Dear members,

After years of running Pegasus mail without issues, a problem with receiving new mail has arisen and I hope you can help me.
Upon start-up the Pegasus mail “you have new” mail pop-up banner appears (as normal) and may repeat many times if there is a lot of mail to download (as normal); however, no new mail appears in my inbox. I tried upgrading from version 4.80 to the new 4.81 Beta, but that did not solve the problem. However, if I shut down Pegasus mail and then re-start Pegasus, the new mail now appears (under my red "is urgent” mail). Another new problem, that seems to have occurred simultaneously with the above problem, is that Pegasus mail very often (mostly) will not close normally anymore. I must use Task Manager to force Pegasus to shut down.
Hopefully somebody may know a fix without a complete re-install? However, if I do need to do a uninstall /fresh install to solve this problem, how can I make sure that my past inbox /outbox and all my folders will be brought back into the program normally, without losing emails or setting preferences?

Thank you in advance for your help!
Kind Regards, jacobsfw
November 16, 2023

How many messages do you keep in your new mail folder? There's a limit in refreshing the folder view if being more than something above 750 or so.

Thank you Michael. No, I don't have any more than 400 or so emails in my inbox or my outbox at any one time. I move the older emails to folders that are dated for reference.
Again, the fact that virtually simultaneously with this incoming email no-show problem, is the new problem that Pegasus will not shut down normally, and I have to use Task Manager to shut Pegasus down, makes me thing these issues are related. Do you think a complete re-install of the program would solve these issues?

Hi Micheal.

"Is Pegasus Mail literally hanging after doing a POP3?"

I'm not exactly sure if I'm understanding your question... However, if you mean do I get an error message when Pegasus does a POP3 check for new mail... the answer is there is no indication that Pegasus is hanging after that operation. I can still read and compose emails without any recurring POP3 error banners. That is, there is no pop-up saying tunneling, bad handshake, etc, etc. Pegasus mail hangs when trying to shut it down normally, either via the red X in upper right hand corner or via the selection File then Exit. This started happening at the same time as the new mail no-show in my inbox.

Check the available space on the drive that contains the mailbox directory. The shutdown issue sounds like Pegasus Mail is unable to do its shutdown tasks.

To clarify my question: We need to figure out what Pegasus Mail is doing while not shutting down, and since you didn't say whether you have to shut down immediately after downloading messages I asked my question.

You can try using my MiniDump extension for further investigation, although tracking shutdown issues isn't usually easy to do this way, but we can give it a try: Please download and install https://www.pmpgp.de/pmtools/MiniDumpAndSources.zip, then start Pegasus Mail like usual and do whatever you do until Pegasus Mail hangs. Now while it hangs start PMDebug Snapshot from the Start menu group created by the MiniDump extension. It'll tell you what to do next after writing the dump file: Since you need to terminate and restart Pegasus Mail you will need to open an auto-saved message for submitting the file and some additional information.

If something else happens, i.e. MiniDump jumps in automatically for any reason, even better, since then we might find some other issue behind what's going on there.

Hi Brian.

Brian, I have over 82 Gigs free space on the drive that holds the mailbox directory.

Hi Micheal. Thank you for the information and a chance to diagnose what might be going wrong with Pegasus using this MiniDump tool. I've downloaded it and will install it tomorrow and let you know. I've committed to participate on a radio amateur net tonight on 160 meters and I don't want to let them down. Thank you again for your kind help! I hope to connect with you again tomorrow afternoon or evening.

Hi Michael.

I ran MiniDump's PMDebug.exe while Pegasus mail was frozen and a pop-up appeared saying Debugger has successfully attached to Pegasus mail. I've uploaded a screen shot as a *.jpg of the event. However I'm not sure where to find the generated dump file and what it's name would be to search for it?

Dear Michael,

I now see the selections you point out above in the Windows Start Menu. I will try again, this time with snapshot, when Pegasus hangs.

Also what may be of interest, when I forced closed Pegasus and then I double clicked on PMDebug.exe again, Pegasus mail re-opened. This time there was a notice of an auto-saved email which when opened had the following title:

"Crash dump report 2023-11-20#00-11-19 (PMDebug 2.5.8.29)"

There was no recipient in the To: field so I cut and past the email here:

_Please do not change subject and recipient unless on special request!

Windows 7 Professional 7.0 Build 7601 +
Internet Explorer 11.00.9600.18860 +
Pegasus Mail 4.81 + hp deskjet 990c (Copy 1) +
IERenderer 2.7.1.4 (BearHtml 4.9.9.6)
System Default Browser: Firefox
PM's Default Browser: Firefox
AutoLoadGraphics=true
LoadWinSock=yes
UseBearHtml=no

Pegasus Mail's system information couldn't be attached due to the actual crash conditions. Please open Pegasus Mail's 'Help' menu, select 'About Pegasus Mail...' and press the 'Info' button: Now select all dialog text, copy it using 'Ctrl + C' and paste it into this message using 'Ctrl + V'.

=> Please also add some descriptional text to explain what happened before Pegasus Mail "crashed", e.g.: Can you duplicate this issue? Is there a certain message triggering it? And if so, can you please attach a copy to this report?
_
Pegasus Mail for Microsoft Windows
Copyright (C) 1992-2022, David Harris, all rights reserved
Electronic mail to support@pmail.gen.nz.

WinPMail version: Version 4.81.1154, Jan 10 2023, build ID 1154
Language resources: Standard UK English resources (EN,0,LL)
Extension Manager version: 1.14
Operating mode: Standalone
User name and ID: Single-user mode, 0
Windows version: 6.0
Windows flag word: 0
WINPMAIL.EXE directory: C:\NAI\TRUMP\PMAIL_new\Programs
Home mailbox location: C:\NAI\TRUMP\PMAIL\MAIL
New mailbox location: C:\NAI\TRUMP\PMAIL\MAIL
TMP environment variable: C:\Users\Bill\AppData\Local\Temp
TEMP environment variable: C:\Users\Bill\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.DLL

Commandline:
Active -Z options: 32768
PMR variable: (None)
PML variable: (None)
MAI variable: (None)
NB variable: (None)
Autofiltering folders: 0 (0 active, 0 inactive)
Last new mail count: 252
Message size soft limit: 0 bytes
Message size hard limit: 0 bytes
Attachment size soft limit: 0 bytes
Attachment size hard limit: 0 bytes

Did the message have an attachment? And if so, was it larger than zero bytes? If so, the proper address for such messages is <beta-reports [at] pmail.gen.nz> (which should have been already there, but anyway). I'm wondering why you got it in the first place, though, this might indicate that Pegasus Mail was still attempting to connect to a mail server while being terminated (which is a known issue but doesn't usually help in figuring out why it was still connecting). And yes, launching PMDebug with Pegasus Mail closed will start Pegasus Mail with its previously used commandline taken from the Windows Registry. Maybe the snapshot will provide more helpful details.

I have re-read the intital post and am wondering what the reference to a "you have new" mail banner is a reference to. On first read I thought it was the telltale window but it doesn't repeat as described in the post. Perhaps it is a new mail filter that displays a message dialog?

I also wonder if every new message is marked as urgent (colored red) after restart when the new mail is now visible in the new mail folder.

Hi Micheal and Brian.

Michael, Yes the dump file has an attachment and it looks like this:

And it is 30K as you can see in the image. I don't know how to open it. And as far as the To: filed address there is nothing as show in this screen shot:

If it will help I can mail it to <beta-reports [at] pmail.gen.nz> . Please let me know.

Dear Brian,

My reference to the "you have new" mail banner is this banner that appears when Pegasus Mail is downloading mail via the POP3 server as show is this screen shot:

However, in my case Pegasus is showing downloads occurring in the bottom left hand corner but Nothing is loaded into my new mail folder at that time. As I said in my initial post, when I close Pegasus (either normally of force close via Task Manager) the new mail does now appear under my "colored red" urgent mail. And no, the only time urgent mail is created it is via myself tagging it as urgent.

