Vista - Re: Possibly OT--An alternative to WLM

So, it looks like there is nothing that can be done, except get a new
NG reader?

On Jun 22, 11:57*am, Duncs <true.kilted.s...@xxxxxx> wrote:

So WLMail Stops Responding when trying to compact the database, and also when subscribing to a newsgroup...

I notice that you did not provide feedback in your May thread ('Problem Loading Windows Live Mail') on how you resolved the problem you had starting WLMail...

As far as the database compaction problem, it sounds to me like your WLMail Message Store database is corrupted and needs replacing.

To do this, after backing up (export) your accounts, simply rename the Message Store* folder to "Windows Live Mail (old)" and restart WLMail. The Message Store will be re-created by WLMail.

Then restore your accounts...

Then, if necessary, import** your messages from the old Message Store.

*WLMail's Message Store is a directory named 'Windows Live Mail'. The path to the Message Store, in its default location involves a hidden folder, so ensure that "Show hidden files and folders" is checked under Folder Options in Windows Explorer. To find the location of your message store, go to Tools->Options...->Advanced [tab]->Maintenance->Store Folder.

The default Message Store locations are:

Vista & 7:
%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail
(C:\Users\<Windows user account>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail)

XP:
%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail
(C:\Documents and Settings\<windows user account>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail)

**Messages can be imported directly from your old renamed Message Store by dragging them onto the WLMail interface, or by using the File->Import->Messages...->Windows Live Mail option and pointing it to your old renamed Message Store folder.

As for WLMail not Responding after subscribing to a newsgroup, I have found that this is normal but temporary behaviour if many messages are being downloaded. However, given enough time, WLMail does recover when all messages have been downloaded. To avoid this issue, before subscribing to a newsgroup, set the setting at Tools->Options->Read [tab]->News [section]->[x] 'Get 300 headers at a time'. Once WLMail settles, you can then uncheck the option above and download all the messages (it may stop responding for a little while at that point).

--
Cheers,
Peter.R
(Windows Vista Home Premium SP2 with IE7 & Windows Live Mail 2009 14.0.8064.0206)
"There are more things in Heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Shakespeare

"Duncs" <true.kilted.scot@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:f5d4148f-ccd9-4642-be88-dc3e18582136@xxxxxx

"Duncs" <true.kilted.scot@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:f5d4148f-ccd9-4642-be88-dc3e18582136@xxxxxx
I don't know where this came from.
It wasn't propagated to NNTP
and the web interface doesn't have it either...

http://www.microsoft.com/communities...ed6&sloc=en-us



Have you had a successful compaction or rebuilt your index yet?

http://www.microsoft.com/communities...4d7&sloc=en-us



The idea is to have the value set at 1 *first*.
Then when you use that command you would get the prompt. ; }


Or suggests that your index is so broken that it needs to be rebuilt
as both R.C. and Peter advised you in your previous thread.

Many thanks for your replies.

Firstly, my apologies for not responding to me earlier post. I
managed to resolve the issue, at the time, by using the "wlmail.exe /
calendarurl:http://calendar.live.com/" command. At the time, this
allowed me into WLMail and also to do a compaction on the files. I
appreciate I should have posted back to the thread, thanking everyone
for their help...please accept my apologies.

Moving on, when I started to subscribe to NGs I once again hit
problems. If the NG had a large number of messages, WLMail attempts
to D/L these, or at least the headers. This appears to stop after a
while and causes WLMail to hang. So, I have attempted to use the
"wlmail.exe /calendarurl:http://calendar.live.com/" command again, to
try and get into WLMail. Initially, I was unable to get in however,
after some perseverance, I got in. I set the compact option to after
every 1 run and exited WLMail. WLMail then seemed to be compacting,
but after a while I got the message advising that it had stopped
responding. So, it was a case of CTRL+ALT+DEL, and close it via the
Task Manager. I then tried again, this time loading it via the icon.
It refused to load. I tried it via the "wlmail.exe /
calendarurl:http://calendar.live.com/" command, and it loaded. I
tried compacting it again, no joy...the same message, it has stopped
responding. So, I once again tried to load it via the icon but, once
again, it wouldn't load. So, it was back to the "wlmail.exe /
calendarurl:http://calendar.live.com/" option. This allowed me to
load it, but I still can't compact the files or NGs.

I can download e-mail no problem, it just seems to be the NGs that I
am having issues with.

