Most people who use Microsoft Outlook as an email client for Gmail or their personal POP
mail would sometimes notice that it is trying to send out emails but there aren’t any in the
outbox. These are usually ghost messages that have been sent earlier or are too large
and stuck in your outbox. Deleting these stuck emails removes them, but there are some traces
that are not visible and deleting these can be a pain as you cannot see them in the first place.
If you are seeing messages being sent out without anything in your outbox, it could be a read
receipt or a corrupted email. Removing this email or solving this error is a bit dicey, but not
impossible. However, before you attempt the following procedure, you will need to take a backup of
your Outlook emails in a safe place. Let’s take you through the entire procedure of safely backing
up your emails and rectifying the problem
Step1: Backing up your emails
In order to back up your emails, we recommend that you first delete all unwanted and junk emails
and later compact the main email storage file. Unlike Outlook Express that stores the Inbox,
Outbox, Sent and other folders in individual DBX files, MS Outlook stores all Emails, Contacts,
Calendar and everything else you see in a single file in its own .PST format. This file is located
deep within the user profile folder for safe keeping. You need to back up this single file to a safe
location such as a different drive on the PC, a pen drive or an optical disc. The backup is needed
because we will be working closely with this file and in an unfortunate event of it being corrupted,
you have a copy of it that can save your day. Since this PST file tends to get very large, it is
suggested that you delete unwanted emails and compress the file using the email client itself. To
compress these files and back up the PST file, do the following:
Click on ‘Tools > Options’ and then select the ‘Mail Setup’ tab
Click on the ‘Data Files’ button and then double-click on ‘Personal Folders’
Click on the ‘Compact Now’ button and wait for a few moments for it to complete..
This procedure will shrink the main PST file that contains all the emails and other Outlook data.
Now we need to back up the data (.PST file) to a safe location. In the same window where you
pressed the Compact Now button, you will find a field ‘Filename:’ and the path to the .PST file we
are looking for. Copy this path, paste it into Windows Explorer and you will find a few extra files. All
you need to do is copy the files called ‘Outlook.pst’ and ‘Archive.pst’ to a safe location. Now that
you have backed up the data, proceed further.
Step2: Downloading the utility
In order to get the stuck emails or ghost mails out of the Outbox, you need to download a utility
from the Microsoft servers. You can download the file from http://bit.ly/QfmYfN. The utility is known
as Information Store Viewer Tool and is distributed for free from Microsoft. The download is in the
form of a self extracting archive. Save it on your desktop.
Step3: Running the utility
From the folder where you just extracted the downloaded file, run the ‘MSbvu32.exe’ utility. You will
be greeted with a very crudely designed window with jargon-filled options. It doesn’t matter; simply
click ‘OK’ and proceed further. If you are not confident about the procedure, just ask a friend or a
professional to handle it for you. You will see a blank Notepad-style window called ‘MDB Viewer
Test Application’. This is where all the action will take place. Now proceed with the following:
Click ‘MDB > Open Message Store’ and select your default ‘.PST’ file from the list. The one that
is the default will be named ‘Personal Folders’ and marked with a D in front of it. Highlight the
file and click ‘Open’. The window will now disappear and you will be back to the previous window.
Now again click on ‘MDB’ and this time select ‘Open Root Folder’. You will now see another
window; take a moment to understand it.
This window will have three columns on the top. The first column ‘Child Folders’ contains certain
rows. Click on the first row named ‘SPAM Search Folder 2’ and on your right side you will see
the messages in this folder. These are the messages that are either stuck or invisible and
cannot be sent out. We need to delete these mails. Proceed ahead.
rows. Click on the first row named ‘SPAM Search Folder 2’ and on your right side you will see
the messages in this folder. These are the messages that are either stuck or invisible and
cannot be sent out. We need to delete these mails. Proceed ahead.
Select the first message and then choose ‘lpMDB->AbortSubmit() (ON SELECTED MSG)’ from
the drop down list in ‘Operations available’. After that, click the ‘Call Function’ button and press
‘OK’ in the following screen.
Now keeping the same message selected, choose ‘lpFld->DeleteMessages() (ON SELECTED
MSGS)’ form the ‘Operations available’ list and then press the ‘Call Function’ button and press
‘OK’ on the following screen. You will notice that you have successfully deleted one stuck
message.
Repeat the two steps for all the messages that are shown in the ‘Messages in folder’ column till
you eliminate all the stuck messages. The “Messages in Folder” pane should be empty, which
means you have successfully dealt with the emails that were notified as being sent out.
Once these steps are complete, click on the ‘Close’ button and then click on ‘MDB > Store
Logoff’. This saves and closes the PST file. You can now close and exit the utility. Now open MS Outlook and you will see that your email client is no longer trying to send ghost
restore the backup you saved earlier.
If you use Outlook very often and are continuously receiving large emails and junk , you might
need to run this utility every so often. This workshop was created due to repeated requests byseveral friends and readers who have the same problem. This method can be used in all versions
of Microsoft Outlook
