Support forum message error: "The message contains invalid characters."

when i try to post a crash report in a forum thread i created, i get the following message:
"The message contains invalid characters."
is this a forum bug? are there such things as invalid characters???

This MAY be totally unrelated - but maybe not.
The SiteWare is particular about some characters under some circumstances. I have not been alerted like you were, but I have seen this when posting screenshots Using an add-on to my browser that put's the "Title" of the page grabbed into the filename it saves...
All ASC pages have
" ... | Apple Support Communities " at the end of the title
the " | " (vertical 'stroke') is an illegal character in a filename for POSTING to the server - and there are others
* the file " ASC | ASC.png " is the same image as the 1st picture I posted - I just changed the name to illustrate
What is good for the Finder may not be good for the server or the software running these forums.
ÇÇÇ

Similar Messages

Error: 'InfoObject ZDATE contains invalid characters in record 1 in value'

Dear friends,
When I am uploading data from oracle datasource (in BW 3.5) I am getting an error 'InfoObject ZDATE contains invalid characters in record 1 in value'. There are no illegal characters in the date instead the date field is blank in datasource. There are other date fields technically the same as ZDATE with blank values but they dont throw an error when scheduler runs.
Though when I manually upload the data, it's loaded successfully.
Please suggest where can the error be?
Regards,
Amit Srivastava

You have 2 options:
1. Corect your data for the characteristics that give errors.
Or
2. go to SPRO in BW - Netweaver - BW - general settings - maintain permitted characters.
In this screen, you maain tain any special characteristic that you the system to recognise and accept. In your case, take your characteristics that give error and add to this.
Ravi Thothadri

Error Message - "could not complete your request because the preset contains invalid data"

I am trying to open a file, and every time I do it comes up with the following error message:
"Could not complete your request because the preset contains invalid data"
I am using Photoshop CS4 on a Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard 10.6.2.
I have tried:
- restarting my mac
- opening different files created at different times
- deleting photoshop from my app folder and the app support folder from my /username/library/application support/adobe/ folder and copied them back from a Time Machine backup from a few days ago.
I was using Photoshop all day today with absolutely no problems. I have searched Google and this forum and have come up short. No one has this exact error anywhere.
Any help? Thanks so much in advance!
Pat Dryburgh

The one thing you didn't do is reset your Photoshop preferences.
Most likely the preferences got corrupted, and reference a corrupt preset.

Error message: Package contains invalid characters installing patchlevel 6

Dear experts:
I have successfullly installed SAP GUI 7.20 compilation 2, using SAP installation server (40 machines, Windows XP sp3 32 bits, latest updates).
I have successfully installed patchlevel 6 in the SAP installation server. (gui720_6-10007878.exe, downloaded from SAP Portal)
SAP GUI is configured to search for updates after 5 double-clicks on desktop icon. I forced the 5 double-clicks on a test machine and the patch begins to install; then informs me that there is a pending reboot.
When I reboot the machine a SAP Netweaver Front-end installer window appears with the error: "/Package contains invalid characters like /*?"<>\" - "Your system has a pending reboot". If I reboot again the message is displayed again.
If I click on the "Cancel" button of this window, Windows XP continues booting and SAP GUI works fine.
Two questions:
How can I avoid the installation of this patch on all the machines?
What can be wrong?
Thank you very much.
Mr.Clinker
Uruguay - South America.

1.) To avoid the installation on all clients simply go to "Services -> Configure Automatic Workstation Update Service" in the SAP Installation Server Administration Tool and disbale the service. If this doesnt work you can delete the package on the installation server an create a new one with the same name. You can than patch the package to the patchlevel you want.
2.) Try to apply patch 6 Hotfix 2 and see if the problem remains.

I can't down load itunes. I get an error message, NTVDM has encountered a System Error The handle is invalid.

