Lost inbox Netscape Mail

This problem is Solved - see below.

When I checked my mail this morning, I got a message that Netscape Mail couldn't find the inbox. I clicked on the inbox and the mail poured in. That may have been my unfortunate mistake. The only mail in the inbox was the mail that was just read. All the rest (8 years) was gone. I have checked all the other mailboxes with windows explorer and there isn't an inbox that contains the mail. Is there a possibility that the inbox could be somewhere else? Or was it simply overwritten when I clicked on the inbox?

Later this morning I discovered that I was not the problem. Yesterday I installed AVG8 Free version virus checker and it ran last night for the first time. I have been using it's previous versions for years. But last night it deleted my inbox and several programs that I have been using for years. In addition they have provided no way to register for free support forums. And I have not found any way to contact them. So presently I don't know if I can recover the files.

So my warning to all is this - BEWARE OF AVG8 FREE.

 

I have been very wary of AVG8, and, have intention of updating to it.
Now, do you know where your files are? If you have a modern OS, they are hidden, by default. Now, saving 8 years' worth of mail is good, but how was it saved? The only proper way is take it out of the Inbox, and save it in other folders, or subfolders. But, what you say suggest that your mail in a single gigantic file, i.e. the Inbox. That's dangerous to say the least.
Please refer to Ramona's Netscape Solutions to see if we are on the same page, about the location of your files/folders.

 

Westside, thanks for your response. I think we're on the same page. My files are not hidden. And yes you are correct. All the mail is in 1 big file. It must have been about 1gb. I actually ported it over from a previous PC. And I don't back up my files regularly. My last backup for Mail is 11/2006. So if I can't recover the current file, I've lost 18 months. Since I havne't lost my sent box and I have responded to most of the emails in the inbox, I have copies of the inbound mail in the sent box. So I'm not completely lost.

I also lost Radmin last night in the same AVG8 execution. But I found it in their vault and was able to restore it. I had to disable AVG8 first. Symantec did the same thing to me. That's why I quit using them. But for some reason AVG8 deleted the inbox. And I haven't been able to find it anywhere.

What makes it really tough is that I have no way of contacting AVG. Their Florida Office isn't listed. No phones on the website. The Free Version is only supported by a user forum. They forgot to include a registration form for AVG8 forum. So I can't register for the forum. I couldn't remember my old username and password for the AVG7 forum, so I requested they email them to me. But the ones they send don't work. I've tried 4 times. If I could just contact AVG, they may know where the inbox is.

The only contact I've been able to make is to their Customer Service Dept. I don't know if they even read those emails. This could be a major blunder for them. I found at least one other person on the net complaining about the same thing I experienced. So I've warned everyone in my address book to avoid AVG8. Previous versions have been great.

It was nice of you to write. Even sympathy helps. But if you have any idea of where the inbox might be, let me know.

 

Welcome to the Forum, magicat!

magicat,

I am running AVG 8.0 with absolutely no problem. You can use the "Advanced" settings (Tools | Advanced) to exclude your Inbox, or any other files you prefer AVG to not quarantine.

The ability to register for the free support Forums is offered in the installation. When you registered your free AVG, there is also an option to register for the Forums.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with AVG 8.0, it is completely compatible with Firefox, Netscape, SeaMonkey, and Opera.

Please let us know the solution that you found.

 

Ramona, Thanks for your reply. True, I could exclude Radmin. But, I'm afraid its too late for my Inbox. It appears to be gone permanently. But I'll look again.

Also about the registration, I don't remember one during the install, but if it occurred, I would have filled it out. Even so there ought to be some way to register afterwards. Even the Usernames and passwords they send my don't work.

 

Ramona, I ran AVG8 at installation (5am yesterday). It read 500k files Radmin was listed as spyware but no mention of Netscape Mail. There were warnings about items in Netscape Mail.
AVG8 ran scheduled at 10pm yesterday and read 800k files. And that's when it discovered infections in Mail and deleted the file. It doesn't say it moved it to the vault. Although I thought I saw it in the vault the first time I looked, I must have been mistaken. When I returned to the vault to restore the files, only Radmin files were in the vault and I was able to restore them.

