Next door neighbour has 'lost' a mammoth pile of emails from his 'In' and 'Out' boxes in Outlook Express 6. He thinks he may have accidentally pressed the 'auto-archive' (or whatever it's called). This apparently is the 2nd time it has happened to him in recent months.

I've done a search (including hidden folders) for him and unearthed a couple of .dbx thingies. Do these contain what is 'missing'?

Anyone care to give 2 novices in these matters a line by line course of action to get the missing emails back to their original location? He's using Windows XP if that makes any difference.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Not an expert by any manner or means ,but in the properties there's a box to ( think it says "delete on line copy etc) when outlook copy deleted .( In live mail ,it's properties /advanced )-is it ticked ? That would stop the In box problems, but where these are archived ??????

I use live mail these days ,so sort of forgotten outlook things . If I use xp in next few days ,I'll have a look for location .

Have you looked on the account outlook is getting mail from ?

Edited 13 July, 201015 yr by VWD

Not an expert by any manner or means ,but in the properties there's a box to ( think it says "delete on line copy etc) when outlook copy deleted .( In live mail ,it's properties /advanced )-is it ticked ? That would stop the In box problems, but where these are archived ??????

I use live mail these days ,so sort of forgotten outlook things . If I use xp in next few days ,I'll have a look for location .

Have you looked on the account outlook is getting mail from ?

Outlook express is not Outlook...

I haven't used Outlook Express for years so wouldn't know where to start on looking for the lost emails, but if they've been deleted and the deleted items emptied they'll be gone forever unless you have a backup somewhere... Don't know about archiving on Outlook Express, but in Outlook they'll be in a file with the extension pst

Outlook express is not Outlook...

I haven't used Outlook Express for years so wouldn't know where to start on looking for the lost emails, but if they've been deleted and the deleted items emptied they'll be gone forever unless you have a backup somewhere... Don't know about archiving on Outlook Express, but in Outlook they'll be in a file with the extension pst

Yes, it's def Outlook Express (mine is Outlook). I've tried Googling for a solution but it's amazing how many peeps mix the 2 up!

Have you looked on the account outlook is getting mail from ?

Yes, I've checked his webmail and got everything from mid-May onwards. It's all the stuff before that he would like back if poss (none of it is ultra important though!)

Outlook express is not Outlook...

. Don't know about archiving on Outlook Express, but in Outlook they'll be in a file with the extension pst

:o

Know there's Outlook and Express . But as OU WAS MENTIONED ,THOUGHT MOST WOULD KNOW I WAS REFERRING TO THAT (.reminder to self , to dot "i " and cross "t").

but as said -perhaps the files still exist on line - if not ,having been deleted by OU -good place to start to prevent FUTURE loss might be OUTLOOK EXPRESS properties .

As I remember OU also uses the extension .pst - so perhaps a search on windows explorer for files *.pst ( in the absence of IT blokes willing to help) might turn something up .

Edited 13 July, 201015 yr by VWD

Every mailbox e.g inbox has its own .dbx file. I can't remember an archive feature in outlook express. Another option you could try would be to download and install Mailstore Home. That program backups emails to a seperate folder. Whats missing may be found in there but i doubt it. It would help from this point on however for future email backup needs.

Edited 13 July, 201015 yr by Guest

Every mailbox e.g inbox has its own .dbx file. I can't remember an archive feature in outlook express. Another option you could try would be to download and install Mailstore Home. That program backups emails to a seperate folder. Whats missing may be found in there but i doubt it. It would help from this point on however for future email backup needs.

Oh -there definitely was an archive( used to pop up regularly on Outlook express asking if you wished to compress /archive files, and it was easier to run than stop) feature on OE.I now use windows live mail and on the advanced tab , tell it not to delete files automatically . On my webmail , I set up folders to store e mails and move stuff to them to save .

Oh -there definitely was an archive( used to pop up regularly on Outlook express asking if you wished to compress /archive files, and it was easier to run than stop) feature on OE.I now use windows live mail and on the advanced tab , tell it not to delete files automatically . On my webmail , I set up folders to store e mails and move stuff to them to save .

I only ever remember the feature that when your mailboxes got full or to a set size it would automatically compress when you closed it down. Since OE, i've moved to Windows Live Mail and more recenlty to Thunderbird. Mailstore Home is a good program as it also allows you to backup to an external drive etc.

I only ever remember the feature that when your mailboxes got full or to a set size it would automatically compress when you closed it down. Since OE, i've moved to Windows Live Mail and more recenlty to Thunderbird. Mailstore Home is a good program as it also allows you to backup to an external drive etc.

Thanks all for the replies so far.

It's this dreaded 'auto-compress' function which seems to cause the hassle. What we're looking for is how to 'un-auto-compress' and get the emails back into their folders to view.

Will try Mailstore tonight if solution not found.

Thanks all for the replies so far.

It's this dreaded 'auto-compress' function which seems to cause the hassle. What we're looking for is how to 'un-auto-compress' and get the emails back into their folders to view.

Will try Mailstore tonight if solution not found.

As far as i was aware the auto compress function compressed things like message headers etc. It didnt compress or archive emails automatically. Outlook Express uses Identities as a way of different users having different mailboxes. Is it possible that there is more than one identity?

