February 1, 2010

Troubleshooting Corrupt Mailboxes & Folders

Periodically your mailboxes get corrupted from use. Try compacting your folders. (It's sort of like spring cleaning; it lets your email client know where to find things.)
  • For Thunderbird users, go to File→Compact Folders.
  • For Eudora users, go to Special→Compact Mailboxes.


After that has run, your email should be back to normal. If not, when you request help from your IT support people, you can let them know that you've already done this step and skip some of the phone tag!


To keep your mailboxes running smoothly in the future, perform regular clean up:
  1. Make sure folder names do not contain special characters like "@, !, /, _, or $".
  2. Archive or delete mail according to recommended schedules.
  3. Compact your mailboxes according to the instructions above.
  4. Run your regularly scheduled backups.


Tip: For more ideas on how to be a troubleshooting expert, see Troubleshooting Self-Help.

No comments: