How to Find An Archived Message's Corresponding File on Disk

When a user opens a certain message in the Retain mailbox, the message contents are blank.  Is there a way to see if the corresponding archive file exists on disk (or if it is zero bytes)?

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This can be done by running a SQL query in your Retain database.

1.  With the message open in the Retain mailbox, click on the Properties tab and make a note of the "Parent Node" number.  This number corresponds with the message ID for that message in the Retain database.

 

2. Login in to MySQL command line:  mysql -u [db username] -p [ENTER]

3. Tell MySQL to use the Retain database.

• If the database name were "retain", at the MySQL command line type:  use retain [ENTER]

4.  Run the query:  SELECT hash FROM t_document INNER JOIN t_message_attachments ON t_document.document_id = t_message_attachments.document_id WHERE message_id = [parent node #];

Replace "[parent node #]" with the Parent Node number you obtained in step #1.


 

5.  It will produce at least one result if not more, depending on the number of attachments to that message.  Each one will show you the file (a.k.a., "document") hash, which will correspond with the file on disk.

6.  Now you can go to the "archive" directory on disk and see if that file exists.

The first 6 characters of the filename are the directory path where the file is stored.  Here is a document's file on disk from this example:

*Note: These instructions can be used almost exaclty the same for MSSQL except you'd need to open the SQL management studio instead.  The SELECT queries work the same way.

This article was originally published in the GWAVA knowledgebase as article ID 2420.