Vista - Unable to Delete a message in my Inbox

I received a message last weekend that I moved to a folder, but the heading
for it in my inbox still remains. Whenever I try to delete the line in my
inbox I get an "unknown error" message. The preview pane says this whenever
I highlight the line:

"Message could not be displayed
Windows Mail encountered an unexpected problem while displaying this
message. Check your computer for low memory or low disk space and try again."

I've already searched the discussion forums and it seems to me that my issue
is very close to this issue: http://tinyurl.com/2kedzp

But thankfully my "undeletable" message isn't in my outbox!

I've tried repairing and deleting the windowsmail.msmessagestore file, but
Windows Mail recognizes the change and repairs it back to the old messed up
version. I even tried restoring a previous version of the file with the same
results.

My thinking is that if I can prevent Windows Mail from repairing the file
after I restore an earlier version, I should be ok...am I wrong? If I'm
right, how do I do that?

Or is this something that we need a patch from Microsoft to fix?

Thanks in advance for your help!

There is no fix for this currently unless you wish to start over with the
database and wipe it. Otherwise, its better to just mark it as read and
ignore it.

steve

"Ian C." <Ian C.@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7230FB69-7772-4ED0-8BCB-872286C18C0C@microsoft.com...
>I received a message last weekend that I moved to a folder, but the heading
> for it in my inbox still remains. Whenever I try to delete the line in my
> inbox I get an "unknown error" message. The preview pane says this
> whenever
> I highlight the line:
>
> "Message could not be displayed
> Windows Mail encountered an unexpected problem while displaying this
> message. Check your computer for low memory or low disk space and try
> again."
>
> I've already searched the discussion forums and it seems to me that my
> issue
> is very close to this issue: http://tinyurl.com/2kedzp
>
> But thankfully my "undeletable" message isn't in my outbox!
>
> I've tried repairing and deleting the windowsmail.msmessagestore file, but
> Windows Mail recognizes the change and repairs it back to the old messed
> up
> version. I even tried restoring a previous version of the file with the
> same
> results.
>
> My thinking is that if I can prevent Windows Mail from repairing the file
> after I restore an earlier version, I should be ok...am I wrong? If I'm
> right, how do I do that?
>
> Or is this something that we need a patch from Microsoft to fix?
>
> Thanks in advance for your help!
>

Create a new, empty folder to serve as your Mail Store using Windows
Explorer (WinKey+E). Now in Windows Mail, change the Store Folder location
to that new, empty folder. (Tools/Advanced/Maintenance/Store Folder/Change)

Now when you close and reopen Windows Mail, your folders will all be empty
and you can import those you wish to retain using File/Import/Messages,
selecting Windows Mail and point the wizard to the "old" store folder (make
sure you make a note of its location before doing the change) and that
should fix it.

Good luck.
--
Jim Pickering
MVP-Windows Mail Applications
Please reply to newgroup only




"Ian C." <Ian C.@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7230FB69-7772-4ED0-8BCB-872286C18C0C@microsoft.com...
>I received a message last weekend that I moved to a folder, but the heading
> for it in my inbox still remains. Whenever I try to delete the line in my
> inbox I get an "unknown error" message. The preview pane says this
> whenever
> I highlight the line:
>
> "Message could not be displayed
> Windows Mail encountered an unexpected problem while displaying this
> message. Check your computer for low memory or low disk space and try
> again."
>
> I've already searched the discussion forums and it seems to me that my
> issue
> is very close to this issue: http://tinyurl.com/2kedzp
>
> But thankfully my "undeletable" message isn't in my outbox!
>
> I've tried repairing and deleting the windowsmail.msmessagestore file, but
> Windows Mail recognizes the change and repairs it back to the old messed
> up
> version. I even tried restoring a previous version of the file with the
> same
> results.
>
> My thinking is that if I can prevent Windows Mail from repairing the file
> after I restore an earlier version, I should be ok...am I wrong? If I'm
> right, how do I do that?
>
> Or is this something that we need a patch from Microsoft to fix?
>
> Thanks in advance for your help!
>

Thanks for the help! I tried what you told me, and as soon as I closed
Windows Mail after designating a new store folder, Windows Mail began copying
all files from the old location to the new one. I let it do it, just to see
if it fixed; but I still have the same, undeletable message in my inbox.

So, I erased the copied files, reset the Store File to the original
location, and tried again...but this time I tried hitting "cancel" as it
began to copy files. It said it wouldn't change the Store Folder location
because of it.

Windows Mail sure is stubborn about this! Thanks a lot for the idea
though...it sounded good to me. I think the problem is all the backup built
into Windows Mail makes it impossible to fix it right now. Any ideas on how
to circumvent that?

