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Upgrading v1 -> v4 while keeping external attachments
 
#1
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Hello,

I'm a user of TB! v1.62q (registered version) for many years now. I'm very happy with TB! except for the lack of IMAP supports, which I will now need.

I would like to upgrade to TB! v4 but keep my old message base, including all my attachments. I've several (POP3) accounts on my old computer ("Spyro"), several thousand mails combined, including some attachment-happy lists. The attachments are stored in a separate directory.

The task: install TB!4 on my new computer ("Hekla") and get it to import all messages with their attachments intact. (doesn't matter whether with separate or integrated attachments, as I want to move them to the IMAP server later anyway)

Since TB! doesn't have an importer for it's own message format I just copied the mail folder, installed TB!4, pointed it to the same directory and recreated the account. TB!1 would recognize the account already exists and prefill the create account dialog with my old answers - v4 is not so smart.

Importing of the mails seems to work somewhat (I've a huge number of mails, too much to check manually), however attachments are partly lost!

I don't grasp when the attachment icon is shown in the overview list. I've several mails where the icon is show, but as soon as I select the mail it immediately disappears for some of them. Others do keep their icon.

But even those disappearing behave strangely: some still have attachments displayed in the mail, while others seem to be completely stripped - no attachment icon, no attachment listed (but file is still physically existing in the attachment directory).

I tried installing TB!4 directly, pointing it to my old mail base (direct copy from Spyro), then I tried first installing TB!1 and doing the same (which DOES keep the attachments, so my mail base is intact, and it's really a v4 issue), afterwards installing v4 on top of it (which then lets the attachment icon disappear on selecting certain mails and thus rendering the attachments inaccessible since they also don't show up in the mail itself). I also tried exporting my messages in unix mailbox format or importing the old *.tbb files - very similar results, some attachments are broken/inaccessible from their mails.

This is really a major downer for buying a new TB! version :(

I looked around in this forum a bit, but found nothing directly applying to my problem.

Could anyone offer some help, please?

*purrrr*
 
 
 
#2
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There are some differences between v1 and v4: the formats of the files that store account properties, folder properties and the sorting office  have changed. And those changes are the reason merely pointing to the v1 message base won't work, when you create a new account and point to an existing folder v1 checks for a account.cfg (acount properties)file and v4 checks for a account.cfn file, if the proper file exists then it will be used, if not then a new one will be created. V4 only checks for older file types when it knows that there's an existing message base, like when upgrading.

As a former user of v1, I've never stored attachments separately, because v1 had a tendency to forget the proper link to the attachments. And I'm afraid that's what's happening to you. Where v1 still claims to have it's attachments around v4 is more honest and tells you immediately that the attachment has been lost.

What I'd try in your case would be to force TB to store the messages in the message base.
The first thing I'd try would be to create a new account on your old PC, some bogus settings, but configure it to store attachments in the message base. Now copy the contents of your old folders to your folders in your new account. If v1 keeps track of its attachments properly the new account should have the attachments too. Next thing would be to import to v4, but that should pose no problems now.
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I'm just a user of The Bat! I don't work for Ritlabs.
 
 
 
#3
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Quote
V4 only checks for older file types when it knows that there's an existing message base, like when upgrading.
Ah, that explains this behavior - not importing the account settings, but seeing all messages in it. Good, first installing v1, then installing v4 on top of it is no problem.

However, the initial issue remains :(

The newly installed v1 sees the account and the messages in it and also the attachments (ok, I'm just checking two mails currently where I know they make trouble, not all of them), which means, yes, the attachments are there and I can open them fine.

I tried your suggestion with the new account (in v1). Regardless of the attachment setting in the new account, when I copy the message to it it is initially displayed with the attachment icon, however upon selecting it TB! updates this to  'no attachment', so apparently the attachment is not copied with the mail. This now also applies to mails which didn't loose their attachments during the upgrade to v4.

Quote
As a former user of v1, I've never stored attachments separately, because v1 had a tendency to forget the proper link to the attachments. And I'm afraid that's what's happening to you. Where v1 still claims to have it's attachments around v4 is more honest and tells you immediately that the attachment has been lost.
I didn't know. For me they always seemed to work - but I've to admit I didn't look at old mails too often. However in this case the relationship is intact, just the upgrade or the copy don't work.

Any other ideas?

As a last resort, is there a way to modify a mail in the mailbase to include an attachment, perhaps even scriptable?


PS: I hope my text is readable. I'm missing a "preview" button in this forum and the quote link didn't work as expected.

*purrrr*
 
 
 
#4
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No further ideas how to preserve my attachments?

Anything to get them back into the mails, so I can update/export/put on IMAP/anything them?

Is TB!v1 mailbox format documented somewhere? At least the information which attachment belongs to which file. This would be a starting point to write a converter, if really nothing already exists out there.

*purrrr*
 
 
 
#5
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I do not remember, if such option existed in version 1.6, it is 6 years already, but when You try to backup accounts internally, there is an option "Store external attachments in message bodies", with this option enabled, attachments will be moved to messages.tbb files in backup TBK file
 
 
 
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