Outlook, can I delete from the outbox folder.

[magpienja]

Hi all, my daughter has been trying to send a very large file on my account in outlook and its failed to go for some reason,

each time I open outlook it seems to be trying to send this file as it is still showing up in the send folder, but it keeps failing and in the process bringing my PC to a near halt as it keep trying to send the file,

I have tried to delete the file/message from the outbox folder but it seems to just freeze when I open the outbox folder up,

Any ideas guys.

[Saab Dastard]

Try disconnecting your PC from the internet, then open Outlook (offline). Then try to delete it from the outbox.

SD

[P.Pilcher]

The maximum size of email files that can be sent appears to me to be a mystery. I edit a local mag and need to send it in .pdf format to my (human) printer. He has a bt mailbox, I use plusnet. Neither ISP seems to know of any restriction to the size of files that can be sent on asking, but personal experience shows this to be a tad over 17 mB. This means that the mag. usually a 45 mB .pdf needs to be split into 3. O.K. I can live with this, but why can't anybody give me the information? My (human) printer gets much artwork for printing this way and has (as have I) a huge mailbox of several hundred mB, nevertheless, the restrictions of about 17 mB maximum file size remains. With some email providers, this size is much lower.

P.P.

[magpienja]

Hi SD tried that no joy any other ideas, outlook is still repeatedly trying to send this file without success, it just repeats the process over and over, never known this before.

Nick.

[Saab Dastard]

When disconnected, can you move the file to "drafts"? If so, then delete it from there.

When disconnected, try holding down Shift and pressing delete.

Another approach:

Load Outlook in its safe mode ("outlook.exe /safe"). This ensures:
- No plug-ins get loaded that might touch the item.
- Loading Outlook in offline mode means it won't touch the stuck item.
Delete the stuck item in the Outbox folder.
Put Outlook in online mode (File -> Work Offline: disable).
If you restarted Outlook in its safe mode, exit and restart Outlook for normal operation.

If it's Outlook Express, in OE Tools>Options> Maint tab "store folders" note the location. Go to this location and find the outbox. Delete the .dbx file that goes with it. It will recreate itself on restarting OE.

SD

[Avtrician]

The size of file that can be sent, can depend on your mail server, and or the receivers server.

The size can vary depending on the providers.

[magpienja]

SB I think your method would have also done the job and much easer, just looked at your way in outlook and found the outbox folder id, but this it what I did but I am not sure why it worked,

It was suggested to send a new test email when working off line which would then also go to the outbox which it did,

I then tried to delete the new email which I could and also found I then had the option to delete the problem email as long as my test email was also in the outbox, but for some reason the problem email did not delete immediately as normal but seemed to take forever, so I just left it on delete overnight and on looking this morning it was gone very odd,

I have not been able to find out exactly what it was that my daughter was trying to send as she was rushing out when I found the problem yesterday, anyway all is well,


Many thanks for your help, any ideas what my have happened.

Nick.

[Jofm5]

The maximum size of email files that can be sent appears to me to be a mystery.


It is no mystery, email itself (as in the protocols used) can handle any size file you like - however most ISP's will restrict the size you can send/receive so as not to affect server performance (e.g. consuming diskspace and resources tied up with the transmission).

A company I used to work for produced Interoute Express | Welcome (http://www.interouteexpress.com/) - which is a tooltray applet and is free. It integrates with the explorer shell, allowing you to right click and and send to... email via interoute express - this basically opens an email and puts a link in the page whilst the tooltray app uploads to the server for later download - the link will remain valid for one month before the file is purged.