Fix and repair Outlook Express Folders and Folders.dbx file without
loosing Folder Structure.
Fix "Currently in Use" error when compacting

Instructions:

1) Find your Outlook Express Store Location: Outlook Express, Tools,
Options, Maintenance Tab, Store Folder. Write down the location or
select the text using your mouse and right click and select copy. Now
Click Cancel. Close Outlook Express completely.

2) Browse to the store folder location from step 1 (the fastest way
is to open any folder and paste the location into the address bar).

3) Rename the Store Folder by adding a .bak to the end. For example:

Outlook Express
to
Outlook Expires.bak

Note: Although not necessary, you may wish to make a safety copy of
the Outlook Express Store Folder before starting step 3 above (for
example, make a copy and call it "Outlook Express Safe Backup".

4). Create a new empty folder in the same location with the exact
same name as the original (without the .bak obviously), e.g.: Outlook
Express

5) Start Outlook Express and select: File, Import, Messages, [Your
Version of Outlook Express], Import Mail from OE6 Store Directory,
Browse to the Folder you renamed (the one with the .bak, in our
example: Outlook Express.bak).

Note: Be sure to select "Import Mail from OE6 Store Directory" and
NOT "import mail from an OE6 Identity".

6) Complete the Import Wizard and the import will begin.

This will import all your outlook email and freshly rebuild all your
folders including the file Folders.dbx. Your folder structure will
also be imported.

Note: If something goes wrong or the import results are not as
expected, you can reverse the process easily. Close Outlook Express,
Delete the Folder "Outlook Express" and remove the .bak from the other
folder.


Keywords: currently in use outlook express Folders file folders.dbx

First of all, its probably not necessary to generate a new message store
just because of folders.dbx being in use. If you go to File | Work offline
after rebooting and just starting OE, then one can usually fix the issue.

But its a lot easier just to go to File | Identities and setup a new
Identity which will give you a clean message store and a new registry hive
and then the user can go to File | Import | Messages and import from the
older Identity. This is a proven method for resolving many issues.

steve

"MARC" wrote in message
...
Fix and repair Outlook Express Folders and Folders.dbx file without
loosing Folder Structure.
Fix "Currently in Use" error when compacting

Instructions:

1) Find your Outlook Express Store Location: Outlook Express, Tools,
Options, Maintenance Tab, Store Folder. Write down the location or
select the text using your mouse and right click and select copy. Now
Click Cancel. Close Outlook Express completely.

2) Browse to the store folder location from step 1 (the fastest way
is to open any folder and paste the location into the address bar).

3) Rename the Store Folder by adding a .bak to the end. For example:

Outlook Express
to
Outlook Expires.bak

Note: Although not necessary, you may wish to make a safety copy of
the Outlook Express Store Folder before starting step 3 above (for
example, make a copy and call it "Outlook Express Safe Backup".

4). Create a new empty folder in the same location with the exact
same name as the original (without the .bak obviously), e.g.: Outlook
Express

5) Start Outlook Express and select: File, Import, Messages, [Your
Version of Outlook Express], Import Mail from OE6 Store Directory,
Browse to the Folder you renamed (the one with the .bak, in our
example: Outlook Express.bak).

Note: Be sure to select "Import Mail from OE6 Store Directory" and
NOT "import mail from an OE6 Identity".

6) Complete the Import Wizard and the import will begin.

This will import all your outlook email and freshly rebuild all your
folders including the file Folders.dbx. Your folder structure will
also be imported.

Note: If something goes wrong or the import results are not as
expected, you can reverse the process easily. Close Outlook Express,
Delete the Folder "Outlook Express" and remove the .bak from the other
folder.


Keywords: currently in use outlook express Folders file folders.dbx

Tried offline and compacting the folders file still failed. Thanks
for the tip about generating a new identity and importing, which is
easier if you don't mind a new identity. I believe you wouild also
need import you mail account settings (logins) and address book as
well if you create a new identity.

In
,
John Agro wrote:
Tried offline and compacting the folders file still failed. Thanks
for the tip about generating a new identity and importing, which is
easier if you don't mind a new identity. I believe you wouild also
need import you mail account settings (logins) and address book as
well if you create a new identity.

I rarely ever compact my OE folders. As I run a registry file to reset
the count to 1, so I never see the message to compact. But yesterday I
went to do so just to do it. I probably haven't done it in a couple of
years.

You guessed it, stops at folders.dbx in use. I read everybodies comments
to repairing this problem. And I found a solution that worked much
better.

First of all, compacting is already done when it gets here. So I have
found just ignoring the error and I don't see anything wrong.

If you don't like ignoring, well you have to this time. But go offline
FILE - WORK OFFLINE (you should be offline anyway before you start).
Now close OE. Now open it again (it still should be offline). And now
try compacting and it shouldn't have any trouble with folders.dbx in use
error.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2
Centrino Core Duo 1.83G - 2GB - Windows XP SP3

On Friday, November 12, 2010 at 4:08:45 PM UTC+1, John Agro wrote:
Tried offline and compacting the folders file still failed. Thanks
for the tip about generating a new identity and importing, which is
easier if you don't mind a new identity. I believe you wouild also
need import you mail account settings (logins) and address book as
well if you create a new identity.

a free tool for dbx recovery is undbx (GPL), mentioned at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outloo...External_links, else as online form check http://outlookexpress-thunderbird-dbx.7xl.org

trying to post, doesn't seem to work? ...