Outlook email stuck in outbox

September 26, 2005 6:22 AM

Outlook is holding my email hostage in the outbox...

I was messing with some of the POP settings on one of my email accounts, so they were wrong when I attempted to send an email through that account. I've fixed them, the test message works fine, but for some reason the email in the outbox won't send or open. When I click on it, I get "Outlook has already begun sending this messge." It was kind of a lengthy business email, so is there any way I can recover it? I would just like to get the text, so I can send it through another account. Thanks to anyone who can help :)

posted by eileen to technology (8 answers total)

I had this happen to me when I had outlook, that's part of the reason I switched to thunderbird.
You should be able to open it in a new window and see the text. After that, it's a cut and paste.
I assume that you're on a PC. There should be some way to access the files through the DOS system as well. Perhaps someone else can help you. (I was on a mac, and just clicked the message again after getting the error message).
posted by klangklangston at 6:44 AM on September 26, 2005

Thanks! Unfortunately, the problem is it won't let me open the message in a new window, I can't get to it at all :(
posted by eileen at 6:49 AM on September 26, 2005

Can you move the email messages (drag with the mouse) out of the outbox and into the inbox?
posted by letterneversent at 6:49 AM on September 26, 2005

oooh, good idea. Oddly enough, that worked for a test message I was sending, but not for the email I really need. Argh! This is so strange...
posted by eileen at 6:59 AM on September 26, 2005

There should be some way to access the files through the DOS system as well.

Unfortunately, all your email is kept in a single .pst file. I don't know if it's possible to access the inside of that file from outside Outlook.

When I've had this problem, I've been able to drag the message from the outbox to the inbox as letterneversent said, but I've had to do it by closing Outlook (you may want to Ctrl+Alt+Del and check to see that OUTLOOK.EXE has actually terminated), re-opening it, and going immediately to get the message from the outbox. In the few seconds before it started trying to send it again, I was able to snatch it away. Hopefully this will work for you as well.
posted by musicinmybrain at 9:03 AM on September 26, 2005

If musicinmybrain's suggestion seems like it will work (if you just ... had ... more ... time) try disabling your network connection before restarting outlook (or "work offline" under the file menu)
posted by misterbrandt at 10:44 AM on September 26, 2005

If musicinmybrain's suggestion seems like it will work (if you just ... had ... more ... time) try disabling your network connection before restarting outlook (or "work offline" under the file menu)

:duh: Why didn't I think of that? Thanks for adding that.
posted by musicinmybrain at 2:05 PM on September 26, 2005

This may not even be related to your messing with the POP settings. Outlook just does this sometimes (at least Outlook 2002/XP). In the past I've had to create a new PST file and import the old into the new. I'm sorry I don't remember whether the stuck email ended up in "sent" or just disappeared.

I have a vague memory that leaving Outlook open with the network disconnected for a long time (2-3 hours) sometimes allowed my to drag the message to Drafts, but I know it didn't always work.

Good luck.
posted by RelentlesslyOptimistic at 5:49 AM on September 27, 2005