Expert: Jim Stiles - 9/27/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi Jim:  I have a large e-mail stuck in my outbox. When I try to delete it I get the message: "The messaging interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem persists restart Outlook. I have tried restarting and also unchecking the box for "send e-mail immediately when connected" and neither helped. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks

ANSWER: Once you have started the download process, it will continue to try downloading it until it is complete. In order to stop the process, you will need to contact your Service provider and ask them to delete the message from the mail server. Once it is gone, you should return to normal.

Jim.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I contacted my service provider and they said that they have no control of the outbox just incoming mail so they can't delete it for me. I've even tried uninstalling MS Office and reinstalling and it still doesn't get rid of it. Any other suggestions?

Answer
The problem is NOT with your system, Outlook or MS Office. The email message you tried to download was too large to handle and it is stuck trying to download it. There is no way to tell Outlook to stop downloading the message. The only thiing to do is to delete the message off of the server. Once it is gone, Outlook will give you an error that the message is no longer on the server. Then you will be fine.

Your ISP can delete messages from your email server - That's what they do. However, if they do not wish to do this, the only other way is to access your emails from another application and delete the messages there.

Hopefully, your ISP provides a way to log into your email via the web. If so, then log in that way and delete the messages in your in box. This should take care of your problem.

Jim.