16 bit MS-DOS Subsystem
C:\WINDOWS\system32\msiexec.ex NTVDM has encountered a System Error The handle is invalid.
Choose 'Close' to terminate tha application.
Close Ignore

Okay. It seems unlikely to be the class of similar problems caused by various Symantec programs blocking installs.
It's a bit of a mystery in the first place why the 16 bit DOS subsystem is running in this context. (The iTunes installer is 32-bit on XP machines.)
Just in case it's a damaged NTVDM, perhaps try an sfc /scannow:
http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html
Does that clear up the error?

Packaging error 2 (The media contains invalid NALU length)

Hi,
I am trying to publish live stream from Adobe Flash client that can be viewed on iOS device. One known issue is that the Flash client does not support AAC audio encoder when it publishes a stream, but AAC is required for iOS viewing. Thus I am using ffmpeg to transcode the audio to work around this issue. The setup looks like following:
Publish(h.264+Speex) Pull Re-Publish(h.264+AAC)
Flash Client Publisher -------------------> AMS -----> ffmpeg ---------------------> AMS
The command line I use for ffmpeg is like this:
ffmpeg -re -i rtmp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/livepkgr/orgstream -c:v copy -c:a aac -strict -2 -f flv rtmp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/livepkgr/livestream
This setup works perfectly if the original stream is published by Flash Media Live Encoder client. However, if the stream is published by a web page using Flash ActionScript client, the iOS won't play the stream. The root cause is that HLS module failed to generate the proper TS file. I get the following error in the Apache server log.
[Sat Aug 17 15:56:50 2013] [error] mod_hlshttp [500]: Packaging error 2 (The media contains invalid NALU length) when processing /hls-live/streams/livepkgr/events/_definst_/livestream/livestreamNum0.ts
I've tried various things to narrow down the possibilities regarding what could be wrong. Here are some of my observations:
1) The problem has nothing to do with audio. If I do audio streaming only, it works well. So in various experiement, I simplified the problem by doing video stream only. When using ffmpeg to transcoding, I used '-an' to disable audio stream.
2) If I use ffmpeg to save the stream into MP4 file first (say 1 minute long), and then publish that file, I got the same issue when iOS device is trying to retrieve content. The MP4 file generated is fine though. I can view it using VLC.
3) If I use ffmpeg to transcode H.264 to H.264 (i.e. Not to use the "copy" transcoder), it then will work. However, because of the CPU usage constraints in my requirement, I cannot adopt this approach. Here is the command line that works:
ffmpeg -re -i rtmp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/livepkgr/orgstream -vcodec libx264 -b:v 1000k -c:a aac -strict -2 -f flv rtmp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/livepkgr/livestream
4) In all those experiments, the m3u8 file are generated correctly. In the stream directory I always saw meaningful size for f4f and f4x files.
5) The iOS client is able to view the original stream fine if the original stream is H.264 video only stream. (The 'orgstream', not the one republished by ffmpeg).
6) In all those experiements, a regular Flash viewer client is able to play the live stream with no issue.
Since I don't have access to source code to the Apache module for HLS (mod_hlshttp), I don't know how to proceed further. I appreciate any help from Adobe engineering team who have access to source code, and give me some hint what could go wrong. I can also provide further information regarding the published stream, e.g. the generated MP4 if it can help.
Thanks and best regards,
Jason
Message was edited by: Json

The one thing you didn't do is reset your Photoshop preferences.
Most likely the preferences got corrupted, and reference a corrupt preset.

Upload from iAd Producer fails with error "The Ad contains an invalid banner type".

I worked half a day on an ad in iAd Producer, only to see it fails right after the upload with this error:
"The Ad contains an invalid banner type"
"iAd Workbench currently accepts standard banners. Remove all other banner types and try upload your banner again."
The error and the documentation give no hints on what these "standard banners" are exactly. My project is based on the Tap - Web iAd Blueprint, which requires a bunch of images to be created. I created all of these, regular images as jpeg, transparent images as png. At first the png's were normal (24-bit), but then I read in the help that 8-bit is required. Downgrading the png's to 8-bit didn't help to fix the error though. I also tried recreating the whole project, but it didn't help: same error.
Before the upload, I get this vague warning:
"Are you sure you want to upload your project with assets missing? There are 0 assets you haven't provided yet."
Sounds like a bug. This warning was there in my 1st and in my 2nd project, the 2nd one being the exact copy.
Finally I want to say that simulating in the simulator or Safari, or uploading to the sandbox works fine.
I'm using version 4.2 of iAd Producer on OS X 10.9.2.
Can anyone help me?
Has anyone been successful with the Tap - Web iAd Blueprint?

The Tap to Web blueprint for iPad contains banner types currently not supported in iAd Workbench. Delete the MRec and Full Page banners and you should be able to upload.
-Mark

The File name property is not valid. The file name is a device or contains invalid characters

I have an SSIS task that has run successfully for years. They just moved the dtsx to a new server and now it is failing.
Issue:
The task has a data flow that writes a raw file destination. It then has a subsequent data flow that reads the raw file destination.
The path and name of the raw file is passed to each of the data flows via the same variable.
The raw file resides in a folder on the server in the same path that the dtsx resides in.
The task fails with the "The File name property is not valid. The file name is a device or contains invalid characters" error when trying to access the raw file.
What we have done to troubleshoot:
1. I ran the task successfully on my local machine so it is definitely a server issue.
2. The first thing we were seeing was that it failed trying to write to the raw file. The task is set to "Create Always".
3. We saw that the dba's copied over the entire directory structure from the old server which included a previously created raw file, so we deleted the raw file.
4. We reran the task and it successfully wrote a new raw file but then failed on reading the raw file with the same error as above.
5. We reran the task AGAIN and this time it failed trying to write the raw file throwing the same error as above.
6. The dba looked at the directory and the account that performs the task has full control.
7. The dba looked at the raw file that was created and verified that the account that performs the task has full control of the file and that it is the owner of the file.
Summary:
The task fails when trying to access the file EXCEPT when the file does not exist. In that situation it can write the file but subsequently fails in accessing it again.

Hi Whalensdad,
Based on my research, the issue can be caused by the following reasons:
There are some invalid characters in the File name at package runtime. In this scenario, just as Russ said, could you please post the value that is in the File name variable? Also use a Script Task with Messagebox.show to show the variable values at runtime.
May be it changes to others at run time.
The account runs the package not having access to all the folders in the path. Since you are moving the dtsx file from one server to the current server, do you also move the raw file to the same folder in the current server? Does the user runs the package
have access to all the folders in the path? To solve this, please ensure that the user has access to all folders and the raw file in the path on the current server.
Thanks,
Katherine Xiong
If you have any feedback on our support, please click
here.
Katherine Xiong
TechNet Community Support
Please see the response above. I can't use a message box on a server so I logged the values to the database. The resource account has full control to the folder. I haven't been able to get the DBA to check the SQL Agents permissions, but I was always under
the impression that if you use "Run As" on the task, it will not use the SQL Agent but the account you identify it to "Run As". The "Run As" account has full control on the folder and file.

The file name is not valid. The file name is a device or contains invalid characters.

Hi ,
I am getting below error in SSIS 2008 package when it is run through control-m
The file name is not valid. The file name is a device or contains invalid characters.
component "FF_SRC_InboundFidelityInputFile" (1) failed the pre-execute phase and returned error code 0xC020207E.
although this package is working fine in dev environment from visual studio.
control-m agent has proper permissions to the folder still it is failing. Please if anyone knows solution for this issue. I am working on this issue since more than a week but reached nowhere. Please help.
Thanks
Paras Gupta

Hi Paras,
Based on your description, it is not the VS IDE issue, if it is related to the SSIS, I suggest you post the issue in this forum here:http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/home?forum=sqlintegrationservices
, and there you would get better response.
Best Regards,
We are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time. Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.
Click
HERE to participate the survey.

Error: Topic ID "Ầ‾Â»Â¿#define" contains invalid characters.

