Microsoft Outlook Express Email Extraction
Undbx is a free program for Windows that allows you to extract email messages stored in Outlook dbx database files.
Microsoft Outlook Express emails are stored in so called dbx database files. The database files are named after the folder that is displayed in the email program. The only exception to that rule is the folder folders.dbx which includes information on all Outlook folders but has no direct representation in the Outlook interface.
The dbx files are not really accessible by normal means, the only way is to either use Microsoft Outlook, or extract the messages from the dbx fileto access them directly.
Undbx
UnDBX is a command line utility that can extract the email messages found in Microsoft Outlook dbx files. It extracts them into the more versatile eml format which can then be accessed and viewed in text editors or email clients. The eml format is more widely supported, which means it can also be opened (or imported) in various email clients.
The command to extract dbx files is undbx DBX-DIRECTORY OUTPUT-DIRECTORY. The program extracts email messages of all dbx files in the selected directory automatically. The developer added a vbs script (Visual Basic) that offers a graphical user interface for the same process. It displays a file browser that can be used to select the source directory, and the destination directory for the eml output files. The source directory needs at least one dbx file for the process to work properly.
Other commands are available, and the recover option to rescue email messages from corrupt .dbx files seems to be the most useful one in this regard.
To use it, simply run undbx --recover DBX-DIRECTORY OUTPUT-DIRECTORY to do so. This may help you when the mail database is otherwise not readable anymore.
UnDBX is a small command line tool that can be useful in certain situations. The developer has created it to facilitate fast incremental backups of .dbx files. Other tools that might be of interested are the Outlook Express Message Extractor and the Windows Live Mail And Microsoft Outlook Mail Viewer.
Verdict
The free open source tool undbx is useful when it comes to Outlook Express .dbx files. It enables you to convert the email messages to the widely used eml file format, or recover emails from a corrupt Outlook email file.
You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!