Cluttermagnet Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 (edited) Hi, guys-I just tried to download my Inbox and Sent folders so I can clear out my PM files. What I expected to receive would have been an attached HTML file, as optioned in the Forums Control Panel. The two emails came all right, but what I actually received in Thunderbird was 'gobbledygook' inline with the body of the email, with no reference to attached files in the sense of something I can click on to save to my hard drive. I suspect this may well be a Tbird problem, not a Forums problem. But many other times, attachments, especially graphics, have indeed arrived in Tbird in such a way that I could select those files and save copies locally. Any ideas? Some preference in Tbird I need to look at? Thanks!P.S. I suppose I could select all the gibberish and save it in a text file, then make a copy of that and rename it to .html? I haven't tried that yet. Simpler to re-option Tbird, if that's the problem. Edited December 27, 2006 by Cluttermagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 I archived my PMs to my gmail account... gmail saw the attachment just fine here.Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted January 3, 2007 Author Share Posted January 3, 2007 I archived my PMs to my gmail account... gmail saw the attachment just fine here.AdamThanks, Adam. Well and good, but this doesn't help me with my particular problem. Gmail is not an option for me (I'll skip the politics part of that). Of the two options the Forums gave, one was a non- starter for me, as I can't read the proprietary format offered (can't remember what that file extension was). The other, html, should be a slam dunk. But the content was not delivered in a form I can use, leaving me with, for the time being, zero options. I really do want to save these emails. They are quite historically interesting to me. The PM archiving limit is quite a small file size. Mine are constantly nearly full. I want to clear mine out. It would be too time- consuming to do that much cut and paste, however- so I'd really like to solve this problem so I can download a package of my archives in two big chunks- one Sent and one Inbox file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 I wasn't trying to be unhelpful. I was only stating that gmail recognized the attachment properly. Perhaps the e-mail was corrupted somehow in transit? Do you have any anti-virus or spam filters or something on your e-mail? Do you successfully receive other attachments?You mentioned saving the e-mail as text and renaming. Assuming you deleted the PMs after they were archived, this may be the simplest solution for now.I have used Thunderbird, outlook, and several other clients in the past. I think the default options in Thunderbird should be enough to let the email through. I have no real clue why you are having an issue with this, but my purpose was to say that the archiving function works, so it is likely not a forum code issue. I really don't know where to begin with Thunderbird... I have not had problems with it, with the exception of one e-mail that got "stuck" in the outbox and would not send.Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 If you are using Thunderbird with the recommended setting of 'plain text' ... then temporarily choose Simple HTML to view it so you don't get html 'gobbaldy goop' (since you know what it is and who sent it).Go to the file menu across the top: View >> Message Body as >> Simple HTML and see if that helps.NOTE: Don't forget to change the View back to Plain Text when you are done reading that email! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted January 8, 2007 Author Share Posted January 8, 2007 (edited) I tried your suggestions. Still don't have any results. Take a look at this:PGh0bWw+CjxoZWFkPgo8bWV0YSBodHRwLWVxdWl2PSJjb250ZW50LXR5cGUiIGNvbnRlbnQ9InRleHQvaHRtbDsgY2hhcnNldD1pc28tODg1OS0xIiAvPgoJPHRpdGxlPlByaXZhdGUgTWVzc2FnZSBBcmNoaXZlPC90aXRsZT4KCTxzdHlsZSB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2NzcyI+CgkJaHRtbHsKCQkJb3ZlcmZsb3cteDogYXV0bzsKCQl9CgkJCgkJYm9keXsKCQkJYDoes this 'gobbledygook' look like html? I don't think so. That's just a portion. My two emails were about 90K and 160K. I can natively read html 'undecrypted'. No, seriously. Html is a very intuitive language and it's always easy to parse the text portions of it among the tags. This stuff reminds me more of a graphics file like jpeg or gif, displayed in a text reader.I will try resending the stuff to myself from the archives (no, I didn't erase anything). I'll play with the settings in Tbird as you recommended. Tbird claims it has an attachment and displays the paper clip symbol next to the emails' Topics, but then puts everything inline and does not display the usual box below where I usually see graphics file attachments and can save them from. Edited January 8, 2007 by Cluttermagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 That is weird. The last time I did that I did it in HTML and had no problem with it. Course I have my settings to Plain Text and under View I have "Display attachments Inline" UNchecked. Might want to try that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 Just tested it myself. That is a strange email! And it does appear to be a problem with TB's default settings for how it translates HTML to Plain Text. I was able to download it from webmail as an attachment and view it correctly.Now to try the other type of document that should be able to be viewed in Open Office. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 Does the same thing with either file type in TB. I have played with the settings for various things and can not get it to do correctly.Since it works correctly in webmail, it seems like the problem is with TB. But the odd thing is, I can get Excel documents from other sources in TB. And the funny coding like a jpeg file comes through with both types of file formats into TB. Which almost makes it seem as though it's identified when it is sent out in some way by IPB that is being misinterpreted by TB.So I am not sure what is going on.If you have webmail available to you with your forum email address, I would suggest viewing the email there.Or setup another client as a temporary measure, then send it again to get that email correctly.Sorry Clutter. Wish I could be more help.I am investigating the problem.BTW: This happens in both Linux and Mac as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 The really weird thing is I used to be able to download the PM archives no problem in Thunderbird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 Could it be the encoding in the e-mail that is sent? Can that be configured in the Admin Control Panel for the forum?Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 No settings on that in the Admin CP or our Personal CPs from what I can tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 Apparently, IPB somehow changed things and it broke the archiving, at least that is the consensus here:MonsterSmallBusiness Forums _ Forum Feedback _ Pm Mailbox (Sept 2006)NEOWIN Archiving Personal Messages Quote - (Slimy @ Dec 20 2006, 18:52) *I'm having a bit of trouble archiving my personal messages. I went through the whole process and received an email full of numbers and letters. I can't seem to find a guide on this feature. Anyone have an idea what I could be doing wrong?It doesn't help you, but I've also had this problem since IPB went to 2.1.x.Also on Invision's Bug Tracker since 2005!!2.1.3 Archive Personal MessagesMembers are unable to archive personal messages, either as an HTML file or an Excel importable file. When the email arrives, it just has a long stream of characters at the end, but no HTML/Excel file. This was working in an earlier version of IPB.They mention that it is broken for some email clients but they never fixed it since version 2.1.3! I knew I had made use of it previously and and had no problems. But hadn't tried for some time. And obviously it is still broken for some email clients including Thunderbird, entourage and mac mail AND this is not limited to the Mac as it does the same thing in Linux for me. Others having trouble are using Hotmail and Outlook Express. I don't use email clients in Windows any longer so I can't say whether it works there or not.It apparently works properly for GMail and HordMail webmail clients.As I mentioned, it is working in webmail for me but not in Thunderbird and they specifically mention that. Apparently, they have made some change that is incompatible with some email clients.And it would appear that the reason is they are now using base-64 for encoding (in an octet stream) as IPB Staffer, bfarber posted in March 2006:The content is base64_encoded, yes. The problem seems to be that the headers that are being sent are not being honored, not so much the data itself.I can access archived personal messages just fine from my gmail account, for example.This is definitely something that will need to be checked into in the next release, don't worry. It's just something I don't yet have a fix for.This was apparently fixed at one point, and then broken again in 2.1.6.To which they said it will be fixed in 2.2 and a user, AtariAge (not IPB staff) give a 'hack' to fix it manually in several places until then.I am sending the link to Scot so he can do this since he is the only one who has access to the installation.In the topic, no one actually came back to say the manual hack worked. So keep your fingers crossed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted January 12, 2007 Author Share Posted January 12, 2007 Thanks. LilBambi-Appreciate all your work on this. Surprising they would allow it to become so broken in their software. Fortunately this is a low consequences 'trouble' from my perspective. I'll just stay tuned and see what develops. Trying to cut and paste all my stuff would be a huge bother, as I'm on dialup. It would be quite tedious even if each new screen was super fast. But on dialup, just a little too onerous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 My pleasure Clutter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomBox Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 Not that anyone ever PMs me or that I PM others much, but I wanted to lend a helping hand and tried to archiving ALL 7 of my inbox PMs and just like you {ClutterMagnet} >> I also got nothing but inline cluttered... errr.... garbled and random text, as well.I tried it both with HTML and xls_importable_text. Both results were dismal.Although, the sent file supposed to include an "attachment", the garbled text is inline and there is not attachment to the sent email. The very last line of the email reads: ------=_NextPart_000_0022_01C1BD6C.D0C0F9F0--Go figure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted January 17, 2007 Share Posted January 17, 2007 Hello,The garbled text you received in your message looks a little like base-64 encoded data. Perhaps this base-64 decoder will be able to decode it for you.RegardsAryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 If you were reading only what was on the 2nd page of this topic, here's the earlier message on this. Apparently, IPB somehow changed things and it broke the archiving, at least that is the consensus here:MonsterSmallBusiness Forums _ Forum Feedback _ Pm Mailbox (Sept 2006)NEOWIN Archiving Personal MessagesIt doesn't help you, but I've also had this problem since IPB went to 2.1.x.Also on Invision's Bug Tracker since 2005!!2.1.3 Archive Personal MessagesThey mention that it is broken for some email clients but they never fixed it since version 2.1.3! I knew I had made use of it previously and and had no problems. But hadn't tried for some time. And obviously it is still broken for some email clients including Thunderbird, entourage and mac mail AND this is not limited to the Mac as it does the same thing in Linux for me. Others having trouble are using Hotmail and Outlook Express. I don't use email clients in Windows any longer so I can't say whether it works there or not.It apparently works properly for GMail and HordMail webmail clients.As I mentioned, it is working in webmail for me but not in Thunderbird and they specifically mention that. Apparently, they have made some change that is incompatible with some email clients.And it would appear that the reason is they are now using base-64 for encoding (in an octet stream) as IPB Staffer, bfarber posted in March 2006:This was apparently fixed at one point, and then broken again in 2.1.6.To which they said it will be fixed in 2.2 and a user, AtariAge (not IPB staff) give a 'hack' to fix it manually in several places until then.I am sending the link to Scot so he can do this since he is the only one who has access to the installation.In the topic, no one actually came back to say the manual hack worked. So keep your fingers crossed.goretsky, maybe that base-64 'reader' will help for those who can't wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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