Can't delete email in MS Outlook 07

Yesterday I had an email that I couldn't delete from my inbox. I got an error message that said I needed to run the Inbox Repair. I did that, but got an error message through THAT, saying it wasn't able to complete due to an error.

I have been working for 6 hours today trying all kinds of things. NOTHING works. I DID manage to delete that one particular email by holding SHIFT and delete, but I am also not able to delete email from my Delete folder. I can delete some but not others. ???

I have done a System Restore, and that didn't help either. I'm almost bald now from pulling my hair out!!!:cry

 

Use your Office 2007 installation disk to carry out a repair install. Hopefully that should fix these problems.

 

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Greetings, Morning Glory...

Couple of things you might try in lieu of a re-install:

You may need to try disabling the preview pane by selecting the menu choice View, layout and then unchecking Preview Pane. Sometimes the preview of an email message can cause Outlook to lock up and prevent you from deleting certain messages. This is especially true of some of the advertising junk emails...

Be sure you keep all your patches up to date and be especially alert to keeping your antivirus program up to date. There is a possibility that the problem is a result of the message triggering your email virus scanner and causing it to block access to the message. If you suspect this is the case and you are sure the message is safe you can briefly turn off your antivirus software...

If the above list of suggestions don't solve the problem then I would suggest rebuilding your Inbox. To rebuild the Inbox file just close Outlook and search for Inbox.dbx and delete it. When you restart your email program it will automatically be recreated...

Before you do that you will want to create a new folder in Outlook and then move all of the message you want to keep into the new folder, leaving behind the ones you can't delete. When you're finished you can then move your email messages back into the Inbox folder if you're so inclined...

Good luck!

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I tried that. It didn't change anything.

 

Thanks!

 

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My preference would be to combine everything into one folder for now - you're doing all of this as a kind of troubleshooting procedure, so why not keep things simple until the problem is sorted out?

As far as folder size, locate the Inbox.dbx folder (should be in 'Program Files', 'Outlook'), right-click it to bring down the context menu, and click 'Properties'...you may have to un-hide hidden files/folders in WinExplorer in order to see the .dbx...

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Thank you for your assistance, Earthling and Caliban. I FINALLY got past the problem last night about 1 a.m. after 15 hours of messing with the stupid thing!

I realized I could make a new "personal folder" in Outlook by using Data File Management in the drop down list under File. I set that new personal folder as my default then went back to Outlook and copied or moved all of my folders down to the new Personal folder. Then I went back under Data File Management and deleted the old personal folder that contained the corrupt delete folder/file.

I had tried earlier in the day to delete the dbx file for the delete folder, but the problem remained.

It's working like a charm now. Praise the Lord!! :clap

Oh, and I discovered I can check the size of each folder by going under Tools, Mailbox Cleanup,and clicking on "view mailbox size." It tells how much there is total and gives a breakdown of the size of each folder.

Thank you again for your willingness to help!

 

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Good job, Morning Glory - glad you got it worked out...

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Well I'm pleased you have sorted it but I'm totally confused, as Outlook 2007 does not use dbx files. Those dbx files belong to Outlook Express, and are nothing to do with Outlook :confused

 

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Yikes! We were talking about Outlook? You're right, Earthling - I'll hush, and go give my glasses a thorough cleaning...

Missed it by that much...

¦ )

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Well, that's strange. When I did a search of my files and folders yesterday (while still grasping at all straws!), I found a delete.dbx file and deleted it. Wonder what that was for??

 

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Probably from the default Outlook Express that comes pre-packaged with Windows...

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