I use the Exchange POP3 Connector that's installed as part of SBS2003. While I had myExchange stores offline today I sent an email from hotmail to my POP3 mailbox. I saw it arrive at my POP3 mailbox (using a web-based client), and I saw it disappear when the POP3 Connector fetched it. With logging set to maximum I could see that it arrived and was apparently delivered ('The delivery process for message <id: {[guid]}> finished successfully'). However, when I re-mounted the mailbox store, there was no sign of the message. I checked in the POO3 Connector's FailedMail and IncomingMail folders, and in the Exchange BadMail, Pickup and Queue folders, but there seems to be no trace of the message. This behaviour appears to be repeatable: it seems that if the POP3 Connector is running while a the message store is dismounted, messages simply fall into a black hole without any warning. Surely this can't be the case? I've had my message store dismounted several times over the last few weeks, sometimes for hours on end, and I'm getting a horrible feeling that I could have missed any number of incoming messages without warning, and without the senders receiving any kind of NDR... [Edit] It seems not to be anything to do with the dismounted store, and is possibly related to a change I made to the Default Recipient Policy at about the time the issue appeared (added smtp: @mydomain.com and made primary). Restarting the SMTP service seems to have got things working again, but the Message Tracking Center shows that in the interim several mails that seem to have 'evaporated'. They all get as far as 'SMTP: Message Submitted to Categorizer', but no further. There are no virus scanners hooked into Exchange or any other third-party add-ins, it's all out-of-the-box SBS2003 SP2. Are the messages likely to be stuck somewhere and recoverable, or are they irretrievably lost?

I noticed that this had gone on for 2 days without being answered. I saw your posted yesterday and did not have any real value to add to it. You may have stumbled across a bug in how the POP3 connector works with E2K3 SBS. However, I will tell you the same thing that PSS is probably going to tell you, your stores should not be dismounted for very long.From a procedural perspective, if you dismount a store, then maybe you should stop the POP3 connector service first so that no new mail is retrieved while the stores are dismounted. If your stores are dismounting without your knowledge, then you probably have a bigger problem. Have you considered opening up a case with PSS to see if this is a bug? Jim McBee - Blog - http://mostlyexchange.blogspot.com

Hi,I would like to explain the work flow for POP3 Connector:The pop3 connector downloads the emails from the pop3 server and stores it in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Small Business Server\Networking\POP3\Incoming Mail folder.When all the mail has been retrieved from the pop3 server, CDO will pickup the mail in the Incoming Mail folder and move it into the C:\Program Files\exchsrvr\mailroot\vsi 1\pickup folder where SMTP will retrieve it and deliver it to the user.If CDO is unable to send the message to the pickup folder, then the message will be placed in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Small Business Server\Networking\POP3\Failed Mail folder.Based on the scenario, the message should be in the Failed Mail folder.Additionally, the current forum is for Exchange server not handle SBS issue, I suggest we open a case with PSS. That will make you get the professional support.Furthermore, another link may be help you:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885685ThanksAllen

your stores should not be dismounted for very long Noted, thanks. I thought that was entirely safe, and that messages collected while a store was dismounted would simply await delivery. What's the nature of the danger, out if interest? If your stores are dismounting without your knowledge, then you probably have a bigger problem. They were dismounted deliberately, and it now seems not to ave been a problem. Messages being handed over for 'categorization' and then just vanishing, however, is a rather nasty problem. Have you considered opening up a case with PSS to see if this is a bug? No, this is a small home-office setup that's no longer actively trading, so I couldn't justify the cost. It seems to be working again now (although my confidence in it has been somewhat shaken) and it doesn't look like anything's actually going to be recoverable anyway.

In tracing this problem I could see test mails arriving in the Incoming folder, and they were successfully moved over to the Pickup folder, which I gather indicates that CDO has done its bit. They were then disappearing from there, but not appearing in mailboxes. They are not in the Failed folder either but, if it's CDO that uses the Failed Mail folder, then I wouldn't expect that anyway as that stage seems to have been passed). Having stopped the SMTP service, the messages began building up in the Pickup folder instead of disappearing. On restarting the service, everything started working properly again, but I can find no sign of any of the messages that were processed in the meantime. The Message Tracking Center indicates the following steps: SMTP: Message Submitted to Advanced Queuing SMTP: Started Message Submission to Advanced Queue SMTP: Message Submitted to Categorizer ... and that's as far as they got. Apologies if I appeared to have posted this query in an inappropriate forum, I was at the time unaware that the POP3 Connector was a component of SBS rather than Exchange. However, it now seems that the POP3 connector is not the culprit, and the finger appears instead to be pointing at SMTP. Does that make this the appropriate forum after all? As mentioned in a reply above, I cannot justify calling in professional services on this. If the messages are likely to be unrecoverable then I'll just chalk it up to experience and move on. PS: Thanks for the link to 'Troubleshooting the POP3 Connector'. I found that independently after my original posting, and it was indeed useful.