Korrupted Kmail email backups? And how to restore?

[Pavel Troller]

Hi!
> r bartlett wrote:
> 
> A tiny bit of background: KMail by default uses the maildir format for mail,
> which is a Good Thing(TM), but the format can be a little confusing when
> you look at it...
> 
> > Hi.  I had a bunch of mail in various folders in Kmail using FC4 and
> > recently did a fresh install of FC5.  Kmail works great, but I've had a
> > heck of a time importing my old mail into the new Kmail.  I have a backup
> > of the old .kde/share/apps/kmail/mail folder (and the ../apps/kmail/ one
> > as well), but I've noticed that there are two types of mail folders and
> > one is corrupted.
> > 
> > One type is a huge file with all the mail in it, preceded with a "."  For
> > example, a folder I send most of my mail to: 
> > mymail at mymainemailaddress.com.au.  I think the file in the /mail directory
> > looks like this:
> 
> Oh, that sounds like mbox format (a different format to maildir). Hrm, now
> I'm confused. Anyway, you seem to suggest that these mails are working OK,
> so let's not worry about them.
> 
> > And the problem is that with these folder directories, all the email
> > stored in them is disappearing in an odd way:  The mail initially seems to
> > be listed there, but each time I click on an email to open it, it
> > disappears.  In its place is a line saying "Subject Unknown           
> > Unknown                  Unknown"  (the latter two are for the sender and
> > time.)  If I click on another email, the same thing happens...and it stays
> > gone.
I have a very similar experience. In my case, it's clearly not kmail fault.
It happens, when a mbox type mailbox is used by another program (i.e. mutt),
which modifies it and puts it out of sync with its index file.
> 
> I *think* this happens when the index files go wrong somehow. Try the
> following:
I think it's the case.
> 1. *Back up the whole mail directory, in case something goes wrong*
> 2. Make sure KMail is closed
> 3. Remove "*index*" files
> 4. Restart KMail.
I can second that it really helps. Be prepared that kmail startup will take
much more time than normally, because it will recreate all the index files.
> 
> Does that help?
> 
>  
> > Also:  How do I delete a folder I've added to Kmail?!!  There doesn't seem
> > to be any option for this!!!
> 
> In the folder menu.
> 
> Regards,
> Philip
> -- 
> KDE Documentation Team: http://i18n.kde.org/doc
> KDE Documentation Online: http://docs.kde.org
> 
> ___________________________________________________
> This message is from the kde mailing list.
> Account management:  https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde.
> Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
> More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.
___________________________________________________
This message is from the kde mailing list.
Account management:  https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde.
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.