Vista - unable to delete mail from the deleted folder

I am not able to delete mail from the deleted mail folder in Windows Mail.
It is a strange problem because some of the emails can be deleted and others
can't. The ones that can't display a popup that indicates an unexpected
error occurred. I have a suspicion that the email does not physically exist
because when I attempt to open it (double clicking on it) I get a message not
found error. I have tried to compress the mail folders, I have tried
navigating to the mail store area, and everything else that I could think of
to no avail. How do I correct this problem and regain control of Windows
Mail?

Hi, Vbritt.

What happens if you right-click on the Deleted Items folder and click "Empty
'Deleted Items' Folder"?

You might want to click Tools | Options | Advanced | Maintenance, then check
the first box: "Empty messages from the 'Deleted Items' folder on exit".

But maybe you've already tried those. You said you had tried "everything
else I could think of", but there's no way for us to know if you thought of
THOSE things.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Currently running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista x86 RC2 Build 5744)

"Vbritt" <Vbritt@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7EB14FC9-A2D9-4BC2-8CCF-435DACACFE61@microsoft.com...
>I am not able to delete mail from the deleted mail folder in Windows Mail.
> It is a strange problem because some of the emails can be deleted and
> others
> can't. The ones that can't display a popup that indicates an unexpected
> error occurred. I have a suspicion that the email does not physically
> exist
> because when I attempt to open it (double clicking on it) I get a message
> not
> found error. I have tried to compress the mail folders, I have tried
> navigating to the mail store area, and everything else that I could think
> of
> to no avail. How do I correct this problem and regain control of Windows
> Mail?

RC, Thank you for responding so quickly. This is really beginning to
frustrate me.

Yes, I tried both of those options and nothing happened. When I right
clicked on the deleted message folder and told Windows Mail to empty the
deleted items folder a pop-up window appeared asking if I wanted to delete
all of the messages. When I said yes I didn't receive any additional error
messages the selection simply didn't do anything.

When I selected the option to delete messages when exiting Windows Mail
nothing happens, Windows Mail closes normally, but when you open windows
mail back up the messages are still displayed.

I don't know if it makes a difference or not, but I am running Vista release
RC2, build 5744.

"R. C. White, MVP" wrote:

> Hi, Vbritt.
>
> What happens if you right-click on the Deleted Items folder and click "Empty
> 'Deleted Items' Folder"?
>
> You might want to click Tools | Options | Advanced | Maintenance, then check
> the first box: "Empty messages from the 'Deleted Items' folder on exit".
>
> But maybe you've already tried those. You said you had tried "everything
> else I could think of", but there's no way for us to know if you thought of
> THOSE things.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
> rc@grandecom.net
> Microsoft Windows MVP
> (Currently running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista x86 RC2 Build 5744)
>
> "Vbritt" <Vbritt@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:7EB14FC9-A2D9-4BC2-8CCF-435DACACFE61@microsoft.com...
> >I am not able to delete mail from the deleted mail folder in Windows Mail.
> > It is a strange problem because some of the emails can be deleted and
> > others
> > can't. The ones that can't display a popup that indicates an unexpected
> > error occurred. I have a suspicion that the email does not physically
> > exist
> > because when I attempt to open it (double clicking on it) I get a message
> > not
> > found error. I have tried to compress the mail folders, I have tried
> > navigating to the mail store area, and everything else that I could think
> > of
> > to no avail. How do I correct this problem and regain control of Windows
> > Mail?
>

I have the same problem. I have tried everything, I can delete one at a time
in "edit/empty "deleted items" folder/ok. A pain with 150 deleted items
--
S-t


"Vbritt" wrote:

> I am not able to delete mail from the deleted mail folder in Windows Mail.
> It is a strange problem because some of the emails can be deleted and others
> can't. The ones that can't display a popup that indicates an unexpected
> error occurred. I have a suspicion that the email does not physically exist
> because when I attempt to open it (double clicking on it) I get a message not
> found error. I have tried to compress the mail folders, I have tried
> navigating to the mail store area, and everything else that I could think of
> to no avail. How do I correct this problem and regain control of Windows
> Mail?

