CFMail Respool issue, Resend Undelivered Mails

Question

Hi,The issue I have is that I have a bunch of emails that were undelivered because the password of the email addresse used for CFMail was changed.  I was not aware of the problem for a day or so.   So, there a bunch of undelivered emails.  I am able to update the password and CFMail on webpages are now working. SI would like to resend the undelievered mails. From the Administration portal, Server Settings, Mail section, I can "respool" undelivered mails.When I "respool" an undelivered mail, it will disappear from the listing, but will reappear a few minutes later.  I tried manually moving an undelivered mail from the "Undelivr" folder to the "Spool" folder.  The .cfmail file will move back to "Undelivr" folder a few minutes later. Opening up one of the .cfmail file, I saw that there is a password on the file. So, I found correct "password" from the .cfmail file in the Spool folder by triggering a webpage that uses CFMail to send email and open up the .cfmail file in the Spool folder before the .cfmail went away. I replaced the password in the Password line in one of the undelivered .cfmail file, saved it (now with a new modified time) and moved it to Spool folder. Most of the times, the modified .cfmail will go back to "Undeliver" folder.  The entry on the mail.log is "Error","scheduler-2","10/30/25","07:10:34","","javax.mail.MessagingException" Entry on mailsent.log is  "Information","scheduler-2","10/30/25","07:10:34","","Moved undelivered mail: Mail4438428978218712914.cfmail to C:\ColdFusion2021_2\cfusion/Mail/Undelivr directory" Entry on exception.log is"Error","scheduler-2","10/30/25","07:10:34","","javax.mail.MessagingException"javax.mail.MessagingExceptionat coldfusion.mail.MailImpl.createMessage(MailImpl.java:876)at coldfusion.mail.MailSpooler.deliver(MailSpooler.java:1406)at coldfusion.mail.MailSpooler.sendMail(MailSpooler.java:1307)at coldfusion.mail.MailSpooler.deliverStandard(MailSpooler.java:1769)at coldfusion.mail.MailSpooler.run(MailSpooler.java:1734)at coldfusion.scheduling.ThreadPool.run(ThreadPool.java:260)at coldfusion.scheduling.WorkerThread.run(WorkerThread.java:71) I found that I may need to Stop ColdFusion while I made modification to *.cfmail, moved them to Spool folder and then start ColdFusion again. I tried that without very limited success.  I stopped ColdFusion.  Then, I modified a dozen *.cfmail.  I replaced the old password with the current password.  Next, I moved those files to the Spool folder.  And then, I started ColdFusion.  After that, I saw the first email came through, but then nothing.  I would see the above errors again for each undelivered email. How could I resend underlivered mails?  What else should I check?  Any idea how to fix this issue?   Thanks.  Dchan

dchan@gfc.state.ga.us · Accepted Answer

Hi @Charlie Arehart ,

If I were to create a file in Notepad++ and then, copy the whole content of .cfmail in it. Save it as file1.cfmail and put it in the Spool folder, the email will be sent!!

But, if I were renaming the original undelivered file or making a copy of the original undelivered file, the email cannot be sent.

I tried renaming the undelivered .cfmail and move it to Spool folder. Email will not sent. Same error as first reported.

I tried making a copy of the undelivered .cfmail and move it to Spool folder. Email will not sent. Same error as first reported.

dchan

@BKBK @Charlie Arehart

Based on the finding that creating a .cfmail file in Notepad++ with content of a .cfmail file in the Undelivr folder will send email when it is put in the Spool folder, I tried to use Powershell script to create the files.

I found files created using Copy will not work.

# Copy file WITH content
Copy-Item -Path $sourceFile -Destination $destinationFile -Force

But, files using the below syntax WILL work!

# Create new file and write content
New-Item -Path $destinationFile -ItemType File -Force | Out-Null
Set-Content -Path $destinationFile -Value $content

Disclaimer: I asked ChatGPT to write Powershell scripts for me and it worked great!

Also, the .cfemail file has the correct email address and password in them.

Just want to report back on how things went.

Dchan

Charlie Arehart · Answer

@dchan@gfc.state.ga.us, you're on the right track with your approach. As for why it failed, that's not clear. But I have a suggestion.

1) First, yes, the root problem is that when the cfmail ran while the incorrect smtp server password was defined in the admin (or cfmail itself), cf put an encrypted version of that into each mail file. When it could not be delivered, it was put into undelivr.

The next problem is that Cf does not itself alter that mail in undelivr when you may correct it in the admin. So yes the solution is what you did: create a new mail, catch it in the spool folder, copy that password line (and user name if it changed), and replace the corresponding lines in the undelivr mails that failed for that incorrect username/pwd. Then move them back into the spool.

None of that is new or changed in any cf version or update. And none should require cf be stopped. I've done this hundreds of times helping people over the years.

2) So why the error? Well, first I would wonder if you made any mistake at all in replacing those two lines. We can't know from your screen shots.

And even if you made the exact right cut and paste you should have, the problem may be that the editor you used injected a special character or changed the encoding to be different from what it started as. Did you edit the mail file on the server? With what editor?

(Indeed, I would always warn folks doing this to SAVE a copy of the mail file before manipulating it, in case anything goes amiss. Then you could compare them to your change to confirm differences.)

2a) As for that potential editor difference, it may seem "too late" for you with those failing files, but not necessarily. Editing them on the server (running its OS) with something simple (like notepad) might suffice to rectify things. Or you may need to use a better editor giving more control over things, like vscode.

3) Until you fix the bad files (of either kind), you may want to remove them from undelivr so that you need not worry about putting them back in the spool (if you get new ones that fail delivery to the smtp server for some other reason).

Finally, while it's fortunate you don't find the (new) bad file remaining in the spool blocking ALL mail sending, if one did they'd just want to remove it from the spool folder.

Hope that helps. You absolutely should be able to do what you're attempting.

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