Mail programs corrupting PBEM files

[Joachim]

When exchanging PBEM as .txt files, I had problems with my opponents or me receiving the PBEM file broken. The file was usually displayed in the message instead being treated as an attachment as intended.

The PBEM file usually begins with

"----------------- Play-By-Email Data Follows This Line -----------------"

In the first few lines of data there is a

"1^7890".

If you only see

"1⁷⁸⁹⁰"

you have located the problem.

Repair method:

1) Save the whole mail as .txt file.

2) Edit the file with a text editor. Wordpad will do fine. Notepad even better (for small files). Ultraedit, qedit etc. are best.

3) Search the start of the data:

"----------------- Play-By-Email Data Follows This Line -----------------"

4) Search for the "7890" in the next few lines.

5) Add a "^" in front of it.

6) Save as textfile.

7) Load that textfile in CM.

Has somebody else come across this problem?

Gruß

Joachim

[dieseltaylor]

I use PBEMhelper which allows me to send it normally, send it as a Zip, or send it as a PBM file - and all of this done automatically once I tell it how I wish that particular game sent.

And of course you can wrap it and then send it via your normal e-mail program : )

[Sergei]

Zipping the file is the best way to avoid problems with crappy mail service. Either manually or with PBEM Helper.

[Dook]

This happens somewhat frequently to me. It seems to depend on the program used to send the email. Web based e-mail (i.e. e-mail sent by logging on to a site, such as Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) often gets corrupted when I send it. The same file sent with a stand-alone e-mail program will have no problems.

I also sometimes receive game files embedded as text that don't suffer any corruption. It's just a pain to copy the PBEM data, paste it into a word processing program, and save it as a .txt file.

[dieseltaylor]

PBEMHelper here Helper

[Dook]

Some of us still play on Macs and thus can't use PBEM Helper.

[LeeW]

Bump as I think somebody needs to see this.

lee

[Carl Puppchen]

This is due to your mail program "determining" that your file is a text file. The best way to solve this is to use PBEM helper or to zip your files or change the way you receive PBEM files.

[Joachim]

Your suggestions make sure the problem won't happen.

Mine works for files you already received... if you want to desparately see that turn instead of mailing your opponent to send it again.

Gruß

Joachim