Sean,

If your problem is the same one that I am seeing you can delete messages one
at a time up to the one that is corrupt. Once you find the one that is
corrupt then try to open it. I get a message that says that the message
can't be found. That is what leads me to think that the message has been
deleted but the list still displays the email like the message is still
there. Once you find the bad file then you can continue to delete messages
around the bad one until you are simply left with bad messages that you can
not delete. In my case there are about 25 or so that I can not delete no
matter what I try.

I think that what created this condition was aborting out of a deletion
request. I am getting prepared to return the machine to XP so I have been
deleting emails that I don't want to keep. I had some 4 or 5 hundred emails
in the deleted folder. I started deleting all of the messages and the
progress bar was not reflecting any progress after being displayed for a long
time. Thinking that it was not functioning I selected the red X and closed
the window. It was after that when I noticed this strange behavior
developing. It is my belief that Windows Mail aborted the process and didn't
tidy up after itself.


"Sean-thomas" wrote:

> I have the same problem. I have tried everything, I can delete one at a time
> in "edit/empty "deleted items" folder/ok. A pain with 150 deleted items
> --
> S-t
>
>
> "Vbritt" wrote:
>
> > I am not able to delete mail from the deleted mail folder in Windows Mail.
> > It is a strange problem because some of the emails can be deleted and others
> > can't. The ones that can't display a popup that indicates an unexpected
> > error occurred. I have a suspicion that the email does not physically exist
> > because when I attempt to open it (double clicking on it) I get a message not
> > found error. I have tried to compress the mail folders, I have tried
> > navigating to the mail store area, and everything else that I could think of
> > to no avail. How do I correct this problem and regain control of Windows
> > Mail?

I have had this problem and I have done this and it has worked every time.
If you can, check the date and size of the “undeletable� email message this
helps find it but is not totally necessary.
This fix assumes it is still in your INBOX. If it is anywhere else you will
need to find it in the corresponding “Local Folder� as per below. Now Close
Windows Mail. Open My Computer>Users> (Your user name)>App
Data>Local>Microsoft>Windows Mail>Local Folders>Inbox
Once in your inbox (or other folder where this “bad� email is) double click
the one you suspect (you may need to double-click/open several until you
find the correct one) to check if it is the email you want to delete. Now
right-click the message and “rename�... it will be .eml. ,but you can rename
to anything. I use .emlbad. Once it is renamed you will be able to delete it
immediately by right-click..then “Delete�. If by some chance this doesn’t
work, I have also had success by deleting the whole “Inbox� folder and if it’s
already in “Deleted Items� then you can delete it as well. Windows Mail will
build a new folder automatically next time it starts. If you have allot of
emails in your Inbox you want to keep, make sure you back up the ones you
want to ;to somewhere else and reimport them later. As mentioned this has
worked 100% for me but sometimes only one of the above solutions work..go
figure..


"Vbritt" <Vbritt@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7EB14FC9-A2D9-4BC2-8CCF-435DACACFE61@microsoft.com...
>I am not able to delete mail from the deleted mail folder in Windows Mail.
> It is a strange problem because some of the emails can be deleted and
> others
> can't. The ones that can't display a popup that indicates an unexpected
> error occurred. I have a suspicion that the email does not physically
> exist
> because when I attempt to open it (double clicking on it) I get a message
> not
> found error. I have tried to compress the mail folders, I have tried
> navigating to the mail store area, and everything else that I could think
> of
> to no avail. How do I correct this problem and regain control of Windows
> Mail?

