Powermail Failure...Please Help
I'm new to powermail...having just switched from apple mail. I just spent about a day and a half getting about 20,000 mail messages systematically transfered over from mail into powermail, setting up 8 email accounts, locations and quite a few filters. Everything was working great on my mac book and then I went to power up powermail to check email and I got an error message while opening that there was a problem in the database. I tried a couple of times...but got the same error. I then tried to rebuild things by doing a option/command while starting powermail. I checked everything except the low level rebuild. It took about an hour and what I got was nothing like what I had before. All my accounts and filters were gone as were location settings. All my folders were also gone and all that was there was a giant folder which looks like it was created from some apple mail files...but was not what I had before. Please help...I'm panicked at best. I appear to have lost several days work as well as all my email since I changed over. Should I do a low level rebuild? I have no idea what happened. Robert
Re: Powermail Failure...Please Help
Robert Morrison on 3/24/07 said I'm new to powermail...having just switched from apple mail. I just spent about a day and a half getting about 20,000 mail messages systematically transfered over from mail into powermail, setting up 8 email accounts, locations and quite a few filters. Everything was working great on my mac book and then I went to power up powermail to check email and I got an error message while opening that there was a problem in the database. I tried a couple of times...but got the same error. I then tried to rebuild things by doing a option/command while starting powermail. I checked everything except the low level rebuild. It took about an hour and what I got was nothing like what I had before. All my accounts and filters were gone as were location settings. All my folders were also gone and all that was there was a giant folder which looks like it was created from some apple mail files...but was not what I had before. Please help...I'm panicked at best. I appear to have lost several days work as well as all my email since I changed over. Should I do a low level rebuild? I have no idea what happened. Do you still have your apple mail? Was it from panther or tiger? how did you switch? Do you know how big your pm database was when working? There is a 2 gb limit. -- Barbara Needham
Re: Powermail Failure...Please Help
Robert Morrison ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) on 2007-03-24 20:09 said: Please help...I'm panicked at best. I appear to have lost several days work as well as all my email since I changed over. Should I do a low level rebuild? I have no idea what happened. You could try, it might help. You might also try PowerMail Salvage (google it). Also, backup your PowerMail Files folder before going any further. -- When the winds of change are blowing, some people are building shelters and others are building windmills - Chinese proverb
Re: Powermail Failure...Please Help
On Mar 24, 2007, at 7:23 PM, Barbara Needham wrote: Robert Morrison on 3/24/07 said I'm new to powermail...having just switched from apple mail. I just spent about a day and a half getting about 20,000 mail messages systematically transfered over from mail into powermail, setting up 8 email accounts, locations and quite a few filters. Everything was working great on my mac book and then I went to power up powermail to check email and I got an error message while opening that there was a problem in the database. I tried a couple of times...but got the same error. I then tried to rebuild things by doing a option/command while starting powermail. I checked everything except the low level rebuild. It took about an hour and what I got was nothing like what I had before. All my accounts and filters were gone as were location settings. All my folders were also gone and all that was there was a giant folder which looks like it was created from some apple mail files...but was not what I had before. Please help...I'm panicked at best. I appear to have lost several days work as well as all my email since I changed over. Should I do a low level rebuild? I have no idea what happened. Do you still have your apple mail? Yes Was it from panther or tiger? Tiger how did you switch? I made folders in mail with the messages I wanted in powermail and then imported those folders into powermail. I then moved the messages around in powermail...including putting some of them in the in tray. Do you know how big your pm database was when working? There is a 2 gb limit. I noticed that my message database was about 700mb, but my address book database was 2gb...which was kind of weird. I'm not sure what the difference between the message and address book databases are. Robert
Re: Powermail Failure...Please Help
Robert Morrison on 3/24/07 said On Mar 24, 2007, at 7:23 PM, Barbara Needham wrote: Robert Morrison on 3/24/07 said I'm new to powermail...having just switched from apple mail. I just spent about a day and a half getting about 20,000 mail messages systematically transfered over from mail into powermail, setting up 8 email accounts, locations and quite a few filters. Everything was working great on my mac book and then I went to power up powermail to check email and I got an error message while opening that there was a problem in the database. I tried a couple of times...but got the same error. I then tried to rebuild things by doing a option/command while starting powermail. I checked everything except the low level rebuild. It took about an hour and what I got was nothing like what I had before. All my accounts and filters were gone as were location settings. All my folders were also gone and all that was there was a giant folder which looks like it was created from some apple mail files...but was not what I had before. Please help...I'm panicked at best. I appear to have lost several days work as well as all my email since I changed over. Should I do a low level rebuild? I have no idea what happened. Do you still have your apple mail? Yes Was it from panther or tiger? Tiger how did you switch? I made folders in mail with the messages I wanted in powermail and then imported those folders into powermail. I then moved the messages around in powermail...including putting some of them in the in tray. Do you know how big your pm database was when working? There is a 2 gb limit. I noticed that my message database was about 700mb, but my address book database was 2gb...which was kind of weird. I'm not sure what the difference between the message and address book databases are. The address database is just an address book which more or less can be kept in synch with your apple address book, if you so choose. The message database has all the actual bodies of messages. Attachments are downloaded to a separate folder, even those things like line.gif which come up when people use stationery for their mail. If I were you and the messages in the last couple of days are still on your server or otherwise retrievable... I would import into PowerMail folder by folder and make sure things are working correctly after each import. However, since you'll probably end up doing that anyway if the database rebuild doesn't work.. might as well try it first. I find it better when doing the first aid bits on power mail to try one at a time. Hopefully someone else with more experience will chime in... -- Barbara Needham
