The intrusive message "Outlook Express can compress messages to free up disk space" can infuriate most users of this useful program. The solution to the problem, albeit with some reservations, lies in the use of the resources of the windows systems.
You will need
- - Outlook Express 5.0;
- - Outlook Express 6.0
Instructions
Dmitry Nesterkin
Solving problems in Outlook Express
Problems with e-mail are perhaps one of the most common reasons for users to contact services technical support and to system administrators. Despite the seeming simplicity of the task, it is not always possible to find the cause of the failure and quickly eliminate it. Consider the most frequent problemsthat occur when working with e-mail through the Outlook Express client.
This standard email client operating system Windows is not flexible or reliable. Nevertheless, on a par with Internet Explorer this software product is often chosen as the corporate standard for economy and ease of configuration.
Unlike the "big brother" - the Outlook program included in the Microsoft OfficeWhere, however, some of the problems that we will talk about sometimes also occur, Outlook Express uses a simplified mailbox format (.dbx), which is less resistant to damage. This feature is the reason for many failures in the mail client, and often data loss. Unlike the "office version" of Outlook, to which Microsoft provides built-in tools for restoring mail databases and archives - the scanpst and scanost utilities (you can usually find them in the C: \\ Program files \\ Common files \\ system \\ msmapi \\ 1033 folder, if you have Outlook 2003 is installed, or C: \\ Program Files \\ Microsoft Office \\ Office12 if you have Outlook 2007), there are no such tools in the Express version.
By default, the Outlook Express message store is located in the user's personal profile (in the C: \\ Documents and Settings \\<имя пользователя>\\ Local Settings \\ Application Data \\ Identities \\ (unique identifier) \u200b\u200b\\ Microsoft \\ Outlook Express). If necessary, its location can be changed in the program settings on the "Maintenance" tab. The base of letters is a set of files with the .dbx extension, each of which corresponds to one of the custom folders. The names of these files are exactly the same as the names of the folders in the mail client window. There are also service dbx files, which store a log of received messages and a hierarchy of subfolders.
Mail overflow
It happens that the program displays a message with an error code and an extremely vague explanation of "unrecognized error" without additional comments when checking mail, and no new letters arrive. The opposite situation may also arise when letters are not moved from the Outbox folder to the Sent Items folder, and they are sent over and over again. In most cases, this indicates an overflow of one or more mail database files. The reason for this is that the program cannot handle files larger than 1.99 GB. The solution is to compress folders regularly. If this is not enough, you should create a structure of subfolders (for example, by months or quarters) and transfer letters to the corresponding subfolders. As a result, instead of one large file you get a few small ones. But what if the trouble has already happened? First, you should stop all attempts to receive or send mail until the failure is completely eliminated. This will prevent possible damage to the mail database files and the loss of all letters in the problem folder when receiving or sending small letters. After that, you should create the above-mentioned structure of subfolders and either transfer all letters manually (and in small portions, and ideally one at a time), or use the import function of some other email program (for example, Microsoft Office Outlook). Please note that not all email programs allow you to export emails back to Outlook Express. Overflowed database files are not compressed correctly and cannot be restored - they will have to be deleted. After restarting Outlook Express will create empty dbx files to replace the deleted ones, and you will get empty corresponding folders.
Restoring the structure of folders and base of letters
Sometimes there is an accidental deletion or damage to one of the mail database files. In this case, recovery is possible only from the server or from a backup. Nevertheless, there are also "pitfalls" here. The program, most likely, will not accept newly deleted messages from the server, since it "knows" that they have already been received. To make her “forget” about them is quite simple - just find the pop3uidl.dbx file in the user's profile and delete it. There is also damage to the Folders.dbx file, leading to a violation of the structure of subfolders or the disappearance of some of them from the list of available ones. After deleting or moving of this file and restarting Outlook Express, all subfolders move to the top level and lose their hierarchy. However, “lost” subfolders appear after such an operation and, after manual restoration of the hierarchy, continue to be available.