Hopefully we won't have to deal with these issues in the final.

steve

"Mike P" <m_at_j_P@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:E3EA56FF-D975-4B39-BA65-49447867C86A@microsoft.com...
>I have had this problem and I have done this and it has worked every time.
>If you can, check the date and size of the “undeletable� email message this
>helps find it but is not totally necessary.
> This fix assumes it is still in your INBOX. If it is anywhere else you
> will need to find it in the corresponding “Local Folder� as per below. Now
> Close Windows Mail. Open My Computer>Users> (Your user name)>App
> Data>Local>Microsoft>Windows Mail>Local Folders>Inbox
> Once in your inbox (or other folder where this “bad� email is) double
> click the one you suspect (you may need to double-click/open several until
> you find the correct one) to check if it is the email you want to delete.
> Now right-click the message and “rename�... it will be .eml. ,but you can
> rename to anything. I use .emlbad. Once it is renamed you will be able to
> delete it immediately by right-click..then “Delete�. If by some chance
> this doesn’t work, I have also had success by deleting the whole “Inbox�
> folder and if it’s already in “Deleted Items� then you can delete it as
> well. Windows Mail will build a new folder automatically next time it
> starts. If you have allot of emails in your Inbox you want to keep, make
> sure you back up the ones you want to ;to somewhere else and reimport them
> later. As mentioned this has worked 100% for me but sometimes only one of
> the above solutions work..go figure..
>
>
> "Vbritt" <Vbritt@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:7EB14FC9-A2D9-4BC2-8CCF-435DACACFE61@microsoft.com...
>>I am not able to delete mail from the deleted mail folder in Windows Mail.
>> It is a strange problem because some of the emails can be deleted and
>> others
>> can't. The ones that can't display a popup that indicates an unexpected
>> error occurred. I have a suspicion that the email does not physically
>> exist
>> because when I attempt to open it (double clicking on it) I get a message
>> not
>> found error. I have tried to compress the mail folders, I have tried
>> navigating to the mail store area, and everything else that I could think
>> of
>> to no avail. How do I correct this problem and regain control of Windows
>> Mail?
>

Vbritt
-- I went the same route as Steve, but I deleted all the loose files not in
the other folders,*.jrs, *.log, *.edb, *,msm, *.pat. You probably should try
one at a time, I didn't care at the time, was just tired of the mess of
files. The file extensions all came back, but without the deleted items. Also
all the other messages where deleted as well. Good luck
S-t


"Vbritt" wrote:

> I am not able to delete mail from the deleted mail folder in Windows Mail.
> It is a strange problem because some of the emails can be deleted and others
> can't. The ones that can't display a popup that indicates an unexpected
> error occurred. I have a suspicion that the email does not physically exist
> because when I attempt to open it (double clicking on it) I get a message not
> found error. I have tried to compress the mail folders, I have tried
> navigating to the mail store area, and everything else that I could think of
> to no avail. How do I correct this problem and regain control of Windows
> Mail?

You deleted the database files as well. Those are the edb and log and other
files in the root of the mail store. You can certainly wipe out the mail
store and that will fix it. <VBG>

steve

"Sean-thomas" <Seanthomas@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:388933B6-9556-4A05-AE3F-308672050BCB@microsoft.com...
> Vbritt
> -- I went the same route as Steve, but I deleted all the loose files not
> in
> the other folders,*.jrs, *.log, *.edb, *,msm, *.pat. You probably should
> try
> one at a time, I didn't care at the time, was just tired of the mess of
> files. The file extensions all came back, but without the deleted items.
> Also
> all the other messages where deleted as well. Good luck
> S-t
>
>
> "Vbritt" wrote:
>
>> I am not able to delete mail from the deleted mail folder in Windows
>> Mail.
>> It is a strange problem because some of the emails can be deleted and
>> others
>> can't. The ones that can't display a popup that indicates an unexpected
>> error occurred. I have a suspicion that the email does not physically
>> exist
>> because when I attempt to open it (double clicking on it) I get a message
>> not
>> found error. I have tried to compress the mail folders, I have tried
>> navigating to the mail store area, and everything else that I could think
>> of
>> to no avail. How do I correct this problem and regain control of Windows
>> Mail?