Outlook Message could not be sent

If your encountering the Outlook Express error message stating: "The message could not be sent. There is not enough memory". Just know that your not alone. I recently needed to address this problem for one of my clients who was trying to forward an email with attachments and images totaling over 20MB.

As it turns out, somehow his database Outbox.dbx became corrupted. In the following simple solution, I show you how we resolved the unsent email message problem.

Pro Tip: In this case, the error message has nothing to do with not having enough physical system memory.

Fixing Outlook Message Could not Be Sent Error

The following section assumes you are using Outlook Express and are up and running from Microsfot Windows XP. If not, these instructions may differ.

  1. Open Outlook Express
  2. Navigate to (1) Tools (2) Options (3) Maintenance.
  3. (4) Click the Store Folder Button
  4. (5) Left mouse click and highlight the Store Location path Right mouse click and select Copy
    Fixing Message could not be sent not enough memory
  5. Close Outlook Express
  6. Open an Explorer Window. Right click and Paste the path into the address bar, then press Enter
  7. Delete Outbox.dbx (it will be recreated automatically when you send mail in the next step)
    Delete Outbox.dbx
  8. Open Outlook Express and try to send or forward an email.

If all goes well, the Outlook Express Error "The message could not be sent there is not enough memory" should not appear and your email messages sent or forwarded as usual.