Outlook Express Inbox is Empty with Low Disk Space Error

Outlook Express mail folders are prone to corruption due to factors such as, file oversize issues, unexpected shutdown, antivirus scanning, background compaction, and more. Consequently, you might observe Outlook Express behaving sluggishly when trying to access the mail folders. One of the most common symptoms that you can notice with a corrupted DBX folder is that its e-mails start disappearing unknowingly. To restore the data in such cases, you can either restore the folder from a suitable backup or use a commercial Outlook Express Recovery application for file repair.

For instance, consider an instance when you try to open Outlook Express. The application starts, but the Inbox appears as empty. There are no e-mail messages to view. In addition, you receive an error message as below:

“Folder could not be displayed. Outlook express could not open this folder.
Possible causes are: Low disk space. Low memory.”

The error occurs when there is sufficient disk space and memory available.

Cause

Some possible reasons for the above error to occur are:

(1) Outlook Express Inbox.dbx is set to read-only.
(2) An antivirus program in scanning the Outlook Express mail folders.
(3) Inbox.dbx is corrupted.

Solution

Based on the causes discussed above, you need to apply these measures to solve the given problem:

(1) You need to remove the read-only attribute of Inbox.dbx file. For this, you can locate the file using Windows file search option (Find or Search) and right-click to view its Properties. You can then clear its Read-only check box and click 'Apply' to save the settings.
(2) You should ensure that no antivirus software is scanning the e-mails of Outlook Express.
(3) If the Inbox.dbx is damaged, you can rename, delete or repair it. To rename or delete the folder, you need to first locate it using Windows file search option. Since Outlook Express doesn't provide any built-in repair utility for its mail folders, you need to use a third-party Outlook Express Recovery utility to repair it.

The third-party *.dbx file repair tools can Recover Outlook Express using systematic and safe file repair approach. These utilities are easy to install and implement with suitable instructions.

Stellar Phoenix Outlook Express Recovery is a powerful utility designed to repair and restore corrupted DBX folder created with Outlook Express 5.x and 6.x. The safe Outlook Express Recovery utility restores the data as new *.dbx or *.eml file(s). The tool is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000.