Groupwise Tips & Tricks

Since the beginning of the Fall term, our GroupWise Email System has been struggling to keep up with demand.  This has been problematic for everyone using the email system as it is affecting productivity.

TSC has been working diligently to trouble-shoot the issues causing this excessive slowness.  Some of the problems are systemic, but a number of them can be addressed with behaviourial changes.  Here's what we have learned:

1.  We have had a much larger than normal increase in accounts since last year. Our aging system has had difficulty coping with this unplanned load.

2.  There has been an increase in the number of mailboxes that have large amounts of messages and are not pro-actively cleaned. This includes calendar entries, mailbox items, sent items, and trash.

3.  We have found many mailboxes that are abandoned, are no longer being monitored, and are filling up.

4.  Many address books are corrupted causing the system to constantly retry processing bad records.

5.  The hardware and software underpinning GroupWise are obsolete. 

6.  Upon return, with so many users 'all at once' accessing accounts left sitting over the summer, auto-archiving has kicked in causing an unusually high load on the system.

7.  Appointment calendars containing more than 5,000 items, mostly for birthday appointments created or synchronized with social media applications via smart phones are slowing the system.  These appointments are created up to the year 2106 (this is the farthest forward year GroupWise can handle).

8.  The hardware and software supporting our Notifylink users cannot keep up with the volume of transactions coming in from smart phone users and the number of Notifylink clients continue to grow.  Of course, smart phone users also tend to have the largest mailboxes, address books, etc.  Each Smartphone user creates exponentially more transactions than a regular GroupWise user.


There is a project in the current year's plan to replace this aging system.  Technology advancements, business process changes moving in the direction of a paperless and virtual world, and the shift to ever increasing smartphone use are driving the need for change.


Having said this, we must keep GroupWise 'alive' until it can be replaced.  TSC has been working around the clock to try to alleviate the factors above that can be controlled.  We have been tuning and cleaning where we can, but we need your help to make this work.


Ways you can help:

1. Clean up/delete old appointments - this can be a slow procedure and takes time but will help clear up some issues

2. Clean up the mailbox - Each time you log into your email account, GroupWise has to find every item you have received or created.  The application reads from the server not your PC.  Having fewer items in your mailbox will speed up your login.

3. Clean up sent items - If you use a smart phone, you also have a folder named 'Mobile Sent'.  Be sure to clean up this one as well.

4. Empty the trash - The deleted items folder is not an alternate filing system.  It's the garbage can.  Please take out the trash.

5. Delete obsolete PROXIES - by clicking on Online and then proxy you will see a list of the proxies you have, if there are any that you no longer need or have access to just click on the name and select remove. 

6. When creating a recurring appointment on your smartphone, always ensure that you have an end date.  If you fail to add one, your recurring appointment will repeat indefinitely, which in GroupWise means it will go to February 2107, that is 95 years worth!

7. Minimize login on multiple workstations/devices - If you are logged on to 2 computers, only have email running on one of them.

8. Clean up archives - having really large archive files will slow down your email, especially if your archive is stored on a network drive.

9. Clean up Notify - each time you receive an email and you have the notify turned on it will store that email message in the notify. You can remove the notify from your start up folder so that it will not be on or you can right click on the globe with the envelope in your right hand corner by your clock and select Notification list. Then click on clear all

10.Create sub folders - having all of your messages in your mailbox will slow down your email but if you create sub folders and file the items you want to keep into those folders, you will find that your email processes faster.  If you right-click on Cabinet and select New folder.

There's a catch-22 condition to doing all of these housekeeping actions.  Each one will generate extra load on the system.  So, please, try to do them early in the morning or in the evening if you can.

These are just some of the ways that you can help to clean up the email system.  If you would like further instructions on any of the items listed please contact the help desk at help.desk@uwinnipeg.ca or by calling 204-786-9149 and we will provide you with a step-by-step instruction document or walk you through it.

If you have any questions please let us know .

Thank you ,

The Technology HelpDesk