Crashes opening a mailbox (Mac)

ISSUE:

Eudora crashes when I open a mailbox (Macintosh).

SOLUTION:

This problem can be caused by one or several of the following:

1. You could have a corrupt table of contents. If a table of contents (toc) file for a particular mailbox should be corrupt for one reason or another, Eudora will not be able to open the mailbox until the toc has been rebuilt. Agree to let Eudora rebuild the table of contents when you get this message. You will not lose any mail, though you may lose the status (read, unread, etc.) information for the messages. Also, messages that you've deleted from that mailbox may reappear if you hadn't compacted the mailbox since they were deleted. If this happens to you more than once with a specific mailbox, try this: quit Eudora, and open the System Folder:Eudora Folder. Look there for a .toc file for that mailbox. If you have one, delete it. If this happens to you often, you may want to have your Macintosh checked for possible problems, such as directory or hard drive errors.

2. Look at RAM issues. To raise Eudora's memory allocation, do the following:

   • Exit Eudora.

   • In the Finder, locate the Eudora application itself.

   • Highlight the Eudora icon.

     • If you're on Mac OS 8.5 or higher, go to File: Get Info: Memory.

     • If you're on Mac OS 8.1 or previous, go to File: Get Info.

   • In this window, you'll see three settings for Memory Requirements: Suggested size, Minimum size, and Preferred size. Raise the settings for both Minimum and Preferred size.

   • Restart Eudora.

3. How big are your In, Out, and Trash mailboxes? These three mailboxes are loaded to memory whenever Eudora is running. So if they're large, they can take up a lot of RAM. Keep them small, preferably under 1 MB each. You can store your old messages in separate mailboxes to accomplish this. Then choose Empty Trash from the Special menu, and compact the mailboxes by holding down the Command (Apple) key while clicking the number button at the bottom left of the mailbox window. To compact all your mailboxes, hold down the Option key as well as when you click the button.

4. Open windows in Eudora (and any application, actually) takes up memory. Check how many windows you have open in Eudora by going to the Window menu and see how long the list of open windows is. Eudora doesn't close your windows for you; if a window is open when you quit Eudora, it will be re-opened when you restart the program. If you have a lot of windows open, go through and close each one. Or, if you want to close them all at once, hold down the Command (Apple) and Option keys and type W.

5. You might also check how many Quick Recipients you have. (Those are the listings in the pop-up menu under New Message To). Every entry in pop-up menus (in any application) uses RAM. So if you have a lot of mailboxes, try nesting the mailboxes in folders to make the pop-up menu shorter. (There are instructions on making mailbox folders in the manual).

6. Also, applications, running in the background, take up some of your computer's RAM. Try quitting some of these to free up memory.

7. The system date on your computer could be set incorrectly. Check your system date (in the Date&Time Control Panel). If it's incorrect, change it to the correct date. Be sure to pay special attention to the year, including the century. Then restart your Macintosh.

----

KEYWORDS: ALLCARDS, EPMAC, CRASH