# Parent message doesn't exist

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/parent-message-doesnt-exist/141746>\
**Category:** Migration\
**Created:** [February 16, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/parent-message-doesnt-exist/141746 "2020-02-16T15:59:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![ruperty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ruperty/32/164033_2.png) [@ruperty](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ruperty)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 10:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/parent-message-doesnt-exist/141746/3 "2020-02-17T10:41:02Z")

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> [@gerhard](#):
>
> Maybe the sort order is wrong because your are grouping emails by subject? Might be worth investigating. Messages are only sorted by `Subject` and the order of emails within the mbox file.

Thanks. Looking at the email\_order table they look like they are in the correct order:

| msg\_id | rowid |
| --- | --- |
| 9205270657.AB03850@ben.dciem.dnd.ca | 874 |
| 9206031720.AA22567@ben.dciem.dnd.ca | 875 |

Could there be something else that is failing to import these parent message?

> [@gerhard](#):
>
> Are you really sure you need to group emails by subject? Judging by your screenshot it looks like the emails have correct `Message-ID` as well as `In-Reply-To` and `References` headers.

When I did the first import it looked like there was no grouping at all. I think the problem being that the replies are to the mailing list rather than the originator. Also, some messages don’t have those fields at all, as the archive was put together manually over 28 years in rather haphazard with different versions of Eudora.

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