Hi

I've been using Pegasus for about 30 years, and have a number of problems which I've not been able to solve. So I joined the community in the hope that I could resolve them. One at a time, this is the first.

If I open a new email ("N", say) received into my "New mail" folder, then press F6 and click into another folder (eg "Copies to self" then click back to my "New mail" folder, N is no longer present. I f press F6 and return to the window having N open, then close that window, I have lost N forever: it is no longer in my "New mail" folder, nor my "Deleted messages" folder, nor anywhere else I can see. It appears to have has entirely disappeared without my wanting it to, simply because whilst it was open I clicked into another folder before returning and closing N.

This has caused considerable difficulties in the past, losing important emails. It is a reliably reproducible behaviour.

Do you know what the cause is, and a solution?

This has been a persistent and mysterious problem for years, and remains a problem for me in v4.80.1028, Jan 16 2022, build ID 1028, under Windows 7.

What is your tools / general / basic settings show?
Is allow read message to stay in new mail folder checked or not?
Generally, if it is unchecked, which is default on mine. If you open message it is flagged as read, and if you change out of new mail folder, it then automatically moves the message to the Main Folder showing at bottom. Usually main folder unless you have selected a different folder??

Would assume process with you describe is marking message as read and then on leaving the new mail, it should be moving the message to whatever folder you have selected as main?

You say it is reproducible. Can you reproduce with any message or does it only with ones that have something in common?

If you can reproduce it at will, and you have not done a search of your entire mailbox for one of the missing messages, then that is where I suggest you start. I think the best way to approach this is to send yourself a message with a unique, one gibberish-word subject for which you will later search. Once it is in your new mail folder, follow that process that will cause it to disappear. Once gone, do a search of the entire mailbox for that subject word. It should be in a folder somewhere. The search should be:
-For that gibberish subject word
-Single phrase
-Search in headers only
-Search all folders in the selected mailbox

BTW, I am trying to understand your usage of F6. It opens the addressbooks window with the distribution list tab open. I don't understand why you would do that before clicking on another folder.

Sorry for the delay - it's taken me a while to find how to reply. And the url in the email saying I could view your two emails does not render well in the Brave browser.

Thank you both for the quick replies and helpful ideas. I’ve taken a look.

The box “Allow read messages to stay in the new mail folder” was already checked. I had not set the “Name for default mail folder”, which was showing as “Main folder”. So I clicked “Select folder” and selected the “New mail” folder, re-started Pegasus, and re-tested. It made no difference.

I unchecked the box, re-checked it, re-started Pegasus, and re-tested, with no difference.

I was wrong about F6. It is Ctrl F6. I had become so used to pressing the control key with a finger on one hand whilst pressing F6 with a finger on the other had that I wasn’t aware I was doing it.

I sent myself an email with a the subject “yt2pATnGmhxmDm4" (from my password generator), and repeated the process (Open, Ctrl F6, different folder, back to new mail) and it had vanished; and closed the email and searched for it. Nowhere to be found, other than in the “Copies to self” folder.

There has been no noticeable pattern as to which emails disappear. As far as I can see, any email disappears if I follow this process. I’ve just tried it with a PDF file attachment, with the same effect.

I then created a folder “Read mail” (actually, “ A Read mail”, to keep it ahead of frequently accessed folders “ B something”, “ C something else” etc). I unchecked “Allow read messages to stay in the new mail folder”, and selected “ A Read mail” as my main folder. I sent myself another email, and on selecting another folder saw 595 emails get moved into that folder, most (all?) apparently from the “New mail” folder. Oddly, this included all 11 of the various test emails I had sent myself this evening, and thought had disappeared. I don’t know where they were.

Now when I send myself emails, and open them, look at another folder and then back at “New mail”, the email has been moved from there to “ A Read mail”.

Is it possible to have all my emails arrive and stay in one folder until I move or delete them? I now need to refer to two folders to deal with emails that might require attention.

Thanks

Here is how Pegasus Mail is designed to work by default.

• Newly received mail is placed in the 'New mail' folder.
• Once read it is moved to the 'Main folder.'
• You can control which folder is the destination for those moves by selecting a different folder in the "Name for default mail folder"
• You can control whether read mail is automatically moved by enabling the “Allow read messages to stay in the new mail folder” option.

So, to answer your question, yes, you can keep all mail in the New main folder provided that you understand that you are working differently than how Pegasus Mail was designed. This is not bad, it is how I do. An important thing to keep in mind is to keep the New mail folder lean. It does not work like other folders. Each message in the new mail folder is an individual file. The New mail folder simply displays the data from those files whereas other folders are made up of two files, one that holds the content of all of the messages, and on that maintains an index to those messages. Also, all unread messages in the New mail folder get process through new mail filtering rules each time the folder is opened. Finally, the display of messages in the New mail folder gets affected once the number is in the seven hundreds.

In summary, what you where doing should have been working. I can't explain why those messages were disappearing. You mentioned 595 being moved so you were nearing the problematic range although the 'problem' is usually that newly arrived messages won't be displayed in the message list. I suggest seeing if you can duplicate the problem of messages going missing while the New mail folder has a low number of messages.

Thank you again for your advice. I now understand better.

Having always had Folders “Preview mode” enabled, and a moderately large desktop screen, I have often not needed to open emails in order to read them. I have now opened the remaining ones (one by one), and they are all now in my default main folder.

I have again set “Allow read messages to stay in the new mail folder”, and verified that Pegasus is now behaving as you say. This means I can open new mail and leave it there until I have dealt with it, and the number of emails in my default main folder should now only ever reduce, as I tend to them when time allows. I shall heed your advice to avoid the new mail folder getting too large.

The next problem I have is that each time I close and re-start Pegasus, I have a new folder with no name, no content, and which I can delete, or re-name and then delete, with or without first clicking “Reindex folder”. I don’t know if this is related to the earlier problem, which you fine people have now solved for me. If I don’t hear to the contrary in the next day or two, I’ll assume I should raise it as a new separate thread.

My thanks to you both again.

I don't think it is related to the disappearing messages issue so I think a new discussion is warranted. A new subject line should catch the eye of forum members who may not be interested in the current discussion.