Outlook Express database corruption

The database has become corrupted and I can't open/read email. Are there step by step instructions for me to fix this myself?

Try this document from Microsoft.
Ed Shumpert
Thinkcentre/Desktops Launch Readiness Program Manager
US Service & Support

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HUGE Outlook Express database problems!

I had a hard drive failure. The problem is that my Outlook Express Identities folder was stored there. I recovered the Identities folder using Data Rescue and I discovered that the file called "database" is truncated.
I can do a rebuild of the database but then all several thousand emails are missing. After some trial and error, I confirmed that it is the database file that is screwed.
I can use a backup file from 10 months ago but then the last 10 months of emails are missing.
Database - 70 MB
Database Cache - 20 KB
Messages - 750 MB
I think everything I want is in the larger Messages file even though I also see messages inside the Database file. (I'll never understand the MS programming philosophy)
Are there any Mac utilities that will extract the emails from these database files?
What about my damaged database file? Since it's truncated, is there anything I can splice to the end of it to fool Outlook Express into properly rebuilding it?
Can these be transferred to a PC and then repaired using one of the dozens of Winbloze utilities available for database repair and then converted back?? If so, how?
I'm stumped and I'm hoping anyone here can help.
Thank-you.

I never had a problem with OE, but it uses the same
MS programming philosophy as entourage, where I do
know you can't get out of a truncated databse…
Sorry, and if the automatic Rebuild routines won't
fix it, it's just gone.
Not quite...
I was able to recover about 99.9999% of the 28,000 "lost" emails using a neat little utility called "Emailchemy".
It scours nearly any email database file in almost any condition, pulls out the messages, and then saves them ALL to a generic mbox file that ANY email program can read. It also preserves the attachments!
FYI- For Outlook Express in OS 9, the file called "Database" contains all the outgoing emails and attachments. The file called "Messages" contains all the incoming emails and attachments.
I just ran Emailchemy on both of them and imported two mbox file into Entourage for OS X. That created two folders, each containing all the messages PLUS attachments from each of the two files.
In Entourage for OS X, ALL incoming and outgoing emails plus attachments are stored in the file called "Database". For this program, there's no such thing as "Messages" file.
So anyone reading this, DO NOT delete your corrupted Microsoft email database files, lock them, back them up, and do NOT give up hope. Even if you couldn't extract the information, you can still open the file in a text editor and see your messages inside (minus the attachments, of course). As horrific as this process may sound, at least you can search for something specific if needed.

Import mail and address from outlook express

I had a PC and used outlook express as mail software.
I have copy the outlook express database (files .dbx like address.dbx, inbox.dbx, ...) on my new mac and I want to import all my files and messages.
How could I do this.
Thanks
PS : I'm french, hope you will forgive the grammar ...

Hello Sijmons,
Thank you for your response.
I already tried it. I used File/Import a mailbox ..., then "Mail" offer me to choose the software I used, and I had the choice to run Mcrosoft Entourage, Outlook Express, ... and others.
Then I went to the place where I have stocked the .dbx files.
But mail seems not to be able to read it.
Do you know how to read .dbx librairies with Mail ?
Thanks in advance
Have a good day

Corrupted Address Book in Outlook Express

My father's note running XP, has suddenly decided that the address book in outlook express (ie6)is corrupt and it must be re-installed. I have looked around the web and this seems to be a fairly common problem, however the correction of
this seems fairly complex, surely Microsoft must have come up with a quick fix to this problem, especially as it seems of their making, what with faulty updates and the complexity of outlook and outlook express.
Please does anyone have a simple resolution to this problem, that we both can understand.
Thanks in advance to all those that take the time to reply.

Try to recover it manually. Or re-install your OE. Open Outlook Express from where the application is stored on your computer, then attempt to duplicate the error or problem you were previously experiencing. If
you are still experiencing problems, proceed with the following steps to reinstall Internet Explorer.
http://www.filerepairforum.com/forum/microsoft/microsoft-aa/outlook-express/616-emails-and-address-book-are-gone
Go to the "Microsoft Support" website provided to you in the Sources section of this article, then scroll down to the section entitled "Method 2: Reinstall Internet Explorer."
Click on the appropriate link for Internet Explorer based on the version of Windows you are running. For example, if you have a 32-bit Windows Vista computer, you will be required to
download Internet Explorer 8 for Windows Vista.
Click on the "Download" box after you have been redirected to the appropriate Microsoft webpage for your version of Internet Explorer. A dialog box will then appear prompting
you to proceed with the download.
Launch Outlook Express from its location on your computer and try to duplicate the actions that previously caused errors. Outlook Express should now work successfully without presenting
any issues or errors.

