What to do when MailEnable doesn't work

[shall]

First, scream.

Then check the logs. While the error messages you MIGHT get in an email client are short, they're not very detailed. Check the logs here:
C:\Program Files\SWsoft\Plesk\Mail Servers\Mail Enable\Logging\
Ideally, you want to look for the "debug" log for the specific service that isn't working, and near the end of it - assuming that you're having problems NOW. For example, if you open "POP\POP-Debug-yymmdd.log" and scroll to the end to see "Error creating lock file for postoffice example.com mailbox user@example.com. Error (3)" - chances are you've got permissions or update issues.

You MAY be able to fix the permissions issues by giving the following perms:
MailEnable\postoffices - IME_ADMIN - full control
MailEnable\Config\ - IME_ADMIN - full control
MailEnable\logging - IME_ADMIN - full control
MailEnable\Queues - IME_ADMIN - full control
MailEnable\BIN - IME_ADMIN - read & execute
But realistically, it's probably a problem on Plesk's end, right?

So if the above doesn't help - ESPECIALLY IF YOU CAN STILL SEND EMAIL BUT CANNOT RECEIVE IT, check that the path to your postoffices wasn't hosed by a recent "fix" from Plesk. To do this, open the "Plesk Reconfigurator" and select the option to change the mail data location. If you've already changed it before, chances are good that Plesk moved it around on you again. So move it back. You SHOULD get a warning that the target isn't empty and it's dangerous. Yep. If you're concerned, back it up first. In MY experience (unfortunately, I've got a lot of it for this particular problem) nothing will be overwritten or destroyed, unless you've got two different mail messages for the same user in that very small window of time that the mail was broken. This is extremely unlikely thanks to the GUID msg naming conventions.

This is the THIRD TIME in ONE MONTH that I've had to "reconfig" the mail data path back to where it belongs. The first time was when I installed 8.2. The second time was when I installed 8.3. The third time was when I installed 8.3.0.1. This isn't the best of track records.

If all else fails, uninstall and reinstall MailEnable again, then reconfig to the correct path AGAIN.

Good luck folks.

 

[shall]

Oh yeah, one other symptom that suggests a reconfig will fix the problem...when you run the 'mchk' program to 'fix' mail for your domains you see the text "unable to remove blocking file" repeated for each mailbox. If you've got a couple hundred domains with several dozen email accounts each, the mchk program may even crash on you - like it did for me.

 

[DmitryT]

JFYI

MailEnable installation can also be repaired with MEInstaller.exe utility. You can find it in %mailenable_path%\bin folder. This will correct all the ME users and ME folders permissions.

As for mchk it does not actually repair mailenable configuration. It just aligns it in accordance with Plesk database, but this does not affect permissions and users by no means.

 

[shall]

MailEnable installation can also be repaired with MEInstaller.exe utility. You can find it in %mailenable_path%\bin folder. This will correct all the ME users and ME folders permissions.

But it won't merge the data directories from the default under plesk and the 'custom' path you've assigned yourself - so you could end up with you and your clients not having access to any mail before Plesk hosed the directories again.

Like it did to me again today. Sigh.

 

[shall]

The errors one would get in Outlook for related issues suggesting somehow Plesk has reset the postoffices path to the default are "80042108" and "800ccc92". When you start getting these for all of your accounts, check the 'change plesk mail data location' option in the 'plesk reconfigurator' - I'll betcha it's been reset to the default for some reason.