Occasionally, I too, am unable to delete inbox messages in my Outlook Express system loaded on 98SE.
I traced this problem to DDHELP.exe
After starting Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer one can see that DDHELP.exe is loaded into memory.
One can see this using Process Explorer .... a free download.
If you terminate this lame "Direct X Helper" program you can continue to delete files in your Inbox.
At least on my system this is the case. I reloaded Internet Explorer and Outlook Express .... nothing changed ..... still have the same bloody problem. Oh I even uninstalled all traces of Direct X and nothing changed.
For a couple of weeks now I have not been able to delete my read emails. I have tried the Tools/Options/Maintenance/Clean Up Now/Compact and nothing happens.
There are so many emails in there now, I really would like to get rid of them and get back to where I can delete an email after i read it.
Thanks for any help.
A friend has this same problem, being unable to delete a message from OE's inbox, but he has Win2K, is the procedure the same as described above? Thanks
I am running XP with outlook express and this has done the trick for me.
Create a new folder under your name or under the 'in' box. Give it
a name such as AAA-to be deleted'.
Now drag the e-mails that won't normally delete into this folder.
They should move OK into this folder.
After you get all that you want you can 'not' delete this folder
or wait a week and see if you encounter any more 'non deletable'
e-mails.
After a period of time just delte that folder. It will go into the
Windows deleted folder. At that time you can select it and
delete it again. You will get the message from Windows that it will
be permintly deleted. Say 'yes' and it is gone.
I don't know why some e-mails get corrputed so they cant be deleted.
Maybe a glitch in the space-time contineum.
Trying to fix my mom's computer. She has 2 e-mails in her Outlook Express that will not delete that are from me in November. One has 3 mpegs & the other has a jpg. For the one with 3 mpegs I get the error message "The selected message(s) could not be moved. There is not enough memory." For the 2nd I do not get an error message or anything. I've tried to delete them using the delete key, dragging them to the delete box, dragging them to the recycle bin...she has nothing in any of her folders in Outlook Express & it is set to delete everything in the delete bin upon closing of OE. Someone suggested to use MoveOnBoot, but I can't get the e-mails to drag to it (not sure how to get to them any other way). They would not delete in safe mode either. At a loss here....Thanks once again for all of your help. Aimee
So I took all of your advice and did this but the issue still exists. Outlook express won't allow me to delete from any folder....I have been creating extra folders and then just deleting the folder and that works but it's very slow. any help you could give would be appreciated.
After trying numerous suggested fixes, I was still unable to delete any messages from any of my Outlook express folders. Then I found this post. My DI file was 2+ Gigs. I found the OE file and then changed the name of Deleted Items. Reopening OE, a new empty Deleted Items file appeared and I could delete with no problems. Thanks James!!!
I had this same problem with not being able to delete emails in Outlook Express and this thread helped me out, but I wanted to add something:
I searched for inbox.dbx and found the user's Outlook Express folder. The Inbox was a whopping 620 MB, but the Deleted Items and Sent Items folders were each 2 GB! I deleted those and left the Inbox and was able to resume normal Outlook Express use. I think there is a 2 gigabyte limit for ANY folder in MSIE by default.
I've got the same problem, not being able to delete from many OE folders. Many comments hinge on the DELETED ITEMS folder and that is one that lets me delete. None of my folders approach the 2Gb limit indicated in many comments..... Any other ideas?
So, looks like I solved my own problem: Put 2&2 together from various posts and concluded the problem is indeed in the DELETED ITEMS folder. For me, Shift-Del (delete without going to Deleted Items folder) worked every time. Apparently, the problem we are seeing is not being able to delete, but not being able to delete and append to the DELETED ITEMS folder. If this folder is corrupt, or apparently overfull (>2Gb) the delete attempt will fail. I could not delete the DELETED ITEMS.DBX file at first; WinXP claimed the file was in use by some ?? application. I had to reboot to clear any links to OE, then I could delete the DELETED ITEMS.DBX file. After that, a new one was created and all was OK. I hope this helps someone else. The previous posts sure helped me.
