Thanks for your answer. The reason I have been archiving in this way (saving the entire MAIL folder) is because some years ago I tried to archive my received mail, sent email, address book and folders structure to start all over again and wrote to the Forum but nobody answered, so I had to find my own way ( but could not achieve reproducing my structure nor my address book in my "renewed" Pegasus, hence I asked). I see in the 2007 thread you pointed to that archiving works.

I will go into it and follow what is now available.

Thanks!

I don't remember doing anything to it, all of a sudden my always loyal Pegasus stopped opening. I click on the icon as usual but nothing happens. There is no way to get to my mail. I am afraid I may loose  ALL my mail, about 14 years worth of emails (54,000 messages) . The machine is a Surface Pro-3 with Windows 8.1 and PMAIL has been running nicely for a year and a half on this machine without problems. I have saved MAIL and hope this file is not corrupt.  Does anybody know what to do?

Is the shortcut intact? If you look at its properties is it still pointing to the Pmail executable?

Thanks for your answer. I checked and found it was pointing to:

C:\PMAIL\Programs\winpm-32.exe

-roam –A

I have erased  " -roam -A", so now it is pointing to  winpm.exe.   but still my New Mail Folder does not open.

 Any guess why  -roam -A   appeared?  Any more ideas? I don't think there is a newer version than 4.7, or is there? 

MIght this thread be relevant?

http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/42840.aspx

The -ROAM and -A are command line switches that are explained in the help files. (Command line)

See if Pmail actually starts but is not visible.  Is there an icon and does Winpm-32 appear in Task Manager?

If its not running use Windows Explorer to determine the location of Winpm-32, i.e. is it in C:\Pmail\Programs?

If its where it should be try opening Pmail directly.

To Brian Fluet:

Thanks, the thread you sent me looked very similar to my problem. So I tried to follow your instructions and found the following:

1.- I could not find a PMAIL.INI  file. in the main PMAIL directory  

2.- So I looked at C;\PMAIL\MAIL\ADMIN  and found  PMAILINI.OLD

3.- I opened it with WordPad and found    

    Application Window Rectangle  =  -1615   188   1189   852

  I assumed that the pairs of numbers correspond to the Surface Pro-3 Screen and the other to an external 28" monitor. I assumed the first number should NOT be negative so I changed it to  1615.  Is that OK?

Then I tried to open Pegasus Mail but still it does not work well.

Then I realized that perhaps my problem is not identical  to the other fellow's problem. My PMAIL starts OK in the sense that a window opens ("Autosaved messages found'), with a RED exclamation mark in the blue rectangle with the horse asks if I want to open saved messages or continue, I click "continue" and get the "Autosaved messages found" again but with an additional note :  (Not Responding)  and the rest of text become bold, a YELLOW exclamation mark appears under the Pegasus horse logo and when I click on "Continue" , the circle clock appears and finally the window closes and the Pegasus main windows does not appear. But an icon in the task bar shows that it has opened... 

In the last two trials, I  got no additional icon in the task bar.

Another thing I notice is that when I look into the properties of the Shortcut icon, the "start in" space is empty. Is this OK? 

Thanks, Caisson.  If you read my reply to Brian Fluet, you will see that apparently that is what happens, the program starts but I can't see it, there used to appear an icon in the task bar. In the last two trials, it did not appear anymore but the program seems to be running (I can stop it).

I have tried what you suggested, Winpm-32 is in C:\Pmail\Programs.  I tried running it from the .EXE , it starts but does exactly the same. 

http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/30424.aspx

Thanks again Caisson but it did not work. I followed the instructions at 30424, removed the mentioned files but only one thing changed:  instead of getting the Auto saved Messages prompt twice, I got it only once, and keep gettimng the "Not responding" message. After that, I get the circular clock for a while and the dialogue window disappears and nothing else happens. I still cannot see where does it open, or if it really does open or not. 

Something else that happened is that  the shortcut icon on my screen disappeared...? 

I guess I could uninstall Pegasus and install it again and use my MAIL file.  What do you think? 

Re-installation is seldom necessary and could create more problems.

If the situation has persisted you should first look for additional auto-saved messages in your mailbox.

I am concerned that you are looking in the wrong place for files because you said you could not find the pmail.ini file that you removed all files associated with autosaved messages but you still get the autosaved message prompt.  I suggest searching all drives for winpm-32.exe and for hierarch.pm to see if there are multiples and where they are.

As for the shortcut disappearing, I have seen that happen when the shortcut target no longer exists.  Other obvious causes are shortcut deletion and app uninstall.

A known issue for Pegasus Mail is an anti-malware program that is actively scanning its configuration files interfering with writes.  Make sure all Pegasus Mail directories (Program and Mail) are excluded from active scanning.

A last resort is a reinstall and restore of mail data from your backup.  You must restore just data otherwise the reinstall is worthless.  If you reach this point post back for additional guidance.

I am really getting worried because I have more than 10 years of saved messages that I don't want to loose. Last night I did the following:

1.- I installed PM ver 4.7 in another laptop, a brand new Surface Pro-4. 

2.- I copied the MAIL file to that machine.

3.- When I tried it, exactly the same happened: the nasty Auto saved messages window opened and the main mail folder did not show up !

I think this means that the problem is not in the program but in the MAlL file. Does this mean that my MAIL is corrupt?

