Re: [Evolution] Evolution forces conversion from mbox to maildir

[Martin Wagner <mwrsa web de>]

Am Mittwoch, den 11.12.2019, 12:52 +0100 schrieb mwrsa web de:
> > Gesendet: Mittwoch, 11. Dezember 2019 um 09:43 Uhr
> > Von: mwrsa web de
> > An: evolution-list gnome org
> > Betreff: Re: [Evolution] Evolution forces conversion from mbox to
> > maildir
> >
> > > Gesendet: Mittwoch, 11. Dezember 2019 um 09:17 Uhr
> > > Von: "Milan Crha via evolution-list" <evolution-list gnome org>
> > > An: evolution-list gnome org
> > > Betreff: Re: [Evolution] Evolution forces conversion from mbox to
> > > maildir
> > >
> > > On Tue, 2019-12-10 at 21:45 +0100, Martin Wagner wrote:
> > > > Do you have any solution for a working batch conversion please?
> > >
> > >   Hi,
> > > which version did you update from, please? The only forced
> > > conversion
> > > from mbox to Maildir is done for On This Computer account,
> > > located at
> > >
> > >    ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/
> > >
> > > No other accounts should be affected by it. The more importantly,
> > > the
> > > switch to Maildir for On This Computer account had been done
> > > years ago,
> > > even before 3.6.0 release (which is the second half of 2012).
> > >
> > > To know whether the migration is needed Evolution checks whether
> > >
> > >    ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/.Outbox/
> > >
> > > directory exists. If not, and if the local storage exists, then
> > > the
> > > migration is needed. Is that directory gone in your installation?
> > >   Bye,
> > >   Milan
> >
> > Thank you for the responses. @Milan:
> >
> > ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/ is where all of my email is
> > stored. I have five mail adresses and two for work, and on top of
> > that I have setup a number of folders in Evolution where I store a
> > ton of emails I need or want to keep. Out of these seven mail
> > accounts, six are POP3. The one IMAP works flawlessly ofc., it
> > isn't local anyway. I have set a number of filters and rules to do
> > a little of basic sorting of fetched mails into folders, and
> > spamassassin to get me rid of the spam, though that has more false
> > positives for me than filtered junk. Different story.
> >
> > Everything in there is gone now, aka moved to the inaccessible
> > local mbox account, I started with a total of zero mails after the
> > failed conversion, only the newly fetched mails appeared after a
> > few seconds.
> >
> > You say the conversion should have taken place years ago? Well in
> > that case - how can Evolution mistake the Maildir storage for mbox
> > and force the conversion? That would explain the failed attempt
> > though! Converning the .Outbox folder, that has to wait until my
> > lunchbreak or tonight. I am on my work laptop rn. I didn't change
> > anything there either, didn't delete it nor move it nor even look
> > at it the wrong way >.<
> >
> > I will check later and report back.
> >
> > Thanks again, Martin
>
> Ok this seems to be the initial issue
> really.  ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/.Outbox/ is missing. I
> manually unpacked my backup and replaced ~/.local/share/evolution/
> completely, then I tried to just create the .Outbox - now Evolution
> starts correctly, but I still cannot access any other folder than the
> Inbox, all others cannot be read ("Not a valid maildir folder") or
> just appear empty.
> One exception is the folder "Work Inbox" which is filled by the
> filters I mentioned earlier. It displays the error (not valid ...)
> but shows some unread messages. in the overview on the left.
>
> Next I am gonna try and apply an older update to see if that fixes
> the issue. Replacing both ~/.local/share/evolution/ and
> ~/.config/evolution/ from the latest backup had the very same result
> I just described.
>
> I would be grateful for any further input. Thank you. Martin

Thank God I do a full backup every 15 days, and set my POP3 email
accounts to retain old messages for 30 days.

This is what solved my issue:

the second latest backup still had the

~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/.Outbox

folder so I removed the

~/.local/share/evolution/

folder again and restored it from that second latest backup. Evolution
fired up nicely and was quite busy for the next minutes downloading a
truckload of emails. A quick check told me I miss none so far, but if I
did I still had that latest backup, which might be not working
correctly in that department, but still a manual import of messages
worked when I tried it (just not for roughly 7k mails). So if I miss
one now I can still manually retrieve it from that backup.

Thank you very much @Milan for pointing out the actuall issue, which
was anough information for me to search and solve the rest.

With that I say goodbye to this mailing list again. Keep up the great
work, your responses were so quick! And I am quite relieved it's
working again, believe me!

Cheers, Martin