Peter R. I can subscribe to NGs no problem. I just seem to have the
problem when I either access or synchronise a NG, just by D/L the
headers. It just seems to crash / hang, whatever you want to call
it. When I eventually get it loaded again, I switch to 'Work Offline'
and access the NG. It shows on the status bar, that x messages have
been D/L but it doesn't show them. There are no views applied to the
N/G, apart from the default show all messages. I've tried working
online and accessing a NG, only to find that WLMail stops working as
it is D/L a large number of headers. I've even left it running
overnight to see if that makes any difference, but I still have no
joy.

So, I'm guessing that what I should try next is:

1. Export accounts / messages
2. Rename the message store
3. Then either uninstall & download a new copy of WLMail, or re-load
the one that I have and get the message store re-created
4. Set the compaction option to 1
5. Import my e-mail account / messages
6. Exit and compact
7. Add a NG account
8. Subscribe to one or two NGs
9. Download messages / headers
10. Exit and compact
11. Check the results and access etc.
12. Proceed with the other NGs

If this seems a little too cautious / overkill, pleas get back to me.
I really do appreciate your comments / suggestions.

Many thanks once again.

Duncs


On 7 July, 07:19, "Robert Aldwinckle" <rob...@xxxxxx> wrote:

Yes, definitely rename the Message Store. You can backup your messages first, but it is not strictly necessary since you can import directly from the old Message Store.

You don't need to reinstall WLMail at this stage, as running your existing WLMail with the Message Store renamed will recreate the Message Store. Hopefully, at that stage you will be pleasantly surprised at how well WLMail starts. Although it won't hurt to run a Repair install of Windows Live Essentials through Control Panel at any time.

Also, compacting the new database immediately is not strictly necessary, but I suppose it won't hurt. Even with the compaction option set to '1', you need not opt into compacting the database when it is offered at each shutdown of WLMail.

Some important notes about dealing with the imported messages:

->Allow WLMail plenty of time to index the newly imported messages before moving them about in WLMail.

->Do not move folders about in WLMail, as there is no corresponding movement within the Message Store. Instead, create a new folder in the required location and move the relevant imported messages into it.

->Allow WLMail plenty of time to index the relocated messages before closing WLMail.

When you are satisfied with WLMail starting well and have your e-mail sorted, you can experiment with your Newsgroups. Alternatively, you might like to try the Newsgroups before importing your email messages.

Remember that you can always revert to using your old Message Store for any reason (such as experimentation) by renaming it back to its original name and renaming your new Message Store to 'Windows Live Mail (new)'.

--
Cheers,
Peter.R
(Windows Vista Home Premium SP2 with IE7 & Windows Live Mail 2009 14.0.8064.0206)
"There are more things in Heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Shakespeare

"Duncs" <true.kilted.scot@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:684e66fd-7668-43f1-bf41-4511536ecf02@xxxxxx

"Duncs" <true.kilted.scot@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:684e66fd-7668-43f1-bf41-4511536ecf02@xxxxxx
How certain are you of that?


Again, the idea of that command is just to cause wlmail.exe to open
while it is NOT running and when your compaction interval is set to 1.
Nothing else. In particular I wouldn't expect it to be able to kick start
a hung task and make it stop but must admit I have never tried to do that.


Sounds like you may be doing something impatiently and prematurely. ; }


I still think that killing wlmail.exe may need to be done judiciously.
E.g. make sure that it is really hung, e.g using Process Explorer
or Task Manager's statistics, before killing it; otherwise you could be
risking corrupting the database. If that is what's happening I wouldn't
expect just compacting to repair it.


Then you should try diagnosing that symptom too.
If you have troubleshooting logging for News active
look at the log to see what commands are being issued
and what the responses are. Unfortunately, I think some
of the log entries are buffered so this may not give you
a completely clear picture of where the hang may be
in terms of the NNTP protocol. To do that you would be
better off using a protocol analyser such as WireShark,
either from its own capture or from a capture done by
netcap (from the XP Support Tools.)


Regardless of the view the Status bar message normally reflects
what can be seen in the Message list, so it sounds as if your database
is corrupt again/still.


How about, at least as a test, using it with a smaller set of messages from
each subscribed newsgroup? E.g. leave Get 300 messages at a time
checked. Use the Headers button (or the Get next... tool) to get more
if desired. Mark those messages for download (or mark them Watched)
and then use any synchronization method except All Messages to fill in
their bodies. You could also use the Catch Up command if you want
to switch to All Messages as your synchronization method while still
keeping the number of messages manageable.