Need help recovering corrupted outlook express address book

So my dad's address book won't open. First, outlook express says that the address book isn't installed properly, and then that the address book file is corrupted. It has important business contacts, so its imperative that I save the data.
How can I get into the file? I can open it in notepad and I see a lot of the text, but its mostly names and I can't find any email addresses. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Certainly you can.
Use Desktop Manager > Sync.
Setup Outlook Express to sync with your device in Desktop Manager > Sync > Confgure. Find and select Outlook Express as the sync partner to your BlackBerry handheld address book.
1. If any post helps you please click the below the post(s) that helped you.
2. Please resolve your thread by marking the post "Solution?" which solved it for you!
3. Install free BlackBerry Protect today for backups of contacts and data.
4. Guide to Unlocking your BlackBerry & Unlock Codes
Join our BBM Channels (Beta)
BlackBerry Support Forums Channel
PIN: C0001B7B4 Display/Scan Bar Code
Knowledge Base Updates
PIN: C0005A9AA Display/Scan Bar Code

Outlook Express message database

Hi all,
After moving my Utilities folder (which contains the OE database) to an external hard disk, and then moving it back again (had to free up some space temporarily), Outlook Express starts as if for the first time: no preferences set, and what's worse, no messages in the Inbox and Sent Item folders.
The messages, all 1 GB of them, are still in Utilities: Documents: Microsoft User Data: Identities. I just can't get Outlook E to find them.
I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions or shared experiences. If I've lost my e-mail archives I'm up the creek...
Tomas
Pismo Mac OS 9.1.x

Hi, Tomas -
Welcome to Apple's Discussions.
Outlook Express expects its database files to be in one of two places.
In cases where an older version of OE was updated to 5.x, they may be in an Identities folder in the Outlook Express application folder (where the older versions kept them).
Otherwise, OE expects them to be here - (hard drive) >> Documents >> Microsoft User Data >> Identities. In the Identities folder should be at least one folder, Main Identity - that's the default account (identity). If additional accounts have been made, there will be additional folders in the Identities folder, one for each account.
OS 9 does not like having the Documents folder inside any other folder, and will usually create a new Documents folder if an existing one has been moved elsewhere.
If OS 9 has created a new Documents folder, move the Microsoft User Data folder into it. Any folder by the same name in the new Documents folder should not contain any old info, so replacing it should not cause any problems.
If OS 9 did not create a new Documents folder, try moving the old one out of the Utilities folder, so that the Documents folder is at the root level of the drive (same level as the System Folder and the Applications (Mac OS 9) folder). Then restart, and try OE again.
You may need to rebuild the desktop - not a bad thing to do when a lot of files have been moved around, or after installing a bunch of stuff.
Note - although OS 9 and many of its programs (MS apps, AppleWorks, etc.) use the Documents folder for some of their support files, you do not need to use that folder for the documents you create.

Corrupted Outlook Express--need to uninstall but how???

Earthlink support tells me my Outlook Express 5.0.6 is corrupted (I can receive but not send email.) Their solution is to uninstall and then re-install Outlook Express. I cannot find info on how to uninstall. Can anyone help?

Hi, kukaber -
Welcome to Apple's Discussions.
If you do want to try replacing Outlook Express, you can download a fresh copy from Microsoft's Mactopia site, here -
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx
To get rid of the old copy, just drag the folder containing it to the Trash. This will normally not get rid of your email archives, which are usually kept here - (hard drive) >> Documents >> Microsoft User Data >> Identities. There is a separate folder in the Identities folder for each account; the original default one is named Main Identity.
Note - if you originally had a v. 4 version of Outlook Express on the drive, your email archives may be in the program's folder, rather than in the Documents folder. Verify that they are not there before trashing that folder.
Sometimes a prefs file or cache file can get damaged and cause a program to malfunction. The solution for that is to throw those files away, then restart the machine.
Outlook Express uses two prefs files - a global one named Outlook Express Prefs which is located in the Preferences folder in System Folder; and one named Preferences which is located in each account folder in the Identities folder.
Outlook Express uses one cache file, which is named OE Cache.waf and can be found in the MS Internet Cache folder in the Preferences folder in System Folder.

Outlook Express Error 0x800c0133 (corrupted inbox file)

I use Outlook Express. I can send, but not receive. I have deleted the many emails that had never been deleted, but still can not receive. I have been
told I have a corrupted Inbox file. Something about the Inbox.dbx, but I don't know or how to correct this error.

