Question about Outlook Express

[rduell]

I am having problems with Outlook Express hiding new emails. It is now showing that I have 3 new emails in my Inbox, but I can't see any of them!

Last week it showed that I had one new message. I can't get to it. Yesterday it added another hidden one and just now a 3rd came in but I can't see any of them! I hope they're not important.

Anyway...does anyone know how to "unhide" messages and why Outlook is doing this?

[tinapbeana]

do you have filters/rules set up so that some of your new messages get filed as soon as they come in? if so, your system may show you have 3 new messages, but only 1 on them is actually in your inbox.

for instance, if you have OE setup with a rule to send any mail from the savingadvice.com domain directly to your SavingAdvice folder, it'll never show up in your inbox but it will still be new mail, patiently waiting in that folder for you.

something regular outlook has, so maybe outlook express has it, is a new messages search. on the left-hand side of the window where all your folders are, there might be an option towards the bottom that is called either 'new' or 'unread' mail. or, if you have a option marked 'search' on the left-hand side, try that and see if it'll let you create a search for all new messages.

[rduell]

Originally Posted by tinapbeana

do you have filters/rules set up so that some of your new messages get filed as soon as they come in? if so, your system may show you have 3 new messages, but only 1 on them is actually in your inbox.

for instance, if you have OE setup with a rule to send any mail from the savingadvice.com domain directly to your SavingAdvice folder, it'll never show up in your inbox but it will still be new mail, patiently waiting in that folder for you.

something regular outlook has, so maybe outlook express has it, is a new messages search. on the left-hand side of the window where all your folders are, there might be an option towards the bottom that is called either 'new' or 'unread' mail. or, if you have a option marked 'search' on the left-hand side, try that and see if it'll let you create a search for all new messages.

Just figured it out! I had it set up to group messages in conversations. When I deselected that it showed me the 3 new messages. Funny thing is that none of them should have been grouped with anything. 2 were spam and one was a subscription notice from SavingAdvice but was not grouped with the others from here. Weird!

Thank you for your help. After I read your reply I started hunting around in OE to see what it could be. Now I'll know in the future what to do if this happens again.

[poundwise]

I'm glad your problem was resolved simply.

Just as an aside, you may want to check out Thunderbird, which is a full-featured, free, e-mail client that has some feature and security improvements over Outlook Express.

[rduell]

Thank you. I will do that!

[rduell]

Okay, I downloaded Thunderbird and am using it now.

I'm having basically the same problem. It keeps saying that I have new mail in the local folder, but I can't see it! I've checked everything I know to check, have gone on their help site, and still can't figure it out. It's driving me crazy!

[tinapbeana]

well, i have thunderbird for my flash drive, it might not be exactly the same as what you've got but lemme try:

make sure you click the plus/minus sign next to 'Local Folders', that will expand the options that are beneath it including your inbox, sent mail, etc.

[rduell]

Yep, that is done. None of the folders are in bold like they are when there is unread mail in them.

[tinapbeana]

i've got my thunderbird open and have the same thing: no new mail but you're getting a 'new mail' icon in the lower right-hand corner of your screen, right?

in thunderbird go to you menu bar, select 'Tools', then Options. you'll get a pop-up box, select 'General' from the left hand side of the pop-up box and the on the right-hand side towards the bottom uncheck the box next to 'Show an alert' under "When New Mail Arrives:"

now close out thunderbird and try opening it again. any luck?

[rduell]

Okay. I tried that. I'll wait and see if anything happens. It was also playing the sound indicating that new mail had come in, yet it wasn't showing the new mail.

I'm not really this computer-illiterate usually. LOL!

[tinapbeana]

Originally Posted by rduell

Okay. I tried that. I'll wait and see if anything happens. It was also playing the sound indicating that new mail had come in, yet it wasn't showing the new mail.

I'm not really this computer-illiterate usually. LOL!

if you follow the steps i gave in the earlier post, there's an option to have it not play the sound when you get new mail, either. personally i turn on the pop-ups and sound in any email client i have b/c i find them annoying and distracting...

[rduell]

I had to leave for a bit but when I came back found the new mail icon again. It says "Local Folders has 1 new message" which is what it said before, yet again no folders showing new messages. This is getting comical.

[nate]

Haven't read the whole story yet but just a quick thought, what I would try is go into your inbox, and select all messages and mark them as read. That usually fixes it for me.

[rduell]

I think I finally figured out what Thunderbird is doing. Must be it notifies you each time there is a new email on the server. When I see that it says there is a new email in the Local Folders if I click on "get mail" then the email arrives in my inbox where I can see it. Took me a while but I think I have it now!

[tinapbeana]

there should be a setting in thunderbird where you can tell it to check mail at the server every X minutes, that way you won't have to click the get mail option...

[rduell]

Aha! I did have it checked to check for new messages, BUT I didn't have it checked to download them! What a dunce I am!

I really do promise...I know more about computers than I have appeared to the past couple of days.

[tinapbeana]

Originally Posted by rduell

Aha! I did have it checked to check for new messages, BUT I didn't have it checked to download them! What a dunce I am!

I really do promise...I know more about computers than I have appeared to the past couple of days.

blame on holiday madness!