Email problem........

[fatbloke]

Wotcha Forum......

When I try and download my mail, I'm getting an error

SYS/PERM:could not read message file

Now I've managed to find that this is something to do with a "corrupted mail box"...

Though as an experienced user with minimal technical knowledge I don't know what to do about this i.e. I understand that I'd have to delete and recreate the mail box, but that means very little to me.

So how should I go about achieving this ?

I'm using Kubuntu 8.04, kmail/kontact (kde3 stylie).

Any advice is very much appreciated

regards

fatbloke

[Snowhog]

Re: Email problem........

Ensure that kmail is shut down (kontact too if it is running).

The sub-folder that contains your received email is:

~/.kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/inbox/cur

You can open a console and navigate to this folder:

cd .kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/inbox/cur

It's possible that there is a corrupted email within this folder. If you aren't concerned about any of them, you can just delete this folders contents:

rm *

and then type exit to close the console and return you to the desktop.

I would then perform a normal shutdown/reboot of your system/PC. Once you are back at your desktop, launch kmail and see if the problem isn't resolved.

[fatbloke]

Re: Email problem........

Ensure that kmail is shut down (kontact too if it is running).

The sub-folder that contains your received email is:

~/.kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/inbox/cur

You can open a console and navigate to this folder:

cd .kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/inbox/cur

It's possible that there is a corrupted email within this folder. If you aren't concerned about any of them, you can just delete this folders contents:

rm *

and then type exit to close the console and return you to the desktop.

I would then perform a normal shutdown/reboot of your system/PC. Once you are back at your desktop, launch kmail and see if the problem isn't resolved.

Ok thank you for the guidance Snowhog, I did as you suggested, but after the reboot I'm still getting the same error.

Weird!

Any other ideas/suggestions etc are greatly appreciated.

regards

fatbloke

[JohanLingen]

Re: Email problem........

Assuming your current e-mail box in Kmail is called "MyMail":

Try to make a new e-mail map MyMail2 in Kmail and point all accounts that are currently pointing to MyMail to MyMail2.
See if fetching mail works. If so, drag any e-mails you want to save from MyMail to MyMail2 and delete MyMail. See if fetching remains possible.

[Snowhog]

Re: Email problem........

You can/should also simply try rebuilding the indexes for each 'box' in Kmail. Click on each (inbox, outbox, ...) and click on Folder > Rebuild Index...

[fatbloke]

Re: Email problem........

Assuming your current e-mail box in Kmail is called "MyMail":

Try to make a new e-mail map MyMail2 in Kmail and point all accounts that are currently pointing to MyMail to MyMail2.
See if fetching mail works. If so, drag any e-mails you want to save from MyMail to MyMail2 and delete MyMail. See if fetching remains possible.

You can/should also simply try rebuilding the indexes for each 'box' in Kmail. Click on each (inbox, outbox, ...) and click on Folder > Rebuild Index...

Ok, so you'll really have to excuse my stupidity here.......but I'm completely lost.

Now if I open my /home in dolphin, I can get to what Snowhog originally suggested i.e. home>.kde>share>apps>kmail>mail and in there, is drafts/inbox/outbox/sent mail/templates/trash and one that I made called "saved stuff" (which I use just for that i.e. saving stuff).

So if I understand JohanLingen correctly, is that make a new folder called "inbox2" ? Plus how would I go about changing stuff so that any "fetching" is pointing toward the new "inbox2" ?

Now I've managed to find the "Recreate Indexes" facility on all of the folders but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

All I can see, is that the inbox seems to have something in it that is 39.1 MiB in size but the listing pane/window part of it shows as if there's nothing in the inbox i.e. nothing too select and delete.

I don't really understand what it is that I'm doing and google only seems to show stuff for rebuilding mail boxes on Mac's/Apple mail.

Hence all I'm managing to do thus far, is "grasp at straws" and try anything that might seem logical to a non-technical user like myself (including installing evolution in the hope that it works differently - it doesn't seem to as it just tells me that there's an error when trying to fetch the mail. I've even run a dist upgrade in the vague hope that it might do something to correct this - ending up with KDE 4.1 - which I really didn't want, but there you go. I did say grasping at straws).

regards

fatbloke

p.s. I don't suppose there's any point in trying to uninstall all the mail apps and the respective directories/files is there, or at least not without destroying an essential part of KDE

[Snowhog]

Re: Email problem........

All I can see, is that the inbox seems to have something in it that is 39.1 MiB in size but the listing pane/window part of it shows as if there's nothing in the inbox i.e. nothing too select and delete.

p.s. I don't suppose there's any point in trying to uninstall all the mail apps and the respective directories/files is there, or at least not without destroying an essential part of KDE

As to the reported size of the inbox, but you don't see anything in it. Okay, open a console and navigate to your inbox folder:

cd .kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/inbox

Then type:

ls -all

This will give a listing of all the folders as well as the two hidden files for each folder: folder_name.index and folder_name.index.ids
There should be no other files. Assuming that is the case, change into the inbox:

cd inbox

and list its contents as well:

ls -all

If all is well, you should only be shown:

.
..
cur
new
tmp

Post back and let me know if you see anything different.

[fatbloke]

Re: Email problem........

All I can see, is that the inbox seems to have something in it that is 39.1 MiB in size but the listing pane/window part of it shows as if there's nothing in the inbox i.e. nothing too select and delete.

p.s. I don't suppose there's any point in trying to uninstall all the mail apps and the respective directories/files is there, or at least not without destroying an essential part of KDE

As to the reported size of the inbox, but you don't see anything in it. Okay, open a console and navigate to your inbox folder:

cd .kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/inbox

Then type:

ls -all

This will give a listing of all the folders as well as the two hidden files for each folder: folder_name.index and folder_name.index.ids
There should be no other files.

Ok, so I do that and see what you mention below. Just the ., .., cur, new and tmp

Assuming that is the case, change into the inbox:

cd inbox

and list its contents as well:

ls -all

If all is well, you should only be shown:

.
..
cur
new
tmp

Post back and let me know if you see anything different.

Getting a bit confused as I was already "in the inbox"......... but I'm presuming that I should already be there.

So as far as I understand I'm seeing what I'm supposed to be seeing (if that makes sense)

regards

fatbloke

[Snowhog]

Re: Email problem........

Sorry 'bout that. I meant for you to check the .kde/share/apps/kmail/mail directory for any unusual files:

cd .kde/share/apps/kmail/mail
ls -all

You should only see the mailbox directories and the hidden folder_name.index and folder_name.index.ids files. You might also see a folder_name.index.sorted for each directory as well.

You've already checked the .kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/inbox, so you don't need to do that again.