These same files have been in my PC for years - both Radmin and Netscape Mail. And these files have been examined by the two previous versions of AVG. No problem. In fact AVG7.5 is still on my older PC with both Radmin and the older version of my Inbox. Why would I expect AVG8 to delete the Inbox and why did it only read 500k files the 1st time and 800k files the 2nd. I just can't accept your excuse for AVG8.

 

magicat,

I found a User Manual at the AVG site:
http://download.avg.com/filedir/doc/AVG_Free/user_manual/avg_afe_uma_en_80_1.pdf

See if you can find anything there on troubleshooting quarantined objects in the Virus Vault.


When you view the Inbox on the HDD, using Windows Explorer, can you open the Inbox file, and can you see the messages??

Here is what I suggest:
Uninstall AVG, using Add/Remove
Reinstall, and this time, when the "Register" window appears, ensure that you enable the radio button for registering at the Free Forums.

Then post your problem on the Forum. In the meantime, I will peruse the Forums to see if anyone else has had this problem.

 

Ramona, the old inbox is gone. There is a new one that was created just this morning before I realized what the problem was and it only contains this mornings mail. My initial reaction this morning when I discovered that the Inbox was missing was that the problem was caused by an OS upgrade. I never suspected AVG8. I lost the path to Netscape mail once before a long time ago. And I thought that's what happened this time. Plus, there was a thought that when I clicked on the Inbox and the new file was created that I had accidentally overwritten the Inbox myself. I knew where to look if it was just a lost path. And I examined all the possible Inboxes for other, older email addresses. But none were large enough to be this Inbox. This Inbox was at least as large as the sent box and the sent box is close to 1gb.

I have no trouble opening any of these boxes with Netscape Mail. I just can't find the one I'm looking for. The only hope is that it is buried somewhere within AVG8. And the only place I know is the virus vault. Right now, since I restored Radmin there is nothing in the virus vault.

 

You should post your problem on the AVG 8 Free Forum, as this is an AVG issue, and not Firefox. Norton AV used to have this very problem, but you are the first to report the problem using AVG 8.1. I can offer some suggestions, which may or may not help:

Double check the AVG settings to make certain none of them do state to delete instead of move the items found...

Clean up all temporary files and check for registry issues. I prefer a utility called CCleaner found at: http://www.ccleaner.com/. It also checks for registry issues. When checking for registry issues, run it about 3-4 times until it lists no other issues.

Have you tried using Firefox in Safe Mode? I would disable the Radmin software, then start Firefox in Safe Mode, in order to cover all the bases.

 

Ramona,
At your suggestion, I checked the advanced settings. All are the default settings since I changed nothing when I installed. Frankly I wasn't expecting anything like that since 7.5 didn't have advanced settings.
1 - Under both "scan whole computer" and "scan specific files/folders ", the 1st item, "automatically heal/remove infections" is checked. This may be the culprit. If it can't heal then maybe it removes the file. Since the file probably had many warnings because of its age and the fact that it is an Inbox, this could have happened. I've unchecked both boxes. I don't believe there was anything like this in 7.5. Oddly the 2nd item, "shell extension scan" isn't checked. Making "Delete" anything as a default is dangerous. If anything = any specific email I could understand that. But if anything included a 1GB file that's hard to rationalize.
2 - The menu for "Resident shield settings" has a similar item, "auto-heal'. But it isn't checked either. You'd have to know more about AVG than I do to understand what the above items do. Maybe that's why I liked 7.5. They weren't there.

3 - I'm wary of all register utilities. I've tried a couple and they've caused troubles. So I would prefer to just leave registry problems lay like the sleeping dog.

4 - I didn't understand the last item about Firefox running in Safe mode. I'm not having any trouble with the browser or the mail program. And I haven't found it necessary to run in Safe Mode in a long time. But if you could explain why, I would be happy to try.

Bottom line = you might want to check your own Advanced Settings to see if those first two items are checked. If anything caused the deletion, it would probably have been one of them.

