# Need help opening .dbx files!



## janragan (Jun 26, 2003)

I have saved the content of my email files to a folder as .dbx files. Now I am clueless how to read them ... They open in notepad and this is what they look like when you open one...

Ï*þÅýtofãÑN ÀO£	Ô   Ô* À P P   Ôê  Ô*  

What have I done wrong and can they be fixed???? Thanks!


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## Augie65 (Mar 24, 2005)

You can download this free OE Reader if you just want to view the email instead of moving them back into OE.


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## janragan (Jun 26, 2003)

Thanks! Downloaded but don't understand how it works. It just tells me there is no message in the folder I want to open...
How do I restore the folder content back to the correct files in OE?


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## Augie65 (Mar 24, 2005)

Open the viewer, click on File> Open and browse to the location of the .dbx file you saved. Select the .dbx file and click open. The top window will list the emails, just select the one you want and the message header will appear in the lower window. With the message selected, click File and then Message view. You can then see the message.


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## janragan (Jun 26, 2003)

The 3 files I need to open I can see when I go to the folder they are saved in... they look just like the jibberish I pasted above. When I try to open them with the program it gives a pop-up stating the folder is empty. 
I decided to save all my email and maybe reload windows recently. Took most all my email files and moved them to this other folder (why??? duh???) Now the ones I moved are the ones that won't open and the ones still remaining in OE will open but I can read them in OE if needed. There has to be a broken link somewhere.... if the files are not there...I wouldn't be able to click and open the jibberish....AARGH!!!!!


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## sekirt (Mar 28, 2003)

You may have damaged the .DBX files that you opened in Notepad.



> from Tom Koch's article:
> One source of DBX corruption is trying to open and edit a DBX file yourself.
> 
> Tip: Avoid the temptation of clicking on a DBX file to see what it contains.
> It is enough to know that a message inside a DBX is not simply a string of text that you can read, but rather is broken up into parts which are not assembled into a legible message until you access the corresponding folder in Outlook Express. Also know that altering* even a single byte in a DBX file* might render the file completely unusable by Outlook Express.


The full article can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx

If you are having difficulty using OE Reader, you can try one of these for recovery:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/resources/tools.htm

sekirt


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## janragan (Jun 26, 2003)

Thanks...will read! Is there anyway to return the moved files BACK to OE?


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## sekirt (Mar 28, 2003)

1) Determine if those files are worth moving back. No sense moving empty or corrupt files.
2) It would be easier to extract the emails if possible and then move the emails back into OE.
3) Once extracted, they will be .EML files. Those can just be dragged back into a folder in OE.

sekirt


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