Outlook Express folders do not match .dbx files in Store folder

See Bruce's last reply. You're going to have to run an extraction tool on
those orphaned DBX files (in the original identity's message store) then
drag the recovered messages (if any!) to any open OE folder. Do NOT drag
them to Inbox or Sent Items!

Again, your lousy "housekeeping" caused this very annoying problem. Best of
luck in the future.


daandehn wrote:
When I do this, the only files imported are PRIOR to the 03/08/2007 date.
Where is OE storing my current messages, which I can access and process as
always?

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

Your current Identity is very badly damaged, primarily due to your lousy
"housekeeping" in the past. Try one or more of your mail accounts in a
new
Named Identity...

File | Identities | Add new identity

NB: Do NOT name the new identity 'Main Identity' or include the work
'main' in the name!

Assuming all is well, (1) compact all folders in the old identity, (2)
import messages from the old identity's store into the new one, and then
(3) delete the old identity (File | Identities | Manage Identities).

To avoid such corruption in futu

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Frequently perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working
offline". More at http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

- Do not cancel Automatic Compacting, should it occur, and do not attempt
to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown your machine if Automatic
Compacting is taking place.

- Disable email scanning by your anti-virus application. It can cause
corruption (i.e., loss of messages) and provides no additional
protection:

Why you don't need your anti-virus to scan your email
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tuto...ning/index.htm

--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002

daandehn wrote:
Only "Main Identity" is shown as Username
paste
Only one user account/Identity. Show hidden files and folders is
enabled.
If
the identity is corrupted, how would I know? What would I do about it? I
have had no problems until I attempted a recent backup of my email.

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:
Assuming you've enabled 'Show Hidden Files and Folders'
(http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...torial62.html)...

A1 & A2. Then you're looking in another identity's store folder or your
current identity is very badly corrupted.

A3. If you're running WinXP SP3 and the computer's fully patched at
Windows
Update, there's no way a store folder containing DBX files dated
03/08/2007
(08 Mar-07 or 03 Aug-07?) belongs to your current identity.

There is only one Identity and one Identity folder.

Ah, but how many (Windows) User Accounts are there?

===========

1. Start | Run | (type or copy/paste) REGEDIT | [OK]

2. Navigate to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities

How many subkeys are displayed directly underneath the above key?
(Write
down the number of subkeys)

3. Now expand each of the subkeys, in turn: In the right-hand pane,
what's
the Username for each subkey? (Write down each Username)

4. Close REGEDIT
--
~PA Bear

daandehn wrote:
Let me try to simplify by only discussing one problem at a time:

1. There are folders in OE with no corresponding .dbx file in the
Store
folder. If I do a search, the results show the missing .dbx to be in
the
Store folder, but if I open the store folder in Windows Explorer it is
not
displayed.

2. There are .dbx files without corresponding folders in OE. These are
folders that have been deleted in OE, but the .dbx file remains in the
Store
folder.

3. Interestingly, all of the .dbx files in the Store folder contain
the
same
date 03/08/2007 which is, I believe, the last time I reinstalled
Windows.

How and why is this happening? What can be done to realign the .dbx
files
in
the Store folder with the folders appearing in OE? OE seems to be
functioning OK and the emails are showing up in OE despite the fact
that
no
.dbx file can be viewed in Windows Explorer. There is only one
Identity
and
one Identity folder.

Windows XP SP3 with latest updates

Thank You

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

Please state your full Windows version (e.g., WinXP SP3; Win2K SP4)
when
posting to this newsgroup.

Following some instructions [from] here...

What instructions, where?

...Sent Itms folder...showed at 53MB for only 543 files (mostly very
small).
...Following some instructions fro here I moved all to a Temp file,
deleted the
Sent Items.dbx file and then moved all back from Temp to Sent Items.

WRONG! See below.

Now there is no Sent Items.dbx showing in Windows Explorer

Was OE closed when you started messing around in your message store
folder?
Are you certain that you're looking in the correct message store
folder
(cf. http://www.insideoe.com/files/store.htm#storemain)?

I also have a size problem with Inbox.dbx. There are only 42
messages
showing yet the size is 62MB.

See below.

General OE Caveats:

- Do NOT use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages! Move the
message
to
local folders you've created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Frequently perform a manual compact of all OE folders while
"working
offline". More at http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

- Do not cancel Automatic Compacting, should it occur, and do not
attempt
to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown your machine if Automatic
Compacting is taking place.

- Disable email scanning by your anti-virus application. It can
cause
corruption (i.e., loss of messages) and provides no additional
protection:

Why you don't need your anti-virus to scan your email

http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tuto...ning/index.htm
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002


daandehn wrote:
When I view the .dbx files in the Store folder there are some that
have
been
previously deleted, but still showing. More improtantly, there are
some
that
are current that have no .dbx file showing. I have my system set to
view
hidden files. Why would some be hidden?

For example I was trying to reduce the size of the Sent Itms folder.
It
origianlly showed at 53MB for only 543 files (mostly very small).
Following
some instructions fro here I moved all to a Temp file, deleted the
Sent
Items.dbx file and then moved all back from Temp to Sent Items. Now
there
is
no Sent Items.dbx showing in Windows Explorer. If I search for the
file
it
shows as in the Store folder with a size of 31MB (still way too
large)
but
I
cannot view it in Windoes Explorer.

I also have a size problem with Inbox.dbx. There are only 42
messages
showing yet the size is 62MB.

