Mozilla mail (Mozilla 1.7.13)

[PaJan]

I am trying to fix a buddy's computer. He is running WinXP Home SP2 and uses Mozilla 1.7.13 as default browser and Email client. Up until recently everything has been OK. Now for some reason when he clicks "Get Messages" he gets a pop-up
"Unable to write the email to the mailbox. Make sure the file system allows you write priviledges and you have enough disc space to copy the mailbox."
His server is Sympatico.ca and their tech reps say that they do not support Mozilla. Of course we have been unable to get any kind of a response from Mozilla either by phoning them or Email.
He can SEND email and if he uses a 'backdoor approach' through a connection through Internet Explorer he can get to his mail, but that is a very long and frustrating procedure.
We would appreciate any HELP or comments. Please send notifications to pajanman@gmail.com

Thanx mucho

[TonyE]

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_write_..._to_the_mailbox
The article applies to the Mozilla Suite as well as Thunderbird.

It can also be caused by not compacting your folders, see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

[PaJan]

Thanx Tony. We are trying that approach.

[Beaudet G]

Well I have tried the suggested "Compacting folders" route. It created 5 sub folders : nstmp, nstmp-1, nstmp-2, nstmp-3 and stmp-4. Only -3 and -4 showed any content and they showed 9mb each. When I tried getting into the Mozila mail I get the same
"unable to write to inbox" message.

How do I move the mail folder to an unencrypted space and create a link to this space.

Also, somehow I am getting test messages that I send to myself , addressed to my usual address but they only arrive through a secondary address (hotmail)

And one other item: for some reason some messages wind up in an OUTLOOK EXPRESS folder. I have never used OE and sometime ago REMOVED OE from my computer.

If this all seeems confusing to YOU, can you imagine what it is like for a Rookie such as I?

Mucho gracias for ANY and ALL HELP.

[TonyE]

For the first thing you mentioned see Nstmp folders - MozillaZine Knowledge Base

[PaJan]

The problem still remains.
Recently I tried Compacting all the folders, individually, one-at-a-time. Where a folder showed 125kb, or 4mb, or some other size they all seemed to clear out and then showed NO size number, EXCEPT the INBOX folder showed 2048 mbs. I again tried to compact this INBOX folder. I made sure to do it OFFLINE and there were NO interruptions or Shutdowns. After a longtime (20 minutes) the blinking light on my hard drive stopped blinking, which I presumed the Compacting process had finished. The INBOX still showed 2048 mbs. I am still getting the message "Unable to write ------"

In a previous reply you suggested moving the mail folder to an unencrypted space and create a link to it.

Again I ask HOW do I do this? OR is there some other way to clear out that Inbox Folder (2048mbs) and get things back on track.?

I am very reluctant to have to leave Mozilla as my default email client.

Again thanx for your time and efforts on my behalf.

[bigaldoc]

Hello there PaJan. I'm responding to this thread because of your offline email to me. Most of the time, emails are not necessary here in The Lounge as I've been watching this thread since its creation and don't have much to offer by way of a solution. To be absolutely frank about this, Tony is one of the most knowledgeable Loungers on the subject of Mozilla products and if he can't suggest something to help fix the problem, I don't know who else can!

Having said that, I have to ask from a base of curiosity, are you and user <!profile=Beaudet G>Beaudet G<!/profile> the same person or is he the person you're trying to help? I wonder only because he/she jumped in here in the middle of this thread.

There have been a couple of situations in the past where I've had email problems and have simply DELETED the Inbox (when Mozilla was NOT running) and it got successfully recreated on first running of the program, but I don't know if that's a possible answer in this case. It seems to me that your friend would be well served to bite the bullet and switch to Firefox and Thunderbird, if for no other reason than to see if the switchover would cure this problem.

[PaJan]

Thanx Al. Yes Beaudet .g is my buddy whom I have been trying to get out of this mess. I guess we''l have to make the switch to Thunderbird/Firefox. I had a suggestion from an out-of-lounge source about switching profiles in Mozilla so may give that a shot first.

Again Thank you all at the Lounge. Great site.

