Cannot open in-box

[Art]

Attepts to open in-box produce this message:

Could not read from file f:\eudora\in.mbx ... Cause: The request
contains an invalid argument [22]

Upgrading to version 6.1 has not solved the problem.

I found document #2067HQ while searching the Eudora database. It
refers to missing mail and corrupt mailboxes, which may not be my
problem.

The recommended solution is to locate the MBX and TOC files in the
main Eudora directory and copy them to another directory. Delete the
TOC file, restart Eudora, and open the mailbox ... allowing Eudora to
recreate the table of contents.

Sounds good, but I found four (4!) files: in.mbx.001, in.mbx.002,
in.toc.001, and in.toc.002. These all have a creation date in October
2003; Eudora was working just fine until last week.

In my research I learned that I should not have allowed my in-box to
grow as large as it did. I speculate that Eudora split the mbx and
toc files last Ocober.

I propose to delete the two TOC files (sort of) as recommended and see
what happens.

Any suggestions or cautions will be appreciated. Thanks, Art

[Han]

Post by Art
I found four (4!) files: in.mbx.001, in.mbx.002,
in.toc.001, and in.toc.002. These all have a creation date in October
2003; Eudora was working just fine until last week.

These are back-up in boxes. You could copy and rename them so that you
have in1.mbx/in1.toc, and in2 pairs and open those.

[Katrina Knight]

Post by Art
Could not read from file f:\eudora\in.mbx ... Cause: The request
contains an invalid argument [22]
Upgrading to version 6.1 has not solved the problem.

No, upgrading doesn't normally solve problems with data files, which this
probably is. Can you open other mailboxes properly? If so, the problem is
almost definitely with your inbox files. I'm going to go on with the
assumption that this in just an inbox problem.

Post by Art
I found document #2067HQ while searching the Eudora database. It
refers to missing mail and corrupt mailboxes, which may not be my
problem.

What makes you think that document has to do with your problem? Do you get
a message about needing to rebuild the mailbox table of contents too? If
not, then that particular document is not particularly directed at your
problem.

Post by Art
The recommended solution is to locate the MBX and TOC files in the
main Eudora directory and copy them to another directory. Delete the
TOC file, restart Eudora, and open the mailbox ... allowing Eudora to
recreate the table of contents.

If your table of contents file is corrupt, then that is a reasonable
solution.

Post by Art
Sounds good, but I found four (4!) files: in.mbx.001, in.mbx.002,
in.toc.001, and in.toc.002. These all have a creation date in October
2003; Eudora was working just fine until last week.

Eudora backs up the files for the inbox and outbox when you compact them.
That's what all four of those files are. None of those are your actual
inbox. The inbox's files are in.mbx and in.toc, not additional numbers at
the end. The fact that those files are from October indicates either that
you haven't compacted your inbox since October, which is a very bad thing,
or that that's not the location you are currently using for your data
files.

Post by Art
In my research I learned that I should not have allowed my in-box to
grow as large as it did. I speculate that Eudora split the mbx and
toc files last Ocober.

So we can skip the lecture on that point, huh? Eudora doesn't split the
files when they get too big. The files can get truncated if something goes
wrong, but that doesn't appear to be your problem here.

The first thing you need to do here is find the real inbox files. If you
haven't done so already, make sure you have told Windows not to hide file
extensions or hidden or system files and directories. If you're finding
the backup files in your current data directory, the latter probably isn't
a problem in your case, but the former might be.

Once you've found the real files, copy them to another location and rename
the originals to something like "OldIn.mbx" and "OldIn.toc". That
way Eudora will still see that as a mailbox, but it won't be your inbox.
That will deal with any issues being caused by having a huge inbox.
(Just how big is it? If it is really, really huge, that might be the whole
reason you're getting errors opening it.) When you start Eudora again, it
will create a new inbox for you, which you should be able to open without
a problem. See if you can open the renamed mailbox. If you can't, there's
still something wrong.

Do you have the preview pane on or off? If it is on, turn it off, then try
to open the renamed mailbox. Does that work? If that works, can you opem
any messages? If you can, the last message in the file is probably the
one that is causing a problem. If you can't, are you using the internal
viewer or the MS viewer? Whichever, try switching to the other one. Does
that allow you to open the messages? If none of this works, close Eudora
and delete the toc file for that mailbox. Eudora will build a new one,
minus some information that is only contained in the toc file. Problems
with toc files usually result in messages about needing to rebuild the toc
file, not in the error you're seeing, but sometimes other things happen.