Bug 127009

Summary:	kmail imap doesn't cope with other programs modifying folder
Product:	[Unmaintained] kmail	Reporter:	Heinz Ulrich Stille <hus>
Component:	IMAP	Assignee:	kdepim bugs <kdepim-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Severity:	normal	CC:	gforce, heri+kde, mail, sgonzalez
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Fedora RPMs
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	screenshot: confused kmail

Description Heinz Ulrich Stille 2006-05-09 12:12:22 UTC

Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.5.2)
Installed from:    Fedora RPMs
OS:                Linux

Kmail seems to assume it is the only application accessing any IMAP folder. For example it looks like the last displayed message in a folder is remembered by its position in the list, so that when kmail returns to that folder while another client has deleted messages, the wrong message is opened. If there aren't as many
messages as that position any more, kmail's behaviour gets really strange, like just displaying the thread structure graphics in the message list (lines, "+" and "-"), leaving the text part empty (sometimes an - empty - border where the previously shown message was). Going to a different folder and back does usually help, but not always.

Probably another symptom of the same problem is that new message counts in the folder list often are wrong. This goes so far that when the folder is shown the correct number is determined, but after changing to another folder somewhen it reverts to the previously shown, no longer current number.

Comment 1 Heinz Ulrich Stille 2006-05-16 13:33:44 UTC

Created attachment 16119 [details]
screenshot: confused kmail

The screenshot shows kmail after:
- mails in folder .../10 were processed and deleted by a script
- some new mails arrived in that folder
- in kmail, select that folder: shows the two messages in message list, but as
unread (blue) instead of new (red). First message is automatically displayed
- select second message in list - poof...

Comment 2 Thomas McGuire 2007-03-27 20:40:15 UTC

*** Bug 143317 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 3 Alex G 2011-05-30 19:57:17 UTC

This issue has been a show stopper for some time now, and is still a current bug with the latest sources.

I have Alpine and Thunderbird reading from a local Dovecot IMAP server, and every time I start akonadi/kontact, there is a constant thread/spinning graphic over the inbox folder icon. The inbox never opens.

In ~/.local/share/akonadi/akonadiserver.error the following error appears:  
ItemRetrieverException :  Resource was unable to deliver item 

New emails in the inbox are displayed in the message list pane as they arrive. All other unmodified IMAP folders open fine in kmail, unless there has been some change (message added/deleted) in them too.

Unsubscribing and then re-subscribing the akonadi_imap_resource agent to the inbox folder fixes the temporarily, until the inbox is modified by another client. Then there is the huge overhead of akonadi re-indexing 1000s of emails.

Accessing the Maildir folder directly using akonadi_maildir_resource does not seem to be affected by this bug, but it doesn't recognise the folder structure in the ~/.maildir.

Running Gentoo with KDE overlay. Akonadi and KDE suite recompiled this weekend from source (git/svn).
Kontact Version 4.7 pre
KMail Version 2.0.95

Comment 4 Salvador I. Gonzalez 2011-07-11 21:43:12 UTC

*** This bug has been confirmed by popular vote. ***

Comment 5 Salvador I. Gonzalez 2011-07-12 00:11:42 UTC

Same as #3, with Kontact 4.6.0, Kmail 2.1.0, except I can't figure out how to fix this short of removing and re-setting up the IMAP resource for the affected account.

IMHO, as a stopgap until a solution is found, there should be some sort of 'clear cache' option to wipe out and resync.

Comment 6 Dennis Schridde 2012-12-16 15:23:10 UTC

This issue persists in KDE 4.9.4. For example, the behaviour becomes weird if a message is deleted from a folder, while viewing it, and I try to open an attachment. I can still see the message and click on the attachments, but the application that is started (e.g. gwenview) fails to open the file.

Comment 7 Laurent Montel 2015-04-12 10:01:12 UTC

Thank you for taking the time to file a bug report.

KMail2 was released in 2011, and the entire code base went through significant changes. We are currently in the process of porting to Qt5 and KF5. It is unlikely that these bugs are still valid in KMail2.

We welcome you to try out KMail 2 with the KDE 4.14 release and give your feedback.

Comment 8 Dennis Schridde 2015-04-13 20:21:17 UTC

The issue described in comment #6 still exists in 4.14.4.