Search  Rules  Login
TheBat English » The Bat! - Configuring the E-mail Client
Pages: 1 2 Next
RSS
Restoring messages
 
#1
0  
I have used The Bat for many years and have never really restored any messages.
Now I would like to and have run into a roadblock.

So often I'll be working and The Bat will automatically begin to backup my messages.
I usually let it do that.

Now when I want to restore some e-mails in a specific account I can't.  :(

By default The Bat looks for .tbk files to restore. But it also allows a *.* which allows you to specify the
type of file to restore. I have looked in my backup folder and the only type of files I see there are:
messages.tbn and messages tbb.

If I choose either of these files I get the following message:

Error reading maintenance archive
d:\computer\...messages.tbb  

OR

Error reading maintenance archive
d:\computer\...messages.tbn

Of course I would like to restore my e-mails. Can someone please tell me how to do this.
A couple of days ago, a few hundred e-mails disappeared in one folder.
Edited: Mad Batter - 25 August 2023 21:24:55
 
 
 
#2
0  
.TBB is a regular messagebase and .TBN is its index. Those files have not been created by The Bat's backup function. Are you running any dedicated backup software in Windows, unrelated to The Bat, that creates periodical backups of all your data? If so, maybe that has backed-up your files. Check their date to see if they might be useful and make copies at a safe location if they are.

For now, I'd start by browsing the folder for any deleted messages. Fr om the menu, pick Folder | Browse Deleted Messages. If you find that your missing messages were deleted, use Message | Undelete to restore them.

If that doesn''t help, then maybe the .TBB files that you've found can still be looked into, or you could have another look to see wh ere the built-in backup function has made backups of your folder.
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#3
0  
Quote
Daniel van Rooijen wrote:
.TBB is a regular messagebase and .TBN is its index. Those files have not been created by The Bat's backup function. Are you running any dedicated backup software in Windows, unrelated to The Bat, that creates periodical backups of all your data? If so, maybe that has backed-up your files. Check their date to see if they might be useful and make copies at a safe location if they are.

For now, I'd start by browsing the folder for any deleted messages. Fr om the menu, pick Folder | Browse Deleted Messages. If you find that your missing messages were deleted, use Message | Undelete to restore them.

If that doesn''t help, then maybe the .TBB files that you've found can still be looked into, or you could have another look to see wh ere the built-in backup function has made backups of your folder.
Thanks for helping Daniel I appreciate it.
I would like to get to the bottom of this for a few reasons.
First I would like to recover my missing e-mails of course.

But I would also like to understand what is happening with The Bat's backup and restore process.

I started by checking inside The Bat just now to see if I might be able to recover deleted e-mails as you suggested.
I had a hunch this would be futile as a couple of days ago after I lost my e-mails I started to clean out my folders for unwanted
e-mails to free up space. This included my Trash cans. There weren't any e-mails to recover from my Trash can folder.  :(

Next I thought about what might have created the .TBB files. I am using another software (SyncBack) to backup my files (including The Bat).
But this software simply copies files from certain folders on one drive onto another drive, that's all. It doesn't create its own files.

So I shifted my focus just now back to The Bat.

I checked Preferences/System/Mail Directory:

d:\Computer\Software\Key\The Bat\


Next I checked Preferences/System/Auto backup/Advanced/General/Backup Method/To backup file (standard):

and it stated the location:
d:\Computer\Software\Key\The Bat\autobackup.tbk

I hope this can tell you something?

More info.
My autobackup.tbk file is 6.5G and its last update was:  Jun 22, 2023
This conflicts with my backup settings in The Bat which states backups are made every 4 days!

My MESSAGES.TBB  files are dated today 08/28/2023 (located inside Inbox folder).

Maybe you can figure out what is going on?
And one other question.
How can I open up this messages.tbb file inside The Bat to see its e-mails?

Thanks!


After doing a little more research now, I see that TB DOES know about messages.tbb files !
In fact if you go to Tools/Import Messages/
you will see it can look for .TBB files !

