Bug 121698

Summary:	IMAP folder becomes read-only
Product:	[Unmaintained] kmail	Reporter:	Luka Renko <lure>
Component:	IMAP	Assignee:	kdepim bugs <pim-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED WAITINGFORINFO
Severity:	normal	CC:	bjoern, franke.daniel, lukemonahan
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	1.9.1
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Ubuntu
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	Error message screenshot

Description Luka Renko 2006-02-10 11:38:56 UTC

Version:           1.9.1 (using KDE KDE 3.5.1)
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages
OS:                Linux

I am using Kontact/KMail on Kubuntu 5.10 (with KDE 3.5.1 update) to access my mailbox on IMAP server (Exchange 2003).
I am using Disconnected IMAP (cachedimap) account and only access subscribed folders (in order to exclude Public Folders).

Sometimes after restart/reboot of the system, Kmail reports strange error: "Error while uploading folder - Could not make the folder INBOX on the server" (I will try to attach a screenshot of the error message). This may be reported only for one folder (typically INBOX) or for many folders.

After this error message, I can normally access the problematic folder and new mail get delivered into the folder. However, I can nnot do any modification to the e-mails (delete, move...) as the folder is reported as "read-only" - this is reported in status line "XXX messages, xx unread. Folder is read-only."

I have tried several things to make this problem go away, including:
- Restarting Kmail/Kontact
- Troubleshoot the IMAP cache - Rebuild index
- Troubleshoot the IMAP cache - Refresh cache
- Unsubscribe and subscribe again (with restart Kmail in-between)
but nothing seems to cure this.

The only thing that seems to help is to remove my IMAP account and create a new IMAP account, but I do not think this should be an acceptable workaround.

I would also like to point out that this problem may be related to "kicker SEGV crash" on logout/shutdown which I am also seeing on Kubuntu - I am suspecting that this Kicker failure may have a side effect that Kmail/Kontact is not gracefully shutdown but killed by shutdown procedure (and may leave Kmail in strange condition).

Comment 1 Luka Renko 2006-02-10 11:39:53 UTC

Created attachment 14626 [details]
Error message screenshot

Comment 2 Luka Renko 2006-02-10 11:40:54 UTC

Note: I use it on i386 platform (notebook)

Comment 3 Richard Bos 2006-02-10 13:13:40 UTC

Change the readonly flag for that folder in the file:
$HOME/.kde/share/config/kmailrc

...
...
ReadOnly=true -> change to flase
...
...

Has been reported before, a good search in bugs kde would have revealed
this solution.

Comment 4 Luka Renko 2006-02-13 11:26:10 UTC

Thanks for workaround - I have searched for quite some time in bugs database, but could not find any solution.

I expect that this bug should remain opened, as I would like that root cause is fixed sometime - I do not see much point in IMAP folder becoming read-only.

Comment 5 Luke Monahan 2006-07-18 02:28:30 UTC

I can confirm the same problem on my (non-disconnected) imap account.

I set it up and worked fine for a day and a half, but it suddenly became read-only.

Changing the flag in kmailrc doesn't seem to work, it just reverts.  Adding and removing the account does not seem to work either.

To confirm that the folder _isnt_ actually read-only I have Thunderbird up and running and accessing the folder with no problems.

Comment 6 Luke Monahan 2006-07-18 02:48:18 UTC

Further information found:

There were multiple (i.e. 5) imapd processes running under my username on the imap server.  These processes were seemingly causing each other to lock writing.

It seems to the uninformed that kmail has the ability to lose the connection to imap and start a new one instead of using the existing imap process.  I'm not sure how I coaxed it into doing this but I will keep an eye on it from now on and see if I can repeat this.

My workaround is to ssh to the imap server, kill all imapd processes that are running under my username and then have kmail check the inbox again.  I think just waiting for a while with kmail closed will cause the imapd processes to expire anyway if you don't have ssh access to the imap server.

Comment 7 Daniel Franke 2007-03-09 01:33:21 UTC

Same here. I can not confirm multiple imapd processes as I have no shell access to the imap server, but my IMAP folder strangely enough became read-only recently (after working fine for weeks and months). Toggling the ReadOnly flag does not help, it's simply reset. 
This problem exists on two machines, SuSE-10.1 with KDE-3.5.5 and Gentoo with KDE-3.5.6. Accessing the same account via webmail works as expected.

Comment 8 Björn Ruberg 2009-12-25 00:43:03 UTC

Does this problem still exist in KDE 4.3?