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Solved: Outlook Express "Message could not be retrieved"

15K views 12 replies 2 participants last post by  throoper 
#1 ·
Hello: I have this problem quite often when downloading my email through Outlook Express. It always occurs at the start of the day, never during the day, although I do “Send/Receive” dozens of times a day.

My email appears to download normally, but then I get this error message:

<<Message number 1 could not be retrieved. Account: 'pop3.phonecoop.coop', Server: 'pop3.phonecoop.coop', Protocol: POP3, Server Response: '-ERR Can't open the message file - it's gone!', Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 0x800CCC90, Error Number: 0x800420CD>>>

Sometimes this message is followed by several more, beginning “Message number 2 could not be retrieved ...” and so on.

I know for sure of at least two recent emails which have been sent but which I’ve never received. Could this be why?

I have three questions:
1. What is this and can I fix it?
2. Can I stop it happening again?
3. Are the emails which couldn't be retrieved lost forever? Or is there any way I can read them, or at least find out who they came from, so I can ask for them to be re-sent?

(Actually, that’s about five questions, but what am I - a statistician?)

Many thanks for any help - what a great site this is.
 
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#2 ·
Hi JoeRed and welcome to TSG.

Best place to start would be at the server.
Log into your account via the web at Phonecoop and see if the problem mails are sitting there.
If they are in the Inbox at the website, you may be able to open and read them there. If you can't, they are probably corrupt and should be deleted from the server.

T. :)
 
#3 ·
Many thanks for that, throoper.
I’ve logged onto my web mail at the ISP, and found nothing there. Literally nothing - no emails past or present, corrupt or otherwise.
Meanwhile, I continue to get the error now and then.
Any further suggestions gratefully received.
 
#4 ·
It might be a problem with the pop3uidl.dbx file. That's what keeps track of what has already been downloaded from the server.
You'll need to locate and open the Message Store folder.

You need to have Hidden files and Folders showing.
At the top of any folder(My Documents for example) click Tools>Folder Options>View tab.
Scroll down the list and place a check next to "Show Hidden Files and Folders" then click Apply and OK.

In OE
Click on Tools>Options>Maintenance tab>Store Folder.
On the Store Location box, highlight the address by pressing the Tab key on your keyboard.
Press Control+C (both at the same time) to copy the address to the clipboard.
Click Cancel on all boxes and close OE.

Click on Start>Run.
Press Control+V (both at the same time) to paste the address into the command line and click OK.
The Store Folder containing all the DBX files should open.

Be sure that OE is closed. Find and delete the pop3uidl.dbx file.
Open OE and see if the error appears.
Note: Any messages that are still on the server will redownload once the pop3uidl is deleted. You say you didn't find any there, so it shouldn't be a problem.

As to why there were none, you likely don't have OE set to leave messages on the server.

T. :)
 
#5 ·
Many thanks for that. Your instructions were really clear and easy to follow.

I’ve done as you suggested, last night, and restarted OE without problems. Unfortunately, when I started up OE this morning, I got the usual message:

Message number 1 could not be retrieved. Account: 'pop3.phonecoop.coop', Server: 'pop3.phonecoop.coop', Protocol: POP3, Server Response: '-ERR Can't open the message file - it's gone!', Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 0x800CCC90, Error Number: 0x800420CD

all the way down to:

Message number 15 could not be retrieved. Account: 'pop3.phonecoop.coop', Server: 'pop3.phonecoop.coop', Protocol: POP3, Server Response: '-ERR Can't open the message file - it's gone!', Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 0x800CCC90, Error Number: 0x800420CD

At the same time, 20 messages were downloaded as normal. Does this mean I should have had 35 messages, and 15 of them are lost?

It seems this problem only occurs overnight, for some reason.

Anyway, any further suggestions gratefully received!
 
#6 ·
I would think it would be at the server, then.
I do find it odd that it's only giving the error right after boot, but not on subsequent Send/Receive.

One thing you can do is contact your ISP and explain the problem and have them clear your mailbox.
Depending on who you get, they may just look in your mailbox and see there's nothing there and tell you it's a problem with OE. Ask them to clear it anyway just to be sure.

Another thing would be to enable logging in OE,
Tools>Options>Advanced tab.
Under troubleshooting, place a check by Mail and OK. Make sure all other troubleshootings items are UNCHECKED.
Reboot the computer and open OE. A log file will generate showing all activity.

The log file will save into the Message Store folder, and should be named pop.log and will open with Notepad.

DO NOT POST IT. It will contain all the email addresses of messages along with yours.
I'll PM you my E-mail and have you send it to me to see what's going on.

T. :)
 
#7 ·
I should have mentioned before that my OE has other odd behaviours; for instance, whenever I click on &#8220;Reply&#8221; on an email, the new message which opens has as its sender one of my subsidiary identities, not my main identity. This idiosyncrasy is constant, but it hasn't always done it - only for the past few months.
 
#10 ·
Ah, memo to self: read all the instructions! Thanks, got it now. I've emailed my ISP's tech help, as you suggested, and if that doesn't fix it, I'll send you that text document (it's called Pop3; would that be the one?) via email. Thanks!

For the sender on replies, is it the same when you create a New Message?
T. :)
Nope, just replies; New Message is all normal.
 
#11 ·
Yes, the Pop3.log.
If it's been created and the errors have occurred, they should now be in the log. Move it to the desktop or other location so you can locate it easily and it doesn't keep adding data to the log. Then you can go back into Options>Advanced tab and uncheck the Troubleshooting>Mail. No sense in making more logs and eating up HD space.

T. :)
 
#12 ·
Many thanks to Throoper who, working on here and in private emails, appears to have solved my problem; 10 days later, and no recurrence of the error message.
Hate to think what this would have cost me in money and inconvenience if I&#8217;d had to take it in to a computer shop. This is a great site - I&#8217;m off right now to click on the &#8220;donate&#8221; button!
 
#13 ·
Great to see that solved the problem. :D

For the benefit of others, here's what we found out.

The Log files showed that when OE polled for new mail, the server would respond with the list and download the new messages.
OE was set to NOT leave messages on the server.
OE would send the Delete command to the server after the download and the server was responding with OK and confirming Message deleted.
The next time OE would check for messages, the server was responding with the list of the messages that had already been deleted, resulting in the "Message Gone" error.
The messages had been removed, but the list of new messages was not removed at the same time. The server was not cleaning up things.
As it appeared to be a problem at the server end and the ISP was less than helpful (from the ISP response: "It looks like you've accidently deleted something it was trying to send."), we decided to try working around the problem.
Simply setting OE to leave messages on the server for a day or two before deleting them seems to have solved the problem.
 
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