Email messages have all disappeared in OE

[Shinken]

A client called yesterday and said that all of her email messages (years of them, all in the inbox, of course) have disappeared. 3 items that were recently deleted are still in the deleted folder, but she can't find her email messages. She can still send/receive messages, though. Her email client is Outlook Express (probably version 5, since her computer is running WinME (aarrrgggghhhh).

Does anyone have any ideas what might have happened to the messages in her inbox?

Thanks,

Phil

 

[Gavona]

There is an "email Issues" forum on TekTips - Forum605 that may be able to give better answers.

ALWAYS make a backup of the OE Datastore before messing with it or changing the location of the store. Failure to do this risks losing all the emails for good!

Can she see all her old sent items and any other folders? ie is it just her inbox that has gone?
Is her inbox in deleted items? (Might appear as a folder off deleted items)
Is there a backup of the folder containing the datastore?

To find the location of the datastore I think you looki in Tools, Options, advanced (I don't have OE on the pc to check). Do not change the location without backing up first.

Find the datastore. There will be lots of files *.dbx. Is one of them called INBOX.DBX? All these dbx files represent OE folders. They should all share a common date and time - the last time you closed outlook. Any that don't have become 'lost'.

If you have lost folders then, with OE closed, make a backup of the data store (folder). Then delete Folders.dbx. You lose the structure of the folders but next time you open OE all the folders should be visible they are all visible.


Gavin

 

[Shinken]

Gavona,

Thanks for the reply.

She has (probably) never backed up her computer - I just told her about the MS Outlook Backup utility.

No lost folders - she can see all of her folders, including the contents of the folders (except that only very messages received since yesterday are in her inbox); only the 3 messages that I deleted before I left her place earlier this week are in the deleted items folder.

After telling her to do searches for .pst and .dbx files on the computer, I recently got an email from her advising that she found several *.dbx files. I'll go over there early next week to see if any of these are the correct data store.

Regards,

Phil

 

[tf1]

Use Tools, Options, Maintenance tab to check the location of the store. Whilst in that location, make sure that is isn't set to automatically 'Clean Up' as this is a known problem in pre-OE6. A manual Clean Up may sort out the problem by compressing the lost space where files have been deleted and tidy up the store.



Regards: tf1

 

[Shinken]

tf1 - Thanks, I'll check this when I see the client next week.

Phil