Hi,
I have just upgraded to RoboHelp for Word 9. When I compile I get the message:
Warning - HC3033: File RhubarbRhubarb.hh: The Topic ID "Ầ‾Â»Â¿#define" contains invalid characters. The #, =, >, @, !, or \Â˚haracters cannot be used in a WinHelp version 4.0 source file.
I have 7 files in the project and there is one of these error messages for each file. I checked the .hh files and there is nothing corresponding to that as a Topic ID. I don't use any special characters in my Topic IDs anyway.
It doesn't seem to be having any effect on my generated project but I'm uneasy about unexplainable error messages. Does anyone have an idea why they're there and how to remove them please?
regards
Christina

To the best of my knowledge (haven't used Rh for Word for a long time) the only solution is sleuthing the elusive illegal character.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Error occured while importing xsd.file(Name contains invalid characters: -

Hello,
i muss import xsd.file. while importing this error occured:
İFMEXTDEF CCTS_CCT_SchemaModule-2.0 | http://example.org/XXX/XXX/OUT/NOZ (SC_NOZ V001 of example.org):
Name contains invalid characters: - .
Only a(A)-z(Z), 0-9, and "_" are permitted
This xsdfile name is CCTS_CCT_SchemaModule-2.0 but PI doesn't accept "-". But i muss use this file because this file is standart. What can i do for this?
Thanks
Nurhan
Edited by: Nurhan on Oct 18, 2011 11:22 AM

HI,
PI doestnt support special characters like '-'. first you need to change the file name as you specify '-'. to remove that and you have to give '_'. then uyou have to impot >XSD file into ESR under ExternalDefination.
i hope this will help you.
regards,
ganesh.

Data Collection Set 'Server Activity' Failure Waiting on a kernel object(s) failed. Inner Error ------------------ The handle is invalid.