But before doing that I suspect you are going to have to follow Peter's
instructions for repairing the database. It's not clear to me if you have
done any of that yet.


HTH

Robert
---

On 9 July, 15:22, "Robert Aldwinckle" <rob...@xxxxxx> wrote:When I click on a NG, for example this one, WLMail appears to be
downloading messages as I can see from the status bar. However, after
some time this number stops incrementing and no messages are displayed
on screen. When I then try to move to another NG, I find that I
cannot click on any, or at least if I do, it doesn't change to that NG
and display its contents. If I try to close WLMail, I cannot access
the file menu to exit it, nor can can I click on the 'X' to close it.
When I access Task Manager WLMail is listed as 'Not Responding' and
doesn't seem to be using any resources.
After closing WLMail via the Task Manager, when I try to re-run it all
I get is the WLMail splash screen, but nothing else. It doesn't load
and eventually comes up with a message advising that WLMail has had a
problem loading and will close. II click on the close program and it
closes. If I try it again, I get the same situation, so I have to use
the command mentioned above. This loads into the web calendar. I
close this browser window and try WLMail again, it loads. However, I
get the same problems as described above...it hangs when trying to
access NGs, when I try to D/L headers, on all occasions having to
close via Task Manager. I then have to use the above command, to
close the browser and then re-open WLMail.
When I set it to compact after every 1 exit I can leave it for hours,
or in some occasions overnight. When I then return to it, there is
the message displayed advising that it has stopped responding. I'm
not trying to get it to do anything before it tells me that it isn't
working.
As before, I make sure that it has really stopped working before
closing it.
I will look into the above and see what I can glean from it.
That makes sense however, I still can't compact it.
I posted my reply to Peter's instructions yesterday, and attempted the
steps last night. When I try to export the messages, it causes an
error. I can't get the messages exported. If I close WLMail, delete
the folder that was partially created and try again, I get the same
error. I think this would possibly indicate that there is a problem
with the message database. However, I can't get it resolved from
within WLMail. Is there an external program, either MS or third
party, that will compact the message files? Is there any other way
that I can export the messages?
Cheers

Duncs

Peter's instructions did not say to export messages.
"To do this, after backing up (export) your accounts, simply rename the
Message Store* folder to "Windows Live Mail (old)" and restart WLMail."

Are you using Google to access the newsgroups?
How many messages are you trying to download?
Have you tried direct access to a newsgroup?
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsof...e.mail.desktop
--
Ron Sommer

"Duncs" <true.kilted.scot@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5cef3318-ee16-4364-af2c-033975ad2692@xxxxxx
snipped

"Duncs" <true.kilted.scot@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5cef3318-ee16-4364-af2c-033975ad2692@xxxxxx

<much snipped>Duncs, it looks increasingly like there is a corruption in your
message store, so repeatedly trying to do things that don't work are
only going to increase your frustration level. You don't need to
export your messages to put them in safe keeping. Each message is an
individual file, and none of the measures recommended so far will do
anything to them. It might make recovering them after a successful
restoration of your message store a bit easier, but the work it
would save you is far less than the effort you've already expended
to very little effect.

Peter suggested exporting your accounts ([Tools >] Accounts >
(account) > Export). This creates an .iaf file for each account
containing its settings which you can import again after doing your
repair. This only saves you the trouble of re-creating the accounts;
if you know all the usernames, passwords, server names and settings
for each account, you have nothing to worry about and can skip this
step.

So, the way forward (which may, incidentally, only prove that a
corrupt database was not the problem) is - with WLMail closed - to
rename your message store to something else and start WLMail. This
will create a new message store (it might take some time while the
program figures out what's happened). If the program starts
normally, you could try adding a mail account and checking that it
will send and receive. Then set up the folders you want and try
importing messages from a folder or two in the old message store.
Then do the same with a news account, taking one step at a time and
checking that everything is working as it should. Don't bother with
importing newsgroup messages - you can always download those afresh
(unless you're like me and keep an archive of old postings, in which
case they'd have to be imported too).

If this is successful, you've confirmed that there was a corrupt
message store and you're good to go. If it's not, then we'll have to
try something else.
--
Noel

On 10 July, 13:02, "Ildhund" <jn...@xxxxxx> wrote:Thanks to all for your suggestions. I'll try them when I get home--as
I'm at work just now--and post the results.

Many thanks

Duncs