Outlook Express deleted items?

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When I "Empty [the] Deleted Items Folder" in Outlook Express, I am asked,
"Are you sure...?", to which I unfailingly reply with an unqualified: YES...
dump 'em. However, I notice a Deleted Items .dbx folder that continues to
grow and grow. I assume I can simply delete this .dbx folder every now and
then, but is there a way to really-and-truly consign deleted items to
immediate eternity?
 
Sure, compact the Deleted Items folder.

'Compacting' actually applies to all of OE's folders. Compacting frees up
the space occupied by items you have deleted. If you have XP, Outlook
Express does this automatically after you close OE for the 100th time. You
can do it manually at any time: First, take OE offline, then click on
Outlook Express in the Folders list (it's the top-most line). Now go to
Tools > Options > Maintenance and click on 'Clean up now'.
 
message
When I "Empty [the] Deleted Items Folder" in Outlook
Express, I am asked,
"Are you sure...?", to which I unfailingly reply with an
unqualified: YES...
dump 'em. However, I notice a Deleted Items .dbx folder
that continues to
grow and grow. I assume I can simply delete this .dbx
folder every now and
then, but is there a way to really-and-truly consign
deleted items to
immediate eternity?
Click to expand...


Tools | Options | Maintenance only applies to newsgroups. For
OE folders:

Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no
folders
are open. Then: File>Work Offline (or double click Working
Online in
the Status Bar).
File>Folder>Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until
the
compacting is completed.

In Tools>Options>Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in
background
and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}.

Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~
 
Thanks, Bruce, I tried that, first going offline, then deleting all the
clutter, then compacting per your instructions. After OE 'did its thing,'
there is still a Deleted Items.dbx folder with the others, with about 150k of
stuff in it. Actually, I have two accounts that use OE: one for home and one
for work. The 'identities' bit works fine, I can switch back and forth, and
of course each account has its own .dbx files. I doubt that this has
anything to do with it, but I changed the location for storing the .dbx
files, making a folder for each account under My Documents. This allows me
to include e-mails when I back up, transferring everything under My Documents
to CD each month or so.
 
Mine is 60K empty and compacted so it probably isn't a
problem. If you want, with OE closed you can delete the
Deleted Items.dbx file and a new one will be created
automatically when you open OE.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~

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news:[email protected]...
 
Thanks again, Bruce. I guess I shouldn't get unduly upset about a 100k file.
I archive by years, and some of the Sent folders are several megs, what with
all the attachments, etc.
 
FYI:

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will
eventually
become corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for
storing
mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly. Keep user created folders under 100MB, and Default
folders as
empty as is feasible.

Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~

message
news:[email protected]...
 
Thanks for the tip, Bruce. What I have done is 'point' OE to folders under
My Documents. One is C:/Documents and Settings/username/My Documents/SBC
Mail, the other is C:/Documents and Settings/username/My Documents/Work Mail.
The OE default .dbx folders go in these.

Now, when you caution NOT to use default OE folders, does this mean that I
should rename my archived e-mail files with another extension, say .jim, and
then temporarily change the extenstion to get into them with OE? I don't
quite understand your caution or what you recommend doing.
 
We see numerous posts that start out: I had three years of
messages in my Inbox and now their gone!

OE default folders are more prone to corruption that user
created ones. Technically, they all have a 2GB limit, but
many people experience problems long before that. This is why
most of us recommend not exceeding 100MB. If you are
archiving in user created folders, that is good and there is
no need to change the extension. And you also back up the
mail, so you should be OK.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~

message
news:[email protected]...
 
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