Greyed-out Italic mailbox name in Thunderbird

GordonM

posted Jan 10 '10 at 10:23 pm

Thanks for the suggestions, DLN. I have changed the cached connections in some installations that I have done, but not in the current one. I'll try that. I think that folders and mail witin folders is turned off, but I will check.

Thank you

Gordon

Thanks for the suggestions, DLN.&nbsp; I have changed the cached connections in some installations that I have done, but not in the current one.&nbsp; I'll try that.&nbsp; I think that folders and mail witin folders is turned off, but I will check. Thank you Gordon

GordonM

posted Jan 3 '10 at 4:05 pm

I am raising this problem, as Mercury may be responsible for it or it may be wholly a Thunderbird problem. I have suddenly encountered a situation where one of my IMAP mailboxes has changed so that it shows up in greyed-out italics when viewed with Thunderbird 3.0. There is also no checkbox associated with it, to show whether it is subscribed or unsubscribed. Having done some research on this and have found that the mailbox may be marked as \NoSelect. Normally, this means that it is not a mailbox in itself, but contains sub-mailboxes. In my case there are no sub-mailboxes (at least, I didn't dreate any). I am not sure whether the \NoSelect is an issue for the server (Mercury) or the client. I have tried to delete this greyed-out mailbox, but have not been successful.

Is there anything that I can do on the Mercury side to correct the situation?

Thank you

Gordon

I am raising this problem, as Mercury may be responsible for it or it may be wholly a Thunderbird problem.&nbsp; I have suddenly encountered a situation where one of my IMAP mailboxes has changed so that it shows up in greyed-out italics when viewed with Thunderbird 3.0.&nbsp; There is also no checkbox associated with it,&nbsp;to show whether it is subscribed or unsubscribed. &nbsp;Having done some&nbsp;research on&nbsp;this and&nbsp;have found that the mailbox may be marked as \NoSelect.&nbsp; Normally,&nbsp;this means that it is not a mailbox in itself, but contains sub-mailboxes.&nbsp; In my case there are no sub-mailboxes (at least, I didn't dreate any).&nbsp; I am not sure whether the \NoSelect is an issue for the server (Mercury) or the client.&nbsp; I have tried to delete this greyed-out mailbox, but have not been successful. Is there anything that I can do on the Mercury side to correct the situation? Thank you Gordon

Chris Bolton

posted Jan 6 '10 at 9:42 pm

A greyed out italic name does usually indicate a folder for folders only. Is there a + to the left of the folder icon? If so, that means there are sub folders.

In TB3 under Tools > Account Settings > [name of account] > Server settings > Advanced, there is a check box to say whether the server supports folders containing sub-folders and messages - this should be unchecked for Mercury.

There's also a checkbox for "show only subscribed folders" - in my understanding, that means that if it's not checked, it should show all folders. When I first upgraded to TB3, it did indeed show all folders; at the moment it doesn't, and the "subscribe" menu option shows a list of folders which includes some which are not normally visible, and which don't have check box.

Have a look in \mercury\mail\[account name] for HIERARCH.PM - this a plain text file. If you only have folders for messages, all the lines will start 0,0 - if you have folders for folders, the lines start 1,1 (or in one case on my server 3,1 - I don't know why). Depending what you find, you could try closing Mercury, making a backup of HIERARCH.PM, editing the offending line and restarting. Provided you have a backup and only change the file while Mercury isn't running you can't do any harm.

Also worth noting that Mercury doesn't seem to like folders being created or deleted if there is another client connected to that user account at the same time. I don't know if that's official IMAP behaviour; I do know that IMAP gives servers the option whether to support purging of delete messages when there is more than one client connected, and Mercury doesn't.

Chris

&nbsp;A greyed out italic name does usually indicate a folder for folders only. Is there a + to the left of the folder icon? If so, that means there are sub folders.In TB3 under Tools &gt; Account Settings &gt; [name of account] &gt; Server settings &gt; Advanced, there is a check box to say whether the server supports folders containing sub-folders and messages - this should be unchecked for Mercury. There's also a checkbox for "show only subscribed folders" - in my understanding, that means that if it's not checked, it should show all folders. When I first upgraded to TB3, it did indeed show all folders; at the moment it doesn't, and the "subscribe" menu option shows a list of folders which includes some which are not normally visible, and which don't have check box.Have a look in \mercury\mail\[account name] for HIERARCH.PM&nbsp; - this a plain text file. If you only have folders for messages, all the lines will start 0,0 - if you have folders for folders, the lines start 1,1 (or in one case on my server 3,1 - I don't know why). Depending what you find, you could try closing Mercury, making a backup of HIERARCH.PM, editing the offending line and restarting. Provided you have a backup and only change the file while Mercury isn't running you can't do any harm. Also worth noting that Mercury doesn't seem to like folders being created or deleted if there is another client connected to that user account at the same time. I don't know if that's official IMAP behaviour; I do know that IMAP gives servers the option whether to support purging of delete messages when there is more than one client connected, and Mercury doesn't. &nbsp;Chris&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

GordonM

posted Jan 7 '10 at 4:27 am

Chris - Thank you for your suggestions. The greyed-out italic name looked as if it was a folder, but there was no + sign, which could just mean that I hadn't made any sub-folders within it. However, I have no recollection of creating a folder for folders in the first place. In the end, I managed to delete it from my TB3.0 client. However, that's not the end of the story. I examined the HIERARCH.PM file and the folder was still there, with a normal 0.0 start to the entry (all folder entries start with 0.0), viz:

