'The application was unable to open the Outlook Express message store.' Outlook Express Error

Outlook Express folders might get damaged due to several reasons. If the corruption is mild, you can repair by compacting them. But the compaction process is itself observed to cause .dbx file corruption. Windows prior to Windows XP SP2 include background compaction process for OE folders if the the application remains idle for few minutes. But the process might corrupt the folders, particularly when the system is limited of RAM resources or the processor is slow. Thus, if you find your OE folders behaving abruptly or unable to be opened due to corruption, this might be due to these compaction errors. However, background compaction has been removed in Windows XP SP2 and later versions. Such damaged folders are required to be renamed, deleted, restored from backup or scanned using a powerful Mail Recovery tool for Outlook Express.

For an instance, consider that you are working with an antivirus application and an error message pops up asking you to compact the OE folders. You click 'No' to the error message, but the error comes up repeatedly. You update your antivirus tool and restart your computer. After this, you find that few of your emails are missing from your folders.

Cause

One or more Outlook Express folders are corrupted. This might occur due to interruption while compaction process.

Solution

You can follow any of the following measures to resolve the above behavior:

Delete the damaged OE folders and restore the lost emails from backup
Rename the damaged folders. Close OE and navigate the files named as *.dbx in Windows Explorer, while making sure that hidden files and folders are visible. Right-click the damaged file and rename it with extension .old. Restart Outlook Express. It will recreate the missing folder.
Use an efficient third-party tool that could Recover Outlook Express by repairing all damaged .dbx files. These are special Mail Recovery tools incorporated with advanced scanning algorithms that carefully examines a damaged .dbx file and repair them intact. Since such tools provide you interactive user interface, you can use them quite easily with no prior technical understanding.

Stellar Phoenix Outlook Express Recovery is a superior application to repair and restore damaged .dbx files in all cases. The application Recover Outlook Express for all files created with OE 5 and 6. It is non-destructive tool with impressive features and interface. It is compatible with Windows Vista, XP, 2003, 2000 and NT.