In Outlook Express if you click on Tools, Option then Maintenance. You will then see a tab mid way down the screen called "Store Folder". Clicking this will give you the location of the .dbx folders for the current identity. You will have to show hidden files and folders to be able to navigate to this location. You will not be able to read any emails from that location however as they are all saved in the .dbx file. You could however import the .dbx file into Outlook Express.

Heard about Google? My first hit:

http://forums.techguy.org/2684236-post4.html

A bit old, but the principle should hold. When (if) .dbx files are found there are various extracting tools: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/extract_dbx_file_info/

Then convince your neighbour to ditch OE and install another mail client, e.g. Thunderbird

Heard about Google? My first hit:

http://forums.techguy.org/2684236-post4.html

A bit old, but the principle should hold. When (if) .dbx files are found there are various extracting tools: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/extract_dbx_file_info/

Then convince your neighbour to ditch OE and install another mail client, e.g. Thunderbird

I'm sure the OP has heard about Google but maybe he was just looking for someone with first hand experience of the problem. After all a lot of people post on forums before doing a search on Google, or any other search engine for that matter. I'm sure that a lot of content that people post about could be found on Google first but people like the friendlyness of participating in forums.

However, they look good links that you have provided.

You could however import the .dbx file into Outlook Express.

Good man! As stated in my original post, I've already found a number .dbx folders using the method you describe.

The stumbling block at the moment is how to import these.dbx files into Outlook Express. I've tried several methods suggested on various Google pages over the past week (thanks Swedishskoda, I did look! ) but none seem to work.

Sooooooooooooo............if you (or anyone) can give a step by step guide to the latter part then that would be brilliant

Heard about Google? My first hit:

http://forums.techgu...4236-post4.html

A bit old, but the principle should hold. When (if) .dbx files are found there are various extracting tools: http://www.freedownl..._dbx_file_info/

Then convince your neighbour to ditch OE and install another mail client, e.g. Thunderbird

Thanks for the links. Some no longer exist and others have doubled/trebled in price when you go to the web page! No matter, I will continue to have a look through them.

The neighbour is 82 and rather set in his ways!!! His pc is only a little younger!!!! I've persuaded him to update both machine and system but moving to anything that doesn't have 'Windows' in the name might be a step too far

Edited 14 July, 201015 yr by westerdam2

Good man! As stated in my original post, I've already found a number .dbx folders using the method you describe.

The stumbling block at the moment is how to import these.dbx files into Outlook Express. I've tried several methods suggested on various Google pages over the past week (thanks Swedishskoda, I did look! ) but none seem to work.

Sooooooooooooo............if you (or anyone) can give a step by step guide to the latter part then that would be brilliant

I had noticed you had found .dbx thingys in your original post. As we can't see the computer your tyring to retrieve the emails from though i thought it would be better to detail it.

As far as i know to import the dbx files back into OE you should click File, Import then Messages. Then select the email program you are importing from, probably OE6, then select import mail from an OE6 store directory and browse to the location of the dbx files. If i was you i would look at Mailstore Home and carry out a backup before doing any importing. Its safe guarding the emails that are there at present. I'm in no way affiliated with Mailstore home. I mention it because it has helped me out in the past.

Just tell him the full title is "Thunderbird for Windows"

http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=opera&rls=en-GB&q=outlook+express6+archive&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Just tell him the full title is "Thunderbird for Windows"

Hahahahha - that's brightened my day But you must stop making me laugh as I plough through all these ideas!

...others have doubled/trebled in price when you go to the web page!

There's at least two freeware extracting tools on the first page of the freedownloads site. Also, for a one-off job one can often get a test version free for 30 days. Good luck.

If your neighbour's 82 maybe switching to another client is a bad idea. I fear for the moment when my uni will roll out Office2010 later this year - we're still running Office2003 and when I occasionally have to do something in Office2007 I don't know where to find anything at all :( tricks dogs old

It is possible to copy the dbx files manually into the store folder. Just find the files and copy and paste them into the store folder.

Make sure you have set the disk to show hidden files other wise you'll be looking for the store folder forever

Store folder will be something like this C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{E0A7C5CE-4E38-439D-8F39-0AFF64EE5410}\Microsoft\Outlook Express, by default unless its been moved

But the dbx files you have found already are probably in there already tbh. In which case it's to do with the auto archive which iirc creates another folder in the list on the right of the OE window.

I think they are gone to be honest though !!!

Sorry if I covered anything already said, I'm in work and should really be working lol

HTH

Thanks all for the many replies. Much appreciated.

I downloaded Mailbox but no joy there. Also downloaded 3 programmes (thanks Swedishskoda) from the web but all they found were empty folders.

The niggle is that if I do a *dbx search (including hidden folders) there's a 'Sent' mail folder of 750kb. Nothing will move or open it!! I'm guessing it is corrupt.

I fear the missing mail will remain missing and will break the news gently. And point out things called 'back-up' and newer programmes are the way forward!

Thanks all for the many replies. Much appreciated.

I fear the missing mail will remain missing and will break the news gently. And point out things called 'back-up' and newer programmes are the way forward!

One option I use ( on webmail ,like yahoo ) is to make folders and save important stuff to them .( After making sure that the box in advanced ( in properties ) saying delete online content when deleted is not ticked .