If I have New Mail Folder selected :- When I download emails they do not appear in the folder. If I switch to another folder and back to New Mail Folder the messages suddenly appear.

If I have do not have New Mail Folder selected :- When I download emails they do appear in New Mail Folder

If I delete messages there is no deleted message folder.

Sending email / Copies-to-self (or chosen location) is fine.
All my identities are are okay.

New Mail Folder Location
W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL\NET
( Setting > Mailbox location ... still says <DEFAULT> )

I cannot setup a functional new mail folder (or Main Folder).
Can this install be repaired or should I start again ?

I would be quite happy with a new New Mail Folder and detaching the folder with 538 messages (for the moment).

Based on the path of the New mail folder, your NET2 mailbox appears to be a directory attached as a mailbox.

How are the messages being placed into its New mail folder? A new mail filter perhaps?

In Pegasus Mail, to the the Help pulldown menu, click the "About Pegasus Mail..." option and then click the Info button. Please copy/paste the following three entries from the resulting display into a reply:
WINPMAIL.EXE directory:
Home mailbox location:
New mailbox location:

Hello Brian,

How are the messages being placed into its New mail folder? A new mail filter perhaps?

There is no mail filtering in place.
They are appearing following a normal green down arrow click
(Check your POP Host for new mail)

WINPMAIL.EXE directory: C:\PMAIL\Programs
Home mailbox location: W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL\net
New mailbox location: W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL\net

It appears that something amiss. The image included in your first post shows two mailboxes in the folder list. The top one appears to not have a name. The one named NET2 is your actual mailbox according to the paths you posted but in a normal installation, that mailbox would be named "My mailbox". That name can not be changed. More information is needed in order to try to figure out what is going on.

Can you tell me anything about the top mailbox?

Please right click on the mailbox icon of each mailbox and see if either, or both, show a context menu that includes a "Disconnect this mailbox" option.

Use a file explorer to navigate to W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL. Let me know what files and subdirectories are in it.

Use a file explorer to navigate to W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL\net. Let me know if it contains the following files:
CACHE.PM
FOLSTATE.PM
PMAIL.INI
STATE.PMJ

Do you use multiple identities?

How would you feel about doing a clean installation of Pegasus Mail and configuring it from scratch? Existing mail data would be preserved (there are a number of different options for that).

There are over 800 files in W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL\NET

The above folder includes CACHE.PM +FOLSTATE.PM + PMAIL.INI + STATE.PMJ

W: Is my server and I wanted to keep all messages there for handy backing up.

I don't know how W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL\Programs came to exist!

I created the "NEW MAIL" folder in a failed attempt to make it the the new - new mail folder

This is the only disconnect option (I manually created it in the first place)

I use multiple identities - all working fine

====================================
I think that a clean install would be the simplest solution

I'd appreciate a few pointers as to what I need to backup up etc.

In a normal Pegasus Mail installation, every subdirectory of \Mail is the mailbox of a Pegasus Mail user. You have eight of them excluding "Programs". Are there numerous installations of Pegasus Mail whose user mailboxes are there?

You will need to identify the users configured in your Pegasus Mail installation. Go to the Addresses pulldown menu then select User management.
Is "NET" listed?
If there are others listed besides "Admin" do you need them?

Regarding multiple identities, they make configuration of a clean installation more tedious because each identity may need to be created and then configured. If this is necessary, does it sound like an overwhelming endeavor?

Yes - NET is listed in user management.

It the only user I want/need.
I totally happy to install in single user mode and discard all other redundant users

NET has 8 Identities which need/use
All 8 NET identities are working fine

Let's first approach this by trying to clean up the existing installation. Read through these instructions before starting and post with any questions or concerns.

First, make a backup of W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL.

Now, modify your Pegasus Mail shortcut by adding the -O (oh, not zero) command line option. It will look something like this: C:\PMAIL\Programs\winpm-32.exe -A -O
This option will force Pegasus Mail to startup offline which will prevent any mail checks while working through the clean up.

Start Pegasus Mail. Look at the lower right of the main Pegasus Mail window and make sure there is a red "X" over the connection icon.

The next step will be to delete the unwanted Pegasus Mail users. Let me know if you want to keep any of their mail data. It can be copied from the backup to a directory that can then be attached as an added mailbox.

I do not know what Pegasus Mail user you are running Pegasus Mail as. I am going to assume that it is either ADMIN or NET. If it is different, stop here and let me know.

Go into User Management and delete all users except ADMIN and NET.

Right click on the NET mailbox in the folder list and select "Disconnect this mailbox"

Restart Pegasus Mail keeping the offline option in place.

Give me a screenshot of what you folder list looks like now.
Let me know how you are handling what Pegasus Mail user you are running as (eg: -U command line option? Specifying it at startup?)

Note: Undoing everything you have done will be as easy as restoring W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL from the backup (might want to make two, just in case).

Well Brian, things are looking very good now - Better than I had hoped for!
Loads of folders have reappeared - I thought I had lost them.
(I simply deleted ALL users except for NET)

Incoming mail is correctly going to "new mail"

The only niggle - and it a very minor one is that every time I
open Pegasus I get the Locked warning.

I then have to enable ... Folders > Preview mode

Please see new post regarding virus warning

That is reassuring. That folder list capture still shows the mailbox name as blank. Is it really blank or is that just how it is showing up in the image?

I think that is a little more than a niggle. It is an indication that Pegasus Mail is not updating its configuration files nor removing its lock file on shutdown.

Is there anything going on with W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL\NET that could be interfering with writing to files on shutdown, perhaps active AV scanning, no modify permission, or synching of some sort?