Spontaneous deletion of letters from the server
When using a shared mailbox, messages are deleted from the server after the first user receives them, despite the checkbox "Leave a copy of messages on the server". This problem, for example, was observed when receiving messages from the Communigate Pro server after changing the address email in your Outlook Express account settings. You can fix this failure by deleting and creating account again. In this case, you can first export it to a file, and after deleting it, import it back.
Loss of letters
Sometimes a large number of letters disappear, usually over a continuous period of time (for example, from March 3 to April 7). Usually, the reason for this disappearance of letters is a failure to compress the mail database, as a result of which some of the letters are marked as deleted. In this case, you can restore letters only with the help of third-party software. Of course, if you understand the structure of dbx-files, you can try to recover letters manually, but this is a very time-consuming and complicated process. To prevent this from happening, you should constantly monitor the amount of free disk space and do not interrupt the folder compression process.
Scraps of letters
Corporate users are also inconvenienced by incorrect processing of broken letters, if the sender and the recipient use different mail programs, for example, the message is broken by Outlook Express, and the recipient Lotus Notes either the sender is Mozilla Thunderbird and the recipient is Outlook Express. Ideally, the function of splitting large letters allows in some cases to bypass the limitation on maximum size letters, but very often this creates unnecessary difficulties. In case of incompatibility, the recipient sees a lot of numbered unreadable letters. The most in a simple way would ask the sender to turn off the message splitting function and resend the message. But what if for some reason this is impossible? In this case, you will have to "collect" the letter manually. Create a new one in notepad text file and copy the contents of all parts of the letter from the mail program window into it. This should be done sequentially, without breaking the order of the parts of the message and without making spaces. After that, the file should be saved with the .eml extension and opened with Outlook Express or imported into a third-party email program.
Disappearing contact list
If you have enabled the display of contacts from the Address Book, but at some point after adding a new contact, the program issued a message that there are no contacts to display, check the number of contacts through the standard Address Book utility. Unfortunately, unlike this utility, Outlook Express cannot display more than 999 contacts. Therefore, to resume this function, you will need to delete one or more contacts.
Printing emails in the wrong encoding
While the solution seems obvious, it may not work. Many users assume that Outlook Express has its own HTML interpreter for composing and processing HTML emails. In fact, for this task, in some cases, the Internet Explorer interpreter is used, to which, when printed, the letter is transmitted unchanged. If a specific default encoding is selected in Internet Explorer instead of the Autoselect option, a similar problem may arise if the message encoding does not match the option set in Internet Explorer. You can fix it by enabling the "Auto Select" option through the "View -\u003e Encoding" menu in Internet Explorer.
In Windows Vista, Outlook Express was replaced by a new client - Windows Mail (“ Windows Mail"). The format of mail databases has changed in it, and now all letters are stored individually. As a result, some of the issues described here have been resolved. However, of course, there were new problems.
I hope the troubleshooting steps outlined here will help you deal with your email difficulties.
Outlook Express is included in the initial installation of the Windows XP operating system and is therefore widely available to users. You don't have to pay extra for it and Outlook Express allows you to perform basic operations with e-mail and even keep an address book with all the necessary contact information.
The disadvantages of the mail program include weak security of information storage and the lack of a backup mechanism. But the last problem can be solved manually. In practice, sometimes the task arises of reinstalling the operating system while preserving the user's personal correspondence, or the task of transferring e-mail messages stored in Outlook Express to another computer. Here you will need a manual backup of the existing correspondence and the address book with contacts.
The process of migrating email data can be divided into several stages:
Backup e-mail messages.
Backing up your address book.
Recovering email messages.
Restoring the address book.
Backing up email messages
The most important stage. You must manually copy the files that store all e-mails to another drive. But first of all, you should find out where the mail files are located in Outlook Express.