All of the system data collection sets have been running for 6+ months without any issues, couple of weeks ago the 'Server Activity' collection set failed to restart after a planned maintenance server reboot.
When attempting to manually start the collection set it indicates "success", but after refreshing the collection set it showing as stopped. Viewing the logs for the Data Collection (Server Activity) I am getting the message:
Waiting on a kernel object(s) failed. Inner Error ------------------>
The handle is invalid.
After some research into this really unhelpful message I came across one posting where this error has been found to occur in SP1. We are running SP2 which include the fix so this shouldn't be the problem (ref http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/585210/sql-server-2008-data-collection-execmasterpackage-timeout).
To see more detail on the root cause of the error I enabled the additional tracing for data collection (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlagent/archive/2011/07/13/enabling-additional-tracing-for-data-collector.aspx). This provided an exception stack which indicated
that the issue was thrown to what looks like an existing file, referring to a location (e:\) which doesn't exist in our system.
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::    wmain _IN
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::    Command line: dcexec -c -s 2 -i "S160OLTP\OLTP" -m 0 -e 0x09C1635DD4C4C6478A145D679AFE718F_1_STOP
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::     Application::Init _IN
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::     Console code page (m_codePage): 437
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::      Application::ParseCommandLine _IN
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::      Application::ParseCommandLine _OUT:00000000
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::     Application::Init _OUT:00000000
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::     Application::Main _IN
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::     Started continuous mode collection on thread 12036
DCEXEC!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::      StartCachedCollectionWrapper _IN
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::      Waiting for collection to exit or stop event to be signaled
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::       StartCollection _IN
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::       StartCollection(iSetId = 2, iCollectionMode = 0, pwszInstanceName = S160OLTP\OLTP)
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::        CDataCollectorController::ExecuteCollectionSet _IN
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::        SQL Instance Name: OLTP
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::         CDataCollectorController::TryExecuteCollectionSetOnce _IN
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::          CDataCollectorController::Initialize _IN
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::          CDataCollectorController::Initialize _OUT:00000000
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::          CDataCollectorController::PopulateCollectorPackageParameters _IN
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::          CacheWindow=1, CacheDirectory='I:\MSSQL10.OLTP\MSSQL\dccache'
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::          CDataCollectorController::PopulateCollectorPackageParameters _OUT:00000000
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::          CDataCollectorController::PopulateSetPackageParameters _IN
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::          CollectionSetUID='{49268954-4FD4-4EB6-AA04-CD59D9BB5714}', ExecutionMode=0, IsSystem=-1, LoggingLevel=0, DaysUntilExpiration=14, ExitEventName=''
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::          CDataCollectorController::PopulateSetPackageParameters _OUT:00000000
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::          CreateControlEvents _IN
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25:: e        ERROR: Win32 Error: GetLastError=183, retCode=0x4, function CDataCollectorController::CreateControlEvents, line 470, file e:\sql10_katmai_t\sql\mpu\shared\dc\runtime\controller\src\datacollectorcontroller.cpp
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25:: e        ERROR: Failed to create kernel event for collection set: {49268954-4FD4-4EB6-AA04-CD59D9BB5714}. Inner Error ------------------>
Cannot create a file when that file already exists.
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::          CreateControlEvents _OUT:00000000
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25:: e       ERROR: DC_FAILED: function CDataCollectorController::TryExecuteCollectionSetOnce, line 350, file e:\sql10_katmai_t\sql\mpu\shared\dc\runtime\controller\src\datacollectorcontroller.cpp
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::         CDataCollectorController::TryExecuteCollectionSetOnce _OUT:0x000004
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::        Collection set execution failed, retrying in 5 seconds...
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::        Waiting for exit event or retry timer failed.
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25:: e      ERROR: Win32 Error: GetLastError=6, retCode=0x4, function CDataCollectorController::ExecuteCollectionSet, line 278, file e:\sql10_katmai_t\sql\mpu\shared\dc\runtime\controller\src\datacollectorcontroller.cpp
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25:: e      ERROR: Waiting on a kernel object(s) failed. Inner Error ------------------>
The handle is invalid.
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::        CDataCollectorController::ExecuteCollectionSet _OUT:0x000004
DataCollectorController!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::       StartCollection _OUT:00000000
DCEXEC!26d0!2f04!2012/11/28!11:17:25::      StartCachedCollectionWrapper _OUT:0x000004
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::     Collection thread returned (00000001)
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::     Waiting for collection thread to exit
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::     Collection thread signaled
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::     Application::Main _OUT
DCEXEC!26d0!1b88!2012/11/28!11:17:25::    wmain _OUT:0x000004
I am now stumped as I haven't found anyone else experiencing this issue.
Any ideas, please help??

Thanks for the pointer Eileen, problem solved.
Can't believe I missed it, but after reading the last section on system hangs it occurred to me that I hadn't checked that all dcexec.exe processes were killed when I disable the data collection service.
For anyone else experiencing this issue I identified the dcexec.exe processes using the following in cmd line:
TASKLIST /SVC /FI "IMAGENAME EQ DCEXEC.EXE"
On the default setup of the data collection there should be two dcexec.exe processes constantly running, one for "Server Activity" and another for "Query Statistics". On our server there were five running with the data collection disabled.
After killing all of the processes and restarting the data collection problem solved!!
Still need to understand why the processes didn't shut down cleanly when the server was restarted, but at least I know where to look now.

Word cannot open this document. The document might be in use, the document might not be a valid Word document, or the file name might contain invalid characters (for example,\ /).

I recently upgraded to a new Macbook Air running Lion, from my 2007 white Macbook running Snow Leopard. I had Office for Mac 2004 on the 2007, but had to upgrade to Office for Mac 2011 to be compatible with Lion on the Air. Now when I try to open my documents on the Air that were saved under Office 2004 on the old computer, I get the following message: Word cannot open this document. The document might be in use, the document might not be a valid Word document, or the file name might contain invalid characters (for example,\ /).
Any suggestions? Thank you.

