frequently caused by email scanning setting of a virus program like norton.
either temporarily disable virus program and try.
boot into safe mode to compact.
on a fresh open of OE, use Files | Work Offline and try it.







"Paula" wrote in message ...
When I try to compact my folders, I get a message that says the folder is in
use by another program, so it never finishes. I've seen this issue posted a
lot but nobody seems to know what folder it's getting stuck on. For me, I
believe it is getting stuck on the Sent Items folder. I don't think I can
move stuff around from there because isn't this one of the "built - in"
folders and not a user-created folder? Please help, this has been driving me
crazy all week. I select "work offline" and no joy. I found some article that
says to shut down OE and then restart it and try again. Still no joy.