I am curious what files are in the W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL\Programs directory. Does it appear to contain the same files that are in C:\PMAIL\Programs?

Finally, what command line are you using to start Pegasus Mail?

Oh wait... A few other suggestions:

1. I would add back an Admin user, as an administrator. This is not necessary but my reasoning is that, because you have a multi-user installation with only one user configured, having the Admin user, even if never used, provides readily available visual indicator of the multi-user installation. This can be important in future troubleshooting.
2. Watch the total number of messages in the New Mail folder. At somewhere around 700, the new mail folder becomes unable to update itself as new messages arrive. The messages exist, you just won't know about them until the new mail folder is refreshed.
3. I don't see the default "Copies to self" folder in your folder list. Any folder can hold copyself copies but there is a default one that sorts to the top of the folder list. I can tell you how to get it back if you are interested. Other default folders that you may want to look for are "Main Folder" and "Junk or suspicious mail".

Thanks Brian - Signing off for now

Will post tomorrow morning about noon (Irish time)

I renamed W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL\Programs ... to ....
W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL\ProgramsZ To make sure I don't need it before deleting it.
(I think I created it to backup of PMAIL.CFG etc)

I am not asked for a username any more when starting Pegasus
(Perhaps because I now have only one user). I'll consider adding an ADMIN user.

When I open Pegasus, my column width customisations (as well as Preview mode) are gone.
These are the only real problems.

I'll keep the New Mail Folder <500

Taskbar Shortcut = C:\PMAIL\Programs\winpm-32.exe -A

Copies to self & Junk & Suspicious mail & Main Folder are there.
The last two are alphabetically sorted down the list of folders.

That folder list capture still shows the mailbox name as blank. Is it really blank or is that just how it is showing up in the image?

Yes - It's blank - What should I rename it to?

Is there anything going on with W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL\NET that could be interfering with writing to files on shutdown, perhaps active AV scanning, no modify permission, or synching of some sort?

Absolutely nothing!

This is very concerning. Pegasus Mail should be recording that information at shutdown. Look in the \NET directory at the date/time stamps of these files. They should not be any older than the last shutdown time.
STATE.PMJ
FOLSTATE.PM

Also, there should be a file named PMAIL.USR in W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL. It stores the configured Pegasus Mail users and their associated mailbox directory name. At this point it should contain only one entry. Please confirm that by opening it with a text editor (be careful not to edit anything). The entry will be in the format of:
A;<mailbox directory name>;<pmail username>

If you add the Admin user you can avoid being prompted for a username by specifying the user Pegasus Mail should start-up as in the commandline. It is the -I commandline option. C:\PMAIL\Programs\winpm-32.exe -A -I <pmail username>

Regarding the blank mailbox name, the default is "My mailbox". I prefer sticking with defaults but I don't see any reason that it can't be whatever you want.

STATE.PMJ & FOLSTATE.PM Both have the correct time/date from earlier today
PMAIL.USR is as expected, dated yesterday .... Contents ....

A;NET;(None)

I tried to rename the blank mailbox, but it's still blank!

My new mail NET2 is still showing at the end of the list of folders
I detached from this yesterday.

According to the Help file, this entry must include both username parts. Go to User Management, select the NET user, then click the Change button. My guess is that the Personal Name field is blank or invalid so fix that. Restart Pegasus Mail.

If NET2 is an attached mailbox that you detached yesterday but was attached on next startup, that reinforces my thinking that something is affecting the saving of changes at shutdown. Let's address the folder list specifically.
Do you use Trays in your folder list? If not, a rebuild of HIERARCH.PM is worth a try. Warning: it will remove any Tray structure.
To rebuild it...

• Close Pegasus Mail
• Navigate to W:\ALLDATA\DATA\PEGASUS\MAIL\NET and rename HIERARCH.PM to HIERARCH_PM.SAVED.
• Start Pegasus Mail. It will poll all folder files and rebuild the folder list based on what it finds. This will be recorded in a new HIERARCH.PM file.

Thanks for all your patience Brian - I think we are nearly there.
I added my name to the NET profile and it made no difference.
(However, I never used names with any user profiles in the past)

I had plenty of Filing trays in the past but they are ALL gone.
All the contained Message trays (and messages) are there in one long list.
I will reconstruct my Filing Trays manually.

I detached NET2 and created a new HIERARCH.PM

The "My Mailbox" name is now visible
NET2 has not reappeared.
I now no longer get the Locked warning on startup or have to activate Preview Mode.

The only thing I loose when I close and reopen is the layout.
(Column widths & sub-window sizes)

This information is stored in STATE.PMJ and FOLSTATE.PM. Whatever was causing HIERARCH.PM to misbehave may be afflicting these as well. FOLSTATE.PM keeps the record of folders that were open when Pegasus Mail was closed. STATE.PMJ stores window positions and column layouts. More importantly, it holds the record of folder-open filters, folder-close filters, and identities assigned to folders. Both of these files can be rebuilt in the same manner as HIERARCH.PM. If you aren't sure about assigned folder-open filters, folder-close filters, and identities you can review STATE.PMJ with a text editor. Each of them will have a section if any exist (eg: [Folder_Open_Filters], [Folder_Close_Filters], [Folder_Identities]. You can't tell the specifics from the entries but it should provide enough information for you to figure them out and make notes so that you can redo them once STATE.PMJ is rebuilt.

I created some filing trays and moved some message folders into them.
They holding - so this aspect of things if fine.

I'll work on the layout issues using your suggestions next week.
I leave Pegasus open 24/7 so it's not really a problem.

Thanks for all your help.

You are very welcome.