Getting an Inbox Password Error?

[Jason Dunn]

Have you ever been trying to check your email on the desktop with Outlook while your Pocket PC is connected, only to have it bounce back a password error? I was having this problem for days and couldn't figure it out until one of my fellow MVPs set me down the right path of enlightenment.<br /><br />When you synchronize your Pocket PC, Pocket Inbox fires up in the background to sync your email. The problem is, if you've set up a POP account on the device and that folder is selected, it will also use the Internet Passthrough feature to connect to your POP3 account. Most POP3 accounts only allow one access at a time, which means your desktop Outlook client is out of luck. The solution is simple: before synchronizing with your desktop computer, make sure you've selected the ActiveSync folder before shutting down the email client (or exiting - it remembers the last folder selected).<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/dunn2002/pickinbox.gif" />

[Janak Parekh]

I suspected this was happening, as when I checked my email on the road I'd have newer headers than when I had checked previously.

If you're using Exchange, of course, you don't notice this as much because Exchange supports multiple-logins.

Having said that, it would be nice if this was a feature that could be turned off.

--bdj

[l0o5er]

thanks for that tip Jason. I've been dogged with intermittment pop lock messages over the last few months & hassling my email provider to sort things out assuming the problem must be at their end. Feeling very sheepish now :oops:

Mitch

[PocketPC Addict]

Jason,

What's funny about this is no matter how many times you learn this lesson, it will still sneak up on you and confound you at the least opportune moment! I had the same issue weeks ago and had figured to switch the email to Activesync, but today - maybe I didn't get enough sleep last night. I simply could not figure out why my desktop e-mail wouldn't connect. Low and behold it was my little buddy, highjacking and holding it hostage.

Perhaps a string on my finger would help me remember.

Brad

[Ed Hansberry]

HI was having this problem for days and couldn't figure it out until one of my fellow MVPs set me down the right path of enlightenment.
me ;)

This bites me every day. I do IMAP via my T-Mobile account through VPN. My laptop is already on VPN and I guess you can't do VPN through passthrough. It just fails, but is annoying.

[Jorj Bauer]

When you synchronize your Pocket PC, Pocket Inbox fires up in the background to sync your email.

Good detective work, Jason! I've seen the inbox open up a few times unexpectedly (giving me errors because I have a fairly strange inbox configuration). I never quite put together the pieces to figure out why it was happening... let alone why it happened more often when I was at conferences!

[Paragon]

I can't believe this! To think I pulled all my hair out over something as simple as this. :-)

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Oh, in case I forgot, thanks, eh!

Dave

[Jason Dunn]

Good detective work, Jason! I've seen the inbox open up a few times unexpectedly (giving me errors because I have a fairly strange inbox configuration). I never quite put together the pieces to figure out why it was happening... let alone why it happened more often when I was at conferences!

It was all Ed. :wink:

What's interesting is that you can watch the running applications window and it won't show up - the GUI doesn't start, but the application does fire up in some low-level mode...

[wangsanegara]

there is another solution...... :D

After I put my PPC on the cradle to synchronize, I go directly to Inbox, then I choose the Pop3 folder. Tap the Service menu bar, and choose "Disconnect" from the menu.

After this task is performed, you can check your Mail in the Outlook without any problem.

The Activesync will run at the background, but the passthrough connection to the Inbox is temporarily disconnected. When you want to check the Pop3 mail on your PPC, just select "Connect".

This way, you don't have to change any setup for the PPC Inbox.

Andreas

[Pony99CA]

there is another solution...... :D

After I put my PPC on the cradle to synchronize, I go directly to Inbox, then I choose the Pop3 folder. Tap the Service menu bar, and choose "Disconnect" from the menu.

After this task is performed, you can check your Mail in the Outlook without any problem.

That's what I do, too. I use Eudora, and, if my Pocket PC is connected, when I try to start Eudora, I'll get an "in use" error for the E-mail account that's active on my Pocket PC.

Fortunately, the message was good enough that I was able to figure out what was going on.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

I suspected this was happening, as when I checked my email on the road I'd have newer headers than when I had checked previously.

If you're using Exchange, of course, you don't notice this as much because Exchange supports multiple-logins.

Having said that, it would be nice if this was a feature that could be turned off.

Exactly what do you want to turn off?

If you want to turn off the automatic E-mail check when you connect to the cradle, I may have figured out how to do this. Here's how:

1. Open your favorite registry editor. If you don't have one, try the PHM Registry Editor (http://www.phm.lu/Products/PocketPC/regedit.asp). It's free!

2. Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE tree.

3. Expand the SOFTWARE tree.

4. Expand the Microsoft tree.

5. Expand the Shell tree.

6. Expand the Event tree (we're almost there... :-)).

7. Expand the Dock tree.

8. Select the Inbox item.

9. Click on the "command" value.

10. Change the value name to something other than "command". I typically append "-x" (getting "command-x").

NOTE: You could also delete the "tmail.exe -RunInBKG" data. I don't do that because it would make recovering the original setting more difficult if this change causes problems.

11. Confirm any change messages.

12. Undock your Pocket PC.

13. Do a soft reset.

14. Dock your Pocket PC.

15. Open Inbox.

16. Click on the Services menu item and verify that the top menu item says "Connect". This means that you are disconnected.

Note that I have not tested this extensively. I have only checked it with my POP3 E-mail service. As I don't use Outlook, I don't know what effect, if any, it will have on ActiveSync connections.

If you have any problems with this, please feel free to post information here.

Steve

UPDATE: Ensure that your Inbox is closed before synchronizing. Apparently, if Inbox is running when you connect, this trick does not work.

[Adam]

I've been using a "Dummy" account which I always made sure was my selected accunt when Imbnox wasn't in use. This stopped the automatic download - though I guess selecting the "Activesync" folder is easier.

I've just tried the registry change and it made no difference - I've just connected and watched Inbox download mail on synching. I wondered if having Inbox open at the time overrides the shell command as it merely runs the "tmail" application.

So I sent myself an email, turned Inbox off and re-docked. After the synchronisation was complete I undocked and checked Inbox and the email hadn't been downloaded. With Inbox still open I then re-docked (again) and watched it download the email.

Therefore that registry change works provided Inbox is not running when you dock. As it rarely is for me, this has pretty much solved my problem. Many thanks for that - no more dummy accounts or having to remember to change the selected folder. :D

[ppcsurfr]

And I was about to say the same thing.

You beat me to it...

ppcsurfr

I suspected this was happening, as when I checked my email on the road I'd have newer headers than when I had checked previously.

If you're using Exchange, of course, you don't notice this as much because Exchange supports multiple-logins.

Having said that, it would be nice if this was a feature that could be turned off.

Exactly what do you want to turn off?

If you want to turn off the automatic E-mail check when you connect to the cradle, I may have figured out how to do this. Here's how:

1. Open your favorite registry editor. If you don't have one, try the PHM Registry Editor (http://www.phm.lu/Products/PocketPC/regedit.asp). It's free!

2. Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE tree.

3. Expand the SOFTWARE tree.

4. Expand the Microsoft tree.

5. Expand the Shell tree.

6. Expand the Event tree (we're almost there... :-)).

7. Expand the Dock tree.

8. Select the Inbox item.

9. Click on the "command" value.

10. Change the value name to something other than "command". I typically append "-x" (getting "command-x").

NOTE: You could also delete the "tmail.exe -RunInBKG" data. I don't do that because it would make recovering the original setting more difficult if this change causes problems.

11. Confirm any change messages.

12. Undock your Pocket PC.

13. Do a soft reset.

14. Open Inbox.

15. Dock your Pocket PC.

You should not see the "Connecting" and "Logging on" messages as you synchronize.

Note that I have not tested this extensively. I have only checked it with my POP3 E-mail service. As I don't use Outlook, I don't know what effect, if any, it will have on ActiveSync connections.

If you have any problems with this, please feel free to post information here.

Steve

[Adam]

WHilst doing the above tests I noticed that my "Unread" message count in an inbox with no messages is -1 (and presumably one less than the no. of unread messages if there are any). I don't know if my tests ccaused this or if it was like this before - I hadn't noticed.

Does anyone know how to fix it? It's only a minor irritation so I'm not fussed enough to reinstall or anything like that.

[aner]

thanks for that tip Jason. I've been dogged with intermittment pop lock messages over the last few months & hassling my email provider to sort things out assuming the problem must be at their end. Feeling very sheepish now :oops:

Mitch
I had reached the point of screaming with my ISP about this, insofar you can yell in an email of course. :oops: :oops: This is going to cost me a bunch of flowers.

