Microcomputer Services

Upgrading Eudora

Download the new version (free of charge): http://www.eudora.com/download
The latest version of Eudora is 5.2 which is recommended. Modern versions of Eudora have three modes: Advertising, Paid, and Light. The default mode is full functionality, with advertising in a window. There is also a paid mode with full functionality and no advertising, and finally a "Light Mode" which is completely free to use, without advertising, but lacks some functionality. For most users on campus, the light mode is completely usable and includes more functionality than their old version of Eudora. To select a mode, click on the "Help" menu, then select "Payments and Registration."

In General (Macintosh and Windows): Users can install the new version of Eudora without losing email or nicknames, although in some cases, the new version will come up without their mailboxes, email, or addressbook. Don't panic. Eudora doesn't delete any of your mail or settings, but you will have to locate them and take a corrective action. If you already have Eudora 5.1.1 found on Duckware, the upgrade to 5.2 should work without any "tricks." The hard part is upgrading from Eudora 3 or 4 or even earlier.

Macintosh Eudora:

The typical issue on the Macintosh is that the old version of Eudora stored the mailboxes and the addressbook in the "Eudora Folder" at the top level of "System Folder." The new version uses a folder called "Mail Folder" which can be found inside of that same "Eudora Folder."

In addition, the new Eudora may keep the "Eudora Folder" itself under the "Documents" folder instead of the "System Folder." The fix for these situations is to quit Eudora, find the original mailboxes and then copy the mailboxes (In, Out, etc.) from "Eudora Folder" to the subfolder "Mail Folder." Re-open Eudora, and chances are all of your mail will "magically" appear. Note that you *should not* copy all of the files, just the mailboxes, which have icons that look like Eudora's "Letter" icon.

While doing this, take caution not to delete anything, and copy only the mailbox files instead of moving them. To copy these, hold the "option" key while dragging them between folders. This is the safest way to complete the upgrade.

You May Need "Carbonlib" Update: If Eudora 5.2 crashes with a numbered error message, if you are unable to select "light" mode from the payments and registration screen, or if you get an error that mentions carbonlib, then install Carbonlib 1.6 which should address these issues.

Windows Eudora:

The trick with upgrading Eudora for Windows is to find the current location of your mailboxes. Start by doing a find (or search) on "*.MBX" which should reveal the location/s of your past version/s of Eudora. For many users here at the University of Oregon, the default location will be C:\NET\WEUDORA. In some cases, you will find them under C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\Eudora and in other cases they will be found under "Documents and Settings" and then the username, Application Data, etc. If you are lucky enough to only have one location with files ending in .MBX then this is the location you need to remember. If several options appear, then look for folder names you recognize or possibly even folder dates (more recent being most likely the correct location). For the purposes of this example, let's say your old location is C:\NET\WEUDORA.

Close Eudora, then run the Eudora 5.2 installer. This program will ask you for two folder locations. One is the program folder and the other is the data folder (or place your mail gets stored). For the upgrade to work properly, you must enter the correct location for the data folder, which for our example is C:\NET\WEUDORA. In fact, you can simply choose this location for both prompts given that the location of the application itself doesn't really matter.

Open Eudora, all of your mailboxes and addressbook should appear automatically.

If your maiboxes did not re-appear after the last step, you must identify the location of your mailboxes. If you searched for them, and more than one possible location appeared, you can try the alternate location. To do so, quit Eudora, then use the add/remove control panel to remove "Eudora" (the Eudora 5.2 program). Don't worry, this action does not delete any mail or addressbook data. After you have removed the new Eudora, re-install it again, this time using the new alternate location when prompted for the location of the data folder.

Alternate Methods (Switching Programs):

Of course, you always have the option to switch email programs. The easiest way to do this is to simply begin using the web email program found at http://email.uoregon.edu. You may also choose to use SSH and Pine to read and send email. Finally, users with less than average disk and memory should be aware that Netscape 4.x in IMAP mode is compatible with the new SSL requirement. This version can be used on Macintosh models lacking current operating system version, and Windows. Netscape mail's functionality is similar to Eudora with its ability to display HTML encoded email, and its ability to handle attachments.

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