Can't Delete Email in Outlook Express - Comments Page 2

Yes I've had this problem a LOT lately. You can't highlight and shift-anything because to highlight you must click..do that and it's frozen.UGH! driving me crazy. I know these are "safe" emails but there's this weird glitch or whatever that causes this to happen. I'm going to try the commenter's suggestion about the .dbx files.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You can highlight with the arrow keys...

I have this same problem, but I can't highlight to shift-delete, because to highlight I must click. THen it freezes. And I can't highlight another email and then arrow to the problem one, because the villain email is the *top* email, it default highlights upon opening the email folder, then freezes. It freezes before any of the emails are displayed.(I made the big mistake of accidentally deleting the emails above it, thus putting it into "first" position.)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Try turning off the Preview Pane.

Instead of having to delete empty folders in Outlook Express to return their file sizes to their original low Kbyte state, Compacting the folders removes all (non-visible) deleted emails.

To do this simple select the folder eg. Inbox. In the Toolbar click on FILE then select FOLDER and then COMPACT. This will only remove the emails (not visible) that were previously deleted. Enjoy !

Deleting the inbox.dbx file did the job after everything else failed. Simply go to the search tool and type inbox.dbx. You will have to include the advanced option of searching hidden files and folders. Once located simply delete the file and restart OE. Total time approx. 10 seconds.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Rather drastic... that will delete ALL your mail.

I can't delete any e-mail from any folder. shift+delete works, but that's not a fix. Any suggestions?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I would delete as much as possible, then export all mail to a backup. Then delete your Outlook DBX files, and import the mail from your backup. See http://askbobrankin.com/backup_outlook_express.html

Hold down the shift key and then select delete. Worked like a champ! Thanks a bunch!

Thanks for the shift+delete tip Bob. I used "subject" to ensure the stuck item was sandwiched between other emails. I used Ctrl+A to highlight all the emails, then hit shift+delete got rid of all the emails, including the stuck one. What a relief! I think that your website is excellent - many thanks.

thanks a lot for your help. i also spent a lot of time with the problem mentioned above! The lose-preview-window-and-shift-delete worked it out for me! I greatly appreciate this hint! A lot of success to all the others

I've just had this problem with Outlook freezing every time I tried to delete an email. When I looked at the size of my Deleted Items folder by using My Computer it was 1.5GB, so I deleted it and restarted OE, then everything worked fine, although I had lost my deleted emails which I sometimes need to search. OE creates a new Deleted Items folder if there is none when it starts up.

To find out where this folder is on your computer right click on it in OE, select properties, and it will tell you. Then close OE, find the file through My Computer or using Windows Explorer and delete it. Restart OE and all should be well!

Thank yoiu! Closing the Preview Pane and shift+delete finally got rid of two messages stuck in the inbox in Outlook Express.

Thanks I'm already trying to solve this problem for 2 days.

Shift delete worked for me and after that I deleted the deleted items dbx.

I have the same problem as Barbara..an email in my outbox that i can't get rid of!! It is mucking up my sending or recieivng etc. Can anyone help?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Did you try Ctrl-Delete?

Again, thanks so much for the deletion tip. I'd been struggling for about 5 days and having no luck. You've helped me so much. Seems they've made it deliberately awkward to delete OE.

Dude, I just wanted to thank you for your post. Your advice worked. After I changed the layout, I tried the right click-delete and that didn't work. The second time, I tried the left click followed by the shift delete and hasta la vista ... I really appreciate your help. You changed a life...

Bob,
Our sincere thanks for your advice. I have just wasted 2 days trying to work out why outlook would continually hang every time we tried to open it. After some time I discovered it was a rogue email that hung the application any time I went near it.
After a couple of hours of more frustration I luckily came across your post. THANK YOU ! All is back to normal. Cheers Rich

Thanks!!! Closing the layout preview pane, shift/delete worked for me, too! (My wife was driving me nuts over this.........)

I'm having a problem with my outlook. The shift delete worked fine to get rid of the inbox emails, but when I hit the delete button on the top to delete from inbox and go to deleted box, it doesn't do anything. I can send and receive just fine. I recently cleared out my delete box (had over 11,000 in that folder). The problems started happening after that. I can't delete any of my sent items either. Any help?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Are you saying that Shift+Delete always works, but Delete does not work at all? That seems to indicate a problem with the Deleted folder. You might want to check and see if anything appears to be there, and (re)delete if so.

Yes, my Shift+delete always works. When I try to use the delete button, it will not delete anything. I checked my deleted box and had 2 in there. I deleted those and still have the same problem.

EDITOR'S NOTE: In your situation, I would close OE, go into the OE Store folder (see http://askbobrankin.com/backup_outlook_express.html) and delete the "Deleted Items.DBX" file. OE should rebuild it for you.

It worked! I followed your instructions and went to the link you provided. I went step by step and it worked perfectly. Thanks!!

Help Help I tried to send to many pictures and they are frozen in Outbox and I have tried everything. I tried delete working offline but delete will not highlight. HELP

EDITOR'S NOTE: See http://askbobrankin.com/backup_outlook_express.html for instructions on how to find your OE Store folder, then delete the Outbox file.