Trying to fix my mom's computer. She has 2 e-mails in her Outlook Express that will not delete that are from me in November. One has 3 mpegs & the other has a jpg. For the one with 3 mpegs I get the error message "The selected message(s) could not be moved. There is not enough memory." For the 2nd I do not get an error message or anything. I've tried to delete them using the delete key, dragging them to the delete box, dragging them to the recycle bin...she has nothing in any of her folders in Outlook Express & it is set to delete everything in the delete bin upon closing of OE. Someone suggested to use MoveOnBoot, but I can't get the e-mails to drag to it (not sure how to get to them any other way). They would not delete in safe mode either. At a loss here....Thanks once again for all of your help. Aimee
I found this site while looking for a fix for the same problem. On advise received I emptied all my OE folders to no avail - problem persisted. I sought assistance from Microsoft Support and received the following suggestion:
Create a new identity by:
In OE, click on File>Identity>Add New Identity
Type a name for this new identity, without password and continue to configure your mail account
File>Identity>Manage Identity
Now select the new identity and try.
This worked for me, now all I have to do is find out how to import my Address book to my new account.
OK, make sure Outlook Express is closed, then here is where to look:
C:\Documents and Settings\OWNER\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{7E4BA9BD-7C61-49C9-A77A-C5C21545F0CA}\Microsoft\Outlook Express
That bolded section will be different for you. Basically once she gets to the folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\OWNER\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities
there should only be one subdirectory that is named with a string of characters like that one above. Go into it, then into the subfolders:
Microsoft\Outlook Express
In there you will see several files with ".dbx" as the extension type. You will need to delete the INBOX.dbx. (Your OS may be set to hide the 3 letter extensions, so it may just say INBOX.")
If you do not see these files, check to make sure that you have the option to show hidden files and folders turned on. Read this post to learn how to do that if you do not know how to do that:
So, once you identify the Inbox.dbx file, delete it. Then the next time you start Outlook Express, it will create a new inbox file for you.
***NOTE: make sure you have saved any other e-mail in the inbox that you wish to keep before doing this. Make a new folder in Outlook Express (call it "Saved Messages" or something like that) and move the messages you want to keep into there.)
This should solve your problem.
Also, it would be a good idea to clean out all your temporary files. Open My Computer, right click on your C drive, select Properties, and click Disk Cleanup. This will open the Disk Cleanup Manager. It will take a few moments to scan your hard drive, then present you with a window and several cleaning options. Make sure to chose the options to clean Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Internet Files, Recycle Bin, and Temporary Files.
Let me know how that goes.
Dexter...
This didn't work. I can't delete a message either by highlighting and clicking on the red X or by selecting Delete from the right click window. I can move the message by selecting "move to folder.." and selecting deleted items, but it is awkard.
There are two reasons I know of to prevent deleting a message. The DELETE file is full (2Gb max) or corrupt. When you try to delete in OE, the deleted message is appended to DELETED.DBX; this is a D-Base style file that is a data base structure and contains many deleted messages. This file has a max size of 2Gb and a delete will fail if the file is max-ed out. If this file is corrupt, same result, can't append another message and the delete will fail. Assuming there is nothing there you care about, just search, find, and delete DELETED.DBX..... problem solved. A new one will be created next time you delete a message.
OK, make sure Outlook Express is closed, then here is where to look:
C:\Documents and Settings\OWNER\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{7E4BA9BD-7C61-49C9-A77A-C5C21545F0CA}\Microsoft\Outlook Express
That bolded section will be different for you. Basically once she gets to the folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\OWNER\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities
there should only be one subdirectory that is named with a string of characters like that one above. Go into it, then into the subfolders:
Microsoft\Outlook Express
In there you will see several files with ".dbx" as the extension type. You will need to delete the INBOX.dbx. (Your OS may be set to hide the 3 letter extensions, so it may just say INBOX.")
If you do not see these files, check to make sure that you have the option to show hidden files and folders turned on. Read this post to learn how to do that if you do not know how to do that:
So, once you identify the Inbox.dbx file, delete it. Then the next time you start Outlook Express, it will create a new inbox file for you.
***NOTE: make sure you have saved any other e-mail in the inbox that you wish to keep before doing this. Make a new folder in Outlook Express (call it "Saved Messages" or something like that) and move the messages you want to keep into there.)
This should solve your problem.
Also, it would be a good idea to clean out all your temporary files. Open My Computer, right click on your C drive, select Properties, and click Disk Cleanup. This will open the Disk Cleanup Manager. It will take a few moments to scan your hard drive, then present you with a window and several cleaning options. Make sure to chose the options to clean Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Internet Files, Recycle Bin, and Temporary Files.
