Thanks, I tried it but nothing changed. I still cannot delete anything from anywhere in OE. I had moved the file, just to find a place, to the sent folder so it wouldn't keep trying to send it every time I opened OE. I hit work offline from the upper left pull down menu if that's what you meant. Any other ideas? It's amazing how something like this can really aggravate you. Thanks again,

 

Chip

Thanks Lawrence, I have not, up until now, been able to delete anything, even individual items. So, onto your idea. I'm not familiar with notepad. i have opened it but am wondering how to move the offending file to it. Right clicking it gives me a 'move to' menu but the only folders listed are within OE, such as the inbox, sent, etc. It gives me a 'new folder' box that I can type a folder name into but I'm thinking it would still be within OE. Is that correct? Or should I just type in wordpad? Thanks,

 

Chip

Chip, there are two things you can do.  First, right click on the Deleted folder.  One option should be, delete folder and its contents.  Delete it.  (It will ask you if you want to delete the folder and all its contents.  Click yes or OK.),   After you delete the entire folder, click file, new folder.  Type in Deleted.  To make sure it goes where you want, unexpand the Outlook Express folder list by clicking on the (-) sign.   If this does not work, open the offending file, use edit/ select all/ and cut.  .Paste to notepad and kiss it goodbye.  Good luck.

Chip, the problem is that the file is damaged.  This prevents you from deleting anything.using delete all function.  You should be able to delete all other files, one at a time.  Move the offending file to notepad.  It will delete.

o.k., here's where we're at now. I still had few things i wanted to look over (ie:save for now) in the sent file where the offending email was residing. So I decided to try opening the file and doing the edit all.  Since it was an email, it opened in the mail window as if it was ready to send. I clicked edit all in the email window and all it highlighted was the address. I also tried doing the same thing but this time clicking edit all at the top of the main page. That highlighted all the items in the sent folder. So I tried one more thing. I opened the email file again and in the attachment window, right clicked the actual attachment. It gave me the small menu with a few options, one of which was 'remove' at the bottom. I clicked that and what do you know, the thing was gone. The mail window closed and the file was gone from the sent folder. That's good. But, I still am unable to delete anything from any of the OE folders. I even, just to be sure, went and deleted the original mpeg i was trying to send in the first place (a plain old music video that had always played o.k.). It deleted o.k. but had no effect in the deleting issue. I was starting to think that maybe I had 2 separate issues here but it's too much of a coincidence that the deleting problem(which I had never had before), ocurred just after the email locked up while sending. So, any other ideas? I appreciate your time. Thanks again,

 

Chip

Thanks, I'll look into it. I'm recieving fine but did have some trouble sending a test message. Funny thing is, I've sent these for years with no trouble and this one was not the largest one I've sent but obviously it caused a problem. I'll try contacting them. thansk for the help.

 

Chip

Chip, you must delete the send folder completely, and anything that is in it.  When you sent too large a file, your Email is chokling on it, as MaryG suggested.  You may have to talk to your ISP to help clear the server. 

Chip

Your problem is most likely corrupt OE .dbx folder files

 

Working offline

First open OE & move any e-mails you want to keep to your personal created e-mail folders from the following OE default folders:

Inbox, Drafts, Outbox, Sent Items & Deleted Items

Close OE

Ensure Show Hidden Files & Folders is enabled in Windows Explorer

Open Windows Explorer & locate your OE .dbx folder files, usually located in the following folder path:

 

C:\Documents & Settings\ \Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{ X}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

 

Where { X} is something like {123XYZ-A4B5C…} & represents your account User ID

 

Click each of the above mentioned 5 default folders & delete them

Close Windows Explorer

Open OE

New, empty default folders will be automatically created, replacing the deleted corrupt folder files

 

Preventing a build up of e-mails in the default folders will minimise folder file corruption