Pegasus Mail & Mercury

Hi all,

I have been posting here recently about my experience on using IMAP to download mail into PMAIL v.4.63 from Microsoft Exchange 2010 server. For a while it seemed to work, despite a few quirks, but yesterday I stumbled onto total deal breaker. Turns out copies to self directed to IMAP folders are getting saved only if the target folder is the "ground level"one. Copies to self, directed to its subfolders *get lost*. I have rather complex nested folder structure and did not expect such a bummer, especially since copying and moving messages between local and IMAP folders worked just fine. I had "This server supports folders within folders" option checked and it seemed to work, if only with a twist (see my earlier postings).

I do not have the means to test this behavior on another IMAP server, so I cannot verify if this is Exchange or PMAIL bug, but definitely one of the two is guilty. Unfortunately PMAIL is the bigger suspect since there seems to be no reason why copying to self should be any different from other copying operations, which do work.

Needless to say I am done with my IMAP/Exchange project. As an alternate solution I am planning to use DavMail utility to fetch mail from Exchange and present it to PMAIL as a POP3 box running on localhost. Will report the results.

All be warned.

I'm using Pegasus for years with several IMAP servers with different software (but no Exchange). Didn't have such problems. Defined standard CopySelfFolder and additionaly configured Pegasus to ask for folder.

Are you shure there are no copies to self? Have a look with webmailer of Exchange. Maybe the localy cached Information about IMAP-folders in Pegasus is disrupted ...

bye   Olaf

Hi Olaf,

Thanks for confirmaiton, but no, no saved messages even if I check Exchange folder via web interface. I first thought the problem stemmed from the fact that Exchange bundles outgoing messages and replies to them (that is, copies to self) into "conversations" within a given folder, similar to what Gmail is doing. There is an option to disable this behavior, I tried it, but it didn't help, copies to self are still getting lost. Weird thing is, on save event message count in Pegasus folder tree panel gets incremented by one (not right away though), but message itself is nowhere to be found. Most likely Exchange requires some special handling on the part of PMAIL.

All in all, since according to you PMAIL IMAP implementation works fine with several other servers (including subfolders I hope), this behavior must be Exchange "feature", which Micro$oft is renown for. Too bad, it makes stroring messages in Exchange IMAP folders not usable - unless someone can figure yet another workaround.

Grab a session log and see what is going on.

Should be pretty easy to spot the culprit (my money is on Exchange :) )

dilberts_left_nut:

Grab a session log and see what is going on.

Should be pretty easy to spot the culprit (my money is on Exchange :) )

Hi dilberts_left_nut and all,

Well, too bad, I am not in the business of finding culprits, just not enough time, maybe when I retire (if ever) :) Seriously, DavMail turned out to be rather straightforward solution to my IMAP/Exchange headaches. This is free GPL software that runs on PC, presenting itself to PMAIL as POP3 server running on localhost. When polled by PMAIL it logs onto Exchange and retrieves new mail from it using .... its web interface! Works without a hitch so far, fingers crossed. Configuration is extraordinarily simple: run DavMail and supply Exchange web interface address to it. Enter "localhost" for PMAIL POP3 server with username and password required for Exchange login and make sure POP3 port is the same as in DavMail - that's it! Now PMAIL is happy fetching mail through tried and true POP3.

DavMail (http://davmail.sourceforge.net ) is being actively developed by Mickaël Guessant (just downloaded a new version) and sponsored by no else but French military. It is specifically aimed at Exchange to make it accessible by standard (i.e., not M$) protocols. There are few similar gateway products on the net, but most of them are out of date, hard to configure and unlikely to work reliably with Exchange anyway. DavMail offers POP3 which I am currently using, IMAP which I may try again after some cool off period :), SMTP for sending,  LDAP to access Exchange address books and Exchange calendar support. It can be run as a server on local network to be accessed by multiple clients. It is just a shame that someone's talent has to be used specifically to correct incompatibilities created by Micro$oft.

Cheers!