Fixed Windows Mail Outbox Stuck Message & E-mail Not Sending

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1) Bought Gateway GM5424 Vista Ultimate 2/26/07
2) Set up Windows Mail
3) Everything worked fine for 7 to 10 days; sending & receiving
4) Then a message header got stuck in the outbox and could not be deleted
5) This prevented Windows Mail from sending on that account.
6) Used another account until it too had a stuck header.
7) Called Gateway; told to use restore point before the problem; no help
8) Referred to MS Help
9) Phoned MS; worked thru auto response to where I agreed to pay; Ugh
10) First greeter answered and he said this really was a no-pay incident;
got MS case number
11) Spent 4 or 5 sessions with MS help on the phone poking around for
several days.
12) MS finally had me stop all processes, Windows Mail, copy inbox, sent box
& e-mail accounts to desktop; then deleted the whole mail local folder; and
cleared reycycle bin; restarted; started Windows Mail
13) The program regenerated all the mailboxes blank; then copied back all
the accounts, inbox, sent box & overwrote the regenerated & empty mail box
files.
14) This cleared the stuck headers & I was able to send again.

Got that? Wow, I recommend working fixes with MS phone help online. They
know there is an issue; the beginning root cause is the "winmail.fol" file in
each system box is sometimes deleted and that was what we found - it had
been somehow deleted from my outbox folder. That is the issue they are
working to get to final root cause.
 
Thanks for that report. Glad to see Microsoft is working on it.
There may be some relevance to the symptom of the missing winmail.fol file.
I am also missing winmail.fol in the Outbox folder.

Gary VanderMolen
 
This has been posted may times. To get rid of a stuck mail in a default folder like inbox,outbox you need to delete your Win Mail Data base and then set it up again. You could have saved some money by reading some of the posts regarding this issue. It was posted many times in the past .
 
Peter, read that post again. The OP didn't have to spend any money.
I think it is good that many people are complaining directly to Microsoft
because that will spur MS on to get to the root cause of this issue and
fix it permanently. The band-aid fixes that have been posted here have
no guarantee that the problem wont happen again.

Gary VanderMolen

This has been posted may times. To get rid of a stuck mail in a default folder like inbox,outbox you need to delete your Win Mail
Data base and then set it up again. You could have saved some money by reading some of the posts regarding this issue. It was
posted many times in the past .
 
Peter - Gary is correct, the MS first level recognized the issue resolution
as one that should be no cost & it was no cost to me. To get to the first
level in the auto response system though I had to be ready to pay - don't
know if I could get thru some other way as I don't use that system very much.

The reason I did use it is that the MS help process sends one to these
communities and I did read a lot of (but not all) discussion so I knew it
wasn't just me & without finding a root cause fix, I went to MS.

These boards are a bit clunky or I don't know how to use them optimally. MS
is aware of the discussion and as Gary says that helps them in priority.
There is no KB in the system yet; they apparently don't know what is causing
the "winmail.fol" system file to sometimes just disappear from the various
box folders. It is good idea to check any misbehaving system to see if it is
there or not.

MS agrees once that file somehow gets clobbered, the headers stick and can't
be deleted. The outbox stuck header or no "winmail.fol" causes sending
e-mail to not happen until regeneration of the outbox at the app Local Folder
level & I was getting no error message from sending unless I tried to delete
the stuck header.

Gary should find regeneration (replaces his missing "winmail.fol") works as
others have written here. It can't simply be copied in - MS & I tried that
w/o success. So far the glitch deleting the file has not returned for me -
but regeneration is the workaround until a KB. I have not taken any other
action to stop the glitch (e.g. McAfee is still on full strength.)
 
Hi - this is happening to me and it's a pain in the *&^%. For a not so
computer savvy girl, could someone please send me the step by step process of
fixing this?? Your help would be greatly appreciated!!!!! Thanks so much.
 
Gary

That is a mistake on part. When I read that someone calls MS I automatically think that they pay for the call.

As far as the fix the OP posted it has been known and posted many times before in this and other newsgroups. It was known that to get rid of a stuck mail in a WM folder the fix was and is to delete the user data files and re-install again. In some cases and in very few depending how it is stuck then shift+delete will do. But mainly it is to delete the user data that will fix it in most or if not all cases.
 
I am a PC novice with a new laptop. All the mail I send is being sent to the
outbox; it is not being sent to the receiver. Please list the step by step
method to fix this problem. Remember I am a novice PC user. HELP!
 
Cat & PC Novice –

<<…please send me the step by step process of fixing this…>>

I’ll give it a try; I can copy the e-mail MS sent to me upon finally hitting
on the solution. Peter is right in that this process is mentioned around
here deep in other threads. This is how you start going above novice level –
fixing a symptom! Best way to learn, for me anyway.

In addition, MS had me use msconfig so that all processes were turned off
except the MS ones. I have added clarifications of my own within the {…}
brackets – for peer review around here. Maybe someone can do or has done
more detail.

Still, if you are truly novice & notebook is different than desktop & need
more step by step then a call to MS help is recommended; this one is
apparently widespread enough that they provide free help while in root cause
study. The MS representative I worked with happened to be new to Win Mail
and it took a couple calls over several days to come up to speed with what
Peter adds is existing knowledge in user groups.

Here’s the MS e-mail snip, after which we then turned on all the processes
with msconfig and re-hid the system files which, again, fixes the symptoms
not the root cause:

Here is a summary of the key points of the service request for your records:

ACTION â–º trying to remove {undeletable} headers from the outbox and send
e-mails.
RESULT â–º an unknown error occurred.
CAUSE â–º Unknown
RESOLUTION â–º From the Windows Mail folder in the {app} Local Folder we
copied the {folders named} inbox, drafts, sent items (anything where there
are e-mails that we want to keep) as well as the account files to the
desktop. Then we deleted the Windows Mail {Local} folder {and emptied the
recycle bin}. From there we restarted the Windows Mail application and it
restored itself clean {meaning the system Local Folder was system regenerated
with all the subfolders for inbox, outbox etc. there but empty (except each
had “winmail.fol†hidden system file included) }. Then we went to the
{regenerated} Windows Mail {Local} folder {opened it} and copied the folders
and {account} files that we put on the desktop back into the folder (select
yes to replace). Windows Mail has been restored and appears to be working
properly.
 
Trick said:
Gary should find regeneration (replaces his missing "winmail.fol") works as
others have written here. It can't simply be copied in - MS & I tried that
w/o success. So far the glitch deleting the file has not returned for me -
but regeneration is the workaround until a KB. I have not taken any other
action to stop the glitch (e.g. McAfee is still on full strength.)
Click to expand...

I'm not convinced that regeneration is a permanent fix.
I know it took two weeks of glitch-free heavy WinMail use before I got the
stuck 'ghost' message in my Outbox, so it doesn't show up right away.
I'll hold off on the regeneration trick until we have more experience with this.
 
Gary - Right, for me it was 7 to 10 days of trouble free ops. My discussion
with MS found no permanent fix is known yet & they sort of sanction what
others have found & noted around here (regeneration). If an outbox stuck
header prevents sending then implementing the workaround is more urgent. Are
you able to send mail from WinMail even with a stuck outbox header?
 
Yes, I'm able to send messages. The stuck header is a newsgroup post,
so whenever I send a newsgroup message I get an error, but it goes out OK.
I don't get an error when sending email. So, this is not an urgent matter
for me. If the problem was more severe, I'd probably try the regeneration fix.

Gary VanderMolen
 
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