Ok, your postings have been very educational, but either I am doing something wrong, I am stupid, or there is a nuance that I have not read about here yet.
I am working on my boss's computer. Windows XP (Pro I think), with Outlook Express. He has tons of e-mails, in fact I cleaned out the deleted items folder thinking it might be full before I found this website. (There were several thousand in there, and he told me that he recently received a message telling him that he could not delete any more messages until he deleted some from the deleted folder)
I have tried to locate the folders as indicated, but after Documents and settings\OWNER\ ..there is no "local settings" folder. I looked through all of the folders that were there, but did not find anything resembling either Local Settings or Application Data. I also went back and tried this under the Documents and settings\All Users folder...same thing.
Next, I checked my files to make sure that there were no hidden files, and I did a search for "inbox.dbx" ...still nothing.
Can someone help?? I am not sure what to do next. How can there be no inbox.dbx folder?
I can probably select the individual e-mails to be deleted and send them to another file to delete, but that is not a cure for the problem.....and there are MANY to get rid of now. My boss surely will not have the patience for this either.
I will do some general maintenance and a disk cleanup while I patiently wait for a response.
OK, make sure Outlook Express is closed, then here is where to look:
C:\Documents and Settings\OWNER\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{7E4BA9BD-7C61-49C9-A77A-C5C21545F0CA}\Microsoft\Outlook Express
That bolded section will be different for you. Basically once she gets to the folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\OWNER\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities
there should only be one subdirectory that is named with a string of characters like that one above. Go into it, then into the subfolders:
Microsoft\Outlook Express
In there you will see several files with ".dbx" as the extension type. You will need to delete the INBOX.dbx. (Your OS may be set to hide the 3 letter extensions, so it may just say INBOX.")
If you do not see these files, check to make sure that you have the option to show hidden files and folders turned on. Read this post to learn how to do that if you do not know how to do that:
So, once you identify the Inbox.dbx file, delete it. Then the next time you start Outlook Express, it will create a new inbox file for you.
***NOTE: make sure you have saved any other e-mail in the inbox that you wish to keep before doing this. Make a new folder in Outlook Express (call it "Saved Messages" or something like that) and move the messages you want to keep into there.)
This should solve your problem.
Also, it would be a good idea to clean out all your temporary files. Open My Computer, right click on your C drive, select Properties, and click Disk Cleanup. This will open the Disk Cleanup Manager. It will take a few moments to scan your hard drive, then present you with a window and several cleaning options. Make sure to chose the options to clean Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Internet Files, Recycle Bin, and Temporary Files.
I have been having the same problem of not being able to delete anything to my delete folder. I have read both pages and printed out the instructions from the 6th post I believe?
1st off I have nothing in my delete folder now.
While following the instructions (I have Windows XP) I go to Documents and settings- owner/local settings-application then there is nothing that says "Identities".
So that's where I am stuck. Didn't get too far.
My other question is should I just delete the inbox or the delete folder that i am having the trouble with?
Shortly after this happened I figured out to create another folder that I just move the items I want to delete to. Then I delete that folder and make another one.
Problem solved. Thanks for the great instructions. I followed the instructions but just deleted the delete folder. By mistake I deleted another delete folder with a different file extension. Opened Outlook and same problem. Went back and the folder I deleted was there once again. Then I deleted the correct folder and it worked. Did tons for my confidence. Maybe I got lucky when I deleted the wrong folder or it's that user friendly.
With my new found confidence I just went in and deleted my sent folder the same way. 2,800 messages 1.2 gb of space. I used to manually delete these. Thanks again.
I did all of that several times and sstill cant delete messages.
I had the same problem with two files - could not delete them. I created a TRASH folder and was able to move the two messages into it. Then I deleted the folder.
OK Braniacs, I TRIED to follow the instructions above. All dbxs got deleted somehow, and now I have TWO Identities folders with unique numbers, but they are both EMPTY!
Meanwhile I can receive email in OE, but can't delete ANYTHING.
So, looks like I solved my own problem: Put 2&2 together from various posts and concluded the problem is indeed in the DELETED ITEMS folder. For me, Shift-Del (delete without going to Deleted Items folder) worked every time. Apparently, the problem we are seeing is not being able to delete, but not being able to delete and append to the DELETED ITEMS folder. If this folder is corrupt, or apparently overfull (>2Gb) the delete attempt will fail. I could not delete the DELETED ITEMS.DBX file at first; WinXP claimed the file was in use by some ?? application. I had to reboot to clear any links to OE, then I could delete the DELETED ITEMS.DBX file. After that, a new one was created and all was OK. I hope this helps someone else. The previous posts sure helped me.
