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Repair the POP3 Connector

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Updated: February 17, 2009

Applies To: Windows SBS 2008

Problem   Users cannot receive e-mail via the POP3 Connector service.

Solution   Do the following:

  1. Verify that the Windows SBS 2008 POP3 Connector settings are correctly configured.

  2. Verify that the POP3 Connector service is running and is set to Automatic.

  3. View the Windows SBS 2008 event logs.

  4. Check for error details in the POP3 protocol log file.

  5. If the problem still exists, manually remove and reinstall the POP3 Connector.

To verify that the Windows Small Business Server 2008 POP3 Connector settings are correctly configured

  1. Open the Windows SBS Console.

  2. Click the Network tab, and then click Connectivity.

  3. Click POP3 Connector, and then, in Tasks, click View POP3 Connector properties.

  4. In the properties dialog, verify that the settings for each e-mail account are properly defined.

  5. In the properties dialog, click Schedule, and then verify that the schedule is set to 0 hours and 15 minutes, or to an interval of your choice.

  6. Click OK.

To verify that the POP3 Connector service is running and is set to Automatic

  1. Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Services.

  2. On the User Account Control page, click Continue.

  3. In Services (Local), locate Windows SBS POP3 Connector, and then verify that its status is Started. If it is stopped or paused, right-click it, and then click Restart.

  4. Verify that the Startup Type is set to Automatic. If it is not, double-click it, change it to Automatic, and then click OK.

To view the Windows Small Business Server event logs

  1. On the server that is running Windows SBS 2008, click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Event Viewer.

  2. On the User Account Control page, click Continue.

  3. Expand Applications and Services Logs, and then expand Windows Small Business Server 2008.

  4. Click Microsoft-Windows-Small Business Server/Operational, and then, in Task Category, search for Windows SBS POP3 Connector and review any listed errors.

  5. If there are error event logs, complete the steps that are listed in those events.

To check for error details in the POP3 protocol log file

  1. On the server that is running Windows SBS 2008, open Windows Explorer, and then browse to %programfiles%\ Windows Small Business Server\ Logs\pop3connector.

  2. Open the pop3service.log file to view the errors and the details of how to fix them.

To manually remove and reinstall the POP3 Connector

1.

Warning

If you remove or reinstall the POP3 Connector, you erase all site-specific configurations, including account mappings and schedule changes. 

If you want to, you can save your site-specific configurations by doing the following:

1.  Open the **Windows SBS Console**.

2.  Click the **Network** tab, and then click **Connectivity**.

3.  Click **POP3 Connector**, and then, in **Tasks**, click **View POP3 Connector properties**.

4.  Record all account and schedule information, and then click **OK**.

  1. Log on as an administrator to the server that is running Windows SBS 2008.

  2. Click Start, in Start Search type cmd, right-click cmd.exe, and then click Run as Administrator.

  3. Navigate to %programfiles%\Windows Small Business Server\Data.

  4. Type del pop3records.dat, and then press ENTER.

Note

If the file does not exist, the Command Prompt window returns a message that says, “Could not find <filename>.” Continue with the next step.

  1. Type net stop pop3connector, and then press ENTER.

  2. Type sc delete pop3connector, and then press ENTER.

  3. Navigate to %programfiles%\Windows Small Business Server\Bin.

  4. Type pop3connector –install, and then press ENTER.

To read the most recent version of this topic, see the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/FWLink/?LinkID=147052). The most recent version might contain additional information that was not available when Windows SBS 2008 was released.