Outbox is stuck

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I noticed that all outgoing emails for the past 2 days were still in my
outbox. After several sessions with my ISP, Comcast, I succeeded in getting
rid of all but one of these. BTW, they never went out, not could I delete
them ... I tried to move them to another folder ... they disappeared from my
Outbox, but never made it into another folder. Now, just one email remains.
Can't get rid of it. Can't view properties. Clicking gets me "Unknown error
...."
With OE, I was always able to delete .dbx folders (or rename them) when
stuff like this happened. And OE would create new ones to replace the ones I
hid.
Is this do-able with Windows Mail? How do I fix this problem? And, does
anyone have a clue as to why this occurred?
 
Here's an update. Before I posted this problem, I read many if not all of
the posts by people having the same or similar problem. The suggested cures
were all over the place, even so much as "Uninstall McAfee and/or Norton and
go out and buy a new security program!!" No way! This is a Windows Mail or
Vista problem. Fix it, Microsoft, and stop blaming everyone else.
BTW, I tried downloading and running the Compact/Repair program. It doesn't
work. It thinks WinMail is still open (even tho it is not and even tho I
went so far as to reboot and try running the utility again).
 
We start with removing the antivirus advice as that has always caused
trouble in OE and is clearly causing problems for users with WinMail. It
appears to be much worse, and its not at all clear if this stuck message
problem is related to them or not.

For the utility being unable to run, that is due to WinMail running in the
background. If you have it running in the background then something is
making it do that. You can use CTRL-SHIFT-ESC to look at the running
processes and then endtask WinMail.exe. Then you should be able to run the
compact and repair with WMUtil.

However, that is unlikely to fix the problem and the only recourse is to get
rid of the database and start fresh at the moment. So go to Tools | Options
| Advanced | Maintenance | Store Folder to find the message store location.
Then move everything under that Windows Mail directory to another directory,
so that the Windows Mail directory is completely empty. Then restart WinMail
and it will open fresh with nothing in the database. You can then add your
accounts and if they work correctly then you can
import messages from the directory to which you moved the files back into
WinMail (see
www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#wm2wm).

Note that no one at MS is posting in this newsgroup and helping users. We
have to figure this stuff out on our own for the most part.

steve
 
Thanks for responding, Steve. Someone from Microsoft better tune in to this
forum very quickly. I can't believe the number of posts about this same
problem. When I received notification that someone had responded to my post,
I was in the middle of composing a notice to all my clients NOT to upgrade to
Vista/Winmail yet, but to stay with XP Pro. (I develop MS databases)

Of course, since I cannot send out emails through WinMail, I will have to
either use my laptop or send mail directly from me Comcast account.
I see another MAC advertisement in the making, here.
 
Forgot to mention: I went into Task Manager and stopped all programs from
running (including background mail and the utility). Then, re-ran the
utility. This time, Compact and Repair buttons were enabled, but did not
solve the problem. When I went back into WinMail the offending file was
still in my Outbox and I was still unable to send mail out.
I'm now 4 hours into this horribly stupid problem.
 
lousaint said:
Here's an update. Before I posted this problem, I read many if not all of
the posts by people having the same or similar problem. The suggested
cures
were all over the place, even so much as "Uninstall McAfee and/or Norton
and
go out and buy a new security program!!" No way! This is a Windows Mail
or
Vista problem. Fix it, Microsoft, and stop blaming everyone else.
BTW, I tried downloading and running the Compact/Repair program. It
doesn't
work. It thinks WinMail is still open (even tho it is not and even tho I
went so far as to reboot and try running the utility again).
Click to expand...

If you wait for MS to fix it, rather than taking remedial action yourself,
you could be waiting until the autumn or later. And even if MS do fix the
problem
in a later release you may still have to recover the present situation by
following some of the advice offered, freely by volunteers, here.

Note there are 2 databases that might need to be repaired...

"There are two copies of WindowsMail.MSMessageStore, One in
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Microsoft\Windows Mail
and one in
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\New
If you delete both of these the database will be rebuilt. However, while no
messages should be lost, some may be downloaded again and you may lose some
record of which have been read. I recommend that you only do this when they
are causing you trouble, like when they are in the Outbox. Otherwise I now
just mark them as read and ignore them.

If this doesn't work for you or you're afraid to try it, use a different
program like Thunderbird, which is free."

ps. Check with Taskmgr to ensure that Winmail is not running
and end it with Taskmgr if it is.
 
Yes, it is my Outbox, and the offending file is preventing me from sending
out any emails.
Maybe I sound like an ingrate, and, yes, the forum is free and manned by
volunteers. But uninstalling Norton or McAfee and searching for a new
Security program does not strike me as the appropriate action to take. I
think this is a WinMail and/or Vista problem.

I'll try what you've suggested here. Hopefully I won't lose several days'
worth of messages and responses.
I'll probably end-up on Dell's chat site as well if for nothing more than
learning if they are getting lots of similar inquiries.
 
When you say you have tried everything, please state exactly what you have
tried. If you have already tried these two fixes (that worked for me on two
different computers) I could have saved some time here.

I had the exact same problem - about 6-7 unsent messages and emails.