Backing up your address book
If you have a large address book or very important contact information, then, like e-mail messages, you should reserve it so as not to lose something important.
Recovering email messages
When you start a new Outlook Express (after reinstall Windows XP or do it on another computer), right after setting up your e-mail accounts, you can restore all previously saved messages. For this:
Close Outlook Express.
Make sure you can show hidden files.
Go to the folder along the following path "C: \\ Documents and Settings \\ Username \\ Local Settings \\ Application Data \\ Identities \\ (Alphanumeric Folder) \\ Microsoft \\ Outlook Express" and copy over the existing files, those that you backed up earlier in the first step of this article.
Start Outlook Express. Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items, etc. folders will contain your old emails.
Restoring the address book
You can also add the contacts of the address book saved to the CSV file in step 2 to the recovered emails.
Email loss is mainly related to DBX corruption. When you receive emails in your inbox, these messages are stored in a single file, commonly called a DBX file. DBX files are provided with a DBX extension and are named according to the folder in which the emails are located. If the DBX file is damaged, there are several ways to fix it. This article discusses two methods for recovering a damaged DBX file. The first method is the compression method. It uses a compression utility to compress and remove inconsistencies or redundant information in the DBX file. The second method is a forwarding method that tries to move all emails from the damaged folder to the working folder.
Outlook stores emails, address book entries, and other data in a PST (Outlook Personal Store) file. If you saved the PST file or need information from another PST file, restore it from Outlook. Losing this information can be scary, but Outlook makes it really easy to recover data so you can recover Outlook contacts and emails.
Imagine that your database is electronic outlook mail Express has been removed or your file system was damaged. In this case, you need a file recovery tool. Conventional removal tools usually scan your hDD and lists a number of files with damaged or corrupted filenames. What is the purpose of this information if you only want your email database?
Using the compression utility
To get started, follow these steps:
- In Outlook Express, select Work Offline from the File menu to stop each transfer.
- In the folder list, click Outlook Express to ensure that no email or message folders are open.
- Close the folder list by clicking the X in the upper right corner of the list pane.
- From the File menu, select Folder, then Compress All Folders.
- This may take several minutes.
Use Stellar Outlook Express Email Recovery to Retrieve Your Emails
Outlook Express Recovery Tool is capable of recovering corrupted DBX files very easily and creates new file DBX without writing anything to real file DBX and users can use this unconnected DBX file in Outlook Express as they are free from each other. Outlook Express Recovery will extract emails from Outlook Express and allow users to save recovered emails in DBX and EML file formats. The software recovers Outlook Express email folders corrupted for the same reasons as virus attack, errors such as folder compression, antivirus scanning, etc. The software recovers Outlook Express email folders that are corrupted for the same reasons. as a virus attack.
Outlook Express Recovery Tool is a standalone program designed to restore dbx files and restore Outlook Express e-mail to its original folder structure (a separate subfolder is created for each Outlook Express folder on your hard drive). Another great feature of this software is that it allows you to preview emails in corrupted DBX files before recovery! Thus, you can choose between a full Outlook Express database recovery or recovery of the most important messages from the dbx file. The program also allows you to extract attached files! Use a simple GUI to retrieve files and messages and let the app do the rest!
Who benefits from Outlook Express Recovery?
- Outlook Express Users - Recover Email Folders & Recover Lost Emails
- Administrators - allow users to corporate network correct Outlook Express folders under your identity by setting software to all computers.
- IT Consultants - Help your clients recover Outlook Express folders, add value to your customer service by providing a simple and effective solution for the recurring problem of corrupted Outlook Express folders.
List of main characteristics:
- Recover information from *. DBX files for Outlook Express 5, 5.5, 6.
- Microsoft Outlook Express 2GB Recovery: Retrieves messages from files larger than 2GB.
- Save data in separate * .EML files.
- Recover deleted messages.
- Recover email in different formats: plain text, RTF and HTML.
