Email slow to load. It takes 15 minutes after launching MSN Home Premium

Latest post: Paolo M., Friday, April 27, 2012 2:55 AM

Thursday, April 26, 2012 4:04 AM

Orbiter

After launching MSN and clicking on "Mail & More", the computer hangs up. It often requires five minutes to see a list of Inbox messages, and another 10 minutes to read the first email after clicking on it. Quite often I receive a "MSN not responding" message. Then the computer freezes and I cannot close the program. Nor can I shut the computer down from the Start menu, but must use power switch. If email eventually loads, it seems to run normally. There is no delay if I access Hotmail using IE9, Firefox or Chrome. I've researched the WEB and see many others have the same problem, but I don't see any solutions. MSN is version 10.2. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Report as Abuse

Was this helpful?

4 of 6 people found this post helpful.

Friday, April 27, 2012 2:55 AM

Paolo M.

Hi Orbiter,

If MSN is not properly responding if you access "Mail & More" means that the emails are not properly synchronizing. Follow the steps below to re-synchronize emails and let us know the results.

1. Close all windows and sign out of the MSN software.
2. Click on Start then inside the Start Search box at the bottom, type %USERPROFILE% and press Enter. If you get an error, please double-check the spelling and make sure that there are no spaces on the command you entered.
3. On the new window, please click on Organize at the top left hand corner then click on Folder and Search Options. This would open the Folder Options window.
4. In the Folder Options window, click on the View tab at the top. In the View tab, under Advanced Settings look for "Hidden files and folders" then click on "Show Hidden Files and Folders".
5. Just below "Show hidden files and folders", uncheck both "Hide extensions for known file types" and "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)".
6. Click Yes on the Warning window. Then, click Apply and click OK to close the Folder Options window.
7. Double-click the folders in the following order:

8. Arrange the files by type so it will be easier to locate the files we need. To do this, on the top left-hand corner of the window, click on the down arrow beside View then click on Details. After this click on Type at the top of the window to arrange the files by type.
9. Scroll down the list until you find the files that end with .SDF
10. Rename the two .SDF files that show your email address. To do this, right click the file and click on Rename. Type .old at the end of the name and press Enter. Repeat this process on the other .sdf file.

For example, after renaming the .sdf files:
> username-msn-com.sdf will appear as username-msn-com.sdf.old
> username-msn-com JMF.sdf will appear as username-msn-com JMF.sdf.old

NOTE: If you get an "Access Denied" error message, it may be possible that the MSN software is still running in the background. To verify, double-click the MSN butterfly on the Desktop. If it opens your homepage automatically, this means that it was not signed out. To sign out properly, click Sign Out at the top of the MSN window, then click Sign Out and Close. Once the MSN windows disappears, wait for a couple of minutes then try renaming the .sdf files again. If you still get the same message, please restart your computer and then perform the steps again.
IMPORTANT: If you have other email accounts that have the same issue, please rename the .sdf files for the other email accounts.
11. Close all open windows.
12. Sign in to MSN and wait for about 15-20 minutes for the MSN software to synchronize your email and account settings before checking if the issue gets resolved.

Hope this helps,

Thanks
Paolo M.

Report as Abuse

Was this helpful?

5 of 8 people found this post helpful.