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TheBat English » The Bat! - Configuring the E-mail Client
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Let's Say Thank You Ritlab Developers!
 
#1
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It's quite a long time I m using TheBat! I used to have Outlook or Thunderbird as my major email clients but after using TheBat, I will never return to Outlook or Thunderbird anymore. I agreed there are some shortcomings with TheBat, but, to be honest, it's the BEST email client I have ever used and it is money worthy. I m very happy with the features it's offering and developing day by day.
Let's say thank you Ritlabs instead of complaining shortcomings... :)
 
 
 
#2
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I second the motion! They are AWESOME :!:  :D
 
 
 
#3
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Yesterday I spent close to an hour reordering and sorting my email folders.

Today The Bat! "lost" 89 folders - again.

So I had to use the "magic recovery" key combination - AGAIN.

Which left me with 89 unnamed, randomly-numbered folders in the root Inbox folder - AGAIN.

I have complained about this problem more than once over the past few years and still nothing has been done to address it.

So yes, THANK YOU VERY MUCH Ritlabs.


As soon as I can find the time to export my many years worth of emails out to another client I'm off.
 
 
 
#4
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Quote
Keith Sullivan wrote:
So I had to use the "magic recovery" key combination - AGAIN.

Which left me with 89 unnamed, randomly-numbered folders in the root Inbox folder - AGAIN.

I bet you never considered that the problem might be on YOUR system. Did you do a backup and restore when you had them correct? Have you put in a support ticket? It may be a case of deleting a corrupt file. I don't KNOW, but this is a user forum and you can only EXPECT help fr om other users.

I stomped off once - I went over to POCO. The interface is smooth, but I kept running into WALLS - things I couldn't do. (They DID have a way of handling cookies that was cool - but it is nothing that I really miss) I was in Thunderbird for a while and THAT is lim ited as an email client, although they have a lot of add-ons. (They also had some nasty BUGS in the filtering.)

I have experienced frustration, but if you don't chase this down and just leave, you will be cutting off your nose to spite your face. And THAT is from experience!  ;)
 
 
 
#5
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Quote
Rick G wrote:
Quote
Keith Sullivan wrote:

So I had to use the "magic recovery" key combination - AGAIN.



Which left me with 89 unnamed, randomly-numbered folders in the root Inbox folder - AGAIN.



I bet you never considered that the problem might be on YOUR system. Did you do a backup and restore when you had them correct? Have you put in a support ticket? It may be a case of deleting a corrupt file. I don't KNOW, but this is a user forum and you can only EXPECT help fr om other users.



I stomped off once - I went over to POCO. The interface is smooth, but I kept running into WALLS - things I couldn't do. (They DID have a way of handling cookies that was cool - but it is nothing that I really miss) I was in Thunderbird for a while and THAT is lim ited as an email client, although they have a lot of add-ons. (They also had some nasty BUGS in the filtering.)



I have experienced frustration, but if you don't chase this down and just leave, you will be cutting off your nose to spite your face. And THAT is from experience!  


Hi Rick G,

To answer your questions:

* Did I consider the problem was on my system ?
YES. All components in my system (hardware & software) check out OK and have been stable for several years.

* Did I do a backup and restore when I had them correct?
YES: ALWAYS with The Bat (and any other change on the PC), as I've been scr*wed too many times before (I still have nightmares about backing up my Windows NT Workstation 4 system to ZIP100 disks with Powerquest Drive Image :o )
I forget to mention that I ended up restoring from the backup - but it took FIVE attempts before The Bat would recognise and completely process its own backup file (despite trying two different copies stored on physically separate media).

* Have I put in a support ticket?
YES, IN THE PAST: Search the forum and you'll find my last attempt to get this addressed, some years ago.  
Ritlabs could only suggest wiping out my message store (they did indeed blame corrupt index files) and rebuilding it by hand, manually renaming EVERY folder. I restored from an old backup and took the hit in terms of lost messages.