How to get this all straightened out. What shows in OE is what I
want
to
see, but the .dbx files really are a mismatch making it impossible
to
backup.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Can you access emails before 3/08/2007 in OE?
--
Ron Sommer

"daandehn" wrote in message
...
When I do this, the only files imported are PRIOR to the 03/08/2007 date.
Where is OE storing my current messages, which I can access and process as
always?

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

Your current Identity is very badly damaged, primarily due to your lousy
"housekeeping" in the past. Try one or more of your mail accounts in a
new
Named Identity...

File | Identities | Add new identity

NB: Do NOT name the new identity 'Main Identity' or include the work
'main' in the name!

Assuming all is well, (1) compact all folders in the old identity, (2)
import messages from the old identity's store into the new one, and then
(3)
delete the old identity (File | Identities | Manage Identities).

To avoid such corruption in futu

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Frequently perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working
offline". More at http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

- Do not cancel Automatic Compacting, should it occur, and do not attempt
to
close OE via Task Manager or shutdown your machine if Automatic
Compacting
is taking place.

- Disable email scanning by your anti-virus application. It can cause
corruption (i.e., loss of messages) and provides no additional
protection:

Why you don't need your anti-virus to scan your email
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tuto...ning/index.htm

--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002

daandehn wrote:
Only "Main Identity" is shown as Username
paste
Only one user account/Identity. Show hidden files and folders is
enabled.
If
the identity is corrupted, how would I know? What would I do about it?
I
have had no problems until I attempted a recent backup of my email.

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:
Assuming you've enabled 'Show Hidden Files and Folders'
(http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...torial62.html)...

A1 & A2. Then you're looking in another identity's store folder or
your
current identity is very badly corrupted.

A3. If you're running WinXP SP3 and the computer's fully patched at
Windows
Update, there's no way a store folder containing DBX files dated
03/08/2007
(08 Mar-07 or 03 Aug-07?) belongs to your current identity.

There is only one Identity and one Identity folder.

Ah, but how many (Windows) User Accounts are there?

===========

1. Start | Run | (type or copy/paste) REGEDIT | [OK]

2. Navigate to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities

How many subkeys are displayed directly underneath the above key?
(Write
down the number of subkeys)

3. Now expand each of the subkeys, in turn: In the right-hand pane,
what's
the Username for each subkey? (Write down each Username)

4. Close REGEDIT
--
~PA Bear

daandehn wrote:
Let me try to simplify by only discussing one problem at a time:

1. There are folders in OE with no corresponding .dbx file in the
Store
folder. If I do a search, the results show the missing .dbx to be in
the
Store folder, but if I open the store folder in Windows Explorer it
is
not
displayed.

2. There are .dbx files without corresponding folders in OE. These
are
folders that have been deleted in OE, but the .dbx file remains in
the
Store
folder.

3. Interestingly, all of the .dbx files in the Store folder contain
the
same
date 03/08/2007 which is, I believe, the last time I reinstalled
Windows.

How and why is this happening? What can be done to realign the .dbx
files
in
the Store folder with the folders appearing in OE? OE seems to be
functioning OK and the emails are showing up in OE despite the fact
that
no
.dbx file can be viewed in Windows Explorer. There is only one
Identity
and
one Identity folder.

Windows XP SP3 with latest updates

Thank You

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

Please state your full Windows version (e.g., WinXP SP3; Win2K SP4)
when
posting to this newsgroup.

Following some instructions [from] here...

What instructions, where?

...Sent Itms folder...showed at 53MB for only 543 files (mostly
very
small).
...Following some instructions fro here I moved all to a Temp file,
deleted the
Sent Items.dbx file and then moved all back from Temp to Sent
Items.

WRONG! See below.

Now there is no Sent Items.dbx showing in Windows Explorer

Was OE closed when you started messing around in your message store
folder?
Are you certain that you're looking in the correct message store
folder
(cf. http://www.insideoe.com/files/store.htm#storemain)?

I also have a size problem with Inbox.dbx. There are only 42
messages
showing yet the size is 62MB.

See below.

General OE Caveats:

- Do NOT use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages! Move the
message
to
local folders you've created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Frequently perform a manual compact of all OE folders while
"working
offline". More at http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

- Do not cancel Automatic Compacting, should it occur, and do not
attempt
to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown your machine if Automatic
Compacting is taking place.

- Disable email scanning by your anti-virus application. It can
cause
corruption (i.e., loss of messages) and provides no additional
protection:

Why you don't need your anti-virus to scan your email

http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tuto...ning/index.htm
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002


daandehn wrote:
When I view the .dbx files in the Store folder there are some that
have
been
previously deleted, but still showing. More improtantly, there are
some
that
are current that have no .dbx file showing. I have my system set to
view
hidden files. Why would some be hidden?

For example I was trying to reduce the size of the Sent Itms
folder.
It
origianlly showed at 53MB for only 543 files (mostly very small).
Following
some instructions fro here I moved all to a Temp file, deleted the
Sent
Items.dbx file and then moved all back from Temp to Sent Items. Now
there
is
no Sent Items.dbx showing in Windows Explorer. If I search for the
file
it
shows as in the Store folder with a size of 31MB (still way too
large)
but
I
cannot view it in Windoes Explorer.

I also have a size problem with Inbox.dbx. There are only 42
messages
showing yet the size is 62MB.

How to get this all straightened out. What shows in OE is what I
want
to
see, but the .dbx files really are a mismatch making it impossible
to
backup.

Thanks in advance for your help.