Glad you have it fixed.  That was good thinking to move out the folder files then restore only the ones you wanted.

Regarding backups, keep in mind that if your backups append to previous backups then any deleted Pegasus Mail folder will remain in the backup as the old .pmm/.pmi file pairs as will old POP3 and SMTP host files.  There are probably others that, once deleted from within Pegasus, you will not want restored.

Due to the nature of my backups (yes I do take them!) each night all files from selected locations (including pegasus files) are saved to another drive.  However this is a simple backup that does not synchronise the source and destination files - so you get a backup folder that holds everything that ever existed - not so bad you may think.

However this evening I had need to restore pegasus from backups and without thinking just copied all mail from backups back to its regular position. 

This means I now have over 500 (guess) Deleted Messages folders.  Only one has the deleted message icon in the folders list and that turns out to be the latest and current Deleted Messages folder which is fine.  There are however a few hundred other Deleted Messages folders that are obviously folders that existed transiently and are a record of all the deleted messages folders that ever existed since Pegasus was last clean installed.

Whereas I can select one message (in say my inbox) and then holding the shift key select another and get a whole group selected - there is no way I can find of doing that with folders.  It is painful deleting these folders one by one as each time Pegasus requires you to confirm you really want to delete this folder.  This will probably take a few hours.

 Can anyone think of an easy way for me to delete several hundred message folders - that won't take a year or two?????

I don't think there is an easy way to delete hundreds of folders.  I would look into using the HIERARCH.PM file to see if I can identify the folder filenames of the deleted messages folders and then remove them from the mailbox directory.  The folder filenames follow the colon in HIERARCH.PM entries and start with "FOL".  Each Pegasus Mail folder (except the new mail folder) is made up of a pair of files with extensions .pmm & .pmi.  Most of the deleted messages folders should be old so sorting the mailbox directory by date might help.  BTW, the HIERARCH.PM folder can be opened with a text editor like Notepad.  Do this with Pegasus Mail closed.

As for your backups, you have discovered that appending to existing backups is not the way to backup Pegasus Mail.  I think snapshot copies are the best way to go.  Syncing will work but provides no opportunity to go back to a prior time.

Thanks Brian for your prompt reply - much appreciated

Whilst I could delete the PMM and PMI pairs for folders I determine are Deleted Messages folders I want to delete, would I also have to modify the HIERARCH.PM file to keep things in sync? 

Also - what is in the RmtFiles folder?  I see again pairs of files.

Is there any documentation that explains the way Pegasus works especially the relationship between the various file types?

Thanks again

Regards

Alan.

> Whilst I could delete the PMM and PMI pairs for folders I determine
> are Deleted Messages folders I want to delete, would I also have to
> modify the HIERARCH.PM file to keep things in sync?

No.  The HIERARCH.PM file will rebuild itself the next time Pegasus Mail is started. 

Edit:  To clarify, the HIERARCH.PM file maintains the folder structure that you see in the Pegasus Mail folder list.  During startup, Pegasus Mail queries all of the .pmm files and modifies the HIERARCH.PM file according to what it finds.  There are occasions when entries are left with "Name_Unavailable" reference but these are harmless and can be ignored.

> Also - what is in the RmtFiles folder?  I see again pairs of files.

See this thread:  http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/24072.aspx

> Is there any documentation that explains the way Pegasus works
> especially the relationship between the various file types?

Here:  http://www.vandenbogaerde.net/pegasusmail/pf_pmfiles.html

Thanks for those interesting links - interesting reading.

 I have at last corrected matters - soon realised it was going to be quicker to restore what I wanted rather than deleting what I didn't.

The ADMIN folder of messages is a lot more robust than at first I thought.  I boldly moved all the FOL*.PMI and their matching .PMM files to a spare clean folder.  Then I ran Pegasus and noted the FOL file name for each of the message folders I wanted to keep, and then carefully moved each pair back to the ADMIN folder.  Re-ran Pegasus and all was as I wanted.

I will carefully consider what I want of the backup routines as it is only running the backups while Pegasus is loaded that causes the problem with the Deleted Messages folders.  Seems that Pegasus when you let it empty the Deleted Messages folder on exit just abandons the folder pair and creates new ones when next loaded.  Still - now I know - I can work with it and be very careful when restoring from backups should it ever be needed.

Thank you for your prompt and useful input - life seems so simple when all runs smoothly - only when things go wrong do we fully appreciate the help of experts such as yourself.