- Recovery emails with attached files.
- Restoring the structure and types of folders while saving individual * .eml files.
- Batch recovery mode for * .dbx files.
- Easy and convenient data recovery wizard in dbx file recovery tool.
- Selective backup of recovered emails.
- Compatible with Windows 98, NT 4.0, 2000, Me, XP, Vista, 7, 8 / 8.1 and Windows 10.
To restore Outlook Express folder
- Install the software on your computer.
- Run Outlook Express Recovery
- Please select a folder containing Outlook Express DBX files.
- Select DBX files to recover
- Click the "Start Recovery" button.
- Select a folder to save the recovered message
- Save all messages by clicking the "Save All" button.
- Please create a new blank outlook folder Express.
- Select the .eml files in Windows Explorer using Shift + or Ctrl +.
- Drag the selected .eml files to the Outlook Express folder.
To make repairs even easier, the program provides export and import wizards to help you identify accounts, select messages, and save them to a specific location. Outlook Express Recovery can also extract attachments and HTML emails so that all your valuable data can be recovered and your email account restored.
The more messages you send and receive, the more your inbox in Outlook can grow. Large mailboxes can take longer to open and search, and many email providers, including Office 365, limit the maximum mailbox size. If you receive a message stating that your mailbox is over the limit, deleting messages and folders might help you, but if you save the data to an Outlook data file (PST), the data file may not be automatically compressed in size.
Note... If you're using a POP or IMAP account, all of your email account information, including folders, email messages, contacts, calendar, and task information, is stored in an Outlook data file (PST). If you're using an Office 365, Exchange, or Outlook.com account, a copy of your mailbox will be stored in an offline Outlook data file (OST).
To reduce the size of the Outlook data file (PST), you can compress the data file. Unable to compress Outlook Offline Data Files (OST). For more information, see Reducing the Size of an Offline Data File (OST).
Search for large messages
You can search for all messages over a certain size in the Outlook search box. Click the search box and enter: messagesize:\u003e 5 MB. All messages larger than 5 MB will be found. You can delete some or all of these messages, or move them to another Outlook Data File (PST). For more information about moving items, see Moving and copying messages between folders.
If you delete items from an Outlook data file (PST), the file is automatically compressed in the background when the computer is not in use while Outlook is running. You can also manually start the compact process immediately. Compressing the Outlook Data File (PST) can take several minutes. You cannot compress an offline Outlook data file (OST).
Delete any items you don't want to keep and empty the folder " Deleted".
Click file\u003eAccount Settings\u003eAccount setup.
In the tab data files Options.
Open the tab additionally > Outlook data file options.
In the Outlook Data File Options dialog box, click Shrink and then click OK.
Note:
Means mailbox cleaning used to view the size of a mailbox and individual folders. You can also archive old items to an Outlook Archive Data File (PST) and empty the folder " Deleted ".
Open the tab File.
Click service> Cleaning your mailbox.
Item selection, Find items older, find items more, view deleted, clearthe "Deleted Items" folder, or empty conflicts
Reducing the size of an Outlook data file (PST)
If you delete items from an Outlook data file (PST), the file is automatically compressed in the background when you are not using your computer and Outlook is running. You can also run the Compact command manually immediately. Compressing the Outlook Data File (PST) can take several minutes.
Open the tab File.
Click the button Account setup and select the command Account setup.
In the tab data files select the data file you want to compress and click Options.
Click the button Shrink.
Note: After compressing the Outlook data file (PST), you don't need to exit Outlook.
Mailbox size control
You can use the remedy mailbox cleaning which allows you to view the size of the mailbox and individual folders. You can also zip old items to a Personal Folders Archive (PST) file and empty the folder " Deleted ".
On the menu Service select item Cleaning your mailbox.
Item selection View mailbox size, Find items older, find items more, view deleted, clearthe "Deleted Items" folder, View the size of conflictsor empty conflictsto complete the required task actions.