Steve Cochran wrote:
Reinstalling won't help a bit.

Try setting up a new Identity and make sure you do this
www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3 (and see #2 also for the compaction problems).

Then once the Identity is working properly. Use the method in the last
paragraph on this page (www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx) to import the dbx files
individually.

See if that fixes the problem.

steve

wrote in message
ps.com...
Hello,

I will try to make this very simple. I am running Outlook Express 6 on
Windows XP SP2.

Lets say 6 months ago I had mail dbx files A,B,C and D, in Local
Folders.

3 months ago, I renamed A to AA and B to BB. I kept C and D. I also
added dbx file E.

Therefore, starting at that time and continuing up to a few days ago,
I have in Local Folders the dbx files AA, BB, C, D

and E.

For the last few days, this has happened in Local Folders:

AA remains, BB has renamed itself to B yet still maintains the contents
of BB, C is gone, and D and E remain.

In the Outlook Express mail folder deep inside documents and settings,
the AA, BB, C, D and E dbx files are still there like they should be.
There is no B dbx file, as there should not be since it along with the
A dbx file haven't existed for three months. Yet, local folders shows
it.

I backed up those dbx files and then deleted that particular identity,
and deleted the folder with the long name that housed

the Outlook Express dbx files for that identity.

I created a new identity, and imported the dbx files (minus the
folders.dbx file, which I suspect may be corrupt), and Local

Folders again contains the suspicious AA, B, D, and E dbx files, when,
according to the names of the dbx files themselves,

should be AA, BB, C, D and E. Although OE created a new Folders.dbx as
it should, things are still not right.

Do I need to extract the messages and start over? Perhaps one of the
mail files is corrupt.

One thing I did do the other day, and I've since read that it's not a
good thing to do, is cance the compacting operaton that automatically
occurs after every 100th opening and closing of OE 6. But, I've done
this before with no apparent ill effects.

From what I've read, uninstalling and reinstalline OE is a royal pain
in the neck.

Thanks,

GS



Yes, that did the trick. Thank you very much.

Funny how the exact same dbx files (minus the bogus original
folders.dbx) behave differently. By creating a new empty folder first
in the new identity with the corresponding dbx file's name that
contains the messages you want to access, and replacing that new dbx
file with the old one containging those messages, it works. Simply
importing the dbx files without doing that brings the messages, but in
a fouled up order.

I also disabled email scanning.

Thanks again,

GS