The end of Eudora?

[barondave]

All of a sudden, at around midnight last night, Eudora stopped working. Worse, it seems to be eating e-mail. It downloads e-mail, but then I get a series of nine alert messages (!) saying Out of Memory and Don't Worry, Your E-Mail will appear Shortly but nothing comes up.

I'm reading my e-mail online, but I'd like to keep some of the messages, etc. Any suggestions?

Eudora won't let me compact the In Box... does the version 8 Beta work on Macs? Is there another program that will let me keep my years-n-years of e-mails?

Comments

[calimac.livejournal.com]

I used to use Eudora 4.1 (I stopped there, because 4.2 had too many features I didn't like). It crashed on occasion, usually as the result of indigestible spam, so I took to filtering my messages on webmail and eventually just migrated there and gave up on Eudora; I now use Another Program for storing old messages.

I could usually get the program to reboot by going into a subdirectory called "spool" and deleting any non-text files there. (The text files usually contained any lost messages that arrived when the disabling spam did.)

On a couple of occasions I had to reload the software. What you need to know there, assuming your version works like 4.1, is that the actual flat text of the messages is kept in files labeled *.mbx, and the pointers in files labeled *.toc. Copy and save these elsewhere before doing anything.

[calimac.livejournal.com]

p.s. by "the messages" in the last paragraph, I mean "the texts in your Eudora mailboxes" - I'm not referring to the lost messages mentioned in the previous pgph.

[zifferent.livejournal.com]

If they're *.mbx files, Thunderbird can handle them, or you could setup an IMAP server to serve them up to whatever program floats your boat. I'm currently using DoveCOT(IMAP), SquirellMail(MUA), and PostFix(MTA); running my own server on my own domain and my email is now accessible anywhere I can find an Internet terminal. Quite useful that.

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

I do believe Mozilla Thunderbird can import mailboxes from Eudora.

[radparker.livejournal.com]

I decided a long time ago to store all that stuff "in the cloud" -- now I use Gmail, and I copied all of my legacy/old emails into Gmail using a shell script. You can still use a desktop client with Gmail (Eudora, Thunderbird, whatever), but wow is it handy to have all that stuff saved and searchable in Gmail. I ended up giving up on the email client and now I am just 100% webmail.

If that appeals, I might
- Back up your mbox/toc files per note below.
- Google around a bit to see if you can find something that works with Eudora or reads mbox files. (Like this (http://www.marklyon.org/gmail/default.htm).
- Sit back and let it import.

This last time I actually consolidated a few Gmail accounts down to one Gmail account. It took a few days to copy everything, but it was well worth it by the end. Now I am one happy email camper. And when it's in Gmail, it's all retrievable with POP3 or IMAP, so you can download and archive it offline somewhere, if you're concerned about the longevity of Gmail.

And Gmail works great for domains, too. I am aiverson AT spamresource.com - that is my Gmail account (Google Apps). So you could use it with your own custom domain, if you don't wish to be stuck to a Gmail account forever.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I've been using Eudora for so long, it's my rolodex and my filing system. I don't remember who I sent what to unless it's in one of the folders, and it's where I keep addresses and telephone numbers. They're still there. I'm hoping to resolve this problem, but despair.

Oh modern technology, why can't you be like you were two years ago?

[barondave.livejournal.com]

If it can import the Address Book, it will probably be an adequate kludge. I'm still annoyed.

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

I just checked on my own T-bird, and it can. In fact, it's pre-set to be able to specifically import mail and address books from Eudora.

In T-bird, it's under Tools > Import

Gives you 3 choices: Address Book, Mail, Settings

Address Book choices: Eudora, Text file
Mail choices: Eudora, Communicator 4.x
Settings choices: Eudora

[ebongreen.livejournal.com]

Eudora has been on my list of Evil Programs since it ate two(!) Inboxes of my professors years ago.

Your solution, if you choose to accept it: Apple Mail, with a side of Eudora Mailbox Cleaner (http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/Eudora_Mailbox_Cleaner.html). I've got ages of email ported from older systems into Apple Mail courtesy of EMC, and it all rests quite happily there. :-)

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

But . . Gmail doesn't have folders!

(Read: I can't figure out how to use it in a way that satisfies me the way folders do.)

[radparker.livejournal.com]

Gmail has labels. They work the same as folders, except they're slicker in that an email message can have more than one label. As I combined my three main Gmails into one, I have the various list traffic from lists I'm on filtered to labels, and not put into the inbox. The net effect is exactly like folders. Want to read my SPAM-L folder? I click on the SPAM-L label that I set up. Want all incoming mail to SPAM-L to go to that label/folder? Set up a filter that says, To: SPAM-L, skip inbox, add label SPAM-L, never send to spam folder. Easy as pie.

I admit, at first, I was confused about labels. But now that I grok it, it's just like folders.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Yes, that is the cool thing about folders. I just wish that Gmail would HIDE the labeled email, tucking it out of sight. Ah well!

[radparker.livejournal.com]

Gmail absolutely hides the labeled email. It's out of site until I chose to click on that label -- i.e., until I open that folder. You need to choose "Skip the inbox (archive it)" when setting up a filter. Then the mail message will both go into your filter, and show up as unread there when you click into it, and your inbox will be uncluttered -- it will never show up in your inbox view.