Re: OE newsgroup synchronize gets too many headers

"Paul Hirose" <iszintjv55@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:xlace.1140$GQ5.72@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> How do I limit the number of headers downloaded during a newsgroup
> "synchronize"? In Tools, Options, Read tab, I have it set up to get
> 300 headers at a time. However, that doesn't seem to do what I want.
> From one group I consistently see OE downloading way more than that.
> Today it was 600+. From these busy groups all I want is the most
> recent 300 headers, and forget about the others.



Any synchronize command ignores the Get ___ messages at a time setting.
It is used only for getting headers either by an explicit Get Next ... command
or implicitly whenever you enter a newsgroup while online.

The first thing you need to do then is just enter the newsgroup while online.
That will download (implicitly) just the 300 latest headers.
Equally importantly it resets the low-sequence number for "New Messages".
E.g. if you then do a Synchronize command specifying New Messages Only
no more headers will appear. Unfortunately it also would not fill in the bodies
for the message headers which you just downloaded. In order to do that you
must either mark the headers for download or mark them as being watched.
(Specifying a synchronization method of All Messages would fill in the bodies
for the headers without extra marking but it would also cause all the previously
ignored headers to be downloaded too.)

As long as you are in the newsgroup you could use Synchronize
Newsgroup to quickly download the bodies for those 300 headers.
In any case first mark them all to be downloaded (e.g. press Alt-T,k,A)
Then you could use the Synchronize Newsgroup command (Alt-T,n)
and make sure that *only* Get messages marked for download
is checked (i.e., if necessary uncheck Get the following items)
BTW I think that that box would be unchecked provided you don't mark
this newsgroup as one which should be synchronized (e.g. by
unchecking its box under Synchronization Settings and leaving it
marked Don't Synchronize.

If you really want to include the problem newsgroups in more
general synchronize commands such as Synchronize Account or
Synchronize All and you limit the problem newsgroups to
the New Messages Only synchronization method I think that you
will be all set because of the messages being marked for
download and because of the new low sequence number.

If for some reason you want to use the All Messages synchronization
method you could use the Catch-Up command (e.g. press Alt-E,h)
That would mark as read all the downloaded messages *and*
reset the low-sequence number to avoid any older messages.
What that does is "fill in the holes" for messages which are only headers
and any other messages which haven't been downloaded yet back
to the low-sequence number. (Because of the Catch-Up command
there wouldn't be any of them.) So one reason you might want
to do this is to avoid having to mark the headers for download.
I.e. in the previous step all you would have had to do is enter
the newsgroup while online to get those latest 300 headers.

I'm not sure if the newly downloaded messages then become
marked as Unread or not. I'm pretty sure they will; otherwise
you would have to insert another step into your preparation procedure
which marks to be unread all the messages which are headers only.
Probably the simplest way to do this would be to create a new
view which would show only headers, switch to that before you
do the Synchronize Newsgroup command, and then press Ctrl-a
Alt-E,n. Etc.

Doing it with either the Synchronize Newsgroup -- Get messages marked
option or using the News Messages Only synchronization criterion with
marked messages seems easiest. It also has the advantage that you
could change your mind and back up using the Headers button to get
more messages from interesting threads which started before
the latest 300 that you downloaded. If you used the Catch-Up
option such messages would be inaccessible to you unless
you would resort to a Reset command and start over completely.


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
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