I tried it just now on my current 105K file but it couldn't import any messages.  :(
Edited: Mad Batter - 28 August 2023 22:04:40
 
 
 
#4
0  
Quote
Mad Batter wrote:
I started by checking inside The Bat just now to see if I might be able to recover deleted e-mails as you suggested.
I had a hunch this would be futile as a couple of days ago after I lost my e-mails I started to clean out my folders for unwanted
e-mails to free up space. This included my Trash cans. There weren't any e-mails to recover fr om my Trash can folder.  :(

You would use the Browse Deleted Messages function on your regular mail folders (though it might also work on the Trashcan, I don't know and have never tried).

The 'Browse deleted messages' function would no longer work if the 'Compact' function (fr om the Folder menu or as part of the Maintenance Center) has been used earlier, or if your TB is configured to compact folders automatically. Compacting causes deleted messages to be physically removed from the messagebase.

Quote
Next I thought about what might have created the .TBB files. I am using another software (SyncBack) to backup my files (including The Bat).
But this software simply copies files from certain folders on one drive onto another drive, that's all. It doesn't create its own files.

Again, TBB files are regular TB messagebase files that hold your messages. So, a 3rd party backup solution may well have copied those to its backup location.

Quote
d:\Computer\Software\Key\The Bat\autobackup.tbk

I hope this can tell you something?

Well, apparently that's wh ere the internal backup function keeps its backups. I can't think of a reason why the backup file was months old, though.

Quote
How can I open up this messages.tbb file inside The Bat to see its e-mails?

Maybe you can create a new folder (use a very unique name) and import messages from such a file into it? Or if that doesn't work: exit TB, locate that newly made folder, erase its (empty) messages.tbb and .tbn files, copy this found messages.tbb file into it, and re-launch TB to see if you can read them in the new folder?

Alternatively, and maybe more easy, would be to download the free 3d party .TBB viewer tool from https://www.bitrecover.com/free/the-bat-viewer/
I haven't used this myself but it looks useful to me and it has existed for years.
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#5
0  
Quote
Daniel van Rooijen wrote:
Thanks for your support again Daniel.
None of your suggestions helped unfortunately.
I used the last method to view the .tbb file but it only showed the same 8 or 9 e-mails that TB

currently shows.  :(

So it seems I have lost my e-mail for good now. It's a mystery how that happened.
Well the e-mails from the last few months anyway in that folder.
 
 
 
#6
0  
I'm sorry to hear that! Are you sure that both The Bat and Syncback failed at making backups of your mail folder? Is there any chance that the messages may still be available through the webmail interface of your mail provider(s) -  maybe in the Trashcan there?
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#7
280.1177  
Can't help the OP recover his emails, but do want to share my solution for backing up.

I use something called syncthing to backup between pc's and a nas server (could be another pc, mac, whatever).  It's a one way sync from the pc to the nas. This generally takes ~5-10 min to scan through all the files and upload the changes.  Later that evening a snapshot is generated on the nas.  


Once a week, email software is shutdown to ensure backup is full and not limited by any files that may be open and unreadable.

Also once a week the nas replicates all the snapshots for that week to a backup nas.  The software in use is truenas core.

I've only had several occasions to restore files, but it was much simple to restore them from the nas than deal with thebat's convoluted restore process. The only content lost would be any sent messages since the backup was made.  If there were any, i'd save 'em to a mbox file first.  Thebat config was to a pop3 server, with email lifetime of 6 months, so any lost received emails would just be redownloaded.

Same would apply if it was imap, they would just be redownloaded.

The nas is used for many other purposes as well.

https://syncthing.net/  It's open source and regularly updated.
 
 
 
#8
0  
Quote
Daniel van Rooijen wrote:
I'm sorry to hear that! Are you sure that both The Bat and Syncback failed at making backups of your mail folder? Is there any chance that the messages may still be available through the webmail interface of your mail provider(s) -  maybe in the Trashcan there?
Thanks for helping again Daniel.

I don't think I had used Syncback for the period I need. I am pretty sure The Bat didn't make a backup.
I just checked the webmail server as you suggested.
The messages weren't there and I know why. I looked into my accounts in The Bat and I have it set up
to delete the messages from the server after five days.

So I just went into each of my accounts now and changed that to 30 days. So hopefully I can use that as a backup
method in case I lose the messages from inside The Bat.
 