Thanks Guys for your continued help!

Michael,

During a hung Pegasus Mail Program I ran PMDbug Snapshot and of course hitting Ctrl O as instructed nothing happened because the program was frozen. Upon restarting Pegasus email and hitting Ctrl O the following pop-up appeared:

And I noticed that new "Crash Dump Reports" with 0.0K bytes keep appearing every time a "you got new" mail banner appears.

Thanks for your help.

Question: Are there any new mail filtering rules?
I have many rules that move messages to other folders, so sometimes see a bunch of messages downloaded, but at end no messages in new mail, since they were moved to other folders by filters.
Rules are generally fast, but if ones set to scan entire message, and long messages can take more time. Also, if messages are encoded believe the need some decoding before the filter works.

Also looked at all lines in PMAIL.INI that have word new to check new mail folder settings and times to check the new mail? Generally see lines with 600 or 10 seconds.

I generally look at all folders after downloading to process any that have gotten new messages.
System log should show results of what messages are moved. I have set to how system log after download.

Hi Msetzerii.

No, not that I'm aware of. Like I said, new mail seems to be downloading as per the download status line on the left bottom of Pegasus mail, but nothing new appears in my inbox until I either get Pegasus to close normally or force close it via Task Manager (if Pegasus hangs) and then re-open Pegasus mail and then "Whaa - Laa" there are my new emails in my inbox just under my self-labeled "urgent" emails. Thank you for your help.

I wonder if frequent new mail folder refreshes could be affected by frequent new mail downloads of numerous messages, especially if they tend to be large. We know that Pegasus Mail feels 'hung' during the new mail polling process. The telltale window appears when the first message arrives but the polling process continues until complete, hobbling all other functions including the refreshing of the new mail folder. This is nothing new though so does not explain why the problem reported by @jacobsfw suddenly started happening. Still, when Pegasus Mail has felt hung, have you let it sit for several minutes to see if it becomes functional? A thoughtful look at the polling frequency and the new mail folder refresh frequency settings may be worthwhile.

Dear Brian,

"A thoughtful look at the polling frequency and the new mail folder refresh frequency settings may be worthwhile."

When you replied to me with the above comments I'm feeling like I must be one of the most naive, dumbest users of Pegasus mail since the get-go. To be honest with you, I've been a faithful user of David Harris' Pegasus mail since version 2 point something, way back in 1993 or 1994, and I have sent him money now and then over the years because I am so grateful of his hard work to bring us an email client (even before Microsoft copied it with outlook) that we can save our most important emails on our own machine's hard drives (and not in someone's i-cloud) to recall it at any time we need it securely! Please forgive me, as I have no clue on how to look into the settings you so kindly recommend. Please bear with me. I'm just trying to find a way to get Pegasus mail working for me again as it did for the past 30 or 35 years I've been using it. Kind Regards, Bill

Yes, please do so. And a comment about the rather frequent occurrence of dumps: If they really occur while downloading messages then this could be an explanation for messages not showing up in the new mail folder: If so-called exceptions occur - which is the only thing that triggers the Minidump extension to write dump files - it usually is accompanied by some code not being executed properly if Pegasus Mail doesn't crash, so this might actually be causing it to not refresh the new mail folder (something like the download continues in the background while only the user interface doesn't respond anymore).

Forget about filtering issues since your new mail messages are showing up in their proper place after a restart. So here's my suggestion: Please disable this notification and watch whether dumps aren't occuring anmore and your new mails are then showing up properly again. To me this sounds like a possible solution.

BTW: How do you enable this notification? I don't get a "telltale" window showing up at all after enabling it ...

PS: For reading dump files you would need a debugger and proper debug database files from Microsoft, David Harris and me, and even then it wouldn't help you a lot in understanding if you're not a software developer. The CAB is a compression format provided by all versions of Windows which email providers don't like and may classify as suspicious, that's why they need to be submitted to New Zealand instead of my personal address. Just in case it gets rejected, please let me know.