Cannot find news messages by subject line

Several weeks ago the EDIT-FIND-MESSAGE search function in Outlook Express
stopped working when I try to find usenet messages with specific words in
the subject line. Searching by subject, by author, by to, and by from
returns nothing. I've tred searching for words I can see in the subject line
in the preview pane but I still get nothing. I'd look to see if this
question
has been asked and answered in this newsgroup but it won't show me any
results. Anybody know what's going on? This is a recent development. The
search fnction used to work fne for me. TIA

Your current Identity may be damaged, especially if its the default Main
Identity. Try one or more of your accounts in a new Named Identity...

File | Identities | Add new identity

Assuming all is well, (1) compact all folders in the old identity, (2)
import messages from the old identity into the new one, and then (3) delete
the old one (File | Identities | Manage Identities).

To avoid such corruption in future:

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Disable Background Compacting [removed in WinXP SP2] and frequently
perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working offline". More at
http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

- WinXP SP2 only: Do not cancel Automatic Compacting, should it occur, and
do not attempt to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown your machine if
Automatic Compacting is taking place.

- Disable email scanning by your anti-virus application. It can cause
corruption (i.e., loss of messages), it provides no additional protection,
and even Symantec says it's not necessary:

<QP>
Disabling Email Scanning does not leave you unprotected against viruses that
are distributed as email attachments. Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect scans
incoming files as they are saved to your hard drive, including email and
email attachments. Email Scanning is just another layer on top of this. To
make sure that Auto-Protect is providing the maximum protection, keep
Auto-Protect enabled and run LiveUpdate regularly to ensure that you have
the most recent virus definitions.
</QP>
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2002111812533106
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/

Phillip Martin wrote:
> Several weeks ago the EDIT-FIND-MESSAGE search function in Outlook Express
> stopped working when I try to find usenet messages with specific words in
> the subject line. Searching by subject, by author, by to, and by from
> returns nothing. I've tred searching for words I can see in the subject
> line
> in the preview pane but I still get nothing. I'd look to see if this
> question
> has been asked and answered in this newsgroup but it won't show me any
> results. Anybody know what's going on? This is a recent development. The
> search fnction used to work fne for me. TIA