It may be possible to fix the problem using these steps :
Open Outlook Express
Click "Local Folders" in the left side navigation
Select New Folder and name it TEMP
If possible move all of the email from your Inbox to the TEMP folder
Go to menu bar and select Tools -> Options -> Maintenance -> Store Folder and then write down the location of your
inbox
Close Outlook Express,
Use My Computer to go to the location is step 5 and then delete the file inbox.dbx
Open Outlook Express - The Inbox folder should be auto recreated.
Move your email from the TEMP folder back to your Inbox
I don't know if anyone is still looking for help with this error. It basically means you have too much saved
email in the version of Outlook Express your are using. You may want to try some of the methods listed in
Outlook Express Fix Toolbox
Link to free demo version:-
http://www.outlookexpress.fixtoolbox.com/
Hope this helps for people who are still getting this error. If you are getting it, I am sure you are dreading
the fact you may lose 'A lot' of your saved emails. Good luck,

Outlook Express corrupted, Lost Folders

My outlook Express prefs file (probably) got corrupted, giving error "End of File Reached". I looked at the Messages file and it had expanded to 241MB. The procedure to rebuild the prefs file creates a new EMPTY messages file and relabelling the old one. I saved the old messages file to my desktop and put a Lock on it. Is there any way to recover items from that file. I tried moving the file back into the Identity, but it is not recognized. 100 pictures and 200 JOKES are at stake here!
Thanx
Roodle

Re: Outlook Express corrupted, Lost Folders
Posted: May 7, 2009 8:35 PM in response to: Roodle
Reply Email
My situation is a little more complicated thaan the referenced item. I did the "compact" operation and allocated more file space. Then each message that came up had garbage in the message body - instead of the message. So I experimented. I set up an Entourage account and tried resending the items to that account (to myself). The garbage travelled along. So... I tried to send multiples at a time to Entourage. It worked (for a while). The messages came over intact. I thought I had cracked the code, until about 40 items were transferrred. OE got another "end of file reached". The messages file in the OE identity had expanded from just under 100MB to 241MB. I saved that file to the desktop with lock, moved the original messages file back into the identity along with it's associated prefs file and tried again. This time it expanded to 602MB. This is where I am right now.
I believe the data is still there, but index pointers have somehow gotten corrupted, causing the message file to fill with garbage. I recognized some of the garbage as software product names from my hard drive. Yikes!

Outlook Express 6.0. Inbox.dbx is corrupt.

Hi! I am using OE 6.0. Yesterday when I opened my OE, my emails in inbox were gone. Ive tried a solution of copying all of my emails folder to some other location and then renaming my inbox.dbx to inbox.dbx.old . This didn't work. Please help me to solve the
problem!

Hello,
The current forum is for Microsoft Office Outlook, nor Outlook Express or Windows Mail. I'd suggest asking non-programming questions on the
Microsoft Community
forums.

Outlook Express 4.5 "End of file reached." "Compress Mailbox" is greyed.

I am trying to get my friend's stuff off his Blueberry iMac, which was using OS 8.6, and onto his new Intel iMac. He's got OE 4.5 on the Blueberry. I don't know what he did to it (he told me weeks ago, but I've forgotten), but suddenly, all messages prior to a certain date give him the message that "The end of file was reached." I wondered if upgrading to OE5 would make a difference, but it refused to import any of the old mail. The Contacts came through ok.
I tried OE Help's suggestion of dragging all of 4.5's messages into a folder, then drag/dropping them into OE5's Inbox. Only the messages after that certain date would go from the folder into the Inbox, and as there are over 1800 of them and they're listed alphabetically in the folder, I wasn't about to sit there and try to drag each one individually.
So I tried networking with the Intel, but they wouldn't even communicate. (Blueberry was running OS 8.6.) I upgraded the Blueberry to OS 9, and they still wouldn't communicate. So I networked the Blueberry with an iBook, and they joined up like old friends. But Mail (and Eudora and Thunderbird) all refused to import the old mail.
One of the reasons I tried to upgrade to v5 was because I thought maybe it would export the mailboxes as .mbox files. 4.5 wouldn't; exporting mailboxes wasn't even mentioned in the "Help."
There are a number of very useful suggestions already posted to this list, and to my great surprise, not one of them helped.
I went to compress the mailboxes, but the option was greyed out. Now what?
Thanks very much in advance!
Coupla 'Books Mac OS X (10.4.4) lotsa toys
Blueberry iMac Mac OS 9.2.x
Coupla 'Books Mac OS X (10.4.4)

"End of file" means the mail database is corrupt. That being said, EntourAid might help. As per the developer, "EntourAid attempts to recover emails in any corrupted Microsoft Outlook Express/Entourage email database that is reported to be corrupted and irrecoverable. This has been tested on both 'normal' corruption situations as well as on databases corrupted by the '2 gigabyte limit' in Entourage Office v.X, with up to 90% recovery rate (including attachments)."

Outlook Express 5.0.6 & Tiger

Hello:
I asked this question as part of a previous post.
We have been using OE for all our e-mails and have quite a large file stored in seperate folders in our seperate OE profiles. If we switch to Tiger, would we be able to have access to our OE e-mails & files and if so, how ??
Thank you.

