Outlook is a generally dependable email organization solution that helps many people keep their email in order. However there is a glitch that may cause you to loose all of the emails you have stored in Outlook Express. This can be caused by the mentioned glitch, or you may accidentally delete an email or even a few. Sometimes you may make a new identity in Outlook Express, and then restart the program only to find that your emails are all gone mysteriously. Sometimes, the emails are lost forever, however in most cases you can recover the lost emails by following the below steps. In this tutorial you will learn how to recover emails in Outlook Express.
1. First, open Outlook Express and then click on the “File” menu”. Now select Switch Identity” . Choose your identity from the list and then click on “OK”.
2. Now you will need to locate the “Deleted Items” folder. You will see a list of deleted items. You can select one by clicking on it or you can select several by holding the CTRL key and selecting several of them at one time. Once you have highlighted the emails you would like to recover, simply right-click on them, and then click on “Move To” and then select “Inbox”. Click OK.
3. If the above steps did not aid you in recovering the lost emails, then click on the Windows Start Menu, and then do a search. To do this, open the start menu and then click on search. (In Vista you can use the search bar at the bottom of the Start menu). Once you have access the windows search page, click on “All Files and Folders”, then select “More advanced options.” Click on “Search hidden files and folders” and then “Search subfolders.” Type in “*.dbx” in the “all or part of the file name” field and then click on “Search”.
4. once the results have been returned, right0click on the file you would like to restore and then click “Open containing folder.” Now that you know what folder it is in you can return to Outlook Express. Open the “File” menu in Outlook Express and then select “Import” and then”Messages.” Choose the type of message you want to import and then click on “Next”.
5. Now click on “Import mail from an OE store directory”, and then “OK.” Now go back to the Windows Explorer search window and right-click on one of the .dbx email files labeled “Outlook Express”, and then click on “Properties.” Now copy the path located next to where you see “Location” then paste it into the “Outlook Express Import” window and then click “Next.”
6. Now you will need to choose which folders you want to recover. If you want to restore all of the email files then choose “All Files”. If you only want certain folders to be recovered then you can click on “Selected Folders”. Once you have made your choice click “Next”.
7. To prevent any future occurrences of this problem, you should back up your Outlook Express emails to guard against future data loss. To do this open the file menu and then select the backup option. This will allow you to find the .dbx files and then burn them to a disc. Alternatively you can backup the folders to your hard drive for more convenient access.