Why do I get the "Message is no longer available on the server" error in outlook?

Question

I have received the message from the mail client (MS Outlook Express/IMAP), “Message is no longer available on the server”, but the message is. The messages can always be read directly from my mailbox and via WebMail. How can I resolve this?

Answer

It’s a problem with the Outlook Express client. The client has cached the mail box and it no longer matches the mailbox saved on the server.

To resolve this please do the following in Outlook:

1. Right click on the folder and choose properties.
2. Select the “Local File” tab
3. Click the Delete Button to remove all headers and message bodies from the local cache file
4. Click Compact to free the wasted space
5. Click OK
6. Now resync the folder

No messages are lost, and your seen state is kept.

This is one solution to try before re-indexing a mailbox.

Keywords:outlook no longer available imap cache