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My HDD crashed and I had to install Courier on my new drive. I have two backups (guess I stored an older one in a different folder and forgot about it). When I try to open the newer backup, I get the Courier email flash screen, but then I get this error message, “Your mailbox was created or converted by a newer version of Courier. This mailbox can not be opened by older versions of Courier.” I don’t understand why. I was running 3.5 when my computer died and that is what I re-installed.
When I try my older backup it says the mailbox needs to be converted (I figure this is probably an old Calypso backup before I upgraded to Courier). It then begins the process. First it validates all of the blocks, copies the blocks and then it hangs when checking the receive list. I’ve tried it several times and it stops at 2,8** KB of 159,397 KB each time. When I close it I get the “This program is not responding” message, but I can access the messages it converted.
Any suggestions on what I what is happening with either backup? I have already setup my mailbox so I really only want my addresses and my messages. Will another email program give me access to my addresses and messages even if its just to transfer them? If someone could tell me what I am doing wrong or suggest something to try, it would be greatly appreciated.
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Well, fixing backups isn't my strong suite, but here's a suggestion:
- download Courex from http://www.laurencejackson.com/Courex/ it's freeware
- Courex can convert your mailbox messages to eml (outlook compatible) messages.
- in Courier you can import eml messages, so that may get your messages back
- Courex also creates a comma delimited file of addresses - CSV suffix
- In Courier, you can import comma delimited addressbook - I think Courier looks for a TXT suffix instead of CSV, but I think that can be overridden or you could just rename the Courex output address.csv to address.txt
david
I just tried the Courex program and it didn't work. Although I realized that I made a mistake in stating that I was unable to open/convert my "backups", sorry for the stupidity. Turns out what I am trying to open is the actual mailbox. I don't know if this makes a difference as to whether Courex would work or not.
Knowing now that it is the mailbox did however leave me more confused. On my older mailbox, Courex said that the mailbox was not a valid Courier Mailbox. With my newer mailbox it said there were no messages. What I don't understand is that both mailboxes show their file sizes and have the Courier icon next to them. In properties they even show that they are associated with Courier, so I can't figure out why Courier won't open them. Any thoughts on this? I would still like to get my messages and addresses from the old mailboxes and then just junk them since I have the new one setup now.
I just tried the Courex program and it didn't work.
Although I realized that I made a mistake in stating that I was unable to open/convert my "backups", sorry for the stupidity. Turns out what I am trying to open is the actual mailbox. I don't know if this makes a difference as to whether Courex would work or not.
Knowing now that it is the mailbox did however leave me more confused. On my older mailbox, Courex said that the mailbox was not a valid Courier Mailbox. With my newer mailbox it said there were no messages. What I don't understand is that both mailboxes show their file sizes and have the Courier icon next to them. In properties they even show that they are associated with Courier, so I can't figure out why Courier won't open them. Any thoughts on this? I would still like to get my messages and addresses from the old mailboxes and then just junk them since I have the new one setup now.
Okay, first, I'm not sure what you meant by saying Courex didn't work. I'm assuming your file has the '.box' suffix. What error message did Courex give you? I've never seen it not work so that's puzzling. Knowing how Courex reacted would be useful.
The current and backup mailboxes are alike, so that wouldn't be a problem. Another question I have is how does Courier tell you there are no messages if it cannot open the file? File size can be misleading, since a file may have had messages deleted but not compressed.
Since you already have a new mailbox set up, I still think the Courex export to eml and import via Courier may be your best bet. Please revisit the Courex approach and let me know how it goes. thanks,
david
Hopefully this will clear things up instead of making them more confusing. I have two mailboxes (same name) one is older than the other. I guess at some point I moved files around and forgot about one of the mailboxes.
I’ll refer to them as A and B . They both show up as “A.box and B.box” with the courier icon and under “type” in windows explorer it shows Courier Email Mailbox File. A.box shows 159,256 KB and B.box shows 208,544 KB. When I open Courex and browse for Courier Mailbox file, A.box shows up and I choose it and press start. Then I get a small window that is titled Courex with the following message, “C:\Program Files\Courier Email\Mailbox\A.box does not contain any email messages.” When I do the same steps but choose B.box I get this message,”C:\Program Files\Courier Email\Mailbox\B.box is not a valid Courier mailbox file (3)”
When I try to open B.box with Courier I get the Courier flash screen and then a window titled Mailbox Conversion telling me that “This mailbox was created with an earlier version of Courier. It must be converted before you can use it. The original mailbox will be backed up in the current path.” This goes through the process and then gets hung up during “checking the receive list”. When I close it that it says the program is not responding, I can view the messages up to the point that it gets stuck. So it is retrieving something.
When I try to open A.box with Couirer I get the Courier flash screen and then I get a window titled Courier that says, “Error opening mailbox ‘C:\Program Files\Courier Email\ Mailbox\A.box’ Your mailbox was created or converted by a newer version of Courier. This mailbox can not opened by older versions of Courier.” It gives me the option to retry or cancel, but retry just brings up the same screen.
I may be wrong, but if I recall correctly I only made one upgrade from Calypso to Courier a long time ago, so what I downloaded a couple of months back (before they pulled Courier) would be the newest version of Courier that I ever had.
Hope something in this will lead to a clue as to what is happening. Thanks again for all of your help and just let me know if you have any suggestions.
Okay, I agree it doesn't make a lot of sense. Somehow, those files appear to be corrupted. Here are some suggestions:
1. in the courier subdirectory in programfiles, there is a dbtool.exe program. that is supposed to recover mailboxes. worth a try.
2. download calypso from http://www.v3.co.uk/vnunet/downloads.../calypso-email - my thought is that if the mailboxes are old, this may open them...
3. if neither of the above work, try the mailboxfix utility that comes with Courex to see if it helps.
4. do check the c:\courex directory, as it may have converted your addressbook to address.csv even though there were no messages.
good luck,
david
David thank you again for your assistance. Sorry this is turning out to be a stubborn fix. I tried the DBTool program and below is the error message I got. Right now I have only tried it on one mailbox. I will post if the other yields different results.
Unable to open mailbox
Line: 1531
Error:15
Tried mailboxfix and gave the exporting file a “box” extension (not sure if that was correct) and it completed the process. When I clicked on the mailbox it did the same thing as before. Courier flash screen then the error message saying that it was created by a newer version of Courier. Just out of curiosity, is there a newer version than 3.5, is there any way I could have created it with a newer version?
Just out of curiosity, is there a newer version than 3.5, is there any way I could have created it with a newer version?
Yes, if you participated in the Courier Beta, it is possible that you created it with a newer version - except that Courex reads those fine, so I doubt that was a case. My earlier post of suggestions is as far as I can advise you... if none of those options work, then I think you just need to start over. all the best..
david
