User Reference: Troubleshooting

Send an Error Report

If you have a crash Mail Archiver might show you the below window:

Add a description what the problem is about and what you did before. Don't forget to accept the Privacy Policy. Moth Software may request you to send an error report without a having a crash. In this case select Help -> Send Error Report from the menu.

Session Logs

Mail Archiver records some data what it has been doing. This is written into "Session Log" files in the Application Support Folder. The files are deleted after 30 days. These files are sent with the Error Report feedback automatically.

You can view the session logs when you select the menu item Help ->View Session Logs:

If you can't send an email for some reason you can get to the session logs in Finder with the menu item Help -> View Session Logs in Finder.

Deleting the Settings

In rare cases an archive may crash when it is opened. To troubleshoot such an archive it's necessary to delete the settings. Without the settings Mail Archiver doesn't open the last opened archive. Start Mail Archiver with Shift ⇧ and Control ⌃ keys pressed. Then you will see the following dialog:

Click on Settings and Mail Archiver should now show no archive. If this doesn't work for some reason you can delete the preferences file from here:

The computer MUST be restarted after deleting the file because the information in the file is cached! You can't make anything kaputt because only minor information is store in this file.

You can now continue with Open to Diagnose or Open to Clone.

Troubleshooting the Database

The Database menu gives you the possiblity to get information about your database and its problems.

• Information: Gives information for the currently open database like the version of Valentina used.
• Diagnose: Runs a report on the currently open database. If any problems are found they are written to the error log.
• Open to Diagnose: Diagnoses a database, which hasn't been opened.
• Rebuild Index: Deletes the index and creates it new.
• Clone: Creates a copy of the database file. The resulting database usually is smaller.
• Open to Clone: Create a clone of a database, which hasn't been opened.
• Dump: If the database is corrupt it's possible to use the combination Dump/Load Dump to try to fix the problems. Use Dump to save the data of the archive somewhere.
• Open to Dump: Select a database to create a Dump, which hasn't been opened.
• Load Dump: After using Dump use Load Dump to locate the dumped data and load it into a fresh database.

Handling Database Corruption

Whenever the application crashes when accessing the database there is a risk that the database is damaged. When you restart Mail Archiver and it takes a while to open the last access archive then Mail Archiver tries to restore the data. But this doesn't work in 100% of all cases. What can you do if you get an error message after archival? This is how the error message looks:

If you ignore this message it's very likely that you are going to lose data! There are 3 methods to eliminate the database corruption. But first you need to locate the archive.

Locate the Archive

If you don't know where your archive is, then you can check the location in the Setup:

If you can't access the app anymore then the easiest way to locate any vdb files is to use Find Any File from Thomas Tempelmann. The search criteria are files whose extension is end vdb. I've excluded folders because I got some weird results from Valentina Studio otherwise:

As result I get all my Valentina archives:

Restore Archive from TimeMachine

The easiest way to fix corruption is to restore the archive from your TimeMachine. Select the archive in Finder and enter TimeMachine. Go back in the timeline on the right side.

Select the version you want and click restore:

TimeMachine will ask you want to overwrite the original archive. Don't do that! Open the older archive, do a diagnosis. If the diagnosis is okay THEN you can get rid of the corrupt archive and replace it with the version from the backup.

Restore from Online Backup

If you have an online backup then you can also restore your archive from this type of backup. I'm using Acronis so I'll show you how to use this app. If you use a different online backup then the procedure might be slightly different.

Open Acronis, select the correct backup and locate the archive:

In the upper right side select the backup version that you want to recover:

Like for the TimeMachine backup you don't want to overwrite the existing archive. Therefore, you need to click on the Change button to change the location of the recovered file. I changed the location to the Desktop:

Open the older archive, do a diagnosis. If the diagnosis is okay THEN you can get rid of the corrupt archive and replace it with the version from the backup.

Fix Database Corruption: Clone or Open to Clone

If you can still open the archive then you can use Database ->Clone. If the app crashes on opening the archive then delete the settings (see above) and then use Database -> Open to Clone. In the latter case you first need to select an archive but the steps following will be the same as for a Clone.

A dialog will then appear in which you can save your database clone somewhere:

Depending on the size of the archive, it may take a while before you receive the notification that the clone is ready:

You can then open the new archive:

The next step is very important! You must perform a new diagnosis via Database -> Diagnosis. Otherwise you cannot be sure that the new archive is OK. The result of the diagnosis should look like this:

The old archive can now be placed in the trash. And the setup can be changed to the new file:

Fix Database Corruption: Dump/Load Dump

Go to the menu item Database/Dump. Next you will see a dialog to save your dump data somewhere:

You will need to wait a while. Also, you need to know that resulting file will be HUGE so select a location that has lots and lots of free space. Afterwards the archive closes itself. Then go to the Database menu again and select Database/Load Dump. You need to select your file that was just created.

Create a new database so that the dump can be loaded:

The emails will now be loaded from the dump into the new database.

Fix Database Corruption: Export/Import mbox

The second method to fix database corruption is to export emails to mbox. The resulting mbox files can be imported into a new archive. The benefits of this method is that less database fields are accessed (only header and raw data are really needed). In case of corruption usually a part of the database is not accessible. The mbox export can be done with the selection or mailboxes which allows to skip the corrupted section.

Start by selecting Export -> Archive (all Mailboxes) from the toolbar:

Now select mbox as format and "MBOX files with minimal fields" as option. Select a location for the mbox files where you have enough space:

Close the existing archive. Go to the Setup -> Archive Format and create a new database:

Select archive mbox from the toolbar and then select the topmost folder of the mbox files:

Now all emails are archived into the new database. The old mailboxes are still there. However, they are all created under a mailbox "Import-1".

"Secret" Settings

Mail Archiver has some special settings:

"local_index" creates the index file in the Application Support folder of the local hard disk. Use the following Terminal command to set the option:

defaults write com.mothsoftware.mailarchiverx local_index -bool true

"local_journal" creates the journal file in the Application Support folder of the local hard disk. Use the following Terminal command to set the option:

defaults write com.mothsoftware.mailarchiverx local_journal -bool true

For 8.2 the journal file has been moved to the Application Support folder. Probably the index file for archives on a NAS will move there, too.

Verbose_Logging_Certificate: does verbose logging when accessing certificate for S/MIME decryption.

defaults write com.mothsoftware.mailarchiverx Verbose_Logging_Certificate -bool true

Dont_decrypt: emails are not S/MIME decrypted.

defaults write com.mothsoftware.mailarchiverx Dont_decrypt -bool true

To undo any command use false at the end instead of true. For instance:

defaults write com.mothsoftware.mailarchiverx local_index -bool false

Starting with macOS 26.4 there might be a warning about running Terminal commands. The warning is mostly for obfuscated curl commands which download something from hidden websites. The default command only changes the preferences for Mail Archiver is and doesn't have any side effects.

To locate the log for the certificates select Go -> Go to Folder in Finder and enter /tmp:

Dann sende die Dateien, die mit "chilkat" beginnen: