Help please - delete icon greyed out on inbox..! (Outlook possessed!)

[brian henderson]

Hi All,

I'm running Outlook 2003 on XP. Both Office & XP are patched up to the eyeballs.

I use Outlook as a pop mail client to gmail, so every mail I pull down goes into the inbox of a PST.

The problem that's driving me nuts is that the delete icon on the standard toolbar in between the "move to folder" and "reply" buttons becomes greyed out - BUT ONLY ON THE INBOX.

If I click on an email within the inbox to view it in the preview pane, it's still greyed out. If I click on an email in any other folder, it's not greyed out.

When the icon is greyed out, the delete key on the keyboard doesn't work either. So the only way to delete an email from the inbox is to double-click on it so it opens in another window. Then the delete icon (which gets moved across to the right some) is no longer greyed out (and the keyboard del key then works too).

I've run the repair option within Outlook - I even opted to reset (ie lose) all my customisations and shortcuts back to the defaults. I've nuked the accounts & profiles & re-added the PST - and a new PST and the problem remains. I've had a shower & changed my socks and my car is also fairly clean. The blood tests haven't come back yet so what more can I do......???

I'm dying to know what has caused this - nearly as much as I'm dying to be rid of it....!!!

Thanks...!!!

BH

 

[K. Orland]

Perhaps some toolbar corruption? Close Outlook. Search for and rename
outcmd.dat. Open Outlook again. Let me know if this helped at all, there may
be some other solutions if it doesn't.

The outcmd.dat file is likely hidden so unhide hidden files and folders,
plus make sure you can see known file extensions.

Good luck!

 

[brian henderson]

Hi Kathleen,

thanks for the suggestion. I tried it as per below. I can see that Outlook has now created a new one but sadly - the problem remains.

Any other thoughts?

 

[K. Orland]

Have you vacuumed the cat? Walked the dog? Changed the baby?

Did this version of Outlook ever work for you without this issue? When did
it start? Since you're on XP, can you recover to when it did work?

 

[brian henderson]

It used to work when I first set up the machine. Then about 6 months ago it started to happen. I thought it was odd but I just put the problem aside for when I had time to look in to it.

So that was 6 months it's been happening. And like everyone, I've installed & uninstalled a lot of stuff since then. So even if I had a restore point that old, I don't think it would be a good idea to apply it.

Any other way I can kill off the toolbars?

Thanks

 

[brian henderson]

Oh, And I just created a custom toolbar & added the del button. When I put it up there, the same thing happened.

So I think there's something down deeper in the works that's telling Outlook to not allow deletions from the inbox.

Does anyone know where this setting would be stored? In the reg somewhere I suppose..???

Any help much appreciated...!

 

[brian henderson]

So this has never happened to anyone else???

Come on - I've read some of the solutions to other problems in this forum & there are some very clever people here.

Please help.....!!! *aaaaggghhhh......*

:cry:

 

[Mary]

Messages can be deleted. The Inbox is a system folder and cannot be deleted.
Change focus to the message and you will be able to delete it.

 

[brian henderson]

[quote title=Mary wrote on Sat, 19 April 2008 11:49]Messages can be deleted. The Inbox is a system folder and cannot be deleted.
Change focus to the message and you will be able to delete it.

Hi,

I'm not trying to delete the inbox. I have simply selected the inbox so that the messages (some read some unread) are visible on the right. If I click on any single message once I can view it in the preview pane.

When I have clicked on a single message, the del icon becomes greyed out & I can not delete the message. (Not with the keyboard DEL key either)

One odd thing I have just discovered is that if I highlight 2 or more emails in the inbox, the del icon is NOT greyed out & I CAN delete them. The problem only happens when I select ONE email.

Any ideas? 8o

 

[brian henderson]

this forum sucks.

ie it works just like microsoft... = pretty, plagiarised & useless when it comes to the crunch.

 

[Brian Tillman]

this forum sucks.

ie it works just like microsoft... = pretty, plagiarised & useless
when it comes to the crunch.

