This post contains a list of frequently encountered problems with the upgraded Webmail system, and potential solutions. Please read through this post before submitting problem reports.

If you have a problem report that is not listed on this page, click the "Problem" button on the Webmail menubar, or send an e-mail to webmailbeta[at]spamcop.net.

Problems

1. New Options Layout - Global Options [Renamed 08/17/07]
2. Empty Trash - button missing & changed behavior
3. Held Mail empty at login
4. Menubar - width & formatting
5. Language & translations
6. All mail missing
7. Color scheme - new colors & white-on-white problems
8. Release & Whitelist
9. Mobile mail [Updated 08/17/07]
10. Browser Incompatibilities - Safari, Mozilla, IE 5, Mobile browsers [Added 08/17/07]
11. Images Attached to E-mail[Added 08/21/07]

Solutions
New Options Layout - Global Options
The options menu has been split into multiple pages. When changing your options, make sure you also look at the "Global Options" page, which is selected from the drop-down menu in the top right corner of the Options page.

Empty Trash - button missing & changed behavior
The "Empty Trash" button can be enabled or disabled. Some users have reported that the button disappeared during the Webmail transition. To turn the button on, click "Options," then "Deleting and Moving Messages," and check the box next to "Display the 'Empty Trash' link in the menubar?" option.

Clicking "Empty Trash" moves you to the Trash folder after emptying it, instead of leaving you in your current mailbox. This is a known problem and there is currently no way to change its behavior.

Clicking the "Empty Trash" button deletes all mail in the current mailbox. Do not change mailboxes between clicking "Empty Trash" and confirming that you wish to empty the mailbox, or your newly selected mailbox will be deleted.

Held Mail empty at login
If you previously had selected a folder other than the Inbox as your default folder, you may see no messages in that folder when you first login. The default folder option has been reset, and you must change it in your options for it to work properly again. Click "Options," then "Login Tasks," and set the "View or mailbox to display after login" option to your preferred default folder.

Menubar - width & formatting
The formatting of the top menubar has changed. It now dynamically resizes to the width of your window instead of scrolling off the screen. There is no way to change this behavior.

Some browsers do not display the menubar perfectly. Browsers with known problems are:

1. IE 5 on MacOS 9
2. Safari on MacOS X

If the menubar is too wide, one available solution is to change it to "Text Only" or "Icon Only" mode. Click "Options," select "Global Options" from the drop-down menu in the top right corner, click "Display Options," and change the option labeled "Menu mode."

Language & translations
Your default language settings may have changed during the upgrade. To select a different language for Webmail: click "Options," select "Global Options" from the drop-down menu in the top right corner, click "Locale and Time," and choose your language from the drop-down menu.

All mail missing
A few users have encountered a problem where malformed filter rules have been deleting their e-mail. If you notice your e-mail is unexpectedly missing, please check your filter rules for errors. We recommend that you set your filters to move unwanted messages to the Held Mail folder instead of deleting them, so you can verify that no e-mails are being deleted unexpectedly.

Another known cause for empty mailboxes is setting your options to display too many messages per page. To view and change this setting, click "Options," then "Mailbox and Folder Display Options," and enter a number into the textbox labeled "Messages per page in the mailbox view." This option should be set to no higher than 200 messages, or your mailbox may display as a blank white page.

Color scheme - new colors & white-on-white problems
The default color scheme has changed, and the option to set it has moved to a new location. To change your color scheme, click "Options," then select "Global Options" from the drop-down menu in the top right corner, click "Display Options," and choose your color scheme from the drop-down menu.

Users with their color scheme set to a mode that no longer exists may have color problems, including white text on a white background. Follow the instructions above to set your color scheme to a valid option. We already manually changed the color scheme for some users.

Release & Whitelist
The "Release" and "Release & Whitelist" buttons were broken for some users until 10pm EDT on August 13, 2007.

Mobile mail
Webmail can be accessed through mobile devices in two ways:
http://webmail.spamcop.net -- Full webmail for graphical phones with java scri_pt and cookies.
http://mobile.spamcop.net -- Simplified low-bandwidth webmail for phones with limited functionality.

Currently, the simplified mobile version does not have a way to report spam. Additionally, the full-featured version requires a mobile phone with a browser that supports all the standard java scri_pt 1.5 features. This does not work with many mobile browsers, including Blazer Browser on Palm Treos and on BlackBerrys. We are investigating options for those of you who want the ability to report spam from your mobile devices.