GOING BACK, I think I should try checking if I removed the right files. Where can I find the suggested file "hierarch.pm"  file?. I only have one drive and winpm-32.exe has been identified (as I mentioned some days ago, I removed the  -roam

–A  after  .exe)

 By the way, how do you exclude mail directories from active scanning?

Caisson,

You were right,  I looked again at my MAIL directory and found several additional  xx.PMO  and  yy.PNX  files at the very end of the list that I had missed. I removed them and tried again... but it still behaves the same.

Brian,

I also looked for   pmail.ini   and  hierarch.pm  again, but could not find them. How can they disappear ?  Should I copy them from the Pegasus I installed in the other computer?  Is so, where should they go?

Thanks!

The reason I suggested a search for pmail.ini and hierarch.pm files is to try to identify if and where you might have multiple instances of \MAIL files on your PC.  The behavior you describe indicates that you are removing files from one directory but Pegasus Mail is using a different one so you are not seeing any affect.  If you can't find hierarch.pm then try finding state.pmj or folstate.pm.  A reinstall may inevitable but you must identify where Pegasus Mail thinks its mailbox directories are so you can get them out of the way before the reinstall.

I believe you indicated that Pegasus Mail is starting but it's hidden.  Do you open task manager and kill winpm-32.exe to shut it down? 

An ungraceful shutdown of Pegasus Mail will leave a lock file set in the mailbox directory.  This will generate a warning prompt on startup about the lock.  I assume you are not seeing that either.

As for reusing \MAIL on different installations, you can't, except under very specific conditions.  The mailbox directory(ies?) that reside in \MAIL contain configuration files which contain paths.  They can only be reused if the paths to \PROGRAMS and \MAIL are identical from one install to the next.  If you are running multi-user then it becomes more complicated than that.  Also, any problems in the previous install will travel to the new install.  To use the same mail data in a different installation you must copy just the data from the old mailbox directory to the new one.  There is a whitepaper in the Downloads > Community downloads > Whitepapers area of this site listing those files.  

As for excluding Pegasus Mail files from active scanning, it all depends on the AV product you are using.  You will need to research how to exclude locations for that product. 

Finally, if you have a backup of \MAIL and all subdirectories then your mail data should be intact.  The question about whether there are multiple mailbox directories needs to be answered to make certain you have the correct one (hopefully the only one) backed up.

A not uncommon scenario whereby two mailboxes can exist occurs when Pmail is installed initially in single user mode and subsequently when updated is inadvertently changed to multiple user mode.

In single user mode the mailbox (by default) is at C:\Pmail\Mail, however in multiple user mode (with only one user configured)  it is at C:\Pmail\Mail\<username> with the default user as "Admin".

If you open the Mail folder using Windows Explorer what do you see? In single user mode you should see a slew of mailbox files. In multiple user mode you should see only a single file, Pmail.usr and a mailbox or mailbox folders.

With one user configured this folder name will have the username as its title. By default that is Admin. If you open Admin you should then see the mailbox files.

If the scenario I mentioned above exist you end up with both, i.e. In Mail you will see the mailbox files but also a user or user folders, which when opened also contain mailbox files.

Caisson,

 When I open Pmail\Mail

I see a Directory by the name ADMIN and a square pale-white icon and File named PMAIL.USR (just 1 KB) . So the only directory containing the  files is ADMIN

When I open the ADMIN directory I see hundrerds or more files.

So you want me to wait untill de de door Jidrio ?

Thanks<

OK. That is a standard multi-user setup with one (default) user defined.

In the Admin folder I would expect to see (inter alia)  the configuration files, pmail.ini, hierarch.pm, folstate.pm etc.

 Are they not there?

Caisson,

Following your description, I see the following:

If I open the MAIL folder I see 2 items:

           ADMIN       ( with a yellow folder icon )  (size 7.96 GB)

           PMAIL.USR   (with a white -washed out- square icon)  (size 1KB)

If I now open the ADMIN folder, I see  55,169 items (files with .CMN extension, mostly). This is the folder from which I removed all the .PMO  and .PNX  files and saved them in another folder, out in a different location)

If I now try to open the PMAIL.USR , I will not open but ask for me to look for an  app in the store.

I looks like your diagnosis is correct and I am in a multiple user mode, but it looks to me that I have used Pegasus only as the Admin, not as another user, is that correct?   I don't quite follow you when you say that in MAIL I will see the mailbox files. I don't, the mailbox files are in MAIL\ADMIN.

Is there a solution?

Sorry Caisson, I missed your last comment and wrote a more precise but redundant reply. I am searching the PMAIL  folder and this is what I find:

basic.pnc

black.pml

CACHE.PM

copyself.pmi

copyself.pmn

DESKTOP. PMO

FOL03861.PMI

 FOL03861.PMM

FOLSTATE.PM     <--------

HIERARCH.PM     <--------

IERenderer

junk.pmi

junk.pmm

MAILBOXP.LCK

main.pmm

PMAIL                      <------------------  not quite

PMAILINI.OLD         <-----------------  not quite

 +  bout 15 other files with EXT different from  .CNM

As you can see, of the 3 files you mentioned,  pmail.ini   is MISSING

I hope you are very near the solution. Where can I get  pmail.ini  from?