User "defaults" reset to originals after unexpected shutdow

Problem reported by Schalk van der Merwe - 10/9/2019 at 3:16 AM

Resolved

SmarterMail Free Edition
Build 7188 (Sep 6, 2019)

Hi Guys

I run a little free edition for the family at home - has done so for many years. Yesterday my system lost server unexpectedly restarted. when the system came back on line, one user's "settings" (out of six) reverted back. The user - My account in fact - used to have unlimited storage and 2 form authentication. after the crash the limit was 100mb and my devices can not log in any more. Viewing my account via the console i can see the 100MB limit. If i change it, it saves but does not apply. i can also not change the password on this account - same story - it saves but does not apply. Any idea?

3 Replies

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Sébastien Riccio Replied

10/10/2019 at 8:34 AM

Check in the user directory if there is a settings.json.bak file.

For some unknown reason, when SmarterMail crashes it sometimes leave users without settings.json file or only with the .bak file.

If there's a .bak rename it without .bak then reload the domain.

edit: this can probably also happen when the disk where are the user files located is out of space

Sébastien Riccio System & Network Admin https://swisscenter.com

Schalk van der Merwe Replied

10/10/2019 at 11:21 AM

Hi Sebastien.

Thanks for the hint. As i run it as a VM my quick fix was to roll back to a vm snapped just before the issue.

I will however try your fix next time it happens.

Again thanks

Kyle Kerst Replied

10/10/2019 at 4:27 PM

Employee Post

Thanks Sebastien, you are exactly right! When the server shuts down unexpectedly it can cause the settings.json file to become corrupted due to it being open for editing when the server powered down. We've implemented logic in more recent builds that should eliminate issues like this, but I am sure there are still some scenarios where we could run into issues. If you or Schalk run into this again please take a quick copy of the user's directory before restoring the settings.json file.

For future reference, we do keep a series of backups of the settings.json and other pertinent JSON files inside of the Archived Data folder, so if you see these behaviors you should be able to swap out a good copy from there. Hope that helps. Have a great day!

Kyle Kerst IT Manager SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com

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