 
 
#9
0  
Something a little weird is still going on with this one account in The Bat.

I started this thread because I had lost a bunch of e-mails in it.
I certainly didn't delete them manually or by accident.

Today I noticed once again that there were zero e-mails in the main account folder!
A week ago I changed the setting to retain e-mails on the server for 30 days.
I checked the server and the e-mails were gone there too.

Something else is happening that I don't understand. Under the main account I have around
10 sub-folders. Some of the e-mails that arrive in the main folder are also arriving in one of the

sub-folders. I checked my filters and they shouldn't be sending these e-mails there.

----
I'm totally at a loss now.My computer froze once again requiring a re-boot. When I fired up The Bat
the only two messages in my main Inbox disappeared!
I immediately logged into the mail server and the messages were not there either!

Can anyone give some possible explanation for what is happening?
Edited: Mad Batter - 02 October 2023 01:14:54 (Added last part)
 
 
 
#10
0  
Quote
Mad Batter wrote:

Can anyone give some possible explanation for what is happening?

No. You haven't provided any information about the account.

Does anyone (or anything) else have access to it?
I'm assuming it's an IMAP account. Do you also access it from another device?
Are the folder definitions on the server identical to those in The Bat and are the folders properly matched up?
Are there any scripts running on the server that might sort mail into folders, or delete messages?

If you do not require access from multiple devices, maybe you should consider switching to the much simpler POP3 protocol instead. Without the client-server synchronization of IMAP, strange occurrences like you're currently seeing are less likely to happen.
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#11
0  
Quote
Daniel van Rooijen wrote:
Quote
Mad Batter wrote:

Can anyone give some possible explanation for what is happening?

No. You haven't provided any information about the account.

Does anyone (or anything) else have access to it?
I'm assuming it's an IMAP account. Do you also access it from another device?
Are the folder definitions on the server identical to those in The Bat and are the folders properly matched up?
Are there any scripts running on the server that might sort mail into folders, or delete messages?

If you do not require access from multiple devices, maybe you should consider switching to the much simpler POP3 protocol instead. Without the client-server synchronization of IMAP, strange occurrences like you're currently seeing are less likely to happen.

Thanks again for helping Daniel.
It is actually the simplest pop mail account. The server is pop.mail.yahoo.com and nothing is set up there that is not stock.

No one else has access to the account. I don't access it from another device.
All messages that come into the main account land in the yahoo,com server Inbox.
Only The Bat filters my main mail into various subfolders.

It is vanilla  pop.mail.yahoo.com, so no fancy scripts are running there.
 
 
 
#12
0  
Well, in that case I'm afraid that only filters in The Bat can explain what's happening.

Have you opened the account's log file (Account | View Log) and searched it for the word "processed"? Lines with that word will tell you which filters (if any) have been moving or copying your messages. Hopefully you'll find something there.
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#13
0  
tbk files to restore. But it also allows a *.* which allows you to specify the
type of file to restore. I have looked in my backup folder and the only type of files I see there are:
messages.tbn and messages tbb.  pikashow download
Edited: steve smith - 19 October 2023 18:55:51
 
 
 
#14
0  
Quote
steve smith wrote:
I have looked in my backup folder and the only type of files I see there are:messages.tbn and messages tbb.

These are native files used to store messages in TB. If restoring them through the restore mechanism doesn't work you can do it manually: create a subfolder in your account folder for each pair of tbn/tbb files, copy them there, and do a Find Lost Folders on the account (right click -> Find Lost Folders, or Ctrl+Shift+Alt+L).
 
 
 
#15
0  
Quote
Daniel van Rooijen wrote:
Well, in that case I'm afraid that only filters in The Bat can explain what's happening.

Have you opened the account's log file (Account | View Log) and searched it for the word "processed"? Lines with that word will tell you which filters (if any) have been moving or copying your messages. Hopefully you'll find something there.
This is a bummer my last message which I composed was lost!
So I'll keep this REALLY short.
I tried View Log it didn't help. Only showed the last three hours.
Web server mail is also being deleted there!
What would you do if this was happening to you?
My main folder lost its messages again, despite server settings to keep mail for 30 days!
 
