[BUG] Accessing E-Mail Messages

Shadowshire · March 2017

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_RichLambert

A problem with accessing and displaying e-mail messages first appeared about ten days ago. After I choose the first character to play, and access the E-mail UI, a list of e-mail messages is displayed. However, the content of the first message is not displayed and I cannot do anything with it. Sometimes the content for none of the others is displayed until I exit the E-Mail UI, then open the E-Mail UI again. Afterward, the content for the first message remains unavailable, but I can select each of the messages that follow it on the list and take attachments, delete the message, etc.

For what it is worth, the first message is almost always one sent by a Hireling employed by the PC for one of the five Crafts; ordinarily, but not always, four other Hireling messages are listed after it. Sometimes the Hireling messages after the first one are commingled with others, such as those from Guild Stores about an item sold, or an offer to sell an item cancelled or expired.

Eventually, the first Hireling e-mail message will be re-sent, and the content will be available as it normally would be. Usually it is not the first message in the list that is shown at that time. Please Note: this is not a satisfactory "work around" for the problem. It wastes my time and effort and becomes just one more flaw in the long list of uncorrected flaws in the game. Their accumulation erodes any confidence that the Players might have had or want to have in the integrity of the software.

More than once, I have submitted in-game "Feedback" about the matter.

How long, O ZOS, must we wait for the parade of problems with features that were working perfectly well before to stop??

RazielDERF · April 2017

This is not anything new here but I will say this, it is not an ESO issue per say. This happens to me almost every time. The issue is with what your PC/Mac is capable of loading. The faster your data transfer rate to your hard drive, the faster you will see the content on screen. The game has been adding more and more content and it takes time to load the game 100%. Even if you see other things on screen fully loaded doesn't mean the game is fully loaded (including UI).

I noticed this more apparent once I started to create more character and began to have more hirelin emails come through. The way I work around this is if you simply allow the game to load a bit longer when you first load the game with your first character. If the email doesn't display your content close out the email and allow the game to load a bit longer. Then try it again after a moment and see if it appears. Once you have that first character display correctly the following characters will display their emails a bit faster.

moonbat · April 2017

This has been happening to me too. It is a new problem and I can only fix it by logging in and out or switching characters.

It will happen if I only have one mail in my inbox, that one mail will not load.

Shadowshire · April 2017

RazielDERF wrote: »

This is not anything new here but I will say this, it is not an ESO issue per say. This happens to me almost every time. The issue is with what your PC/Mac is capable of loading. The faster your data transfer rate to your hard drive, the faster you will see the content on screen. The game has been adding more and more content and it takes time to load the game 100%. Even if you see other things on screen fully loaded doesn't mean the game is fully loaded (including UI).

By "per say", I suppose you mean the Latin per se ("as such"). With my current computer, the data transfer rate is SATA III 6 GB/sec. to or from a Sony 840 EVO Solid State Drive. That is plenty fast. Windows loads and executes eso.exe (64-bit) rather quickly. Subsequent writes or reads by the game client should not have any bearing upon this problem. Rather, if anything, the download transfer rate via the Internet is more likely to be the bottleneck.

RazielDERF wrote: »

I noticed this more apparent once I started to create more character and began to have more hireling emails come through. The way I work around this is if you simply allow the game to load a bit longer when you first load the game with your first character. If the email doesn't display your content close out the email and allow the game to load a bit longer. Then try it again after a moment and see if it appears. Once you have that first character display correctly the following characters will display their emails a bit faster.

It doesn't matter how long I wait for the game to "finish loading". For example, sometimes I move my character from the Crossroads Inn to the Bank in Belkarth (Craglorn) before I access the e-mail. Or I might be AFK for a bit while the game "loads" after I use the first log-in dialog, or after I have selected the first character that I want to play. The problem as I have described it happens regardless.

As I stated in the OP, if I close the E-mail UI and pause before re-opening it, then usually I can access the content of the messages that are listed below the first one, but not the content of the first one.

You are right that the problem doesn't occur with other characters, for which I subsequently access the e-mail during the same session. However, that will not affect how the Hireling e-mail is displayed for the first character. That is, if I log-out of the first character, log-in to another character, then log-out to select the first character again, the problem is not resolved simply by doing that.

The faulty Hireling message remains inaccessible for as long as it is listed first in the inbox. Eventually, the faulty message is no longer first, and I can access the content and attachments. (The most recent message that my PC received is always listed first, the least recent is listed as the last.)

However, after another e-mail message has been received, the faulty Hireling message might not even be on the list. When it is no longer in the Inbox, another Hireling message for the affected craft will arrive subsequently, and I haven't had a problem with the follow-up.

The fact that there is a follow-up message implies that this is a known issue, but the only thing that the ZOS bug response personnel have done is to detect when it occurs and remedy the situation. They have not been able to do whatever needs to be done to prevent it from happening. So I suppose that is how the matter will remain for the forseeable future.

Mystrius_Archaion · April 2017

It's not hard drive load. This is a server-client communication lag between the server and the game.
The mail system has also always been buggy. It takes sometimes until you go to another zone before anythign bought at a guild trader will show up.

I also often notice this with my chat as I get a few very minor imperceptible lag spikes here and there, but chat is a packet of information that is more vulnerable to that spike. The thing I see if I will type a message and hit enter and it won't show in the chat box and I type another message and hit enter and that second message appears above and before the first message sent. It flipped the order because the server received, and thus showed on my end, the second message first due to slight lag.

That's all it is. You can improve it by making sure you have more reliable faster internet, but it will never be competely stopped until they code the message to actually be displayed from your game memory rather than so dependent on server communication.

Got to "love" online game problems that never happen to offline games.

Shadowshire · April 2017

@Mystrius_Archaion: Moving the character to another zone can, but doesn't always, cause pending e-mail messages to become available.

The one and only sure way to cause any pending e-mail messages to become available is to log-out of the character, then log-in again to the same character and wait a second or two for the audible signal that a new message(s) has arrived. Of course, the transition screens leaving and/or returning are time-consuming, and only add to the inconvenience.

@ZOS_GinaBruno
In my humble opinion, if ZOS were to make receipt of an in-game "e-mail" message available within seconds of it being sent, then that would improve the game immensely. It would also reduce the traffic on the servers that happens while the player's character is logging out, and while the player's character is logging-in again, because the player really wants to receive the message(s). Which is to say that the current e-mail system inherently delays progress in playing the game. Rectifying that could save ZOS a ton of money. (But if experience is any guide, they would probably devise and implement the wrong "remedy".)