0,0,"1534E69A:26D5:FOL07693","3ED52654:My Mailbox","ocworkbench"

Now, although I can't see this folder with TB3 ... it doesn't appear in the Subscribe dialogue box, so I can't subscribe or unsubscribe it, I can see it with Outlook Express. It was initially unsubscribed on the OE client, and when I subscribed to it, it appeared as an OE folder and contained one mail message, as I would have expected ... so it's behaving like a normal folder with OE. Despite now being visible with OE, there is still no sign of this folder in the TB3 folder list. Another anomaly, and I can only assume that it's a bug in TB3, is that, if I have the Subscribe dialogue box open and click on the bottom check-box in the window, the check-boxes above the bottom one start to become unchecked. The more times I click on the bottom box, the further up the window folders become unchecked. This happens regardless of where I have scrolled the list of folders to. I plan to raise this in a TB forum.

Going back to Mercury's HIERARCH.PM, there does seem to be one thing odd about it and that is that one of the entries is shown as Name_Unavailable, viz:

0,0,"","3ED52654:My Mailbox",Name_Unavailable

Having Googled HIERARCH.PM Name_Unavailable, I have found several references to this oddity. It seems that it is safe to delete the entry.

I have just looked at "Tools > Account Settings > [name of account] > Server settings > Advanced" in TB3 and, indeed, the check-box for "server supports folders containing sub-folders and messages" was checked. Perhaps this caused Mercury to become confused. I have now unchecked it.

Yes, I have noted that messages can't be purged when more than one client is connected to the account, but I don't think that I have ever tried to delete a folder with more than one client connected to the account in question.

Thank you again for your help.

Gordon

Chris - Thank you for your suggestions.&nbsp; The greyed-out italic name looked as if it was a folder, but there was no + sign, which could just mean that I hadn't made any sub-folders within it.&nbsp; However, I have no recollection of creating a folder for folders in the first place.&nbsp; In the end, I managed to delete it from my&nbsp;TB3.0&nbsp;client.&nbsp; However, that's not the end of the story.&nbsp; I examined the HIERARCH.PM file and the folder was still there, with a normal 0.0 start to the entry (all folder entries start with 0.0), viz: <BLOCKQUOTE> 0,0,"1534E69A:26D5:FOL07693","3ED52654:My Mailbox","ocworkbench"</BLOCKQUOTE> Now, although I can't see this folder with TB3 ... it doesn't appear in the Subscribe dialogue box, so I can't subscribe or unsubscribe it, I can see it with Outlook Express.&nbsp; It was initially unsubscribed on the OE client, and when I subscribed to it, it appeared as an OE folder and contained one mail message, as I would have expected ... so it's behaving like a normal folder with OE.&nbsp; Despite now being visible with OE, there is still no sign of this folder in the TB3 folder list.&nbsp; Another anomaly, and I can only assume that it's a bug in TB3, is that, if I have the Subscribe dialogue box open and click on the bottom check-box in the window, the check-boxes above the bottom one start to become unchecked.&nbsp; The more times I click on the bottom box, the further up the window folders become unchecked.&nbsp; This happens regardless of where I have scrolled the list of folders to.&nbsp; I plan to raise this in a TB forum. Going back to Mercury's HIERARCH.PM, there does seem to be one thing odd about it and that is that one of the entries is shown as&nbsp;Name_Unavailable, viz: <BLOCKQUOTE> 0,0,"","3ED52654:My Mailbox",Name_Unavailable</BLOCKQUOTE> Having Googled HIERARCH.PM Name_Unavailable, I have found several references to this oddity.&nbsp; It seems that it is safe to delete the entry. I have just looked at "Tools &gt; Account Settings &gt; [name of account] &gt; Server settings &gt; Advanced" in TB3 and, indeed, the check-box for "server supports folders containing sub-folders and messages" was checked.&nbsp; Perhaps this caused&nbsp;Mercury to become confused.&nbsp; I have now unchecked it.&nbsp; Yes, I have noted that messages can't be purged when more than one client is connected to the account, but I don't think that I have ever tried to delete a folder with more than one client connected to the account in question. Thank you again for your help. Gordon &nbsp;

dilberts_left_nut

posted Jan 8 '10 at 12:11 am

I have noticed such wierdness with Tbird & MercI on occaisions as well (TB2.x versions).

I haven't managed to pin down what causes it.

Deleting & recreating the account in TB usually fixes it.

Also TB defaults to 5 cached connections which seems to make these issues more likely to appear, but not always ...

I usually set up a new account in TB, turn off folders & mail within folders, and turn the cached connections to 0.

This seems to make TB behave, but again not always [:)] YMMV.

I have noticed such wierdness with Tbird &amp; MercI on occaisions as well (TB2.x versions).I haven't managed to pin down what causes it.Deleting &amp; recreating the account in TB usually fixes it.Also TB defaults to 5 cached connections which seems to make these issues more likely to appear, but not always ...I usually set up a new account in TB, turn off folders &amp; mail within folders, and turn the cached connections to 0.This seems to make TB behave, but again not always [:)] YMMV.&nbsp;

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