I had the same problem, the Deleted Items folder was bigger than 2GB. After I deleted the Deleted Items.dbx and OE created a new one on first logon. From now on I can delete any message from any box. Tks EupherJoe!!!
Comments
I traced this problem to DDHELP.exe
After starting Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer one can see that DDHELP.exe is loaded into memory.
One can see this using Process Explorer .... a free download.
If you terminate this lame "Direct X Helper" program you can continue to delete files in your Inbox.
At least on my system this is the case. I reloaded Internet Explorer and Outlook Express .... nothing changed ..... still have the same bloody problem. Oh I even uninstalled all traces of Direct X and nothing changed.
Microsoft .....WAKE UP !!!!!
Hunter
There are so many emails in there now, I really would like to get rid of them and get back to where I can delete an email after i read it.
Thanks for any help.
Wilda
Create a new folder under your name or under the 'in' box. Give it
a name such as AAA-to be deleted'.
Now drag the e-mails that won't normally delete into this folder.
They should move OK into this folder.
After you get all that you want you can 'not' delete this folder
or wait a week and see if you encounter any more 'non deletable'
e-mails.
After a period of time just delte that folder. It will go into the
Windows deleted folder. At that time you can select it and
delete it again. You will get the message from Windows that it will
be permintly deleted. Say 'yes' and it is gone.
I don't know why some e-mails get corrputed so they cant be deleted.
Maybe a glitch in the space-time contineum.
Hope this works.
The original post was back in 2004, so I am pretty sure things have been solved, but thanks for adding some good info to the thread.
Pull up a chair in the pub, we left the light on.
I have done the compact and I have run a defrag on the hard drive, but nothing changed. any help you could provide would be much appreciated.
Welcome to Icrontic!
Create a new identity by:
In OE, click on File>Identity>Add New Identity
Type a name for this new identity, without password and continue to configure your mail account
File>Identity>Manage Identity
Now select the new identity and try.
This worked for me, now all I have to do is find out how to import my Address book to my new account.
Bob
I am working on my boss's computer. Windows XP (Pro I think), with Outlook Express. He has tons of e-mails, in fact I cleaned out the deleted items folder thinking it might be full before I found this website. (There were several thousand in there, and he told me that he recently received a message telling him that he could not delete any more messages until he deleted some from the deleted folder)
I have tried to locate the folders as indicated, but after Documents and settings\OWNER\ ..there is no "local settings" folder. I looked through all of the folders that were there, but did not find anything resembling either Local Settings or Application Data. I also went back and tried this under the Documents and settings\All Users folder...same thing.
Next, I checked my files to make sure that there were no hidden files, and I did a search for "inbox.dbx" ...still nothing.
Can someone help?? I am not sure what to do next. How can there be no inbox.dbx folder?
I can probably select the individual e-mails to be deleted and send them to another file to delete, but that is not a cure for the problem.....and there are MANY to get rid of now. My boss surely will not have the patience for this either.
I will do some general maintenance and a disk cleanup while I patiently wait for a response.
Thank you in advance!!
Brad
1st off I have nothing in my delete folder now.
While following the instructions (I have Windows XP) I go to Documents and settings- owner/local settings-application then there is nothing that says "Identities".
So that's where I am stuck. Didn't get too far.
My other question is should I just delete the inbox or the delete folder that i am having the trouble with?
Shortly after this happened I figured out to create another folder that I just move the items I want to delete to. Then I delete that folder and make another one.
Your hyelp would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Downhill Mike
With my new found confidence I just went in and deleted my sent folder the same way. 2,800 messages 1.2 gb of space. I used to manually delete these. Thanks again.
I had the same problem with two files - could not delete them. I created a TRASH folder and was able to move the two messages into it. Then I deleted the folder.
Meanwhile I can receive email in OE, but can't delete ANYTHING.
Any suggestions other than wrist slitting??
CWM
I had the same problem, the Deleted Items folder was bigger than 2GB. After I deleted the Deleted Items.dbx and OE created a new one on first logon. From now on I can delete any message from any box. Tks EupherJoe!!!