[ppcsurfr]

WHilst doing the above tests I noticed that my "Unread" message count in an inbox with no messages is -1 (and presumably one less than the no. of unread messages if there are any). I don't know if my tests ccaused this or if it was like this before - I hadn't noticed.

Does anyone know how to fix it? It's only a minor irritation so I'm not fussed enough to reinstall or anything like that.

Well, if you can do it this way, just clear your inbox and redownload the messages.

If you don't want to do this, you can copy all your messages to another folder, then redownload them again... this way you don't lose messages which have been deleted from your mail server.

[Janak Parekh]

Exactly what do you want to turn off?
Thanks Steve, I'll play with that - it's exactly what I was looking for. Now if only Microsoft actually documented and supported configuring this - I wonder how many end-users are having this problem?

--bdj

[Adam]

WHilst doing the above tests I noticed that my "Unread" message count in an inbox with no messages is -1 (and presumably one less than the no. of unread messages if there are any). I don't know if my tests ccaused this or if it was like this before - I hadn't noticed.

Does anyone know how to fix it? It's only a minor irritation so I'm not fussed enough to reinstall or anything like that.

Well, if you can do it this way, just clear your inbox and redownload the messages.

If you don't want to do this, you can copy all your messages to another folder, then redownload them again... this way you don't lose messages which have been deleted from your mail server.

Thanks, but that didn't sort it. I've heard of someone else having this problem and the only way they cleared it was when they installed a service pack upgrade.

[Pony99CA]

I've just tried the registry change and it made no difference - I've just connected and watched Inbox download mail on synching. I wondered if having Inbox open at the time overrides the shell command as it merely runs the "tmail" application.

So I sent myself an email, turned Inbox off and re-docked. After the synchronisation was complete I undocked and checked Inbox and the email hadn't been downloaded. With Inbox still open I then re-docked (again) and watched it download the email.

Therefore that registry change works provided Inbox is not running when you dock. As it rarely is for me, this has pretty much solved my problem. Many thanks for that - no more dummy accounts or having to remember to change the selected folder. :D
Stupid me. :-( I committed a major software development flaw. I documented something I hadn't tested. When I tested my registry hack, I did not have Inbox running, and when I opened the Inbox, no mail had been downloaded.

When I documented it, I said to open the Inbox so you could see the download wasn't occurring, but I didn't actually test it like that.

I'll edit my procedure to indicate that Inbox should not be open.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

WHilst doing the above tests I noticed that my "Unread" message count in an inbox with no messages is -1 (and presumably one less than the no. of unread messages if there are any). I don't know if my tests ccaused this or if it was like this before - I hadn't noticed.

Does anyone know how to fix it? It's only a minor irritation so I'm not fussed enough to reinstall or anything like that.
I had this happen before. If I recall correctly, I had an E-mail that I couldn't read or delete from Inbox, so I used a database editor to find and delete that E-mail item directly in the database.

Unfortunately, the count of unread messages for a given folder is kept in the pmailFolders database instead of being generated dynamically (by checking a flag on each message that says if the mail was read or unread). The database editor I had didn't allow me to edit records, only view and delete them, so I couldn't change the count.

What I did was delete my E-mail account and recreate it. As my main E-mail repository is Eudora on my laptop, this wasn't a big deal for me. If you have a lot of E-mail that you don't want to lose in that account on your Pocket PC, this solution wouldn't work well for you. It does beat doing a hard reset, though. :-)

I hope my registry hack didn't cause this problem.... 8O

Steve

[Adam]

Unfortunately, the count of unread messages for a given folder is kept in the pmailFolders database instead of being generated dynamically (by checking a flag on each message that says if the mail was read or unread). The database editor I had didn't allow me to edit records, only view and delete them, so I couldn't change the count.

What I did was delete my E-mail account and recreate it. As my main E-mail repository is Eudora on my laptop, this wasn't a big deal for me. If you have a lot of E-mail that you don't want to lose in that account on your Pocket PC, this solution wouldn't work well for you. It does beat doing a hard reset, though. :-)

I hope my registry hack didn't cause this problem.... 8O

Steve

Thanks. I'll be able to delete it at some point in the future and will do so.

I'm pretty sure your reg hack didn't cause it. I was downloading and deleting emails to test it and that's when I noticed it. It's very possible that the problem already existed, and if it didn't it was my testing that caused it somehow (maybe some sort of timing fluke). I guess that means that your fix may have indirectly caused it, then.... :lol!:

[Ed Hansberry]

Microsoft now has a KB article on this.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];555011