* Have I checked the forum for answers ?
YES. This forum and any other likely forum thread, posting and article out there, for several years now - to no effect.


You're of course correct when you say that The Bat has plenty of good points (although some drag-and-drop folder management wouldn't go amiss, hint). I too have tried other solutions (Thunderbird, Pocomail, Windows Live Mail, Outlook etc.) in the past.  

Unfortunately The Bat has well-documented integrity issues with its filesystem / mail store structures - why else would Ritlabs Support publicise the CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+L key combination so widely ? It's often the only solution available.
Try searching this forum for "lost folders" and see what I mean.


I'm not looking to cause personal offence here. My complaint is that the most powerful, useful features of The Bat's mail store - encryption, backup/restore, compacting etc. - have problems and I simply cannot trust it to protect my emails any more.  What is the point of being able to encrypt my message base for security, for example, if I regularly lose messages due to the actions of the software itself ?


Am I venting my frustration here because I'm p*ssed off and I want Ritlabs to know it and (hopefully) accept that there is a serious problem at the heart of their product ?
Absolutely !

Will I actually get round to stomping off any time soon ?
Probably not; I'm rather fond of my nose and I'd have nowhere to put my glasses... :D

(But Ritlabs definitely won't be getting another £ in upgrade fees until they've addressed this problem !)
 
 
 
#6
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Fair enough  :D
Put in a support ticket on this one and see if they can help. I wish I knew the answer on that one.

It may be as easy as deleting and rebuilding a corrupt file. Good luck with it!
 
 
 
#7
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:D
Well, I noticed this thread changed to be a "complaint" one....I have had issues with Ritlabs before and now...but I still appreciate their great job comparing to many other email clients out there..... ;)
 
 
 
#8
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Same here - I love The Bat. I enjoy beta testing it and we find BUGS. And Ritlabs corrects them. When something is affecting just one user, it may be time to look at your system or your database.

Keith may have a problem with a corrupt file in the data structure. He may have to rename some of them one at a time and restart the Bat (with the magic key combination) to reuild the file.

As for Ritlabs fixing problems, they found and fixed one that was only happening on my computer  :)
 
 
 
#9
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A lot of features , but the programs is not 100% solid and stable!
If it was more stable, was crashing less and all features were 100% working I think it would be the best client out there.

I think a mass code re-write must be done to sort things out
 
 
 
#10
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I would disagree with anyone who says RitLabs deserve to be commended.  Version 5 was released way too prematurely with massive errors.  To remind yourselves, please see the following posts as a few examples:

http://www.ritlabs.com/en/forum/index.php?PAGE_NAME=message&FID=4&TID=9998&MID=33275#message33275
http://www.ritlabs.com/en/forum/index.php?PAGE_NAME=message&FID=4&TID=9828&MID=32731#message32731

After multiple multiple iterations a lot of those errors have finally managed to get rectified.  Yes I understand that many enjoy the process of beta testing software but for a lot of us, that's not the case.  If any other company had released such a buggy product, they would have been crucified.

I have not upgraded to 5.1 yet but I'm seeing a new version a day being produced, obviously each version having corrections to bugs.  The only reason why I continued with TheBat was, as pointed out by others, there really aren't good alternatives and migrating  nearly 20 years worth of email to a new client is just too daunting a task - something I did a few years ago when I switched from Eudora (after 15 yrs of use) to The Bat as Eudora packed up.  However, the reason why TheBat is the "best in class" is not really because it's such a great piece of software - it's because the competition is rubbish largely because client-based email is a dead market.  Apart from corporations (which tend to just go with Outlook) and a few individuals (like myself and other Bat users) most people just used Web based email.  

I still appreciate the fact that Ritlabs is producing an email client.  If they decide to pack up, it would be Eudora all over again.  But the way version 5 was introduced as a half-baked product was dismal and wasn't good practice.  I hope that they learn from this.

Just my 2c on the subject.
 
 
 
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