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FETCH ERROR and others: The Bat! SUCKS, Wish I could go back to Eudora
 
#1
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After 15 years of using Eudora I migrated to TB 2 years ago because Eudora 7 kept giving me a fatal error in Windows Vista and I was unable to fix it despite multiple efforts.  As Eudora was no longer supported I made the painful switch including converting 14 years of email with multiple folders, filters etc.  That said, TB remains a very mediocre program from a FUNCTIONALITY standpoint (it may have tons of FEATURES but what I'm talking about is functionality)  Here are a few reasons why:

1.  HTML mails - they just DON'T download well.  Despite "allowing" all the links in that annoying box that pops up, the email will appear blank.  WTF?!!  In the new Eudora OSE, the display of html email is flawless and instant the moment you click "allow remote content".  Furthermore, you can always allow html content from a particular sender to download AUTOMATICALLY (no more popups).  

2.  Filters - they work well for the most but they often FAIL.  Not sure why.

3.  When you send email to a previously known recipient with who you have communicated with by email, the address does NOT automatically populate unless that communication was very recent.  Very irritating.

4.  FETCH ERRORS ...... this is incredible.  This is a RECENT problem for me (others seem to have had it quite a lot) after 2 years of using TB.  Periodically and unpredictably - when I check mail I get a message:
FETCH - could not store message (file name - C:\DOCUME~1\FAHIMH~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\bat47.tmp)

When this happens, the email that was supposed to be downloaded doesn't make it to my hard drive. I either retry and sometime it works, sometimes I have to close the program and restart. On rare occasions, I have to reboot the PC.  This is INSANE !!I once got a suggestion from this forum to defragment, clean up the drive etc.  Did all that still no change.

These are just some of the reasons why I think TB is very mediocre.  I'm sure it's very versatile and powerful but these are big glitches.  A new open source version of Eudora (called Eudora OSE) is avaialble and if I had the chance I'd switch back in a heartbeat.  The PROBLEM is the incredibly tedious process of converting 15 years of email from one format to the other.  So I'm hoping that TB! will try to rectify these issues.

Comments / thoughts welcome.

FJ
 
 
 
#2
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what version are You using?
 
 
 
#3
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The latest version.  Checked using update function, its the most updated version.
Thanks
 
 
 
#4
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Quote

1.  HTML mails - they just DON'T download well.  Despite "allowing" all the links in that annoying box that pops up, the email will appear blank.  WTF?!!
I've come across this issue, myself. The remote images seem to load OK, though once one has shifted selection to another message and then back.  8)

Have never encountered any other of those issues mentioned - hope you reach an early resolution to all your email problems with The Bat!  :)
 
 
 
#5
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Quote
Battie wrote:
 
Quote

1.  HTML mails - they just DON'T download well.  Despite "allowing" all the links in that annoying box that pops up, the email will appear blank.  WTF?!!
I've come across this issue, myself. The remote images seem to load OK, though once one has shifted selection to another message and then back.    

Have never encountered any other of those issues mentioned - hope you reach an early resolution to all your email problems with The Bat!    

I agree with Battie - I've never encountered these problems.  If you don't want "that annoying box" to pop up, untick "show this window automatically" in the Download URL Manager window.  If you don't, and manually allow unresolved URLs, the message window does not seem to automatically refresh when all the images are downloaded, but the downloading is not going to be an instant process anyway.
 
 
 
#6
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Quote
Christopher Moseley wrote:
downloading is not going to be an instant process anyway.

I suggest you try Eudora OSE (free download) - when you click "access remote content" the download is almost INSTANT so the statement above is incorrect.  On the other hand, The Bat! literally stalls, waits sometimes the html will download in a few seconds, sometimes quite a while later, sometimes you have to close the message and reopen - good grief man!!  I have no problem with that "annoying" box popping up - what's annoying is the fact that even after you allow the laundry list of URLs you still see no message.

While you may not have had the "FETCH" error message, this problem has been around for a LONG time, as the URL below shows:  
http://www.mail-archive.com/tbbeta@thebat.dutaint.com/msg79464.html

Of course that was an older version but the fact that this glitch still persists speaks volumes.

Appreciate any input from experts.
 
 
 
#7
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> The PROBLEM is the incredibly tedious process of converting 15 years of email from one format to the other. So I'm hoping that TB! will try to rectify these issues.

Have a look at Aid4Mail (www.aid4mail.com). This is a (commercial) tool that converts (among others) The Bat's MESSAGES.TBB to generic Unix mailboxes - keeping the folder structure intact. Unix-mailboxes can then be imported by nearly any mail-client. Some mailclients also have tools to import The Bat mailfolders (e.g. KMail).
 
 
 
#8
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Good suggestion - I had already tried that before posting here.  The program converted a lot of TB's mail to a format that Eudora could read but in several folders it defaulted the dates to the 1970s!

I find the silence on this "FETCH ERROR" issue quite interesting.
 
 
 
#9
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What kind of response do you expect on such a message?
He complains a lot, doesn't ask any questions, so he doesn't get any answers.
Fetch error? No problem, if TB doesn't download the message properly, it won't be deleted from the server, so you download it next time.
Filters not working? Wrong condition, wrong order of filters, whatever, as long as I don't see more than this I'm not tempted to go into this.
auto-comlete of addresses can be configured quite a bit
html-display sucks? I agree
The best way to get a decent answer on this forum (the same goes for most user to user forums) is by posting a single question per message, that makes answering easy
__________________________________
I'm just a user of The Bat! I don't work for Ritlabs.
 
