Outlook Express though outdated and scrapped is still used by some organizations or professionals. Application freezing problems become quite common in OE when the underlying DBX data file becomes corrupted owing to oversize. There are multiple manual techniques to reduce DBX file size, but the most effective way to overcome the issue has been found to be converting it to PST format, access data through Outlook, and then delete/archive old emails. Stellar DBX to PST converter is a wonderful tool to help out with such a conversion.
When a product becomes obsolete, its vendor stops offering support or upgrades; that?s why moving on to newer product versions is advised. However, sometimes organizations that have been using an application for years find it hard to forsake it entirely and migrate to a new smarter product. And they have good reason to do so ? migration costs are high, they involve risk of data loss, and the in-house staff needs to be trained to work with the new product. So they keep putting it off and all goes on smoothly until the day the old product develops an issue and the organization cannot find a way to resolve it. And without any help from the vendor, getting the problem solved seems impossible.
That?s exactly what happened to one of our known associates who had been using Outlook Express for years and then one day started facing issues like send-receive problems, application freezes, and crashes. Though he was advised to move on to Outlook, he didn?t want to budge citing that his old mailbox data was too precious to be given up on and that he needed to find a better way out.
Herein, we?re discussing the techniques that we recommended him to follow to safely extract all mailbox data from the damaged DBX file and then move to Outlook hassle-freely.
What to do when DBX reached size limit?
The primary reason behind DBX file damage is the over cluttering of data within it. If you?re not in the habit of regularly deleting old emails, creating backups, and archiving old mailbox data, eventually, your mailbox clutter will cause the underlying data file to breach its size limit giving rise to the ?DBX reached size limit? problem. And that, in turn, can put a halt to all your mailbox activity.
Since OE has been scrapped, finding a direct solution to tackle the issue is tough, but not impossible. Here are some fixes and workarounds you could try in such a situation:
- Delete unnecessary emails and large attachments from the DBX file
- Create a new DBX file and compact it using the following steps:
- Backup the DBX file and create a new one
- Import the message from the store directory of the backup DBX file
- Move the old emails to another DBX file or delete the old emails
- Do a compact of the new DBX file
- Follow these steps:
- Import mailbox items into another email client, and split emails into 2 folders
- Setup a local email server
- Setup an IMAP account
- Transfer these emails to that IMAP account
- Setup Outlook Express that account as POP
- Download emails in Outlook Express
- Repeat with the other IMAP folder
While this makes for a good strategy, setting up a local email server isn?t exactly advisable unless your purpose for doing that is for the current only.
A better option ? import DBX to PST
When users face the Outlook Express Inbox full problem and use the above-mentioned techniques to no avail, they generally reach a dead end where quitting all efforts and simple moving on to Outlook with accepted data loss seems to be the only plausible option. This, however, is far from the only option they have. A great way to overcome the issue is to import DBX to PST format and then split the resultant PST into multiple small files. These files can then be imported into Outlook one by one to access all mailbox data.
There are a number of tools available online which facilitate the conversion of DBX files to PST format, but we have found Stellar Converter for DBX to be the most user-friendly and effective software program for accomplishing this task. The tool safely exports all emails and respective attachments from DBX format files into equivalent PST files through a 3-step approach: select, scan, and convert. And it is equipped with a fully interactive GUI which makes tool operation extremely simple. The advanced version of the software supports batch conversion of multiple DBX and identities and gives you the option to save converted data in other formats like Office 365, MSG, EML, RTF, HTML, and PDF. Honestly, when you have a product that allows achieving the task at hand in such a convenient manner and at an affordable price, why think of anything else?
Wrapping it up
Problem or not, sticking around with an obsolete email client like Outlook Express simply because it is convenient isn?t the wisest thing to do; you?ll never know when insurmountable issues will catch up with you. Instead of waiting around for an impossible situation to crop up, make the switch to Outlook now with click-based intuitive tools like Stellar Converter for DBX.
