I am having problems receiving my mail since I was downlaoding my mail with Outlook then I stoped the process now I can't get back in to my mail box!

How can I fix this?


Thanks.

Hi,

looks like you have a pop-lock. A pop-lock is set when you're downloading your mail using POP. Usually a pop-lock goes away after a certain amount of time, something like 30 mns.

If it doesn't, look in /var/mail/.pop/[your user id].
If this file isn't empty, then here are some of your messages. Alternatively, they may be in a file [userid.pop]..
What you need to do is, first, make a copy of your /var/mail/userid file for safety, then, using mutt or elm, edit the lock file. If no message shows up, I guess you've lost'em. Sorry dude.
If they do show up, use your mail client (again: elm or mutt) with the lock file as input box, use the 'save' command to merge them into your /var/mail/userid file.

Exit the mail client, then restart your mail client without a parameter to ensure that everything went all right.

I can't find any file locks. Where are these file locks supposed to be? And can I just delete the user and recreate it will that work?


Thank you.

try this
cd /var/spool/mail/username
ls -la (to list hidden files)
rm .poplock file

try this
cd /var/spool/mail/username
ls -la (to list hidden files)
rm .poplock file


I tried to cd /var/spool/mail/username but get a message that there is no such directory (that the username is not a directory)

How else can I look for and delete the rm.poplock?


Thank you

cd /var/spool/mail (the userid is a file,not a directory)
ls -la |grep pop
rm .poplock

This problem can happen also if the /var directory is full. Telnet to the server and try typing

df -h

if you find the /var partition 100% full, try to free up some space under the /var partition, then it will work normally.

Regards,

Ahmed