 
 
#16
0  
Sorry to hear about the ongoing troubles. Things that I would do:

1) Use the 'Browse Deleted Messages' command discussed earlier to see if the latest disappeared messages can still be recovered.

2) Check the harddrive with CHKDSK.EXE (in case of bad sectors or clusters near your files for that account)

3) In The Bat, in the Properties of that Yahoo account, go to Options, turn Verbose Log on and set Maximum Log File Size much bigger, e.g. 5,000 KB.

4) In the same Properties, under Mail Management, I'd turn on "Leave Messages on Server". The Bat will no longer delete any messages from the server from then on and you'll have to remember to purge them manually through the webmail interface from time to time. I would do this in case that the problems are caused or triggered by The Bat's deleting of messages.

5a) If that doesn't help, I'd deactivate this account in The Bat and replace it with a new one, just in case that something in its configuration is corrupted. You can pause/deactivate the account by going into its Properties, then Options, and turn OFF 'Check Mailbox at Startup' and 'Periodical Checking each .. minutes', and turn ON 'Ignore Check-All-Accounts request'. This way, The Bat will no longer interact with the server, except if you'd give it a manual instruction to do so (e.g. by pressing F2 when you're in that account). I would then rename the account to 'Yahoo OLD' or something to that effect.

5b) Next, I would setup a new account definition for this account in The Bat, and use that from then on. If the problem reappears in this new account, I'd contact Ritlabs' helpdesk, explain the situation to them and refer them to this forum topic.

If anyone else has suggestions for you, I hope they'll speak up, too.
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#17
0  
Thanks again Daniel.

Nothing is showing up when I use  'Browse Deleted Messages'.I did a CHKDSK.EXE and it didn't find anything major or even minor really. Just a few tiny things it cleared up in no time.

I changed Max. Log File size to 10Kb.

And I changed to Leave Messages on Server.

I'll monitor these changes and then try 5a and 5b if they don't help.
 
 
 
#18
0  
Quote
Mad Batter wrote:
Quote

Thanks again for helping Daniel.
It is actually the simplest pop mail account. The server is pop.mail.yahoo.com and nothing is set up there that is not stock.
The default setting for a pop account is to delete the files on the server.
I was setting up a new laptop and got caught. I use the laptop as a "rover" and want my main PC to d/l the messages and delete them from the server. The laptop leaves the messages on the server.  
 
 
 
#19
0  
Quote
Doug Fitzpatrick wrote:
Quote
Mad Batter wrote:
   
Thanks again for helping Daniel.
It is actually the simplest pop mail account. The server is pop.mail.yahoo.com and nothing is set up there that is not stock.
The default setting for a pop account is to delete the files on the server.
I was setting up a new laptop and got caught. I use the laptop as a "rover" and want my main PC to d/l the messages and delete them from the server. The laptop leaves the messages on the server
Thanks Doug.
I looked at the Server settings a while ago and changed them from holding the messages for five days to a month.
Then I changed that to never deleting them.
Well the messages are STILL being deleted so I am still puzzled and frustrated.

I am going to try Daniel's 5a and 5b suggestions (above) now.

Well I have been forced to try a new approach here.
I put the account on hold and created a new one.
I needed to input the account password for it to work.
Because I could not see it in The Bat I logged in to my ISP to try to see it there.
They hide it too. I was stuck.

I called my ISP for help. They gave me even more bad news!
I was going to delete the account from the server (can't put it on hold there).
But the agent told me they were (allegedly) having problems with the password generator for a couple of months now.

So even if I created a new account at the ISP end I wouldn't be able to use it.

So now I am trying out a new idea.
I am keeping the account disabled in The Bat.
I will just log into the account on the Web (ISP) and check the mail that way.
If it still disappears from the server we will know which software is to blame.
Edited: Mad Batter - 20 October 2023 01:04:13 (Added last part...)
 
 
 
#20
0  
Quote
Daniel van Rooijen wrote:
Sorry to hear about the ongoing troubles. Things that I would do:

5b) Next, I would setup a new account definition for this account in The Bat, and use that from then on. If the problem reappears in this new account, I'd contact Ritlabs' helpdesk, explain the situation to them and refer them to this forum topic.

