Unwanted Mail Threading - Corrupt Profile?

OE6 latest (and staying with IE6) on XPSP2. AVG AV, not touching email.
Display set to 3-pane w/preview, view as Plain Text. Inbox ~1100 msgs, few
attachments, inbox .dbx ~70MB, 20 other local folders. Draft is empty;
SentMsgs is small. The dbx-store folder is in the default place.

Problem: Suddenly (Dec '06), ALL mail folders under this profile suddenly
started displaying mail as a "conversation," threaded, with +|- signs and
expand/collapse functional. as though this were a newsgroup. This is
irritating, since new mail can arrive far, far, down-pane, regardless of one's
display sort order. Newsgroups are used seldom on this machine, so I deleted
all news accounts and compacted -- no change.

Repeat, it's not just the inbox, so replacing folders with empties, then
overwriting with backups will be tedious.

Clue: There's another user on this machine, and !!!his OE mailstore is fine,
with no peculiar threading.

Suggestions? What tells OE that "this is a child of LocalFolders, forget
about threading the pane display?"

-Frank

While in the Inbox: View | Current View. Make sure Show All Messages is the
only option checked.

View | Sort By - Check Received.

General precautions for Outlook Express:

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt. 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.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually while
working *offline* and do it often.

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.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer
of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as
time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will
continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

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

And backup often.

Backup & Resto
http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

This is a great two click program:

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Frank Haber" wrote in message
...
OE6 latest (and staying with IE6) on XPSP2. AVG AV, not touching email.
Display set to 3-pane w/preview, view as Plain Text. Inbox ~1100 msgs, few
attachments, inbox .dbx ~70MB, 20 other local folders. Draft is empty;
SentMsgs is small. The dbx-store folder is in the default place.

Problem: Suddenly (Dec '06), ALL mail folders under this profile suddenly
started displaying mail as a "conversation," threaded, with +|- signs and
expand/collapse functional. as though this were a newsgroup. This is
irritating, since new mail can arrive far, far, down-pane, regardless of
one's display sort order. Newsgroups are used seldom on this machine, so
I deleted all news accounts and compacted -- no change.

Repeat, it's not just the inbox, so replacing folders with empties, then
overwriting with backups will be tedious.

Clue: There's another user on this machine, and !!!his OE mailstore is
fine, with no peculiar threading.

Suggestions? What tells OE that "this is a child of LocalFolders, forget
about threading the pane display?"

-Frank

"Frank Haber" wrote in message
...
OE6 latest (and staying with IE6) on XPSP2. AVG AV, not touching email.
Display set to 3-pane w/preview, view as Plain Text. Inbox ~1100 msgs, few
attachments, inbox .dbx ~70MB, 20 other local folders. Draft is empty;
SentMsgs is small. The dbx-store folder is in the default place.

Problem: Suddenly (Dec '06), ALL mail folders under this profile suddenly
started displaying mail as a "conversation," threaded, with +|- signs and
expand/collapse functional. as though this were a newsgroup. This is
irritating, since new mail can arrive far, far, down-pane, regardless of
one's display sort order. Newsgroups are used seldom on this machine, so
I deleted all news accounts and compacted -- no change.

Repeat, it's not just the inbox, so replacing folders with empties, then
overwriting with backups will be tedious.

Clue: There's another user on this machine, and !!!his OE mailstore is
fine, with no peculiar threading.

Suggestions? What tells OE that "this is a child of LocalFolders, forget
about threading the pane display?"

-Frank

Viewcurrent view, remove the checkmark from the bottom option.
Or while in Inbox hit Alt, V, V, G.

--
Regards Steve.
MS-MVP. OE. [DTS]

Bingo! Wonder why I'd never ventured into that submenu? Wonder why all
folders under inbox had "conversation grouping" checked? Ah, well, 'tisn't
the first OE poltergeist I've seen.

And it won't be the last OE poltergeist you will see either. eg
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Frank Haber" wrote in message
...
Bingo! Wonder why I'd never ventured into that submenu? Wonder why all
folders under inbox had "conversation grouping" checked? Ah, well,
'tisn't the first OE poltergeist I've seen.