When DBX Repair Isn't Enough

Sometimes the best way to repair OE is to create a New Identity.

Doing so will not only replace ALL DBX files with fresh ones, but also generates new Registry keys that may have become corrupted.

If the current Identity does not have a problem with the Account
(it can send and receive mail), the Account should be Exported for later Import into the New Identity.

Account Export

Open OE.

Click Tools-Accounts.


Click Mail tab.

Click the Account name and then click the Export button.

Export the file as an IAF file.

Create New Identity

Click File-Identities-Add New Identity.

Type a name for the Identity.

Switch to the New Identity.

Click Cancel on the Internet Connection Wizard.

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To set up your Account into the New Identity, click Tools-Accounts-Mail tab-Import button.
Browse to the IAF file you Exported from the old Identity and click OK.

Test the Account to be sure it sends and receives mail.

If it works properly, Import your messages and contacts from the old Identity

To set the New Identity as the default Identity, click File-Identities-Manage Identities.

Place a check in the box next to "Use this identity when starting a program" and select the New Identity from the drop down.

Set the drop down under "Use this Identity when a program cannot ask you to choose an identity" to the New Identity and click "Close".

Use the New Identity for a while, and once sure you don't need anything from the Old Identity you can Remove it in the Identity Manager.

OE’s Most Common Problem

The one thing that OE suffers from more than anything else is the failure of the DBX files.

The most common symptoms include:

Loss of mail
Inability to delete or move messages
Messages remaining in the Outbox

Loss of mail is usually the result of a total failure of the DBX file and a recovery program will need to be run on the file to extract any messages. Click HERE for more info on that.

The other 2 symptoms are usually caused by mild corruption of the DBX files or simple overloading of the files (DBX’s have a size limit). Both situations can be remedied by selective deletion of the file(s) in question.

In the case of inability to delete or move messages (usually the Inbox), create a new folder in OE. Move all the messages from the Inbox (or the folder with the problem) into the new folder. Open the OE Message Store folder. See HERE for a script to do that. Be sure to close OE before proceeding. In the Message Store folder, find and delete the Inbox.dbx (or the DBX of the problem folder). At this time, I also usually delete the Deleted Items.dbx. If there are messages in the Deleted folder you wish to keep (of course if you wanted them, you probably wouldn’t have deleted them), move them to a new folder before deleting the Deleted Items.dbx.

In the case of messages remaining in the Outbox, often the cause is a full or corrupt Sent Items.dbx. In OE, move all messages from the Sent Items folder to a new folder. Open the OE Message Store folder and delete the Sent Items.dbx. While in the Store folder, you should delete the Outbox.dbx as well.

When OE is reopened, the deleted DBX files will automatically be replaced with fresh files and hopefully your problem will be solved.

Before Disaster Strikes

I recently got a call from a friend that visited a web-site and wound up with a fake security alert program. Her computer slowed way down and kept giving pop-ups telling her she was infected and urging her to buy the program to clean it up. Not a big problem as the fake program is easily detected and cleaned by MBAM (available HERE). Unfortunately, she didn't have MBAM installed and when she downloaded and installed it, the fake program deleted the MBAM.EXE on installation (the security alert program was very good at protecting itself). If MBAM were already installed, the fake program would have been unable to do that. Again, not a big problem. I sent her a re-named EXE in a zip file. It just needed to be extracted to the MBAM Program folder and double clicked to run MBAM. Of course she didn't have a third party zip program and Windows native compression wouldn't allow her to extract the file (blocked for security). For some reason, she couldn't unblock it. Once again, not a big problem. She downloaded and installed 7-ZIP (available HERE)and extracted the EXE, ran the program and cleaned the problem. This was after several hours of work dealing with a slow computer and annoying "YOU ARE INFECTED" pop-ups. It could have been dealt with fairly simply if the needed programs were already in place. The lesson learned is to not wait until the middle of a problem to get the necessary things to deal with it.

Must Have Tools for Outlook Express

Over the years I have discovered that OE is a very simple mail program to maintain and repair. A lot of the problems that occur involve working with DBX files to resolve them. Most people find that working with DBX's can be complicated. The proper tools can make the difference between a confusing, frustrating process and a (relatively) easy, successful repair. The single thing I've found that causes the most confusion is finding the DBX files. Most of the instructions you'll find tell you to open OE, click this, click that, blah, blah, blah. There is a simple tool that not only finds them, but will open the folder for you. Download Open OE Store.vbs To download. FF: Right click the link>Save Link as IE: Should download at click or Right click>Save Target as Note: If it downloads as a text file, rename the extension from .txt to .vbs This simple script "reads" the registry entries created when OE was last opened, determines what Identity was last in use, and opens the proper Message Store folder for that Identity. You can have OE open, double click the VBS to run it, and the Message Store will open. You even get a warning to close OE before making changes in the Store folder. Closing OE is a must before working with the DBX files, so that's a good reminder to do it. There are several other useful tools that can be obtained HERE , but the Open-OE-Store.vbs is the one I consider an absolute must.
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Another tool that is a must have is a DBX viewer. The MiTec MailView is the most versatile I've found. DOWNLOAD HERE This allows you to open DBX files to see what messages they may contain. That's especially useful for checking backups to see if they will work before trying to restore them to OE and more importantly to see if newly created backups are good. More on the viewer and it's uses can be found HERE on my Reference page. __________________ When you are unable to load or Import a DBX file into OE due to corruption of the file, I don't think there's a better tool than DBXtract for recovering messages from the damaged file. A freeware version of this program can be obtained HERE. It does the job quite nicely in most instances. Basic instructions for it's use are located HERE. An updated version with more features can be purchased from the developer HERE. If you've lost messages that are really important to you, it's well worth the meager price. ___________________ Those are the three tools I consider "Must Haves" for recovering lost messages in OE.

How this blog started

I have a friend that asked me how to link a banner on his blog. Now, I know a fair amount about computers, but very little about HTML and web design. I decided to look into it and figured the best way to learn is to just do it. I've always believed experience is the best teacher, so I guess this will show what kind of student I am. I have no idea what I'll do with this blog. It will be interesting to see what it evolves into.