Well Dan ,,, I personally do not have documented proof, I am going by what Microsoft MVP's (Most Valuable Professional) are saying and advising. These are professional people in the computer industry who are recognized and authorized by Microsoft to answer questions and help troubled users. It is highly possible for you to never have had a problem along these lines as the bug appears to only kick in under a given set of conditions, another thing MS wont admit is set your View to "Group messages by conversation", then try to download about 300 emails and see what happens. ,,,,,, but I am curious to know how you would know if you suddenly lost a hundred stored emails from as many as you have saved. ,,, you don't necessarily lose a whole folder (you can though), but may just lose some or all emails stored in a folder. The problem may also be individual computer specific, so my advice to people who lose folders/msg.'s is to turn off back ground compacting, this at least will eliminate that possibility as the cause. If you have a better explanation as to why they lose whole folders or msg.'s without any error msg., we would all very much like to hear it, and those who prefer your remedy is certainly free to use it. I am a little surprised that you would believe Microsoft would tell you the truth about it. No, the msg.'s are not deleted, they are still there but in a corrupt file which cannot be read by OE, which is why they can usually be recovered by rebuilding the Folders.dbx file which contains info. on every folder and msg. I have included below, from some of the MS-MVP's on this subject, condensed excerpts of answers to people who have lost msg.'s or folders . Bob Hays PS: I am having mail server problems (last 4 days) sometimes I receive mail sometimes not (mostly not), same thing with sending. Am trying to keep up by reading the archives and repeated sends. _________________________________ **************************** 4/21/2001 Hello XXXXXX, There have been reports of McAfee's email scan and auto-update facilities corrupting Outlook Express's data folders (*.dbx) causing massive loss of email, particularly the inbox folder - and causing the disappearance of other local folders. Also, turn off background compaction at OE tools, options, maintenance. Sandi ... Microsoft MVP (Internet Explorer and Outlook Express) ********************************************************************* 6/22/2001 (snip) This may have happened if the folder was in the midst of compacting when OE downloaded messages..... (snip) Margaret MS MVP ********************************************************************** 1/10/2001 There appears to be a problem wherein when OE tries to access a folder (e.g. to put a newly downloaded message in it) while it is being compacted some messages or the whole folder may be lost. Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE/OE Compacting in the background has been correlated to data loss. If OE tries to access and add to a folder that is being compacted, data loss may occur. If a user closes OE while compacting is in progress and then notices that Msimn is still running and does an End Task on it, data loss will probably occur. Go to Tools | Options | Maintenance and turn off compacting in the background. The periodically (say once a week) click Tools | Work offline (or double click Working Online on the Status Bar). In the Folder list click Outlook Express at the top. Click File | Folder | Compact All. Don't touch your computer until it is done. Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE/OE ******************************************************** From: "Dan" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [OE] folders disappeared Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 18:33:36 -0700 Robert= I see you keep posting this , OE, MS dont concur, also I have over 240 folders subfolders and sub sub folders , since 1997, and I run compact in the background , I have never lost a folder once , what can you mean it happens all the time when I run OE on 3 systems here and have never had this problem and I checked with MS and they claim it don't happen, , where is proof, because since it it dont happen to me, dont mean it dont happen, I just want proof on this statement , where do you get this info? If they disappear from OE they are not deleted then where are they , would not a *.dbx in find files find them ? Dan

Hi Folks! I gotta get my 2¢ in here.......... Dan, listen to Robert... He's right!! I've been having trouble Compacting 'All' Folders ever since I purchased my last system (4 yrs). Always ended up having to compact one folder at a time. And still couldn't compact them all! My system would lock up or crash!! A pain!! A couple weeks ago, I did exactly what Robert said to do..... I turned off the Automatic Compacting in the background. Went Offline, then compacted All Folders for the first time!! (Took a long time, too!) Since I have only a 2GB HD, I need to conserve as much room as possible. I've always kept my system as clean as I could, consistently..... Deleting .tmp files, Internet Temp files, keeping the Recycle Bin empty, Scanning and Defraging..... But still was losing space..... Got down to 200-MB left open on my HD. Not a good thing! Someone else (I think from the Computer List) reminded me about Window Washer (completely forgotten about this program and hadn't reinstalled it). Did that.... and between cleaning with that neat little program and turning off Compacting in the background and going offline before compacting....... I have gained back up to 500+MB's, which is where I like to stay. (at least 25% of my drive open.) Robert, I can't thank you enough!!! This has been a thorn in my side for years and never could find the answer! (Never can find anything on the MS site!) Now I've got some wiggle room on my HD! Thanks, again! ede In Good Old Texas, USA! *-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-* He who begins too much accomplishes little. ~German proverb *-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*-..-*