Unable to delete a mail folder (Office XP Pro SP3)

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I can’t delete a mail folder under the Personal Folders/Local in Outlook 2002. Outlook give me an error message. Restart the Outlook would not slove the problem.

This problem started when the Outlook crashed several months ago. After the recovery, I was not able to delete any message in this mail folder. To solve the problem, I created a new mail folder and exported all mails in the problem folder to this new folder. The new folder works normally. Then I have an undeletable folder standing there forever.

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Have you tried the scanpst tool? See Repair an .ost or .pst file in Outlook.

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Hi Hans,

scanpst.exe does not help.

After running the scanpst.exe, when I deleted problem folder from Local folder, it would be moved to the Deleted Items folder.

Then I right-clicked on the Deleted Items folder and chose Empty “Deleted Items” folder, Outlook gave me an error message as the screen shot shown on my first post.

If I right-clicked on the problem folder directly and chose to delete this folder, Outlook would give me a different error message as following:

Post edited by StuartR to reduce size of graphic. Please don’t post images larger than 600 x 480

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You can create a new .pst file, specify it as the delivery location and copy everything you want from the old .pst to the new one. You should then be able to close the old .pst file.

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You can create a new .pst file, specify it as the delivery location and copy everything you want from the old .pst to the new one. You should then be able to close the old .pst file.

Hans, my boss has this problem too. Only it is with an outgoing message that won’t delete. It sent the message about 60 times before stopping. I’d like to create a new PST file but am unsure about how to do it. Using OfficeXP. Can you help me a bit, please? Thanks!

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See if one of the methods described in Message stuck in Outbox helps.

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See if one of the methods described in Message stuck in Outbox helps.

I don’t understand how to move folders to the “new” .pst. I feel like I’ve missed some vital information.

I looked at the link you provided and #3 was what I think I should be doing but where does the original PST show up so I can move folders from old to new and delete my outbox from the old? At least I assume that is what I should do. Very confused.

Thanks for your help.

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You can have more than one .pst file open at the same time: select File | Open | Outlook Data File… to select a .pst file and open it.
When you have two .pst files open, you can move messages or entire folders from one to the other by drag-and-dropping them. If you hold down Ctrl while dropping, you’ll copy instead of move them.

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