Re: Powermail Failure...Please Help
Thanks, I did everything right the first time...I guess powermail is just too risky for me...I need reliability and it appears powermail doesn't have it. Robert On Mar 24, 2007, at 9:28 PM, Barbara Needham wrote: Robert Morrison on 3/24/07 said On Mar 24, 2007, at 7:23 PM, Barbara Needham wrote: Robert Morrison on 3/24/07 said I'm new to powermail...having just switched from apple mail. I just spent about a day and a half getting about 20,000 mail messages systematically transfered over from mail into powermail, setting up 8 email accounts, locations and quite a few filters. Everything was working great on my mac book and then I went to power up powermail to check email and I got an error message while opening that there was a problem in the database. I tried a couple of times...but got the same error. I then tried to rebuild things by doing a option/command while starting powermail. I checked everything except the low level rebuild. It took about an hour and what I got was nothing like what I had before. All my accounts and filters were gone as were location settings. All my folders were also gone and all that was there was a giant folder which looks like it was created from some apple mail files...but was not what I had before. Please help...I'm panicked at best. I appear to have lost several days work as well as all my email since I changed over. Should I do a low level rebuild? I have no idea what happened. Do you still have your apple mail? Yes Was it from panther or tiger? Tiger how did you switch? I made folders in mail with the messages I wanted in powermail and then imported those folders into powermail. I then moved the messages around in powermail...including putting some of them in the in tray. Do you know how big your pm database was when working? There is a 2 gb limit. I noticed that my message database was about 700mb, but my address book database was 2gb...which was kind of weird. I'm not sure what the difference between the message and address book databases are. The address database is just an address book which more or less can be kept in synch with your apple address book, if you so choose. The message database has all the actual bodies of messages. Attachments are downloaded to a separate folder, even those things like line.gif which come up when people use stationery for their mail. If I were you and the messages in the last couple of days are still on your server or otherwise retrievable... I would import into PowerMail folder by folder and make sure things are working correctly after each import. However, since you'll probably end up doing that anyway if the database rebuild doesn't work.. might as well try it first. I find it better when doing the first aid bits on power mail to try one at a time. Hopefully someone else with more experience will chime in... -- Barbara Needham
Re: Powermail Failure...Please Help
Robert - I digress. Very often when a user comes with a shorthand reaction like you show below it can very often be traced back to user error, including user oversight of some sort or manner. I'm using PM since many years since Claris Emailer and I've had huge traffic in it and PM is an EXTREMELY good and rock solid email application. Period. Obviously you did something which gave PM a marvelous hiccup, but PM is NOT risky per se - right now I am using Apple's Mail because my PowerBook is in overhaul and I'm telling you, I'm having the hardest time and am missing PM with it's slick logic and workflow very, very much. One thing this shows is that people often will feel more comfortable with what they are used to be using, such as you and Mail. Also, I've yet to find software which has not some sort of bug or quirk. I do not idealize PM to the point that I'm saying it is faultless, but it is VERY solid and very good and you have thrown A LOT at it and we come in at the end of it all and for us users - yes, I am not affiliated with CTM, I'm just a user as are others on this list - it is impossible to know what exactly you have done. I'm sure that if I sat the 2 days next to you watching the whole process I could nail the problem down quite a bit better. But that you end up with one big lump sum of a folder and things gone and this and that... this does NOT sound as if normal PM actions have been at work, something really went far, far off the rails. This said, I assume the following : a) you first tested PM before buying it b) you tested the export from MAIL and import flow to PM first with only 1 folder and a few messages (maybe 100 or maybe 500) into PM and made sure things are like you want them to be. c) you QUIT also PowerMail and relaunch to see if all is still like you want before continuing putting your time into a huge exodus?! d) once you are sure that the messages arrive in PM as you want - i.e. that you follow the export/import steps as outlined in PM online manual etc. - you begin the big exodus. e) once the exodus is done and BEFORE you start messing around in PowerMail, you make a BACKUP. f) right? you've made some sort of backup? g) now you start messing around in PowerMail with filters and folders and whatnot. h) after all of this if you haven't done e) you backup everything at this point. i) ... j) okay, so now you are in trouble... k) when all the trouble begins, do you also reboot your machine? this can do wonders at times. l) I don't know WHAT all you imported into PM and how you setup the filters and VIEW options (people sometimes freak out and think all their mail is gone but basically they just set their view option to only view unread mail... it happens)... but the ADDRESS BOOK is usually a small file - except you are running some 10'000 address based book or something. m) if I'd be in you situation I'd do the rebuild of the database but not expect too much. n) redo the export in smaller steps as outlined above, while using PM for your daily mail o) backup regularly (set a backup script to do a backup of your PM folder) - remember, PM should not be open when the backup is running. ---marlyse On Mar 24, 2007, at 10:04 PM, Robert Morrison wrote: Thanks, I did everything right the first time...I guess powermail is just too risky for me...I need reliability and it appears powermail doesn't have it. Robert
