1. Why did I receive this error message when I logged into Webmail?
2. Will I lose any mail?
3. Why is some of my mail permanently lost?
4. What will my e-mail look like while it is being restored?
5. Why are my WebMail email processing and spam filtering rules not working anymore?
6. IMAP Users (Thunderbird, Netscape, Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus)
7. What if I have further questions?

Why did I receive this error message when I logged into Webmail?

ERROR:
ERROR: Could not complete request.
Query: SELECT "INBOX"
Reason Given: Mailbox does not exist

We are still in the process of resolving this issue. Please contact the ITS HelpDesk if you continue to receive this.

Will I lose any mail?

Sent Mail
Mail sent to any non @albany.edu e-mail address was not affected. We recommend that you resend any mail that was sent to a NetID@albany.edu address between 9:00PM on Friday May 11, 2007 and 10:00AM on Monday May 14, 2007.
It is possible that any mail sent to any @albany.edu e-mail address after 9:00PM on Friday May 11, 2007 will be lost. We recommend that you confirm any messages that you sent between 9:00PM on Friday May 11, 2007 and 10:00AM on Monday May 14, 2007.

Received Mail
Any mail that you received between 9:00 PM on Friday, May 11, 2007 and 10:00 AM on Monday, May 14, 2007 is unfortunately irretrievable. Any mail that you received after 10:00 AM on Monday, May 14, 2007 will be delivered.

How will people know I am not getting their messages?
Anyone who sent a message to your @albany.edu email address after Monday at 10:00AM received a bounced message explaining that delivery failed.

Why is some of my mail permanently lost?

The outage was caused by a hardware failure. Some data was lost because this occurred while a full backup was in progress. Full backups must be complete in order to be used for file restoration. Because the backup was interrupted, the data that was being backed up is now irretrievable. ITS will only be able to restore those messages that were in your Inbox up until Friday, May 11, 2007 at 9:00 PM.

UNIX mail is backed up daily. ITS runs a full backup every weekend, a process which takes over 24 hours to complete. The fact that the hardware failure occurred during the backup process was extremely unfortunate.

What will my e-mail look like while it is being restored?

E-mail is being restored in two steps. The first step will allow users to send and receive mail. The forwarding and spam filtering rules are also being restored at this time. All messages, including Spam, will be delivered to your Inbox until you login for the first time. You will have to delete these manually. If you created special folders for filtering your messages, including Spam, these will have to be recreated.

The second step will be for ITS to restore mail. Once complete, you will notice a subfolder in your mailbox called RestoredMail. It will contain all of your mail folders/messages from May 11, 2007 9:00PM.  If you wish, you can move the mail messages back to their original locations.  Your RestoredMail.Sent message list will not display to whom your messages were sent to; if you wish, you may move the messages to your Inbox.Sent folder and the message list will display the recipients.

Why are my WebMail email processing and spam filtering rules not working anymore?

As mentioned above, re-created mail accounts will not include any folders that you may have previously created. The email processing rules, which have been preserved, are listed by going to Options-Server Side Mail Filtering. If, for example, a rule specifies that mail from "Professor Jones" should go in a folder called "Inbox.Jones", that folder must exist for the rule to work. Once your old email is restored to RestoredMail, you will find these folders within that directory. You can then re-create your mailbox folder environment and your rules should work again.

IMAP Users (Thunderbird, Netscape, Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus)

IMAP users may be able to retrieve email they received between 9PM Friday, May 11 and Monday, May 14 at 10AM if local caching was turned on. The method for saving email locally is different for each program.  If you have any concerns about retaining these mail messages, please contact your Technology Coordinator prior to opening your mail program.

IMAP service will resume at 6:00pm on Thursday May 17, 2007, at which time you can use the email program of your choice.

What if I have further questions?

If you have further questions or need special assistance, contact your Technology Coordinator.