 
 
#10
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Wow !  So your answer to a collection of questions (translation: glaring flaws) is - "too many questions, ask only one".

"Fetch error? No problem, if TB doesn't download the message properly, it won't be deleted from the server, so you download it next time."
>>> I KNOW that it won't be deleted and I can redownload it ... but what in the world makes this "no problem" particularly since this has been going on for a long time - see link I posted

"Filters not working? Wrong condition, wrong order of filters, whatever, as long as I don't see more than this I'm not tempted to go into this"
>>> I can live with this problem by and large as it's not a MAJOR issue but doesn't mean it shouldn't be pointed out.

"auto-comlete of addresses can be configured quite a bit "
>>> Enlighten us please

"html-display sucks? I agree"
>>> Glad you agree.  Hope you realize that as a substantial percentage of email these days is sent out in html, this means a substantial proportion of your email displays poorly.  Acceptable for a dedicated email program ????
Edited: Fahim Jafary - 02 March 2011 23:43:13
 
 
 
#11
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> Wow ! So your answer to a collection of questions (translation: glaring flaws) is - "too many questions, ask only one".

Yep, if you expect volunteers like me to go deep into your problems, the least you can do, is split each problem into its own topic. Doesn't sound unreasonable, does it?
__________________________________
I'm just a user of The Bat! I don't work for Ritlabs.
 
 
 
#12
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Fair enough .... please don't for one moment think I don't appreciate anyone taking the time to give some input.  Lets restrict this discussion to the "FETCH ERROR" from henceforth.  It's still present and massively annoying.
 
 
 
#13
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1) check how many temp files are placed in TEMP folder and delete them, there could be limit of file system

it is possible to use different TEMP folder for The Bat!, You can start thebat.exe from start.cmd file with following entries, check it:

set TEMP=D:\TBTEMP
set TMP=D:\TBTEMP
start thebat.exe

2) there could be infection detected in these tmp files by antivirus, check its log, if it checked and allowed/denied storing it
 
 
 
#14
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about downloading images, there is new Image Download Manager, it has three modes "All all", "Deny all" and "Deny Unknown", third uses rules based on urls, sender's email and folder. You can disable button completely and allow everything including tracing images and other content, if You want.
 
 
 
#15
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The Bat! has most powerful filtering system I have ever saw in email client, many different filters with different options could produce issues in time. Filters are working in order they are placed in a tree and with growing list, problems could appear, for example messages are processed by different filter than user expects etc.

Every filter has a Statistics tab, You can check, if was filter triggered and how much times.

If You are not sure, which filter processed a message, open Account log and find that message, TB places filter's name there.

BTW personally I like filters based on Address Book group, I have many filters with source "Address groups xxx contains sender" and when when I want to filter messages from people to same folder, I add sender to address book group via Ctrl+W and it is filtered next time.
 
 
 
#16
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Quote
Marek Mikus wrote:
about downloading images, there is new Image Download Manager, it has three modes "All all", "Deny all" and "Deny Unknown", third uses rules based on urls, sender's email and folder. You can disable button completely and allow everything including tracing images and other content, if You want.

How do you access it?  I'm using version 4.2.42 which appears to be the latest and there are no further updates.
Thanks.
 
 
 
#17
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Quote
Marek Mikus wrote:
1) check how many temp files are placed in TEMP folder and delete them, there could be limit of file system

it is possible to use different TEMP folder for The Bat!, You can start thebat.exe from start.cmd file with following entries, check it:
it is possible to use different TEMP folder for The Bat!, You can start thebat.exe from start.cmd file with following entries, check it:

set TEMP=D:\TBTEMP
set TEMP=D:\TBTEMP
set TMP=D:\TBTEMP
set TMP=D:\TBTEMP
start thebat.exe
start thebat.exe

2) there could be infection detected in these tmp files by antivirus, check its log, if it checked and allowed/denied storing it

Thanks. No viruses.  I've deleted majority of the files in the TEMP folder.  However I had already done this before but to no effect.  Thanks again.
 
 
 
#18
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You might enable protocol logging
Account -> Properties -> Transport -> Protocol logging -> Enable logging for mail retrieval
And nmext time you get a fetch error see whether it is something in your connection to the server that causes this.
Don't forget to switch it off after the first error, as the protocol log keeps on growing. Don't post the full contents of the log either as it contains your password and the contents of your mail. Simply post the relevant part of the log.
__________________________________
I'm just a user of The Bat! I don't work for Ritlabs.
 
 
 
#19
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Thanks, will do and wait for the next error.  Tends to be unpredictable and sporadic.
Thanks
 
 
 
#20
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Quote
Fahim Jafary wrote:

How do you access it?  I'm using version 4.2.42 which appears to be the latest and there are no further updates.

Thanks.

I am reffering to v5.0, You can see images in my czech page: http://www.thebat.cz/clanky/novinky-z-vyvoje-verze-50-dil-7
 
 
 
#21
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Last week I have posted lot of problems to the forums.
However, no answer or anything.

Almost after a decade I am ready to move to another client, as TheBat doesn't work as expected: lot of crashes, a lot of searching to do basic things and lack of documentation.
 
 
 
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