How to Troubleshoot Outlook Express 5 on a Macintosh
Outlook Express was Microsoft's free mail and news client software package. While the Outlook brand has been closely associated with Windows computers, a version of Outlook Express (as well as the more feature-packed Outlook) was available for the Macintosh. However, the Macintosh version has been rebranded as Entourage and has been a component of Microsoft Office for Mac since 2001. While Microsoft has disowned Outlook Express for Mac (similar to its pulling the plug on Internet Explorer for Mac), it is still available for download on websites that specialize in legacy Mac software. Since the final version of Outlook Express for Mac was released as part of Office 98, there has never been a version of Outlook Express that will run in any version of Mac OS X.
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Instructions
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1
Determine if your Mac is able to access the Internet. No Internet connectivity means you will not be able to send or receive email. Many users blame the software, even when it's a connectivity issue. If you can't connect, then restart your modem and/or router and try again.
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2
Check your account settings in the Preferences menu under the Outlook Express menu. Confirm with your ISP or email provider that your settings are correct and that they haven't changed any settings recently. If your ISP changes certain security features of its email server, then Outlook Express won't work, no matter how much you tweak the settings.
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3
Confirm that your password and user name are correctly entered in the proper fields. Passwords in Outlook Express (as well as virtually every other application) are case sensitive, so make sure your "Caps Lock" isn't engaged and that you're not being sloppy when keying in your password.
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4
Go to mail2web.com to see if you are able to access your email via this free service. If you can, that means you have the correct password and your mail account is still working.
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5
Open the Outbox to see if there are any outgoing messages that are clogging the works. If a message gets hung up in the Outbox, it usually means one of three things: The software is unable to see the email server (as described in Step 1), there is an invalid email address on the message or there's an attachment that is simply too big for the software to process. Drag any messages from the Outbox into the Drafts folder to clear the logjam. Then attempt to send and receive all messages again.
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6
Open the Preferences folder that is located inside the System Folder to trash the preferences in the event the software won't launch or unexpectedly quits repeatedly. Depending on what version is installed, the preferences are either in the top level of this folder or in the Microsoft folder within the Preferences folder. Drag all the preference files to the desktop, restart the Mac and try again.
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7
Download a fresh copy from a site that specializes in older and obsolete software packages if you can't find your original installer (see Resources). Because of the nature of the content, these types of resources tend to appear (and disappear) without warning.
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Tips & Warnings
If you're running any version of Mac OS X (10.4 Tiger or earlier), you must be able to launch applications in Classic mode, which requires a valid System 9 folder on your hard drive.
Microsoft hasn't supported Outlook Express for Mac since 2001, so its usefulness decreases every time your email provider boosts security.
Even if you don't plan to upgrade, always make a backup copy of your mail profile.
If you're still booting your Mac in Classic mode, upgrading beyond OS X 10.4 will disable your ability to use Outlook Express.
Even if you upgrade to Entourage, you may have to update your mail profiles incrementally, meaning upgrading one version at a time, as the latest version of Entourage is unable to import data from extremely old mail programs.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Images 1, 4: Microsoft, Images 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8: Chris Capelle