Ha,ha,ha.....I figured it out. But for anyone else who's having this problem, it seems that while Office 2004 allowed dates in this format: 00/00/00, Office 2011 doesn't like it at all. I just changed the format in the document names to 00-00-00 and all is well. Documents are opening beautifully!

Backup Error : The Data Is Invalid Windows Server 2008 R2

Hello,
I have a Problem when I try to make Backups to Partition C in Windows Server 2008 R2:
Error The Data is Invalid.
Obs: I can make backups for System Reserved Partition .
I had the same problem 2 months ago (the data is invalid), Then I folowed this the advice to delete "Framework64\v2.0.50727\Temporary
ASP.NET Files" and worked for me , from this post: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsbackup/thread/89052b85-9c9b-479f-ab76-a20da3cc4696
Now I have the same problem and I delete the
Temporary ASP.NET Files , but it is not working , I received the same error on backup:
"The backup operation that started at '‎2012‎-‎09‎-‎20T07:13:26.024163900Z' has failed with following error code '2147942413'. Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved."
When I try vssadmin list writers, Everything is ok , "No error" .
I tried to run :
net stop "System Event Notification Service"
net stop "COM+ Event System"
net stop "Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider"
net stop "Volume Shadow Copy"
cd /d %windir%\system32
net stop vss
net stop swprv
regsvr32 /s ole32.dll
regsvr32 /s oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 /s vss_ps.dll
vssvc /register
regsvr32 /s /i swprv.dll
regsvr32 /s /i eventcls.dll
regsvr32 /s es.dll
regsvr32 /s stdprov.dll
regsvr32 /s vssui.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml3.dll
net start "System Event Notification Service"
net start "COM+ Event System"
net start "Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider"
net start "Volume Shadow Copy"
But is not Working
Any Advice ?
Thank's

Hello Lucian,
the issue may be caused by an invalid entry inside the following registry sub tree.
HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
Please open the registry editor with regedit.
Expand and local to the subtree, check if there is an entry that has a ".bak" value appended. If so, this may be cause the failure when trying to resolve the SID of the writer.
Please backup the registry key first, and then delete that entry with the extra ".bak" and reboot the server then test the backup
Run the command "vssadmin list writers" and make sure all the writers are stable with no errors
Please look for errors in application event logs after you initiate backup on the server
Sincerely, Asifkhan -- Please mark my post helpful if it was really helpful to you.

Mail: "Message contains NUL characters," not listed in ANY folder

On occasion, I will hear a new message sound in Mail, and I will see the little progress indicator showing an incoming message, but there is no trace of it in the inbox. If I am there to see the incoming notice and remember the message content, I can search for the message content in Spotlight and it will open the message. But if I then click "Show in Mailbox," it opens a Mail list window that is empty and labeled "No mailbox." If I try to move the message by dragging its title bar icon, nothing happens. If I try to use the Move command, I get "Append failed: Message contains NUL characters." If I command-click the message title bar, it tells me it's inside the inbox, but again it won't list it in the inbox. The physical message file itself resides in the Inbox folder in the Mail folder on the desktop. Rebuilding the mailbox does not make it appear in the list.
I've found various workarounds for shaking Mail into realizing the message exists and listing it, but my real question is this: The above is when I notice that a message has come in but is not listed. But what about messages that come in and are not listed, and I do not know they are there because I wasn't around when they came in?
How can I use a mail rule or other tool to locate messages that are not listed in any mailbox, or contain NUL characters?
I would really like to know if I've missed any important messages because they never appeared in the list, even though they exist somewhere.
Mail will not allow me to set up a mail rule on folders when no folder is specified.

One thing I can suggest you try is to move the Envelope Index files from your User Library>Mail Folder>MailData.
Quit Mail first, navigate to those files and move them to the desktop. Restart Mail. It should give a message that you need to Import your mail. Click continue. That should reindex all your mail messages.
This should help with wrong message counts, ghost messages, and hidden message problems.
Once Mail is running and OK, you can trash those files.

Support forum message error: "The message contains invalid characters."

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for