[Beaudet G]

Hello again BigAl. This is Pajan and I am at Beaudet's computer still trying to resolve the mail problem on Mozilla. We tried switching profiles and created a new one and a new email account to go with it. When I tried to send a TEST message I got the following ALERT "An error occurred while sending mail. The mailserver responded 5.7.0. You must issue a STARTTLS command first." I have no idea what that means or how to do that.
The server at this end is Sympatico.ca and since they do not support Mozilla they were of NO BLOODY HELP.

Where do I go from here???

Please send notification to me at mrgorf@gmail.com

Thanx very much

[bigaldoc]

Hi there PapaSan! I don't have the foggiest idea what the problem is, especially that "5.7.0" message. While we're waiting to see if another Lounger can join in with some help, lemme go to some Sympatico web site screens and see if I can spot something suspicious. It sounds like there's some setting that's not quite to their server's liking but I don't know what it is. I'm gonna go looking now... Later...

Just in case I can't find my way, can you come back with a link to Sympatico that gives email settings for some other email client? Maybe we can "interpolate" what's wrong.

[Beaudet G]

OK. At home my server settings are the same as Beaudets':
Incoming - pophm.sympatico.ca port 995
Outgoing - smtphm.sympatico.ca port 25

While passing time here I went to START, Search, Inbox, and Select All and DELETE. It went on for a long time and there was a whole pile of files deposited in the Trash bin which we Emptied but doesn't seem to have changed anything.

[Beaudet G]

Follow Up to last post. Does Anyone know WHAT a "STARTTLS" command is or means????

[bigaldoc]

Man, you may have to hang in and hope that another Canadian Lounger can help! I've been Googling my buns off and it's pretty obvious that Sympatico is a problematic ISP, that's fer sure from the hits I'm seeing.

I saw one place where the settings were said to be:

Incoming mail server (POP) pophm.sympatico.ca
SSL, Port 995

Outgoing is smtphm.sympatico.ca
SSL, port 465

The SSL and port numbers are the important factors in that post I found. And no, I for one have no idea what STARTLS is.

[bigaldoc]

Followup to my previous post. This Sympatico Googling is making me feel more and more sorry for you folks who are forced to use them... <img src=/S/evilgrin.gif border=0 alt=evilgrin width=15 height=15>

Here's a partial quote from yet another post I read:

<hr>...According to my tests, Mozilla Mail is unable to send e-mail using the smtphm.sympatico.ca server. You can simply workaround this by using "SMTP8.SYMPATICO.CA" as your SMTP server... <hr>

I have no idea whether that's worth trying or not. Frustration mounts, as I'm sure it is for you...

<img src=/S/aflame.gif border=0 alt=aflame width=16 height=16>

[PaJan]

SUCCESS! After spending 10 hours yesterday I was FINALLY able to get Beaudet's computer working as it should.(Well Almost)
My son is the resident computer wizard at a local Chrysler Assembly plant. Over the years he has built five different computers for me, each successive machine with more bells and whistles. One component is that my "C" drive is on a removable bay. There is a scond bay wherein resides a ZIP drive. By removing the Zip drive and installing a second "C" drive and using a Symantec Ghost program I am able to clone or copy all the operating systems, data, graphics and everything else to the second "C" drive, which gives me a Complete Backup. I religiously run the Ghost program at least once a week or BEFORE downloading anyother programs. It works beautifully. I cannot understand why some OEM doesn't build this system into new machines. The additional costs would be far outweighed by the protection provided.

Anyway about two years ago when Beaudet bought a new computer, my son more or less rebuilt it and installed the aforementioned package. At that time he made a backup copy of Beaudets programs which included Mozilla.

Yesterday I installed that hard drive and Mozilla mail and browser worked just fine. Then it was a case of reinstalling all the programs and updates that have come along in the two years. Now almost evrything works as it should. The one remaining glitch, at the very end of the long day we found his CD-Drive would not OPEN. It seems to be a mechanical problem. Perhaps a stick-on label has hung it up. It was too late in the day to start removing panels and investigating and I suggested he take it to a shop and have a local Tech fix it . Meanwhile he can live without the CD-Drive for awhile.

We will probably never know whatinhell caused the problem with Mozilla.

I do want to Sincerely THANK ALL at the Lounge for your ongoing research and HELP and encouragement.

As someone once said " Life was so simple before computers"!!!!