outlook express sending multiple copies of emails 1

[hswihart10]

A user on our network is using Outlook Express. When she sends an email the person she sends to gets tons of copies. I had her send a test message to me and I just keep getting them every time I check my email. I have no idea what to do to fix this. I would try uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook Express but I cannot even see that in Add/Remove Programs. And if I could do it I don't know how to save the emails out of it then reimport them. If anybody knows how to do that or has any other ideas please let me know. Thank you in advance for any help that you can give to me.

Heather

 

[smah]

A repair of IE will normally repair OE as well. Depending on version & OS, you can usually repair IE from Add & Remove Programs. I'd start with that. My guess is that the problem is probably because OE never gets confirmation from the mail server stating that the mail server received the message OK. Because OE never gets this confirmation, it sends the message again. Here are a couple of other things that you might want to look at to narrow down the problem - are the messages still in the the user's outbox? Temporarily disable antivirus & firewall software to test if that might be related.

 

[hswihart10]

They stay in the user's outbox. How do you repair Internet Explorer?

Heather

 

[smah]

That depends on what version of IE & OS are being used. If IE is listed in Add & Remove programs, there should be a repair button after choosing to uninstall.

 

[hswihart10]

I just uninstalled IE on mine and it didn't ask to repair. Do you think uninstalling and reinstalling IE will help?

Heather

 

[smah]

It might, OE is packaged with IE. I'm quite surprised that the repair or reinstall option wasn't available - as far as I remember, repair was avaliable since version 5. What version were you using? Did disabling the antivirus or firewall softare help? One other thing to try with OE closed, is to delete the outbox.dbx file. The problem could be caused by a damaged outbox file. When OE is opened again, a new one will be created.

 

[hswihart10]

Our administrator happened to be there when I was troubleshooting this and said he thinks the email server is acting up and just reboot and I did and it fixed it. I should have just tried that first. Thank you very much for your help!

Heather

 

[smah]

This server problem only happened with 1 user?

 

[hswihart10]

several users. The admin actually meant reboot the server but I rebooted the PC (misheard him) and that fixed it. I tested it. I will reboot the server after 5 for good measure. The server is having problems according to our admin. I am about to bring a new email server online so hopefully that will be better. Thanks for your help!

Heather

 

[hswihart10]

Okay the reboot of the PC didn't work after all. I will reboot the server after 5 and see if that works.

Heather

 

[wolfdragon]

I have the solution for you. If you do not want to lose your email messages, import them into Microsoft Outlook or another email client. Open "My Computer", go to your Documents and Settings folder, be sure that you can view hidden files, select your user profile, Local Settings, Application Data, Identities. You will see a folder with a series of alphanumeric characters, once you delete it all email will be lost if you have not transfered it to another email client. Delete this folder. Close the window. Open Outlook Express and recreate your email account, then import your messages back in and you are done. Problem solved.