This worked for me. You did not say whether you tried it or not.

I opened Tools | Accounts and set my main email provider as default. I then
set "one" (doesn't matter which) of my news groups as default. I applied and
exited tools. I shut down Windows Mail and rebooted. My messages and emails
now send automatically.

Another fix on another computer was to go to Tools | Options | Send and
remove the check from "send messages immediately. I then shut down Windows
Mail. I started up Windows Mail again and went back to the same option and
re-applied the check to send messages immediately.

Messages and emails then went immediately.


--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
lousaint said:
Someone from Microsoft better tune in to this
forum very quickly. I can't believe the number of posts about this same
problem. When I received notification that someone had responded to my post,
I was in the middle of composing a notice to all my clients NOT to upgrade to
Vista/Winmail yet, but to stay with XP Pro. (I develop MS databases)
Click to expand...

Vista is not *all* bad. As the old saying goes, don't throw the baby out
with the bath water. You can always get a different email program,
whether it be the free Mozilla Thunderbird or Microsoft's Outlook.
 
Gary VanderMolen said:
Vista is not *all* bad. As the old saying goes, don't throw the baby out
with the bath water. You can always get a different email program,
whether it be the free Mozilla Thunderbird or Microsoft's Outlook.
Click to expand...


Some of it is great.... I love the "start search" facility on the bottom
of the "Start" panel. It is very easy.
 
lousaint said:
Yes, it is my Outbox, and the offending file is preventing me from sending
out any emails.
Maybe I sound like an ingrate, and, yes, the forum is free and manned by
volunteers. But uninstalling Norton or McAfee and searching for a new
Security program does not strike me as the appropriate action to take. I
think this is a WinMail and/or Vista problem.
Click to expand...

Agreed it is mainly a WinMail problem, but it takes two to tango.
Through months of experimentation we've come to the conclusion
that a basic weakness in WinMail combined with overly aggressive
scanning from certain antivirus programs does the damage.

No need to search for a new antivirus, just download from here:
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-virus-free/lng/us/tpl/v5
 
Hi Richard,
I've now tried both of your suggestions but neither work in my case. I have
just one offending outgoing email that is raising the error: "one or more of
your outgoing emails are not associated with an account." I cannot get rid
of it.
I tried to follow a couple of other suggestions from, I think, Julian, but
was not able to find the files he suggested deleting. I'm running Vista
Business. I tried searching for the cited files, and failed. I tried moving
down the tree through LOU\APPDATA\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS MAIL and failed.
I was hoping to get to the Properties of the offending email so as to
manually associate it with an account; however, right-clicking generates an
error.
One thing I have not tried is completely uninstalling and reinstalling
WinMail. Might this work?
 
Right. I have not seen these problems on any of the dozens of computers that
I have setup using either Avast or AVG antivirus.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Richard Urban said:
Right. I have not seen these problems on any of the dozens of computers
that I have setup using either Avast or AVG antivirus.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

Gary VanderMolen said:
Agreed it is mainly a WinMail problem, but it takes two to tango.
Through months of experimentation we've come to the conclusion
that a basic weakness in WinMail combined with overly aggressive
scanning from certain antivirus programs does the damage.

No need to search for a new antivirus, just download from here:
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-virus-free/lng/us/tpl/v5
Click to expand...


Yes I use AVG anti Malware & don't have this problem.
Click to expand...
 
Unfortunately, Windows Mail is part of the operating system. It is not an
add-in module. It can't be uninstalled and then reinstalled.

Maybe it is time for Microsoft to go the "modular" route. Allow people to
install that which they want and remove that which they don't.

Some people have stated that they have had success with a reinstall of
Vista, starting the install from within Vista - sort of like an upgrade
install. I have never tried this but I think that, as I presently have the
time available, I may attempt it to see what happens. If it works, it just
may repair any problems with supplied programs.

The downside is that it may leave all the registry entries intact, whether
they are corrupted or not.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Here's the latest.
It was suggested that I try deleting the MSMEssageStore files. At first,
neither could be deleted. So, I tried renaming them. I was able to rename
the one in \backup but not the primary one. I was told "you can't rename
this folder because another process or program is using it." Which is not
the case. No other programs were running as far as I could see in TaskMgr.
Now, I have a few more outgoing emails stuck there in my Outbox because of
that one email that "is not associated with a known account."
Any ideas on how I might delete that one email?
 
Go to CTRL-SHIFT-ESC and endtask the WinMail.exe process. Then move
everything under the Windows Mail directory to a directory under Documents.
Then it will start fresh and you can import from the directory to which you
moved the files.

I said all that already.

steve
 
I'm going on my fourth week of trouble-free WinMail, using
Computer Associates' antivirus (with email scanning off).

Gary VanderMolen
 
Ok ... done ... nothing is in any of my email folders now. Do I import the
entire directory I created (\documents\windowsmailfiles) ? Or, do I need to
selectively import only certain ones.
BTW and FYI, I did not realize that earlier you were talking about stopping
WinMail under the "Processes" tab in TaskMgr ... I assumed it was under the
Applications tab. This time I found it.
 
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