Messages Cannot Be Opened

This is one of those cryptic errors that prevent you from opening and reading your mail. When encountering this error message, there is usually a corrupted .DBX file associated with the MS Outlook client. While the cause of this problem is not always known, it can be fixed in a few simple steps.

Open Microsoft Outlook and select “Tools” from the main menu.

Next, click on “Accounts”

Choose the “Mail”

Click “Duplicate Mail Account”

Finally, select “Remove”

Continue with these steps until you have made copies of all mail accounts and deleted the old ones. This is one little trick that usually solves this common Outlook error. If it doesn’t, use the built-in Windows Search utility to locate the .DBX file and try renaming it.

Unable to Delete Emails

Another common Outlook error is one that prevents you from deleting mail in your inbox. Just like the issue above, this one is typically the result of file corruption. In this scenario, copies of messages that have already been deleted are mistakenly placed in the MS Outlook trash folder. This in turn, confuses the application and stops you from deleting other messages.

To correct this error, copy all the messages in the “Delete” folder to another folder. Next, shut down the Outlook application, launch “Windows Explorer” and select the option that allows you to search for hidden files. From there, search for the file named something like “Deleted Items.DBX.” Once you find the file, delete it. Following these steps should solve the problem.

Unable to Receive Emails

This common Outlook error is essentially the exact opposite of the one above, as it prevents you from receiving mail with MS Outlook. Not having the ability to receive mail is without a doubt the most frustrating of all errors as you will not have any access to your messages until the problem is resolved. The good thing is that this is issue is generally the easiest to fix, mainly because it is often caused by simply having too many emails in your inbox. Your inbox can only store so much data so when that limit has been exceeded, there is no more room to hold new messages.

To eliminate this problem and get your messages flowing again, you can perform one of the following actions:

Delete the messages you no longer need.

Copy messages to a different location on your hard drive outside of the Outlook application.

Increase the amount of disk space allotted to your email account.

Conclusion

Common Outlook errors have been slowing down PC users everywhere for years. Fortunately, many of these issues are minor and can be easily fixed without suffering from the excessive unavailability of your mail access.