-ic

"Jim Pickering" wrote:

> Create a new, empty folder to serve as your Mail Store using Windows
> Explorer (WinKey+E). Now in Windows Mail, change the Store Folder location
> to that new, empty folder. (Tools/Advanced/Maintenance/Store Folder/Change)
>
> Now when you close and reopen Windows Mail, your folders will all be empty
> and you can import those you wish to retain using File/Import/Messages,
> selecting Windows Mail and point the wizard to the "old" store folder (make
> sure you make a note of its location before doing the change) and that
> should fix it.
>
> Good luck.
> --
> Jim Pickering
> MVP-Windows Mail Applications
> Please reply to newgroup only
>
>
>
>
> "Ian C." <Ian C.@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:7230FB69-7772-4ED0-8BCB-872286C18C0C@microsoft.com...
> >I received a message last weekend that I moved to a folder, but the heading
> > for it in my inbox still remains. Whenever I try to delete the line in my
> > inbox I get an "unknown error" message. The preview pane says this
> > whenever
> > I highlight the line:
> >
> > "Message could not be displayed
> > Windows Mail encountered an unexpected problem while displaying this
> > message. Check your computer for low memory or low disk space and try
> > again."
> >
> > I've already searched the discussion forums and it seems to me that my
> > issue
> > is very close to this issue: http://tinyurl.com/2kedzp
> >
> > But thankfully my "undeletable" message isn't in my outbox!
> >
> > I've tried repairing and deleting the windowsmail.msmessagestore file, but
> > Windows Mail recognizes the change and repairs it back to the old messed
> > up
> > version. I even tried restoring a previous version of the file with the
> > same
> > results.
> >
> > My thinking is that if I can prevent Windows Mail from repairing the file
> > after I restore an earlier version, I should be ok...am I wrong? If I'm
> > right, how do I do that?
> >
> > Or is this something that we need a patch from Microsoft to fix?
> >
> > Thanks in advance for your help!
> >
>

Move the entire message store contents yourself to another directory under
Documents so that nothing is in the Windows Mail directory. The will
reinitialize the message store. Then you can use File | Import to get the
messages from the older directory, but that is a very drastic move just for
one stuck message.

steve

"Ian C." <IanC@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A47FAB5A-EEA6-4F5F-84C6-D31D5FB8816A@microsoft.com...
> Thanks for the help! I tried what you told me, and as soon as I closed
> Windows Mail after designating a new store folder, Windows Mail began
> copying
> all files from the old location to the new one. I let it do it, just to
> see
> if it fixed; but I still have the same, undeletable message in my inbox.
>
> So, I erased the copied files, reset the Store File to the original
> location, and tried again...but this time I tried hitting "cancel" as it
> began to copy files. It said it wouldn't change the Store Folder location
> because of it.
>
> Windows Mail sure is stubborn about this! Thanks a lot for the idea
> though...it sounded good to me. I think the problem is all the backup
> built
> into Windows Mail makes it impossible to fix it right now. Any ideas on
> how
> to circumvent that?
>
> -ic
>
> "Jim Pickering" wrote:
>
>> Create a new, empty folder to serve as your Mail Store using Windows
>> Explorer (WinKey+E). Now in Windows Mail, change the Store Folder
>> location
>> to that new, empty folder. (Tools/Advanced/Maintenance/Store
>> Folder/Change)
>>
>> Now when you close and reopen Windows Mail, your folders will all be
>> empty
>> and you can import those you wish to retain using File/Import/Messages,
>> selecting Windows Mail and point the wizard to the "old" store folder
>> (make
>> sure you make a note of its location before doing the change) and that
>> should fix it.
>>
>> Good luck.
>> --
>> Jim Pickering
>> MVP-Windows Mail Applications
>> Please reply to newgroup only
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Ian C." <Ian C.@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:7230FB69-7772-4ED0-8BCB-872286C18C0C@microsoft.com...
>> >I received a message last weekend that I moved to a folder, but the
>> >heading
>> > for it in my inbox still remains. Whenever I try to delete the line in
>> > my
>> > inbox I get an "unknown error" message. The preview pane says this
>> > whenever
>> > I highlight the line:
>> >
>> > "Message could not be displayed
>> > Windows Mail encountered an unexpected problem while displaying this
>> > message. Check your computer for low memory or low disk space and try
>> > again."
>> >
>> > I've already searched the discussion forums and it seems to me that my
>> > issue
>> > is very close to this issue: http://tinyurl.com/2kedzp
>> >
>> > But thankfully my "undeletable" message isn't in my outbox!
>> >
>> > I've tried repairing and deleting the windowsmail.msmessagestore file,
>> > but
>> > Windows Mail recognizes the change and repairs it back to the old
>> > messed
>> > up
>> > version. I even tried restoring a previous version of the file with
>> > the
>> > same
>> > results.
>> >
>> > My thinking is that if I can prevent Windows Mail from repairing the
>> > file
>> > after I restore an earlier version, I should be ok...am I wrong? If
>> > I'm
>> > right, how do I do that?
>> >
>> > Or is this something that we need a patch from Microsoft to fix?
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance for your help!
>> >
>>

Hi Ian,

Go to this link and do the reset Windows Mail. It will work, but note this resets it like it was on installation. (clean slate)

http://www.vista64.net/tricks-n-tips/62560-solving-windows-mail-problems.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn