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Mac Forum / Applications / Outlook Express / February 2005Help! can't Import or access an old Outlook Express mail file
I have conducted extensive research but have been unable to locate an answer to this problem. I have been unable to migrate/import/access my old outlook express email file, despite the fact that I use Outlook Express currently. My computer is an iMac, running OS 9. The old email file is 10 MB in size. I have tried to import it to a new identity in my current Outlook Express 5.0, but it can't be selected because it doesn't register as an available file on the import function, so I can't select it. Can anyone take me through this process in detail? - I can't imagine it is that complicated but I can't find the answer anywhere. Michael Ravnitzky mikerav@mindspring.com > I have conducted extensive research but have been unable to locate an > answer to this problem. [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > Michael Ravnitzky > mikerav@mindspring.com You can't import OE 5.0x mail back into OE 5.0x via the File > Import method. The only way to do it is copy the relevant Messages and Database files (you must have both) into a new Identity folder, and then switch to that Identity. You can take a look at the layout of a standard Identities folder on my site here... <http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tg.online/oe/mud.html> Ricky  SignatureIf you need to reply directly to me, just remove the capitalised letters from my faked e-mail address. Otherwise, please post back to the newsgroups. See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. What if you no longer have the Database file, just the messages file? Is there at least a way to read it in a fairly clean format? Mike >> I have conducted extensive research but have been unable to locate an >> answer to this problem. [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > > Ricky > What if you no longer have the Database file, just the messages file? Is > there at least a way to read it in a fairly clean format? [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] >> >> Ricky You can try to load the Messages file in BBEdit, but the content displayed will be fragmented to say the least. Ricky SignatureIf you need to reply directly to me, just remove the capitalised letters from my faked e-mail address. Otherwise, please post back to the newsgroups. See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. I have the same problem. I went to your site, Ricky, and have arranged my folders exactly as shown, and still can't access my old email messages or address book. Some background: I have a new iMac that runs OS X. I have the content of my old iMac on a CD, and I have copied my OE 5 Identity files into the Identity folder in the OS 9 Applications folder. When I open OE 5, Classic launches, and OE 5 opens, but it does not contain my old messages or address book. I made sure to copy all the files in my old Identity folder, including Database and Messages. What is missing?? TIA - Lerissa > > I have conducted extensive research but have been unable to locate an > > answer to this problem. [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] > See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on > protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. > I have the same problem. I went to your site, Ricky, and have arranged > my folders exactly as shown, and still can't access my old email [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Lerissa Hi Lerissa, Your issue is slightly different because OS X will look for its Classic OE Identities folder in a different pathway than the one you might expect. Normally, the Identities folder should be here... Mac HD:Documents:Microsoft User Data:Identities: It seems from what you wrote that this isn't the case on your system, but that may not be important, because OS X will need the Identities folder to be here... Mac HD:Users:[your account]:Documents:Microsoft User Data:Identities:[your Identity]: In other words, the Identities folder needs to reside within your Home folder of OS X, not where it is at present. Try moving the folder across and see what happens. HTH, Ricky SignatureIf you need to reply directly to me, just remove the capitalised letters from my faked e-mail address. Otherwise, please post back to the newsgroups. See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. > > I have the same problem. I went to your site, Ricky, and have arranged > > my folders exactly as shown, and still can't access my old email [quoted text clipped - 44 lines] > See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on > protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. Hi Ricky - Thanks for the quick response. I moved the folder and restarted the computer ... nothing. So frustrating ... they are right there. Help? Lerissa >>> I have the same problem. I went to your site, Ricky, and have > arranged [quoted text clipped - 64 lines] > > Lerissa OK, here's another thing you can try... Launch OE and then go to File > Switch Identity. This should show you the list of available Identities. Rename one of the Identities there with a conspicuous name e.g. XYZXYZ and then perform a search within the Finder for that conspicuous name. You should find just one folder, and that will be the location of your current (empty) Identities folder. Once you have found this, move your real Identities folder into that same pathway and relaunch OE. When you go to File > Switch Identity again, you should see your old Identities folder listed again. HTH, Ricky SignatureIf you need to reply directly to me, just remove the capitalised letters from my faked e-mail address. Otherwise, please post back to the newsgroups. See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. Hi Ricky - That didn't work either. :( Just for grins, I tried opening OE from the CD that contains the backup of my old computer's hard disk (including all the OE message files). It went directly to the new hard drive and opened the new identity. I noticed that you wrote to another poster with the same problem that if this trick didn't work, you were out of ideas. Still true?? I hope not ... Lerissa > >>> I have the same problem. I went to your site, Ricky, and have > > arranged [quoted text clipped - 81 lines] > -- > If you need to reply directly to me, just remove the capitalised letters > from my faked e-mail address. Otherwise, please post back to the > newsgroups. > > See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on > protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. > Hi Ricky - > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Lerissa Hi again Lerissa, If you followed my last piece of advice, then it means that you have confirmed the correct pathway in which OE is looking for its Identities data, and moved the correct Identity into that pathway. If you really did that, and if OE still doesn't display the data that you're expecting, then it implies that the contents of the Identity are either damaged or otherwise empty. I suppose you could try to compact the database, but I suspect the data is irretrievable. To be sure, have you checked the file sizes of the Messages and Database files within what you believe to be the real Identity folder? These should be quite large files (tens or hundreds of megabytes). In addition, have you tried to drag the Messages file onto a text editor to see if any familiar mail data is contained within the file? HTH, Ricky SignatureIf you need to reply directly to me, just remove the capitalised letters from my faked e-mail address. Otherwise, please post back to the newsgroups. See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. Hi Ricky: I tried opening the Messages file with TextEdit, and it worked. The Messages file is 245 mg. The database file is 25.3 mgs. I am getting a lot of error messages when I use OE, though ... maybe it's my copy of OE that's corrupt, rather than the files? Should I delete OE from the hard drive and download a new copy? Or ... is there another mail program that is good at opening OE files? Thanks - L. > Hi Ricky: > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > L. Hi Lerissa, The issue is much more likely to be due to a corruption in the Messages and/or Database files, rather than an issue with the OE application itself. If you wish to double-check this though, download a fresh copy of OE from here... <http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx#OE> Install the fresh version of OE, and get rid of the other versions that are installed (just send them to the trashcan). Move the correct Identities folder into the default location in which OE expects to find it, i.e. Mac HD:Documents:Microsoft User Data:Identities: I would also delete the following preferences file... Mac HD:System Folder:Preferences:Outlook Express Prefs Finally, launch the fresh version of OE and see if it displays your messages correctly. If it doesn't, it's fairly safe to conclude that the Messages and/or Database files in your Identities folder must be corrupt. The bad news is that you would be stuck at this point, as no other application can really deal with these corrupt files. HTH, Ricky SignatureIf you need to reply directly to me, just remove the capitalised letters from my faked e-mail address. Otherwise, please post back to the newsgroups. See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. ARGHHH ... how frustrating! Okay, I give up. I still have the hard drive from my old machine - maybe I can re-rescue my email. But two more questions: 1. Why is the data so fragile? It seems easy to corrupt it. 2. What other email program do you use/recommend? Thanks for all the help and advice, Ricky. Lerissa > > Hi Ricky: > > [quoted text clipped - 46 lines] > See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on > protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. > ARGHHH ... how frustrating! > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Lerissa Hi Lerissa, 1) You're not the first person to ask the question, and I'm sure you won't be the last. I've worked in the tech support environment for many years now and we've dealt with thousands of Mac customers that use OE, but only a small proportion of those have suffered from irretrievable errors in the Messages and Database files. So maybe that suggests that the setup isn't as fragile as you might think, though that's not much consolation if you've just lost a stack of important e-mails. The general rule is to make back-ups when things are in a healthy state (say once a month) and then restore from them as and when appropriate. 2) I'm a long time OS X user, and as such I'm rarely exposed to anything other than Apple Mail and Microsoft Entourage, both of which are excellent e-mail clients (the latter is commercial software, the former is free). If you're not ready to upgrade to OS X yet, you could try the Classic version of Entourage (part of Office 2001), Netscape Communicator or Eudora Mail. HTH, Ricky SignatureIf you need to reply directly to me, just remove the capitalised letters from my faked e-mail address. Otherwise, please post back to the newsgroups. See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. Hi Ricky - I'm new to OS X and didn't realize it has free email software. So now I'm all set up and emailing again. Thanks. I guess I'm glad to hear that Outlook doesn't corrupt other people's messages too often. I'm still wondering, though: if I can open the messages file with TextEdit and read it (through all the garbage), is it actually corrupted? And here's a question that's not really for this list: can I take the internal HD out of my Rev B iMac and use it as an external HD to back up my new iMac? Thanks again ... Lerissa > > ARGHHH ... how frustrating! > > [quoted text clipped - 37 lines] > See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on > protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. > Hi Ricky - > I'm new to OS X and didn't realize it has free email software. So now [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Lerissa Hi Lerissa, The ability to open the Messages file in TextEdit does not mean that the file is corrupt, neither does it mean that the file is not corrupt. The conclusion that there is corruption in the file comes from the other behaviour that you've witnessed previously. You could remove the HD from the old iMac and use it for backup purposes on the new iMac, but you'll obviously need some way of connecting the HD to the new machine. I think it's possible to set it up inside a suitable USB case and have OS X mount it as a separate volume. I haven't had any reason to do that myself though, so I don't know if there are some other complications of which I'm not aware. As you wrote, this group probably isn't the best place to ask that particular question. HTH, Ricky SignatureIf you need to reply directly to me, just remove the capitalised letters from my faked e-mail address. Otherwise, please post back to the newsgroups. See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. Thanks, Ricky. I really appreciate all the help and information. Lerissa > > Hi Ricky - > > I'm new to OS X and didn't realize it has free email software. So now [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > See Q048 on http://machelp.webhop.net/ for more details on > protecting yourself from newsgroup spam. |
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