Migrating Netscape mail files

I've been trying to clean up my Netscape mail installations. I've been sloppy when doing Windows reinstalls so I have several instances of Netscape 4.8 and 7.x, each with different mail stores.

General Questions.

Is there something sacrosanct or different about 'dedicated' folders in Netscape Mail--Inbox, Sent, Drafts?

Can I copy whole directories from one set of mail files to another?

Is there some standard folder heirarchy that I must observe?

What is the significance of the different file extensions in the Netscape mail store structure? SBD, MSF

Local Folders seem to be different. They show up in the Netscape Mail view, but not in Explorer. Are these some kind of virtual folder?

Specific Problem.

I've copied files from older 7.x instances to a new master version--actually a copy of my current working version. The older folders show up, both in Explorer and in Netscape Mail, but when I click on a Netscape folder to open it, it is empty, though Explorer shows them to have significant size. If I login to a profile that has the older Netscape instance--the source folder as the Local Directory in the Server Settings--I see the messages as they should be displayed.

There are two parent folders--Inbox.sbd.old and Migr Folders-- on the same level as Inbox, Sent, Drafts, etc., that have older folder structures that I have copied into this master version. Each has nested subfolders. Initially with Explorer, I just copied whole folder structures without regard to copying only those files without extensions. After reading some information on this forum and associated sites, I went back into the Migr Folders and removed MSF files from a couple of the subfolders, but that didn't have any positive effect.

In about a half hour, there will be some screen shots here:
http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~b-wallen/Systems/Trouble/NS7MailMigr1.htm

Thanks.
Brian Wallen

 

Not really, but as a general practice I do not think it a good idea to create sub-folders within them.

SBD are subfolders. MSF are "Mail Summary Files" This is what is displayed in the right panel. (basically the headers of the parent file.) eg Inbox.msf = header for each email in the inbox. .msf files can and often are deleted by the user. They are rebuilt by NS when needed.

No, they show up in WIN98se as the first folder under "Mail" of the profile account.

Now on to the specifics.

Interesting to say the least....

I don't know for sure, but I think you can do what you want to do.

The following comments are based on MY machine, running Win98se - Moz 1.5 and should apply equally to 7.1 - don't know about 7.0x-

Email "folders" are displayed in alpha order starting just below the TRASH folder.

In a test profile, create a "folder" in the main account named "@test ".

This creates the "folder" "@test" in the main account and appears right below the "Trash" folder. - this is NOT an actual "folder', but a "file" called "@test" -

Now in the "@test" folder, create a subfolder called "@test1 ".

Still with me.?

Close out of ALL NS. open explorer.
Browse to that account.. You should have listed among any other subfolders
an "@test.sub" inside of which is the "@test1 ".

You can now "copy" from another source any mail files (those without extensions) to this folder.
(the "@test.sub folder-the same one tht has "@test1 in it) start NS and ....hopefully....when you open the "@test "folder it will contain the files that you copied over.

The folders are nested and if you break the chain, things do not work as they should.

I did not try with as many nested folders as you did, but I think it will work.

This should give you some idea as to how I think it works. But I could be wrong.

Hope that this is of some help.

(spelling and grammar don't count)

regards:

 

captdavis,

I continued playing after posting my message. What I saw did nothing to enlighten me about the roll of local folders except one item I found in NS 7.1 Help which said that Local Folders was where NS stored things when you were working in offline mode.

First, I have always created subfolders in the Inbox. I would have said this this was something that NS 4.x taught me to do, but it could have been my own, and perhaps unwise idea.

My current impression is that NS 7.x doesn't work the same way as 4.x (my primary mature experience was with 4.7 and 4.8), but based on you comments, I am starting to wonder if I have some kind of corrupted mail store and what I intuitively thought would work and what several sites suggest will work, really will, but not until I clean up my current installation.

Before reading your note, I was inclined to do a kind of clean profile, carefully importing folders a bit at a time and verifying what was happening. Your comments reinforce that strategy.

Does anyone know how to find more indepth material on how NS works at a more technical level? Not programmer level documentation, but something functional at a more technical level that Help.

Thanks.
Brian Wallen

 

There are several sites in addition to this one:

SillyDog

uFaq

One of the very best:
Ramona's Site

only to mention a few.

and several NG's

netscape.mozilla.user.win32

netscape.mozilla.user.general

netscape.netscape7.windows

I am sure others can supply more.

Hope this helps.

regards:

 

Thanks for the list. I had found some, promised myself to return to Ramona's site, but hadn't found uFAQ, which seems to be a vast resource.

Brian Wallen