[Spambayes] Spambayes trashes PST file links in OuchLook

[Chuck Cole]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Hammond [mailto:mhammond at skippinet.com.au]
> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 8:38 PM
>
> > I made a mistake and updated the Spambayes junk and good data
> > using some
> > archival pst files that were not attached at the time.
> > Spambayes found
> > and attached them,
>
> I'm not quite sure what this means - spambayes doesn't attempt to
> automatically locate any PST files, nor does it make any
> attempt to "attach"
> to anything.
>
> Spambayes uses the MAPI APIs to deal with messages - its more
> likely that
> Outlook itself is doing what you describe.  Spambayes deals
> only with the
> "ID" of messages or folders, and MAPI itself translates that
> to access into
> PST files or whatever else MAPI supports.

Spambayes being activated caused the result.  Nothing else did.  Have no
idea what the mechanism was since all was/is hidden.

> > but in doing so, destroyed some data
> > Outlook needs so
> > I can "close" them or see their "advanced properties".  I
> > cannot find a
> > repair tool or instruction after diligent looking.
>
> Again, Spambayes makes no attempt to explicitly open or close
> PST files.  It
> does everything via MAPI, so any such errors are likely to be there.

I doubt that they "reside" in MAPI.  The conditions for successful
Spambayes operation were not met, but it ran anyway and damage occurred
because of that.  I think that's a BIG problem even if it's not easy to
rope and brand it.

> > I need to "close" these extra huge PST files and cannot.  I
> can access
> > their contents and could empty them to alternate pst files,
> but cannot
> > fix the broken links and risk losing very big and important
> archives.
> >
> > Is there any repair tool I can try?
>
> I assume you've tried the standard 'scanpst' tool that comes
> with outlook?

Yes.. no help at all.


> > Can Spambayes be made to avoid this file corruption?
>
> I'm afraid you will need to explain in more detail exactly
> what happened,
> and exactly what role you believe Spambayes played in that.

The many of the PST files designated in SpamBayes for HAM and SPAM were
not "open" in Outlook when Spambayes was told to update.  They were
correctly named and were placed in the same subdirectory as the main and
a few other PST files which were also designated.  However, the list in
Spambayes was NOT fully present (ie, not "open").

> Spambayes never
> touches the PST files directly, only as a side-effect of using MAPI.
> Spambayes makes no attempts to "link" anything.

Spambayes needs to verify that a designated file exists in safe
condition before proceeding.  Failure to do that caused this problem
through some connected chain.

> > Can Spambayes heal the link parameters of extra PST files?
>
> Spambayes can't touch these link parameters - either to cause
> the problem in
> the first place, or to repair already broken ones.

Understood.  However, since it can and does break these links, a
provision to heal them seems due and necessary for safe operation.

Thanks for your comments.  I really need a solution, however.


Chuck