If anyone else has suggestions for you, I hope they'll speak up, too.
Quote
Mad Batter wrote:
So now I am trying out a new idea.
I am keeping the account disabled in The Bat.
I will just log into the account on the Web (ISP) and check the mail that way.
If it still disappears from the server we will know which software is to blame.
Well it's been four days now since I tried my 'new idea' above.
I am not using The Bat to check my e-mails in this rogue account.
I am simply logging in to my account using the Web (ISP).

All of the e-mails are staying put there, as they should be.

This tells us that some setting in The Bat is causing the e-mails
to disappear BOTH in The Bat and also on the server.

Is it time for me to escalate this with the Ritlabs helpdesk?

Or does anyone have any other suggestion I could try with The Bat?
Edited: Mad Batter - 23 October 2023 23:24:37
 
 
 
#21
0  
If you are positively sure of these two things:

1) You have "Leave Messages on Server" set in the account properties
2) You have no other accounts set up in The Bat that check this same email address or an Alias of it

Then yes, I think you should contact support and explain that The Bat seems to be deleting messages from the server when it should not. I'd recommend that you include screenshots of your account settings (Transport, Mail Management and Options screens), your Windows and TB version numbers, and a link to this discussion.
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#22
0  
Quote
Daniel van Rooijen wrote:
If you are positively sure of these two things:

1) You have "Leave Messages on Server" set in the account properties
2) You have no other accounts set up in The Bat that check this same email address or an Alias of it

Then yes, I think you should contact support and explain that The Bat seems to be deleting messages from the server when it should not. I'd recommend that you include screenshots of your account settings (Transport, Mail Management and Options screens), your Windows and TB version numbers, and a link to this discussion.
Thanks Daniel again.
Yes it's time to escalate this to TB support.

Of note, my last e-mails that arrived into this account's folder inside The Bat were dated Oct 18 and Oct 19.
I am about to activate the account (it had been de-activated since those tests while I did the server test).
I fully expect those e-mails to disappear shortly inside The Bat, as they were doing before.

On another note. There are still many TB functions that remain a mystery to me (I don't use most of them).
One function keeps popping up on its own roughly once a week or so:

Inbox analyzer - Select accounts

I don't know what it's for, what's it's doing, if I need to be using it, and if not how to turn it off?
 
 
 
#23
7.3503  
Now that you mention it, that Inbox Analyzer also pops up on my screen once a week or so.

I have unmarked a few checkboxes in the Inbox Analyzer options under 'Options |
Preferences | Other Options' -- hopefully that will put an end to it.
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#24
0  
Hello!

I have such a problem with a gmail mailbox set as IMAP that I accidentally deleted mail from the inbox folder. They were also deleted on the Google server.
However, I have the .tbn and .tbb from a backup, and I also have the tbb and tbn files in an imap folder. If I import these into the inbox folder, The Bat does not display them, because they are no longer on the Google server.
If I create a pop3 account and import it there, I only see the address information for most of the letters. Not the content. It is interesting that there are some emails that are still readable.

Is there a possibility that the contents of the .tbb and .tbn files can somehow be returned to the google server?
Or that I can read these letters in another folder?
 
 
 
#25
0  
Quote
Daniel van Rooijen wrote:
Now that you mention it, that Inbox Analyzer also pops up on my screen once a week or so.
I wonder if you have Inbox Analyzer function active. This feature was abandoned in The Bat! v. 8.8, as I remember.

By the way, using the Inbox Analyzer function, you can define automatic sorting of correspondence with the most common senders and recipients. After meeting certain requirements, The Bat! can periodically create and run a set of filters for incoming and outgoing mail and sort mail into appropriate subfolders of a given account.

After scanning the indicated accounts, the program proposes various operations on found messages that meet the criteria. You can create filters and folders, mark messages as spam, move them to an archive folder, etc. Thanks to the analyzer, you can also take care of order in your inbox and minimize the number of messages stored in it. This last feature is especially important because the inbox is most vulnerable to failure, the probability of which increases with a large number of messages.

So, I do not know why it was removed.
 
 
 
Pages: 1 2 Next