Netscape 7.0 -- mail folders and messages do not appear

Used version 7.0 for long time. Presently, the News & Newsgroups folders do not appear in the left pane of the page and the area under Subject, Sender, and Date is blank. Messages are unavailable. Instead, an Account Wizard messsage appears asking me to open an account.
Thanks for your help.

 

Welcome to the Forum, sailor2!

sailor2,

Open the Mail folder located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\profile_name\*.slt\Mail

NOTE: These files are hidden by default.
To see hidden files:
1. On the Tools menu in Windows Explorer, click Folder Options
2. Click the View tab
3. Under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders
4. Disable "Hide File Extensions for Known Files. "
5. Click OK.

To search for files in the Application Data folder, go to Start | Search.
Under More Advanced Options select Search system folders, Search
Hidden Files and folders, and Search subfolders.

Is there more than one Mail Account folder, e.g..
pop.isp_name.net
pop.isp_name-1.net ?

If this is the case, then in Netscape Mail, click on:
Edit | Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings | Server Settings

Scroll to the bottom of the Server Settings to the Local directory field. Ensure that the path shown is the original Mail Account. If not, then edit the path to point to the Mail Account which actually contains your current Mail.

If you had a Windows unexpected shutdown, etc. this can cause Netscape to create a new Profile/Mail Account. It is a well known bug, and it occurs often.

I understand that it is difficult to part with an application that you are comfortable with, however, I would really encourage you to update your browser. I would recommend first, the Firefox browser, and the Thunderbird Mail Client. SeaMonkey is also an excellent alternative, and its appearance is exactly like that of Netscape, as well as the settings. It is a suite with everything included: Browser, Mail, and Composer.

The good news is that all these programs will migrate your Netscape 7.0 Profile automatically. All you need do is select the Profile to migrate. It's as easy as falling off a log...

Let us know if this helps.

 

Netscape 7.0 --mail folders and messages do not appear

Thanks for your early reply. I was unable to find the "Server Settings" window and "Local directory" as mentioned in your paragraph below. I did see "outgoing server (SMTP) settings ". I navigatged to the "Mail" folder.
Thank you for your assistance and advice re replacing the browser.


"Scroll to the bottom of the Server Settings to the Local directory field. Ensure that the path shown is the original Mail Account. If not, then edit the path to point to the Mail Account which actually contains your current Mail. "

 

sailor2,

See this screen shot of the Server Settings window: Server Settings

You first have to highlight your Mail Account Name. Once it is highlighted, in the right panel click on: "View Settings for This Account ".

You should see the Server Settings in the left panel, and it should be the first listing under the Mail Account name. Then you will see the Server Settings window as shown in the screen shot.

 

Netscape 7.0 --mail folders and messages do not appear

Please pardon the delay in responding "“ family business. Although I've used computers for some years, I still feel inadequate in troubleshooting. Despite your welcome explanations, I still am unable to find "Server Settings" and the "Local Directoryâ€. The basic problem of no email access continues.

When mail is opened, the first thing appearing on the screen is an Answer Wizard. After closing that, I click on Edit, then the Mail and Newsgroups Account Settings. The "Outgoing Server (SMTP settings)" window seeks our account name and port --- as if we are asked to open an account.
Have searched the Help files with no success.

For protection, we tried to copy the "xxxxx.slt" as a backup. It was unsuccessful; message received "cannot copy parent. It is being used by another person or programâ€. Only the "xxxxx.slt" file was open. We attempted to delete the parent.lock file unsuccessfully.

At this time, it leads one to think that the browser is corrupt. One possible solution might be to download Netscape 8.x. We are familiar with the browser workings and the email service.

Or we should download Firefox and Thunderbird as suggested in your response. Obviously, a little more work involved "“ exporting, importing, et al

 

Ramona gave you a pretty good hint on what to do, on her e-mail of 2 days ago, and, will not try to confuse things any further. There may be a corruption of the profile, but hardly ever of the program, which brings up the Account wizard.
You are talking about Outgoing mail, but your problem is most likely one of Incoming mail, first. That's where you need to get to the Local Directory.
If nothing shows up, I would create the same account all over with exactly the same setting. If you did not have two folders as Ramona said: Is there more than one Mail Account folder, e.g..
pop.isp_name.net
pop.isp_name-1.net , you will have them now, but you should be able to see the server settings which Ramona mentioned. You may want to change your pop account from:Is there more than one Mail Account folder, e.g..
pop.isp_name-1.net to pop.isp_name.net . This way you should be able to use the old mail folder.
Since your problem is with mail, the browser is irrelevant. Netscape8 and Firefox are browser only, i.e. no mail, so no solution.But Thunderbird is mail only, and, Seamonkey is very much like Netscape.
Although Profiles are picked up by the installation of the new programs, I doubt that there would be smooth sailing if you don't fix the present mail problems, or at least deal with server settings.

 

9-14-06 We're making some headway! After opening Mail, the Answer Wizard window appeared. I decided to enter the original account info (POP server, name, et al). After clicking Edit, then Mail and Newsgroup Account Settings, we found, at last, the Server Settings window. Entered the info into the Local Directory section as advised. No mail yet.

9-15-06 Turned on the machine, clicked the Netscape Mail icon -- after a long time "crunching ", she spit out the sought mail folders and messages. All appears normal.

Our concern now is how to copy and backup all this mail, address book, et al.
What would you suggest?

I want to offera big "THANK YOU" to Ramona, Westside, and any others who provided rapid, clear explanations to my situation.

 

I don't know why you are having so many problems, like being unable to copy the .slt folder, in first place.
I don't know if I mentioned that you can export your address book(s) as .ldif files. The files can be give a name which make sense to you, and you can save then anywhere you want. I can also copy the entire mail folder, and save it. since the .msf files will be rebuilt, anywhere, save only the files with no .msf extention.
If you want to save your back up outside your computer, I would say that a CD-R is good, using a data files backup. Of course, it depends on how much mail you keep around. I archive my old mail, and my Mail folder, with twelve accounts is no more than a dozen MB, so there is no concern on saving all the necessary files from a profile. But some people save mail from the last century, so one CD is, definitely not enough. In general, it is a bad idea to keep so much mail around.