Always starting search from the same email

I use the latest version on a Mac. Every time I start the app, it starts scanning the messages in the selected account from a very old email (say 20,000 emails in the past) al the way to the latest email. But next time I run the app, I get the same behaviour. As if it doesn't keep a pointer to the last email it checked during its latest scan. I didn't have this problem with previous versions of the app.
 

stanbusk

Administrator
Staff member
To save the pointer you have to reuse the same document. Indeed eMail Bounce Handler saves that information in the documents.
 
Many thanks for your response, but: (i) Past versions of the app didn't have that requirement, I wasn't saving the document and somehow the app would remember the last email it checked. (ii) To be on the safe side, I *did* save the document but the next time I used it, it still started scanning from past emails that it has already scanned in the previous run.
 

stanbusk

Administrator
Staff member
That is quite weird since eMail Bounce Handler can use multiple accounts and the pointers are not saved with the account data but in the document. This is the reason why it is important to use the same document as long as you want to continue processing the same email campaign bounces thru POP3.

Of course, only eMail Bounce Handler has to be the only software accessing the mailbox during that time else other POP3 mail clients may interfere. If you close the software use another mail client and later use it again with the same document, since the other software has made changes, eMail Bounce Handler will reset the pointer and will start from the beginning.
 
Well, the account is certainly used by another client, specifically OS X Mail (through IMAP not POP3). But this has always been the case. My working environment hasn't really changed for many years, so I am unable to figure out what is the new parameter here that is causing this issue. You are right though in that both the current version of the app and the previous one has the same problem. I attach two screenshots, running the app twice, one after the other. Both times it starts "from the beginning", minus the number of emails that were removed from the first run. For the second run, I use the saved document from the first run.
 

Attachments

  • 1.png
    1.png
    50.4 KB · Views: 0
  • 2.png
    2.png
    48.1 KB · Views: 0

stanbusk

Administrator
Staff member
Why don't you move the bounces to a specific IMAP mailbox? Most mail software allows you to create rules to move given messages to folders on your server.

For example, create a 'bounces' mailbox on your IMAP server. Then create rules to move bounces there. Then use 'bounces' as your IMAP folder in eMail Bounce Handler.

Many bounces come from 'MAILER-DAEMON@' or 'postmaster@'. I do it that way. This is a screenshot of my bounce rules in Mailmate:

mailmate-bounce-rules.png
 
Let me see if I get this right. You want me to write filtering rules in my mail client (effectively using the rules I have written for Bounce Handler), so that the bounced emails are moved to a different folder. Then, I run Bounce Handler on that folder, collect the email addresses, save them in a DELETE file and then remove them from my database of email addresses that I use. Do I get this right? Assuming I do, yes I can do this. But are you not asking me effectively to bypass a problem of your software by programming this bit of functionality into my mail client? :) I'd rather Bounce Handler behaved as expected, i.e. remember where it had stopped scanning my emails the previous time it run.
 

stanbusk

Administrator
Staff member
Yes, if you process a mailbox with 25'000 messages, it is my recommendation!

eMail Bounce Handler will work much better if the folder hasn't tens of thousands of messages and another app is not causing interferences. I created eMail Bounce Handler, I use it quite a lot, but I did not create the magic tool. It takes a few minutes to create those rules and you only do it once.

Another solution is, if you use MaxBulk Mailer to send your message, set the 'Error-To' field to your 'bounce' address, and then the bounces will go to that address directly.
 
Top