IDEA: Email Attachments Browser

[skywalka]

Hi guys.

I use Outlook Express.  I was just trying to find a video file that was emailed to me years ago.  I don't remember the email title, who sent it or the filename.  Bottom line: I can't find it but I'm sure it's there somewhere.

I sometimes use TracesViewer http://www.bytescout.com/freeware.html to find files that have been downloaded to my PC but not saved by me.  I was thinking there should be a similar program to view all attachments of emails.  Maybe it can sort the attachments by type?

Thanx 4 looking.

[mouser]

there has to be an outlook extension that does this i think

[Carol Haynes]

For outlook and outlook express you can use X1 (free Enterprise Desktop Edition now at www.X1.com). You can use wildcards with extensions, eg. *.mov to list all email attachments which are QuickTime movies, or leave the search field blank to list all attachments by name. You can even preview the contents . I'm not sure which formats are supported - but certainly WM formats for audio are supported - so probably WM video too at least.

One of the nice things with X1 if you use Outlook is that if you keep archives of email over years you cand add those archive PST files to the X1 Outlook profile - so you can find stuff in all your email - not just the stuff currently loaded into Outlook - which is great because it can really encourage you to keep a minimum size active PST file.

The only drawback I have found with X1 is that Outllok seems to be less responsive - whether that is because X1 is trying to access the files at the same time as Outlook for indexing I don't know.

Here is a screenshot (using a JPG file in an archived Outlook email) :

[JavaJones]

Wow, being able to load additional .pst's is really nice. This may finally give me a reason to archive off some of my 50,000 e-mails!

- Oshyan

[Carol Haynes]

The best thing is once all your massive PST files are archived (I have 859Mb of emails!) the search is as fast as you can type.

The only fly in the ointment is that when Outlook crashes (which it seems to do fairly frequently) I like to run the scanpst utility to check the file wasn't damaged. Because X1 updates its database in realtime it keeps all the PST files open so scanpst doesn't work. Exiting the systray icon for X1 doesn't fully close the program so you have to go into TaskManger to close X1 completely before you can use scanpst on your files. It would be nice if X1 had a way to quickly unattach itself from open files while you do other things.

[JavaJones]

Yeah, sounds like that's a needed feature for X1. I've got 2+GB of mail myself. Whee!

- Oshyan

[Carol Haynes]

I have just posted a note on their reatures request board - see if anything comes of it.

[skywalka]

Thanx for the link Carol.

[skrommel]

For Outlook Express there's several recovery tools that will extract your attachments.

Macallan Outlook Express Extraction from http://macallan.club.fr/index.htm is free, but you have to select the dbx files individually.

Express Archiver from http://expressarchiver.com is a trial version, but easier to use.

Skrommel

[Carol Haynes]

I have just posted a note on their reatures request board - see if anything comes of it.

Stupid me - if you exit from the system tray it leaves a couple of things dormant in the task manager (for when you restart X1) but it does close files so you can work on them.

One warning about indexing multiple Outlook archives ...

When you specify extra PST files for indexing extra Outlook 'Profiles' are produced. Nothing bad in that and you don't have to think about them ... unlesss ...

If you want to uninstall X1 you need to delete the profile from Outlook manually as X1 doesn't tidy up. Further more when you uninstall X1 it doesn't remove the index from your system so that if you then later reinstall it will pick up from the old index where it left off. By that stage the Outlook profiles originally set up and used by X1 probably don't exist. You get a harmless looking complaint from X1 to which you glibly click OK (as we all do) and then the email is read - all is well with the world. Until that is you reopen Outlook when you will find the archived PST files you have accessed are loaded at Outlook startup so that you have a long wait (if you have a large archive of emails) - also because they aren't associated with the current profile you can't close them to remove them! The only solution I have found is to close Outlook, rename the main live Outlook PST file, delete the profile (from Control Panel > Email applet) and then restart Outlook and allow it to build a new profile. You then have to enter all your email account settings again as they are part of the profile and import you old email (either by swapping live PST file, or Open and copy you old PST file). PITA - and right royal one too.

The best solution is to kill off the index in X1's options before you uninstall and then physically delete the index folder (usually in %USERPROFILES%\Application Data\) after the uninstall is complete, then manually delete the extra unneeded Outlook profiles.

[skywalka]

Thanx Skrommel