Browser Incompatibilities - Safari, Mobile browsers
Some browsers have known compatibility problems with the webmail system.

Safari for Mac (and all WebKit/KHTML browsers) - The menubar does not wrap properly. It can be hard to view, and causes message headers to shift off the screen. There is no permanent fix available yet, but setting your menu to "icon only" mode helps. Click Options->Global Options (drop-down menu in top right)->Display Options and change your "Menu mode" setting. Firefox and Opera for Mac work correctly.

Safari for MacOS 9 - This browser is very old and does not display pages properly. We recommend you use the iCab browser, as it is the only currently updated browser for MacOS 9.

Internet Explorer 5 for MacOS and Windows - "Select All" does not work.

Mozilla Suite - May have display issues. Upgrade to SeaMonkey or Firefox.

Mobile browsers - "Select All" function does not work.

Blazer Browser (Palm Treo phones) - Delete, Report as Spam, etc. links do not work.

Images Attached to E-mail
Previously, images attached to e-mails were automatically displayed inlined with the message. If an e-mail was received with very large images attached, the server ran out of RAM attempting to inline the images, and resulted in a blank white page. We have disabled automatic inlining of images, so attached images will now be displayed as links in the e-mail.

The information in this post refers to the current Webmail system when it was in beta. This information is invalid, and should be ignored.


PLEASE READ BELOW FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE FAULTY MAINTENANCE PAGE

As mentioned in the previous post, we are currently testing a new version of webmail. We appreciate your help with testing, and hope to have all the kinks worked out soon. For those of you who have not tried it yet, the new version is available for testing at this address:

http://webmailbeta.spamcop.net

I am reading all of your problem report e-mails and actively working to fix them. This post will be updated with a list of reported problems/differences and with current solutions. Please continue to submit problem reports by either clicking the "Problem" link at the top of the webmail page, or by sending an e-mail to webmailbeta[at]spamcop.net.

The following problems have been confirmed. If no solution is listed below, please ignore them for now. Submitting problem reports for these bugs is no longer necessary.

*** CONFIRMED ***
* Strange maintenance page at first login (Renames sent-mail to Sept-06, forwards to blank page)
* Expired SSL certificate
* No "Release and Whitelist" button in e-mail view
* "Empty trash" icon and behavior have changed.
* Mobile mail displays blank page
* Menu bar sometimes spans two lines
* Default theme has color problems
* Extra "@cesmail.net" in problem report page
* Search always defaults to Inbox instead of current folder
* Keyboard shortcuts have changed since the old version

The following problems have been reported but unconfirmed. If you experience any of these problems, please submit problem reports.

*** UNCONFIRMED ***
* IE7 problem creating new folder with scri_pt blocking enabled
* No messages displayed when "Held Mail" is default folder
* Netscape V8.0.4 displays incorrect column widths
* Address Book works improperly with IE 5 for Mac OS 9
* Ignoring language selection
* HTML code visible in message previews sometimes
* "Release and Whitelist" not working for held mail
* Can't view attachments in-line
* Empty entry created when adding new address to blacklist
* Can't move filter rules more than one row at a time
* Existing mailboxes become "sent mail" folders - "From" field changed to "To"
* Daily maintenance operations not being performed
* Mail not marked as "read" when reported as spam.
* Message header information missing in Safari
* "404 Not Found" page when logging in with IE7
* E-mails arriving out of order.

Recommended procedures

The maintenance page displayed during your first login redirects to a blank page when completed. Please ignore this operation. When sent to the blank page, simply point your browser back to http://webmailbeta.spamcop.net. This is a bug in the webmail system, and we are looking into solutions.

Mobile mail now has its own domain. Please direct your mobile browsers to http://mobile.spamcop.net if you wish to use mobile mail. This should always display as a mobile interface, regardless of your browser. Please submit problem reports if you encounter any problems with the new mobile mail system.

Since both the new and old versions of webmail share data but use it differently, the first time you login to one after using the other you may encounter problems where you get logged out or redirected to the wrong page. The problem will correct itself after you click around a few pages, but you may need to login multiple times. I recommend that you do not switch back and forth between the old and new versions often.

User options have been changed slightly since the old version, and some preferences may have been lost or changed. I recommend that everyone checks all their options and makes sure the settings are still correct. The options have been split into multiple pages, so please make sure you check all of the pages. For instance, the default color scheme setting has been moved to "Global Options." To change it, click "Options" at the top of the page, then select "Global Options" from the drop-down menu in the top right corner. Click "Display Options," and choose your color scheme.

Many of the keyboard shortcuts have changed since the old version. Unfortunately we do not have a list of all keybindings, but you can determine the shortcuts on a page by looking at the underlined letter on links, or by hovering your mouse over icons and checkboxes.

The warning about a wrong SSL certificate can safely be ignored. That problem will only last for the duration of beta testing.

Thanks for your help,

Trevor Bentley

The second post was enered as a 'new' Topic .. I merged it into this existing Topic. Primary reason is that there have been so many pointers made elsewhere to rhe original Topic, and this new post contains updated material .... as a 'new' Topic, a lot of folks wouldn't actually 'see' it ....

I don't like this at all! Don't you think the list should show some amount of improvement? Are you guys really improving the areas that needed atention? I'm glad the "FAULTY MAINTENANCE PAGE" issue was pointed out, for example.
Ive clipped out the repetitive items in the Confirmed & Unconfirmed lists, but I don't think you guys are showing any improvements were made.

I have been using the new version for a few weeks, back when it really was a Beta version.
-Now even that URL is wrong (the beta is no longer necessary)
-The intermittent "read receipt" seems unfixed and still not mentioned in lists above. As I complained, the lists stay static as nothing is being fixed nor added!

I'm certainly not seeing any updates to either list. I have sent in 2 emails complaining about being unable to login, and I haven't gotten a reply, nor has it been put on the unconfirmed list.

Much confusion ..... Forum Admin merged a 'new' Topic into the existing Topic, as the 'new' Topic was seen as an 'update' the the previously pisted material. Justification for the 'merge' was based on the fact that pointers to WebMail (Beta) status and issues had been posted into various FAQs, the Wiki, various postings within this Forum, and numerous newsgroup postings ... Folks following those links would not have had any clue that there was yet a different Topic that they would need to read. Thus, that 'new' Topic was merged into the Topic/Discussion that all existing pointers linked to.

On the other hand, JT,Trevorb had sent out e-mails pointing to the 'new' Topic .. at the point that I moved/merged that 'new' Topic, that e-mailed link became a 404 (Page not found issue, which would typically result in the 'front page of the Forum being displayed) ...

I added a block of text to the top of the first post, advising of the issue, instructing that users needed to scroll down to Linear Post #2 for 'current' information, made some text red, included the 'e-mail news page' entry that the "WebMail Beta was no loonger Beta"to firther explain the issue.

Now what is seen is the series of two posts that end up with incorrect date/time-stamps, all my added stuff to the initial Post removed ... making the third post totally nonsensical. For those that were keeping track of this Topic, know how Forums normally work, this is an attempt to explain why things seem a bit out of whack in this discussion.

For those that posted replies/comments here, I can only assume that further dialog has been handled via e-mail ???

I posted this via the 'Problems' button in Webmail, but it seems to have been ignored, so I thought I'd try posting here.

I am unable to use Webmail for spam reporting on my mobile device (Trēo 650 w/ Blazer browser). I can access the site and view mail, but clicking on links such as 'Report as Spam' do not work. Neither does clicking on the first checkbox to select all message, or drop-downs such as 'Mark As'. I never had a problem using the previous Webmail version on this device.

I can access the mobile version, but it has no spam reporting capability. I was unable to test the new Webmail on my mobile device during the beta phase, because at that time accessing Webmail from there was automatically redirecting it to the mobile version.

This is a serious issue for me, as much of the time my only access to Webmail is via my mobile device.

Although noting that a few posts prior states that e-mail hasn't been answered, Trevor did provide an e-mail address for contact. Have you submitted your issue through that means yet?

can you provide a link to data on this combination .... what I'd be looking for is a description of capabilities, limits to capabilities, and the really nasty part, any possible impact your actual carrier might have to do with any of the above (i.e. is this a 'standard application installed, or a 'specially tailored' version on your phone)

Maybe a bit off-topic, yet .... I'd love to have access to a mobile unit to test out a bunch of stuff .. but ...

don't seem to travel in the right curcles to know anyone that has / uses web-access via a cell-phone. Have been trying for a long while to score something affordable off of e-bay that would allegedly have wifi access such that I could access my own network and try to explore that way, but .... my son sent me a phone that was "wifi enabled" .. but it turns out that it's tied to the carrier, so when it noticed that it wasn't 'hooked up to anything' almost all options were 'not available' ....

