Local Mail seems corrupt

Hello,

I have a somewhat unusual issue...

I was upgrading a user from Netscape 4.8 to Mozilla. As well as I can remember, these are the steps that I took to get into my current situation:

We use an IMAP server for e-mail. In order for users to keep available space for their account, they utilize the Local Mail function.

I copied the folder that contained the Local Mail to the E: drive (so it was now also in E:\Mail

I then installed Mozilla and when it asked if I would like to import the mail, etc... from Netscape 4.8, I said 'yes'. The problem was that the Local Mail was 1.47GB and there was only 700MB of space left on the C: drive. So, it ended up saying that there was not enough space.

I then decided that I would configure the account for access to the IMAP server and then 'import' the mail. I was able to do this successfully. At this time, I could see all of the folders in Local Mail and able to see the messages inside those folders. The only problem is that she wanted to have the Local Mail stored on the E: drive because if we ever have to 'restore' a computer...we have it partitioned so that we can just restore the C: drive, while leaving the E: drive alone.

Here is where the problem started.....

I decided to point Mozilla to E:\Mail. I think that I accidentally put E:\Mail in the Local Directory and Local Folder spot. When I did this...I could see the folders, but could not see any messages within the folders. I figured that this was because when I performed the 'import' function in Mozilla...that it only imported the mail that was on the C: drive (the Local Mail location in NS). So, I decided to point NS to the Local Mail on the E: drive and then perform the import function again.

Once I pointed NS to E:\Mail, it would not see the messages in the folders. If If I opened up Mozilla and tried to point back to the C: drive - I could not view the messages....and if I opened NS and pointed back to the C: drive, I could not see the messages there either.

Upon inspection of the files, I noticed that EVERY file had a .SNM extension - and that some had .msf.snm as the extension. I then copied the Local Mail folder to a different place on the E: drive, and deleted the files that had .msf in their name. I also deleted the .snm extension from the other filenames (I figured that the only 'index' files would be the ones that .msf in their name).

A couple of things to note about the Local Mail folder - there were not always two entries for each of the 'folders' (i.e. aquatics and aquatics.snm) and the same is true for aquatics and aquatics.msf.snm.

The (local) Trash folder was one that I could get working. It had:
Trash
Trash.snm
Trash.msf

*********

Would pointing both the local folders and Local Directory to E:\mail have ******* things up in this manner? Any ideas?

If I view the files with Notepad, I can see that there is information there...but there is also a bunch of junk inbetween (and I don't mean the Headers).

Please Help Me! This is four years of mail for this person, and she files the mail there every day!

Please respond as soon as you can, as this is an emergency! Thanks in advance for any assistance that you can provide!

Joe

 

Welcome to the Forum, djhendrix!

Joe,

These are the instructions for moving the Mail Accounts from the
< path >\Applications Data\Mozilla\Profiles\profilename\*.slt\Mail\IMAP.ISP.NET
folder to another location:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_mail_storage_location_(Mozilla_Suite)

You might even want to start over again, following these instructions.

Your Messages, when viewing the Inbox, will start with this:
From - Mon May 30 14:02:19 2005

And end with this:
--------------020805040607080606010201--

If you're talking about binary garbage at the end of the messages which look this this:

C+iU9GmNmFCRX0mP24iPvQig9CigTTmgEKobpomhCoqg5lgbblksCfpczDmhN2qV2WmhmkmhXsid
GxpiedmDYTmYZDmRqZmfRDqU2zmbKEoH3+mieLig41mj8OmbXUWFwWko6OkwBpiOEBpXVko6TupP
/9Sb13mKELmPIvqNH2qChamjRBmmKakEMUic4Kn/nZWTnSJ5YOapRH7Kp6wFqEY0qIFqqIeKqImq

Then the message most likely had an attachment, and this is the way the attachment is interpreted when viewing on the HDD.

Let us know if we can be of more help!

Ramona