You're welcome. Glad it's fixed & thanks for posting back.

I use OETool which sits in the Views Bar, but if you don't need the views
bar, uncheck it. It's very easy to accidentally hit the down arrow with the
cursor and change the setting. I do it all the time.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Tom Brown" wrote in message
...
Well Bruce, you win the prize AGAIN!

Somehow my sister had check the View/Current View/Hide read of ignored
messages.

Thanks,

Tom


"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Like I said:

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move
your
mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user created
folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is feasible.

When I get mail in my Inbox, I read it and delete it, or move it. As far
as user created folders go, it isn't how many messages you have, it's the
total size. The farther you go over 100MB, the more chance you have of
losing all the messages in a folder.

For the average person, compacting when you get the prompt is enough, but
that's assuming you don't leave OE open 24/7. I compact at least every
other day, but I am reading and deleting numerous messages daily due to
the newsgroups.

The best recommendation I can give anyone, is backup often. Someday
you'll be glad you did.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Tom Brown" wrote in message
...
Thanks Bruce.

As I mentioned, this is my sister's problem I am talking about. I
personally have never had this problem and I frequently leave a couple
of thousand messages in a folder.

But, I have created a Saved folder (archive) with Saved Sent, Incoming,
and Deleted under it and then under those I have annual subfolders like
2003, 2004, 2005. So, the oldest message in my Inbox is less than 1
year old before it gets moved to the archived folders. I move the
messages shortly after the first of the year. Do you think that's soon
enough to archive them?

I have XP SP2 and I only compact the database when prompted. I assume
that is sufficient.

Thanks again,

Tom


"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Could be a few things, so let's start at the obvious.

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move
your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user
created folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is
feasible.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually while
working *offline* and do it often.

Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no folders
are open. Then: FileWork Offline (or double click Working Online in
the Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch
anything until the compacting is completed.

In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in
background and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}.

Do this and let's see what happens.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Tom Brown" wrote in message
...
My sister has a problem with emails that she has received disappearing
from her Inbox after she has replied to them. I don't think it is a
Rule because I think that happens before the download.

She is still trying to find a pattern but so far it looks like if she
replies to an incoming email, it disappears at some time after that.
She is able to see it again in the Sent folder.

Any clues?

TIA,

Tom