# cannot delete "sent items" folder in Outlook Express



## Ranchergirl (Nov 21, 2000)

I have win98se with Internet explorer and Outlook Express 5.5. I have over 1100 items in my "sent items" folder and cannot delete them all at once. The "delete" option is grayed. I suppose I could delete one at a time, but 1100???


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## WhitPhil (Oct 4, 2000)

If you select the first one then scroll down a bit, and with the shift key held, select another one, this should highlight all the documents in between.
If you right mouse, is the Delete available?
If not, what happens if you now hit the DEL key?


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## Ranchergirl (Nov 21, 2000)

Cannot scroll at all. Get black circle with line in it. When right click on selected line, I can delete that line only.

When right click on the "sent Items" folder, the rename, delete, and add to outlook box are all grayed out.


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## mhughes (Feb 12, 2001)

Edit>Select all>edit>delete


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## Ranchergirl (Nov 21, 2000)

Nope. Don't work. Select all is grayed out as is copy. Can only delete one line at a time.


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## WhitPhil (Oct 4, 2000)

Try selecting the folder, and then doing File > Folder > Compact
This will "compact" the folder and will likely run for a while.
When it is finished, see if the deletes work then.


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## Kento (Aug 2, 2000)

Try this. Close Outlook Express and then click start--find--files and search for your *sent items.dbx* file. When you find it right click on it and delete it. This will delete the whole sent items folder in Outlook Express and all emails in it. After you delete it open Outlook Express again and a new sent items.dbx file and a new sent items folder will be created clean. Now see if the new folder will delete properly.

[This message has been edited by Kento (edited 02-27-2001).]


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