Content control progress isn't logged so there wouldn't be much of use in any of the log files.

Mercury requires very little system resources, so unless there are thousands of messages coming in every hour or very many concurrent IMAP users just about any kind of PC should handle it. If we could have a look at one or both content control files we could see if the problem is repeatable. They need to be zipped though to preserve the encoding.

Not sure what is going on or even if my assumption is correct.

I have multiple computers that access 5 or 6 accounts with only 1 using imap on a personal server.  Lately, and I can't pin down the actual point where all this started, all of a sudden I wont be able to download mail.  I can send mail, and looking at the console I see it accepted, but it doesn't go out.  It seems like it is batching the mail and not processing the queue until 1.5 hours or as long as 3 hours goes by.  then all of a sudden, all the mail shows up.

I have been modifying the filters a lot recently to cut down on spam.  I use content control, filtering rules, connection control, and DNSBL servers.  But it's not like the mail is getting deleted, it just sits there.  Sometimes it kicks off when I use another one of the many devices to access the mail.  I think I have 4 computers, 3 phones, 3 ipads, a surface and probably one or two other devices.  Mostly I just leave the mail on the server and then ultimately using mail on my imac, pull all the messages on the server and delete them.

Anyway, I am pulling my hair out.  I've been using mercury for 15 or so years and it's been pretty reliable.  At one point I thought it was the log file size so I deleted the log, restarted, and all the mail came thru.  Then I thought one particular computer was getting stuck.  Needless to say, nothing is repeatable.

Any Ideas?

Thanks 

If Mercury core can't process the message queue there is usually something interfering with file access, for instance some kind of antimalware program. Delays of more an hour or more seems very extreme though! Try anyway to disable any such software, including Clamwall, and see if that makes a difference. If not, try reinstalling the program. If Mercury runs in a virtual machine test running it from a physical machine. Make sure there isn't a shortage of free disk space, and run chkdsk to test the file system. Finally, try disabling any daemons and temporarily remove content control and filtering rules in case there is something broken there.

Thanks for the reply.

By the way, it looks like the password reset function for the forum isn't working.  

As near as I can tell, if I activate either of my content control files the processor utilization goes to 50 - 60%.  I am using a little laptop to host my mail as it is my private server and I only have 3 active email addresses.  I never had this problem before so something must be wrong in one or both content control files.  Also, at 50% you would think the server would still be running but obviously, it isn't.  Last night I sent an email and it took almost 6 hours to get to a local user. 

So if I disable both the content control files then the queue processing seems normal once I restart mercury.  One of the content control files deletes emails when activated and the other is the standard shipped with mercury.  On the standard file, I only added a few entries.  The other file (that deletes when active) only has about 20 lines in it.  Also, the emails aren't getting deleted so it's not like I screwed up an entry;  it's more like the emails come in and while mercury is processing the content file it just takes forever. 

Now that I've tracked the problem to the content control processing I guess I will split the files to see if I can find the problem record, but again, I don't think it is a record problem, more like mercury is getting hung-up in the file or looping or something.

thanks again.  I recently started getting serious about spam as I have about 10 devices I use while traveling to get my email and was tired of having to create device specific rules to get rid of Dr0Z and emails coming from the .top high-level domain.

Mercury will only use one processor core, so a dual core system would report 50% processor load if Mercury was using all available resources.

Content control should obviously not cause such extreme load so please send me the problematic rules when you have found them so we can make sure to handle whatever it is better in the next release!

The forum software may no longer be fully compatible with all new browser versions. If there is something that doesn't work please send me a private message and I'll try to fix it.

do the content control rules stand alone?  meaning can I split the file in half, half again, etc without worrying about splitting a block of rules?  

Each "if" rule in content control is independent, but it can be multi-line though.

Well, it doesn't matter how many rules I have in the content control file.  When I enable any of them, the CPU goes to 50%.  The only way around it is to disable the file and then reload.  

Are there like end statements, termination characters or something I am missing in the file? 

It's a plain text file, no control characters or anything else like that expected. It should probably be in 8-bit ASCII format though, not any kind of Unicode.

could it be this HP mini I am running on just doesn't have the gas?  I've been running on it for years though, I don't know why adding about 20 rules would have killed it, but I can't run either of my content files even though one is only 15 lines.

Is there anything in a log I could check to see what is going on?