Hi SteveH
Thunderbird only supports imported mail from Netscape and Eudora, although you could with a lot of effort use intervening mail box translation programs to convert OE mail boxes into a form that Thunderbird will recognise.
Entourage is Outlook Express for OSX with a lot more bells & whistles. I personally think this is the way you should go as it will be more familiar to you and it will preserve yours and your wives identities.
Apple Mail is Apple’s own e-mail application available in OSX. It works just the same as OE if not better. I prefer Apple Mail, although I do use as many e-mail applications as I can for their different functionalities. One of the things I like about Apple Mail is that it stores each mail message as a separate file, unlike OE and Entourage which stores all mail in a single mail database file. This file, unless you are careful, can soon bloat into a huge size and become easily damaged/corrupted with the risk of you losing all your e-mails, address books and account settings – not good!
One other thing and again to emphasise why I use more than one mail application, is that all of the applications mentioned have their strengths and weaknesses. You simply have to decide which one of a long list gives you the functionality you want.
Hope this helps

One way sync from Outlook Express gets Unable to read application data error

I have a BB Flip, 8220, and am trying to use Outlook Express as my Contacts organizer. I have started Outlook express "vanilla" and only have one records in Outlook Express. I have 34 records in my BB Contacts. When I run synchronize (and again, I am trying to do this one way, from Express to BB) I get the error "Unable to read application data", "Processing Device Address Book", "Record 34 of 34 Records".
I have read many of the threads. I have checked the RIM.log file and it says one way sync. Any clues on how to fix this? I am on Desktop 4.6, do I need to upgrade to 4.7?
Please advise.
Thank you.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Well I fixed the problem. What I did was run a Backup using the desktop mgr software, I then ran a restore, but I used the Advanced option so that I could open the ipd backup file and then select just the contacts database and push that from my computer to the device (using the right arrow copy button in the middle of the Advanced window thingy). I then reran the Sync and it WORKED!
Doing the backup and restore must have fixed the corrupted record on my phone. Wonderful. I was nervous, but it worked jst fine.

Was using Outlook Express (OS9) - should I switch to Mail or Entourage?

I've still been using OS9 for my email tasks (on one computer), and running OS X on another, because I am so used to Outlook Express, and I have over a 1 GB database of 8 years of email messages that I need to maintain (for my work).
I'm finally looking at options for dumping this and doing everything on OS X (currently I have 10.3.9, but I will soon update to 10.4.x).
I've been investigating Mail, and I imported all my messages from OE into it (took about 20 hours). I've started looking into it and, perhaps it's just that I am unused to it, but it seems to lack certain features I always use, such as the ability to edit messages that are already sent or received. The folder (mailbox) management seems a bit clunky at first glance. But again, maybe if I dive in I'll find ways to do what I want.
I've also realized I own Office X Entourage (never used it), and as I write this, I'm importing all my OE data into it.
I generally really like Apple apps, and detest MS apps. It goes against my grain to not migrate to Mail at this point, but I must admit it seems as if Entourage is just a reworked, very familiar looking Outlook Express (with more stuff), and it would be so much easier for me to go there.
Can anyone tell me why I should use Mail, and not Entourage, at this point? Is Mail in 10.4.x much improved from 10.3?
Thanks!

Mail in 10.4 is definitely a little better, but still can't directly edit messages, though you can redirect them and edit when you redirect a messsage by using Send Again in the Message menu.
Mail has a distinct advantage over Entourage in that it does not put all your eggs in one basket. Entourage stores every piece of address book, e-mail, and calendar information in a single database file in your Documents -> Microsoft Users data in your Home folder. Mail separates mailboxes into their own files. Apple's Addressbook which Mail has access to, has its own separate files. And Apple's iCal also has its own separate files. The database of Entourage can get corrupt very easily when it becomes large. While Microsoft includes a database repair program, I found it does not always work.
While it means backing up Mail/Addressbook/iCal requires a little more navigating of specific folders, you will have a much more reliable backup than using Entourage. I suggest for someone going to Mac OS X, to consider cloning for backup, as I recommend here:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

Retrieving (exporting) emails from Outlook Express 4.5 on an old iMac

Hi,
I’ve got an old iMac (1999, graphite) which I used for a while in 2005. It’s got loads of important emails I need to keep versions of, currently in Outlook Express 4.5.
How do I export those emails? I tried a few times just by copying the files, but failed.
Secondly, how do I import them either into a PC (Outlook 2002) or a new Macbook. (I’m currently using a PC but plannign to get a Macbook later this year).
Thanks for your help.

"End of file" means the mail database is corrupt. That being said, EntourAid might help. As per the developer, "EntourAid attempts to recover emails in any corrupted Microsoft Outlook Express/Entourage email database that is reported to be corrupted and irrecoverable. This has been tested on both 'normal' corruption situations as well as on databases corrupted by the '2 gigabyte limit' in Entourage Office v.X, with up to 90% recovery rate (including attachments)."

Outlook Express database corruption

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