Perhaps it's just that we, who are simply users of Outlook like yourself,
don't know the answer to your problem. Open an incident with Microsoft if
you want a more timely response.

 

[Matt]

I've got the exact same problem... only on Vista (Ultimate) and with Outlook 2007... so it must be a setting or configuration problem. And do you think I to can find the solution...

 

[Brian Tillman]

I've got the exact same problem... only on Vista (Ultimate) and with
Outlook 2007... so it must be a setting or configuration problem. And
do you think I to can find the solution...

And what problem is that? You provided no description.

 

[Matt]

Huh?

The same problem as described in the rest of the posts in this thread...

I cannot use delete (an email) from the Inbox in Outlook, they are all 'greyed out'. To delete an email from the inbox veiw I have to highlite 2 or more emails... to delete an individual email I have to actually open it up.

 

[Brian Tillman]

The same problem as described in the rest of the posts in this
thread...

Always quote a portion of the message to which you are responding. FUDForum
doesn't maintain the context.

I cannot use delete (an email) from the Inbox in Outlook, they are
all 'greyed out'. To delete an email from the inbox veiw I have to
highlite 2 or more emails... to delete an individual email I have to
actually open it up.

What's "grayed out", the messages themselves? What type of account are you
using? What view of the Inbox have you selected?

 

[Matt]

Brian,

It's the exact same problem that was posted by;

Guest

under the subject;

Help please - delete icon greyed out on inbox..! (Outlook possessed!)

On;
Tue, 15 April 2008 19:48

http://office-outlook.com/outlook-forum/index.php?t=rview&goto=362166#msg_362166

And it's all too long to repeat with quotes... but to clarify your question; it's the X button on the toolbar, the delete option on the right click context menu and even the the Delete/Ctrl D option under the Edit menu that are 'greyed out'


Cheers

 

[Brian Tillman]

And it's all too long to repeat with quotes... but to clarify your
question; it's the X button on the toolbar, the delete option on the
right click context menu and even the the Delete/Ctrl D option under
the Edit menu that are 'greyed out'

And what have you tried in an effort to repair it? What version of Outlook?
What type(s) and number of account(s)?

 

[Matt]

And what have you tried in an effort to repair it? What version of Outlook?
What type(s) and number of account(s)?[/QUOTE]


Brian,

Version; I did mention in my first post that it's Outlook 2007 running on Vista (ultimate)...

Tried; I've repaired the install and re-installed Outlook, but as you should know neither of these will necessarily rewrite registry. I’ve also trolled through dozens forums and done even more searches of the Microsoft...

Accounts; this has little to do with the problem… I have Outlook retrieving a number of different types of email (POP, IMAP & SMTP) all to the one inbox.

Also, I have more than one computer retrieving all the same emails; that is I use 4 computers - 2 run XP, 1 Vista (basic) & 1 Vista (ultimate). All use Outlook 2007 and all are up to date with the current patches etc but only one has exhibited this problem. As I also said in my first post, it must be a setting or configuration problem, only what setting or configuration is causing it is the mystery

 

[Brian Tillman]

Version; I did mention in my first post that it's Outlook 2007 running on
Vista (ultimate)...

I see that. I had forgotten.

Tried; I've repaired the install and re-installed Outlook, but as you
should know
neither of these will necessarily rewrite registry. I’ve also
trolled through
dozens forums and done even more searches of the Microsoft...

A new mail profile might be worth trying.

Accounts; this has little to do with the problem… I have Outlook
retrieving
a number of different types of email (POP, IMAP & SMTP) all to the one
inbox.

IMAP accounts will always have their own Inbox.

Whenever there are behavioral differences in PCs that are supposed to be
identically configured, a new mail profile on the misbehaving PC is usually
a good place to start.

 

[Jabba the Butt]

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2385/outlook_2007_imap_inbox_purge_delete_items

God, the MS MVP's are as useless as they are rude. I hope this helps.