm a
mac guy but darn it my daughter went and got a Vista machine and I have to
sort out all her Microsoft profblems for her so my being a Mac guy didn't
save me.

But at least I know not to follow the sort of hugely compluated advice that
tends to get doled out with anything do do with Micrsoft.

My daughter's new machine is 10 days old and she must have sent all of ten
emails before this show-stopping amazingly shabby bug hit her.

I found that this worked (read to the end before starting - even easier
suggestion at the end): I went into Tools / Accounts/ and selected the email
account which had the stuck email. In its Properties I changed the account
name by adding the numberal '2' after it - but add anything you like. Now,
while still in properties, use the 'Export' button to save this account data
somewhere eg in My Documents'. Cancel out of Properties so that the existing
account name is not actually changed.

Now use the button 'Add' to create a new account, and then simply use the
"Import " button to re-import the account which you just exported. So you end
up with two accounts with identical settings, different name. Make the
account with the new name ('2' added) your Default account.

For any emails in your outbox (other than the corrupted one which is giving
an error when you try to delete it) double click them to open them and change
the 'sending account' to the new account via the dropdown; then either save
it or send it.

From now on all 'sending' will be from the new default account and wil be
successful. Mail will not attempt to send the corrupted email unles you try
to send from the original account. You'll still have the bad email in your
Outbox but it won't do any harm there: you won't get any messages about it
and you'll be able to send emails again using the other account.

I'm no longer at my daughter's machine so all this is from memory: hope that
I've accurately recalled the steps.

By the way, it occurred to me later that it might not even be necessary to
create the second account; you could first try just changing the name of the
existing account by adding '1' and saving. Then maybe this renamed account
won't try to send the bad email which is owned by the account as originally
named. If this doen's work, do the extra account thing above.

I'm so glad I'm a mac guy. Hope this helps someone.
 
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