Also, I've re-enabled AVG8 for tonight; I didn't re-install as you suggested; so I still can't contact the Free Forum. As far as I'm concerned they have problems too. I just checked my Inbox and counted three times I requested and they sent my login info. Each time with a different password. None of them worked. That's a problem. I'll see what happens tonight and tomorrow I'll decide whether to stay with them or find another. And they admit on the website that the Registration for AVG8 is missing from the forum website.

 

Can't explain why, other than grabbing at straws? Ignore #4!

 

I check download.com for user's feedback, and this new version of AVG had users split down the middle. Almost equal number of five stars, and one or two stars (from formerly delighted users), mainly because of the unexpected settings, and problems which can occur. For me, it is no question that 7.5 is the version to use.

 

Westside,
I haven't backed off of 8 yet, but I probably will go back to 7.5.
Bob

 

I am not sure what to do. After multiple failures to install XP SP3, my computer has slowed down to a crawl. Microsoft support claims that my security software has become corrupted, and, igt should be completely uninstalled, and then reinstalled. I have done that with my antispyware programs, and the Firewall, Sygate, but not the antivirus. Should I plunge into the, pretty much, unknown with AVG 8.0, or stick to the past?
The entire Microsoft update seems pretty bogus. But, there seems to be some improvement in performance. I am getting CPU over 90, constantly, for System Process Idle ( at the bottom of the Processes' list of the Task Manager).

 

Do you mean AVG, rather than igt?

 

My goodness! My fingers were all over, I wrote without thinking, and I did not look at the post. Everything was under control, otherwise
However, I don't understand what I wrote: I meant that Microsoft "alleges" that my security software should be uninstalled, and, then, reinstalled, because it has become corrupted. Each program, including AVG should be handled. And, by the way, while doing a scan, I got the notice that there will be no further updates after May 31, 2008, as mentioned before. So, we are stuck, or I can make things simpler by going with the entire McAfee Security Suite, provided by my ISP.

 

Westside, Now that you mention it. I remember before downloading AVG8, they said that they were no longer supporting 7.5. I have continued to work with AVG8 but every morning I have to restore something that has to do with Radmin. Even after I make an exception, I get the messages. I'm getting tired of it and impatient.

I don't know who your ISP is. Mine is Cox Cable. They offer a security suite too. But I don't know whose they use. It's unlikely that I will stay with AVG8 much longer. The biggest damage has already been done - the loss of my Inbox. So I'm in no hurry to change.

As for Radmin, other Virus Checkers too have found a problem with it and removed it. That's why I started using AVG. It's likely that I will run into the same problem with other Virus Checkers.

 

I, also, have Cox. The security software is McAfee's. I had McAfee antivirus before AVG, and AVG was superior, in my opinion. I have not kept up with McAfee. But, I don't like the fact that I have to remove all security software, and, use the entire McAfee suite.

 

Also lost Netscape Inbox with upgrade to AVG Ver 8

I have lost many very important emails

Went searching and found Inbox.snm was intact but Inbox (contents) file was missing.

Anyone know where the Inbox file may have gone.

I am not happy as there was no warning to say Inbox email files would be lost when upgrading to AVG Ver 8. Seems to me this upgrade has been more damaging to my PC than all the Virus that have been sitting on my computer. Also my PC is running much slower now with this new upgrade.

 

Kojab,
If you are lucky it may be in the virus vault. Be careful not to press any key that might "delete" it when you're viewing the vault. Just re-instate the file. The empty inbox that you found was created when the old one was removed. Also check the System Options. If you find an option that says "delete" a file automatically, change it to a different option. According to the docs, "delete" should mean to move to the vault; but I think it really means "delete."

I agree - this is a terrible mistake by AVG. I sent out a warning to all my addressees to avoid it. The inbox is the most vulnerable file in the whole PC. It's the file that gets all the junk everyone sends to you. It is the front door of your PC. AVG should be aware of that and they should take special care not to treat it like any other file. An inbox that has been around for years - even one that has been guarded by previous AVGs - most likely contains things they now consider viruses. Isn't that a surprise? Well it shouldn't be.

Even if you manage to re-instate your old inbox, you will have to examine everything that AVG8 does for the next few weeks. You may have to (as I have) re-instate other files that it doesn't like. I hope you find your inbox.
Bob