Can't Delete Email in Outlook Express
"I received an email recently, with no attachment, and when I tried to open it, my computer froze. Even a ctrl-alt-del wouldn't help. Every time I try to open, or just click on and delete this message my computer freezes. I didn't think it was possible for an email to cause this kind of problem, if there was no attachment. I'm using Outlook Express, and running Windows XP Professional Version, Service Pack 2. I just want to delete this message from my inbox -- I have no idea what is in it and I don't care at this point!"

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Stranger things have been known to happen to folks using Outlook Express, but I'm sure that's little comfort to you now. Here are some things you can try to remove the offending item from your inbox.
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Posted by Bob Rankin on July 7, 2005 01:56 PM
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Article information: AskBobRankin -- Can't Delete Email in Outlook Express (Posted: July 7, 2005 01:56 PM)
Printed from: http://askbobrankin.com/cant_delete_email_in_outlook_express.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved





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Most recent comments on "Can't Delete Email in Outlook Express"
(See all 75 comments for this article.)Posted by:
curt line
19 Dec 2008
i can not delete emails without opening it up and then delete.
Posted by:
Alex
09 Jan 2009
This operation can do with help-dbx convert,tool helped me not once,as far as i know software is free,it good solution against email failures regardless of the reasons of email corruption,program features easy system requirements, it can work on all PC’s, CPU performance may be very low, it influences the speed of email recovery only,utility works under Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, Windows Me and even Windows 98, the last one is not supported any more.
Posted by:
John J. Wall
09 Jan 2009
THANK YOU-THANK Y0U-THANK YOU. I had a problem with deleting attachments in the e-mail section and i read your articales and low and behold there was an answer that did work, God i love this site. one again Thank you. Shift/delete and they are gone.
Posted by:
kim savvas
14 Jan 2009
I have mail in my inbox, when I try to delete it I end up with a line through it but it won't delete. Please advise. Thanks
Posted by:
zlatan24
23 Jan 2009
For work with outlook express files advise use-outlook express will not open,because tool helped me many times and as far as i know it is free,program helps to stand against email issues and it does not matter, why your mailbox has become corrupted,can read online user’s guide for this program, where all steps of email recovery process are clearly described,keeps your mailbox in several source files, such as Inbox.dbx, Outbox.dbx, Sent Items.dbx and Deleted Items.dbx, all of these files should be located in the same folder,program can save separate files with eml extension, please create a separate folder for this purpose to avoid confusion,works with Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista.
Posted by:
mutu26
12 Feb 2009
In this situation advise use-fix dbx files,yet as far as i know program is free,it recovering corrupted Outlook Express folders,extract all messages that should be recovered from the dbx repair file,save all extracted messages to the hard drive as message files in the eml format before a repairing Outlook Express,tool repairing corrupted Outlook Express folders comes down to the process of repairing the corresponding *.dbx files (dbx repair, repairing Outlook Express),recover on the hard drive, on a CD or a DVD or on a flash drive,supports files of the .dbx format for Outlook Express versions 5, 5.5 and 6,repair dbx files of Outlook Express in the batch mode,recovers information from *.dbx files up to 4GB in size.
Posted by:
David
15 Feb 2009
I don't know what html tags mean. I'm having a problem in deleteing my old email address all together.Everytime i go to send a email my old email address pops up to send it.I've tried everything to get it completely removed.I went to my old server con.and they said they completely removed it all.Well i just found out that peoplepc is automatically created in outlook express also,but i can't find out how to delete it from there,and sometimes i don't receive my email right.
Posted by:
Nancee
06 Mar 2009
When highlighting an email, then selecting to delete, it also deletes the one below it. Even though the email below wasn't highlighted.
Posted by:
Leopold
05 Jun 2009
After trying lots of other "fixes" I simply disabled the preview pane and hit Shift Delete and all was well again. THANKS SO MUCH.
Posted by:
doorbell99
25 Jul 2009
Question about: Deleting Outlook Express dbx files.
I am not computer savvy and I have a small computer hard drive (13.9 GB).
Over a year ago I had a situation where my 13.9 GB was getting used up and less than 25% of free space available. I didn't understand what was taking up the free space. I don't store music, play games, store many videos or use the pc for business.etc. I mostly use my computer to read things on the internet, communicate via e-mail, write some eBay auctions, and store jpg of family photos. Sometimes I do some photoshop activities.
So I wondered where the Free Space was going.
It seemed like it was used up by e-mail dbx files.
This is how I get my e-mail:
It first goes to my Yahoo DSL server which downloads it to my Outlook Express (rather than me having to go to Yahoo to read mail). One night while trying to figure out how to get more space by getting rid of stuff I discovered a folder called Identities in the Application Data file. I opened that and kept opening the next file and the next until I came to a bunch of DBX file folders named Inbox, Outbox, delete, sent, drafts as well as pop3 folders. These contained a huge amount of material. I figured it was all the e-mail that were sent from Yahoo to my outlook express. I couldn't actually open and read these e-mails but they were pretty large according to properties.
So I deleted the complete Identities folder and BANG! ...I recovered about half my hard drive's free space. And my computer started running much quicker.
A few minutes after I deleted Identities they reappeared in my Outlook Express boxes because Yahoo DSL re-sent them from my server. So I went to Yahoo and deleted them from Yahoo. Then re-deleted Outlook Express's folders. I was so glad to get the Free Space back and speed up my computer.
I'm wondering what would be the purpose of keeping all that old stuff on my small hard drive? Are there some settings I should correct on my computer? Do most people save everything that they receive, send and delete? I save e-mail at Yahoo for a few weeks.
But why have it in dbx files which it can't be read anyway?
Now that I've found this website and have read something about Outlook Express dbx files...I'm wondering if there is something else I should be doing instead of this to prevent using up Free Space on the disk? It's seems ridiculous to save every e-mail that comes in or goes out. Eventually most of my hard disk would be full of unreadable e--mail in dbx folders. Am I correct?
EDITOR'S NOTE: You're correct that the DBX files are the place that Outlook stores all your email. They are unreadable only in the sense that they're not plain text, so you can't open them with a text editor or word processor. Outlook (which understands the format of the DBX file) can read them just fine. The problem seems to be that you're storing your email in two places. I recommend that when you download your email, you tell Outlook to delete it from the Yahoo server right away. Then you can manage your Outlook inbox and sent folders as needed, deleting any old or unwanted items.