The point being, how to 'test' from 'this side' of things to see what works, what doesn't work .. wothout having access to the device / software in question.

On the other hand, this WebMail application isn't my issue. Trevor is the person to contact at the moment.

I had used the 'Problems' button on Webmail, which I thought from Trevor's message was an either/or thing with the email address. But at your suggestion, I'm sending it via email also.


The bottom line is that all this functionality worked flawlessly with the old version of Webmail. I also use this phone to surf dozens of other sites that are not specifically designed for mobile without any problems. Obviously something was changed between the versions, possibly bad java scri_pt that Firefox and IE manage to deal with.

Yes, java / java scri_pt was exactly what was on my mind when asking about links to a desxcription of capabilities / limits placed on the combination you've got. This Forum application's developer is all gung-ho on adding AJAX features galore, yet complaints keep pouring in from folks about problems their users are having, basically being "left behind" ....

I just updated the post with the latest information on browser problems. We are looking for solutions to the mobile browser problems. Right now, reporting spam only works for a few certain mobile devices.

Are you wanting problems reported here or only by using the "Problem" button?

I saw this problem today where I received a message (from my mom) that when selected shows a blank browser page (i.e. the entire page is blank: no horde headers, no links, nothing). I tried this in Foxfire 2.0.0.6 as well as IE7. If I select "view page source" the page that comes up has no html code in it.

I haven't run any kind of sniffer on it to see what the network interaction is yet. I have to take my kids to school right now, but if the admins want to see the message here is the link that is used to display the message when logged into my spamcop webmail account.

https://webmail.spamcop.net/horde/imp/messa...php?index=30428

I want to get on my other machine and see what I can pull down from pop/imap.

I did report this using the "Problem" button. I wasn't sure.

Okay, I'll put my fire resistant undies on. Flame away.

...IIUC, I think the following from post #1 in this "thread" answers your question, does it not?

Well, I came looking to see the results of my posting that there was no change to post#1, and am glad to see it was responded to in a positive way, the struck-out text. Now Kae, (amazingly we signed up 12 days apart in 2005) I have (almost) always had problems with HTML Emails on webmail old and beta. Once in a while one comes thru as a readable page. I think it's MOSTLY images in-line where there's problems, and that is addressed in POST#1 by TrevorB.

I tried changing options but would never find a solution. Instead of blank, I get a page full of machine code gibberish. I think it's just a limitation of using webmail. Post here or a PM if you learn why things don't come thru. (I can't look at your link, it want's me to log in to email, yours?)

I think TrevorB edited post #1 and added the "in-line" image comment after he fixed the problem that I reported that morning. Thanks TrevorB!

turetzsr was right, I missed that line that said to use the "Problem" button to report problems. (i.e. don't post here). Thanks turetzsr, I missed that.

The link that I gave pointed to a message in my Inbox, so unless you were logged in as me, then it wouldn't mean anything. I guess I gave the URL with the idea in mind that the "administrator" could probably read my email, but forgot that it's probably an internal index that the webmail system (horde?) uses and that decoding it to get to the actual message might be more trouble than it is worth. Sorry 'bout that.

I think the initial display of an HTML message is usually raw HTML and as you stated an in-line image would look like "machine code gibberish." I kind of view this as a feature though, because I don't have to wait for images, applets, or other objects to load. If I want to see the html part of the message, most of the time, I can select the link to the html part and webmail/horde will pop open a new browser window and throw the HTML at the window and let the browser interpret it.

That's true if the message contains *only* HTML, doesn't have a plain text portion, and isn't coded properly. Most of the HTML email messages I receive have text portions (sometimes in less than fully "plain" format, such as "quoted-printable"), and those that don't, such as one I just checked in webmail from CostCo, should display the following:


However, lots of spam and some messages from quirky MUAs might not be assembled properly, and in those cases, you might see the raw HTML in the message body portion of the SC webmail. If you're seeing that on properly-formatted messages, then maybe you should change your View settings.

DT

Since it has been 6 months since the problems with mobile devices was being looked into, I'm checking back for a status report. It is still not possible to report spam, and it seems that since nobody has been complaining that the problem is simply being ignored.

What makes this issue especially infuriating is the fact that this has only been a problem since the upgrade last summer; the older version worked fine.