I'm running Windows 10, PMail 4.80. I have several (about 7) POP3 email accounts, 4 at Comcast, 2 at Gmail, 1 at iCloud (IMAP). So when PMail retrieves my new mail, it takes some time. The Comcast servers seem to be the slowest and PMail spends a lot of time trying to converse with them. During this period, my computer is basically unusable. PMail uses all of Windows' time (or is it the network layer?), thereby preventing any other applications from getting a time slice. As each server interaction is completed, other apps may get a very small momentary interval where they can do something, but then the next email server (usually another Comcast email) gets control and the same thing happens again. The GMail servers seem to respond relatively quickly, so the "dead" period is much shorter, but it's still annoying.

Can anyone explain what is happening and how to fix it? I am going to try to improve the situation by eliminating some of my email accounts, but that doesn't solve the basic problem.

This is a known issue within Pegasus Mail, normally noticeable when a POP3 check occurs while composing a message. The explanation for this is that Pegasus Mail is single-treaded thus pausing other parts of it while the POP3 check runs. Enabling the Idle option in your POP3 configuration will help with this (details are in Help).

As for it affecting other running programs, I don't experience that, I just tested typing in a LibreOffice document while a POP3 check ran (five hosts checked) and the typing was not interrupted. This is on a Win 11 laptop with an I7 processor and 16MB of memory. Unfortunately, I don't recall whether other programs were affected on my previous and less powerful PCs.

You should consider upgrading to 4.91. I don't think it will help this particular issue but it fixes the bugs that existed in 4.80. If you upgrade, and had circumvented the 4.80 spell checker bug by setting the USRDICT5.PMD file as read-only, be sure to remove its read-only attribute to restore normal function.

In former times Pegasus Mail's Winsock option was connected to online issues like yours which is why IER offers an option for enabling Always as the recommended one: What's your setting on Tools > Options > Advanced settings? If Always is disabled you might want to give it a try: It will only have an effect (if any) after restarting Pegasus Mail. And if you're having auto-download of remote images enabled this might have an impact as well.

Thanks Brian and Michael for your help.

Some additional comments/questions -
Michael:
I don't know what IER stands for, but Always is enabled in my Advanced Settings.
I do have a problem when opening some emails. PMail basically hangs with the new email partly open. I think it's waiting for some images to be sent by the server. This can take 30 seconds or more where it looks like it's doing nothing, than all of a sudden - ZAP - everything appears. It usually succeeds, but sometimes it times out. Do I need to change my timeout settings?

Brian -
My Win10 laptop also has an i7 2.7 GHz with 16GB of RAM and an SSD.

I can understand that, since PMail is single-threaded, you can only do one thing at a time. But it doesn't make sense that it should block other processes/apps. The Windows task scheduler should swap out PMail preemtively to give all processes some run time.

This problem is most annoying when the computer is first turned on for the day and I have a lot of emails to retrieve - could be 30 or more. Later on, when there are usually only a few at a time, the delay is more tolerable.

I'm trying the idle option. It seems to be helping, except if I'm using another app, it doesn't detect those keystrokes or mouse clicks. So it will check email even if I'm actively using the other app.

I'm interested in upgrading to 4.91 & I don't know anything about that USRDICTS.PMD file, which I can't seem to find. I'm also getting ready to move to a new Win 11 computer. Is it better to upgrade first or just install 4.91 on the new computer? Can you tell me what the best way is to transfer all of my data to the new installation? I have always had trouble with that and I have a lot of filters, folders and saved emails. Mine is a single user setup. Here is my installation information:

WinPMail version: Version 4.80.1028, Jan 16 2022, build ID 1028
Language resources: Standard UK English resources (EN,0,LL)
Extension Manager version: 1.14
Operating mode: Standalone
User name and ID: Admin, 0
Windows version: 6.2
Windows flag word: 0
WINPMAIL.EXE directory: C:\PMAIL\Programs
Home mailbox location: C:\PMAIL\MAIL\Admin
New mailbox location: C:\PMAIL\MAIL\Admin
TMP environment variable: C:\Users\htrnh\AppData\Local\Temp
TEMP environment variable: C:\Users\htrnh\AppData\Local\Temp
LAN-based SMTP support: N, N, N
NetWare MHS support: N, N, N
Built-in TCP/IP support: Enabled

• WINSOCK version: WinSock 2.0
• WINSOCK path: WSOCK32.DLLCommandline: -roam -A -ID "Gmail + All" -Z 16896Active -Z options: 49664PMR variable: (None)PML variable: (None)MAI variable: (None)NB variable: (None)Autofiltering folders: 0 (0 active, 0 inactive)Last new mail count: 1060Message size soft limit: 0 bytesMessage size hard limit: 0 bytesAttachment size soft limit: 0 bytesAttachment size hard limit: 0 bytes

I'm leaving the other issues for Brian to reply to.

Yup! I find that it is rare that I need images to get the gist of the message so I don't let them load automatically, loading them only when needed. That said, my home owners association sends emails that only contain images so their email address is whitelisted to load images automatically.

I believe that I have previously posted my recommended process on this but you don't need to try to find it. I will do that, and if found, will provide the URL to that discussion. If not found, I will create a step-by-step guide.
I'll be back...

I'm back. Below is a step-by-step guide that is specific to your situation. I suggest reading through it before starting so that you understand the process. You may want to use my steps to create your own list that better suites your brain. Do not hesitate to post back with any questions.

On the Win11 machine, install 4.91 being attentive to the instructions below:

• Install to C:\PMAIL
• Early in the installation process you will see an option to "preconfigure a mailbox". Be sure to enable that option. In that same installation options list you will see an item that references "-ROAM" which you can untick; it will not be needed.
• Do not bother with any additional configuration (eg: skip or cancel through any configuration prompts including the internet options wizard).
• Once the Pegasus Mail main window displays, close Pegasus Mail.
• Use a file explorer to look at the directory structure of C:\PMAIL. If you don't see this structure then STOP and post back with what you see.C:\PMAIL\ProgramsC:\PMAIL\MAILC:\PMAIL\MAIL\Admin
• If the above structure exists, continue...
• Rename C:\PMAIL\MAIL\Admin to C:\PMAIL\MAIL\Admin_original
• Copy the entire directory of C:\PMAIL\MAIL\Admin from your Win10 machine to C:\PMAIL\MAIL. The goal here is to replace the \Admin directory created by the installer with a copy of the one you have in 4.80 on Win10.
• Use a file explorer to confirm that you now have this directory structure in C:\PMAIL. If you don't, STOP and post back with what you see.C:\PMAIL\ProgramsC:\PMAIL\MAILC:\PMAIL\MAIL\AdminC:\PMAIL\MAIL\Admin_original
• If this looks good you are ready to start Pegasus Mail, HOWEVER, consider temporarily adding the -O (oh, not zero) command line parameter to your shortcut so that Pegasus Mail starts in offline mode. This will allow you to make sure everthing looks right before any new mail gets retrieved. Once you start retrieving mail on this machine be sure to never do it on the Win10 machine. Consider modifying the shortcut on it with the -O option to insure that doesn't accidentally happen
• Start Pegasus Mail. Everything should look as it did in 4.80 on the Win10 machine. Do some tests in including reading some messages, and some copies and moves in and out of folders.
• Update IER in the new installation. Hint: Click its toolbar icon, then About IERenderer, then "Download most recent version".
• When you comfortable that everything seems to be working correctly and are ready to start retrieving mail, remove the -O command line option from the shortcut. The "working correctly" part is important because up to this point the entire installation can be blown away and started again with no loss except for your time. That changes once new mail is retrieved.
• Once all is working as expected, use a file explorer to delete the C:\PMAIL\MAIL\Admin_original directory.

I hope this goes smoothly for you.

Michael,

I didn't see any option related to the download dialog via IER's menu. My version of the IER is quite old, so I took a chance & updated it to the latest by extracting all of the new files to another directory & then replacing the old ones. The new IER relocated the image file directory. I hope that doesn't cause any other problems.

I still don't see the download dialog option with the new IER. What am I doing wrong?

It's not conclusive yet, as I've just started using the new IER, but the images appearing in emails seem to be appearing faster than before.

This brings up one other problem which has been bothering me for a long time & which is so disruptive that I've been considering giving up on PMail. If it weren't for all of the work I've put in making filters & other configuration stuff, I would have already left.

It seems to me that the problem could be related to the IER, which is why I'm bringing it up now. When I forward an email, if I just redirect (bounce) it, there is no problem, no matter how many images or how complicated the email is. However, if I want to edit it or add a message from me, it gets messed up. If the message is just plain text, it's readable but somewhat misformatted. If there are images, it's a total disaster. The images are all missing. It is so bad that I sometimes I have to use my mobile phone to forward the email! Do you have any explanation for this? Would upgrading to PM 4.91 help?

Here's where you can see it, the button on Pegasus Mail's main toolbar opens the menu:

Please note that some menu items will only be enabled if a HTML message is open for reading.

And there's something you should check with regard to forwarding HTML messages: What you see is not what you get, the sent message (in its final format which requires to create backup copies with formatting enabled, the recent versions of PM provide it on Tools > Options > Copies to self) usually looks a lot better than what the editor displays. This is due to the fact that Pegasus Mail's editor uses so-called RichText for formatting which needs to be converted to HTML for sending: And even the large office software applications don't do a 100% perfect conversion.

Brian & Michael,

Thank you both so much for your suggestions. I don't know which one did it, probably all of them played a part, but PMail is running better than it ever has for me. No incoming emails cause any waiting - images load extremely fast. And there is almost no hesitation when running another app simultaneously. I can't believe I suffered for so long.

I am not quite ready to set up my new laptop with Windows 11, but I'm getting close. I will follow Brian's instructions when I do so. Brian, will I have trouble retrieving my Gmail from my new laptop with 4.91? Will I need to do that other security stuff for using Gmail with "less secure apps"?

Thanks again.

No. My procedure essentially creates a duplicate installation of the one your Win10 machine. The installation step on the Win11 machine creates the start menu and desktop shortcuts as well as the needed registry entries. Replacement of the \Admin mailbox directory with the one from the Win10 machine brings in all mail data and configuration settings.