Search stopped working in my Eudora

[rdg93412]

Long time user of Eudora V7.1.0.9. Have 20+ years of mail stored.

Recently the CTRL-F search function shows blank results for any of my many in/out mailboxes regardless of search criteria. I did recently have a corrupted in.mbx that I corrected by transferring "good" mail from the end of the problem box to my backup good box and making that in.mbx. Results were fine. I THINK the search problem occurred after this, but not sure. However, search doesn't work for any mailbox, so messing with only in.mbx doesn't correlate with the problem.

Any help would really be appreciated, since I frequently do searches on my prior messages.

Thanks,
Ralph

[Daniel909]

Hi Ralph

Try going to:
Tools > Options > Find Messages
Use Fast (Indexed) Search should be checked. If it is not checked this may be why the search is not working.
Or the search database may need indexing. To do this click on "Index Now".
This could take a few hours depending upon how many e-mails you have and how fast your computer is.
Failing this try "Re-Index E-mail"

Best wishes
Daniel

[rdg93412]

Thanks very much for the info. I checked and "fast search" is ON. Since I have an old laptop, I'll wait until I sleep to Index Now. Will report the results tomorrow.

Thanks again,
Ralph

[rdg93412]

Daniel,

I tried “index now” and let it run overnight. Didn't solve my problem. However, I'm not sure it was even indexing. How do I tell if the indexing is really occurring? Can I use Explorer to see a file being created or updated? The indexing pop up window says something about seeing the progress. I opened the Task Status window, but do not see any progress reported. Also, if I click ”index now” then OK, then look at the CPU status for Eudora in Task Manager it's 0%.

Thanks for your help,
Ralph

[Daniel909]

Post by rdg93412
Daniel,
I tried “index now” and let it run overnight. Didn't solve my problem. However, I'm not sure it was even indexing. How do I tell if the indexing is really occurring? Can I use Explorer to see a file being created or updated? The indexing pop up window says something about seeing the progress. I opened the Task Status window, but do not see any progress reported. Also, if I click ”index now” then OK, then look at the CPU status for Eudora in Task Manager it's 0%.
Thanks for your help,
Ralph

Hi Ralph

Did you try "Re-Index Email"? I would try it if "Index Now" is not working.

From memory, in the Task Status window there should be a blue progress bar and/or some text stating how many messages or index updates it has left to process. In Tools > Options I assume that you must check "Show Index Update Progress in Task Status bar when more than 100 updates are pending" for the progress message to show.

In Explorer I have a sub-folder within Eudora called "Search". You could check to see if any changes are being made to the files in that folder. In my folder there are 11 files with today's date plus a number of older files. It appears to me that the Search Index is built up from a number of different files and that some of the files contain details of changes to the index and are created as and when new e-mails are received and old ones are deleted (that is my guess). I have the paid version of Eudora with X1 search. The unpaid version of Eudora has a different search so the search index files are probably different and could be in the Eudora folder.

Best wishes
Daniel

[rdg93412]

Daniel

Thought I'd replied, but guess not.

Will try "index now'. However, I have no way of knowing if it's running or finished. If it doesn't work, I'll go back to a "good" inbox from March and try to update it with current msgs. I did run Eudora from my backup folder March and search works on with it.

Thanks,
Ralph

[Daniel909]

Post by Daniel909
Daniel
Thought I'd replied, but guess not.
Will try "index now'. However, I have no way of knowing if it's running or finished. If it doesn't work, I'll go back to a "good" inbox from March and try to update it with current msgs. I did run Eudora from my backup folder March and search works on with it.
Thanks,
Ralph

Hi Ralph

My next suggestion would have been to back up your mailboxes and other settings files, then try reinstalling Eudora.

Good luck!
Daniel

[rdg93412]

Dennis:

Success! I took a one month old backup Eudora folder where Search worked. Added mailboxes from problem folder with box name changes (e.g. In.mbx/toc became CurIn.mbx/toc). Transferred all mail since backup date from Curxx.mbx to existing mailboxes. Search works on everything!

Not sure what caused my problem a month ago. My 8 year old Win7 has been crashing every now and then and I know it did while I was creating a message in Eudora a couple of times. Maybe this caused it?

Anyway, all is fine now and I really appreciate your tips.

Ralph

[Pamela]

Post by rdg93412
Daniel,
I tried “index now” and let it run overnight. Didn't solve my
problem. However, I'm not sure it was even indexing. How do I tell
if the indexing is really occurring? Can I use Explorer to see a file
being created or updated? The indexing pop up window says something
about seeing the progress. I opened the Task Status window, but do
not see any progress reported. Also, if I click ”index now” then
OK, then look at the CPU status for Eudora in Task Manager it's 0%.
Thanks for your help,
Ralph

On my PC, indexing stops when Eudora is no longer the top window. I think
it also stops when you use the keyboard or mouse. This effectively means
it won't index in the background.