Bug 244860 - Kmail reports, that server doesn't support UIDL
Summary: Kmail reports, that server doesn't support UIDL
Status: RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Alias: None
Product: kmail
Classification: Applications
Component: pop3 (show other bugs)
Version: 1.13.5
Platform: Fedora RPMs Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: kdepim bugs
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2010-07-16 15:10 UTC by Alois Steindl
Modified: 2015-04-12 10:13 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:


Attachments
the message kmail shows (in french) (30.70 KB, image/png)
2010-08-24 20:07 UTC, Micool
Details
then the error number (21.01 KB, image/png)
2010-08-24 20:10 UTC, Micool
Details

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Description Alois Steindl 2010-07-16 15:10:00 UTC
Version:           1.13.5 (using KDE 4.4.4) 
OS:                Linux

Hello,
recently kmail started to report quite regularly, that the server
doesn't support UIDL. The server is Dovecot and using telnet to the server
one can request the UIDLs without problems.
After that message Kmail also complains several times, that it obtains 
invalid responses from the server.
Suddenly the program works o.k., seems to depend on the current number (?) of mails on the server, and the messages are downloaded without problems. 
I configured kmail to leave the mails on the server.
Of course, I do get a large number of double (and threefold) messages.
Downloading the mails with thunderbird makes no problem at all.
Best regards


Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
Seems to be related with the state of the mail file on the server.
Happens approximately every hour; when it happens, it takes some time, until it works again.



Expected Results:  
Download the mail, sort out multiple mails.

KDE-version is already 4.4.5
Comment 1 Javix 2010-08-20 14:45:13 UTC
Hi, 
I have the same problem. It used to be once in a while (every some days), now it happens always.
In order to reveive mail I have to close Kontact/Kmail and start it again. Another way to get it back to work is to enter in my post box via webmail and delete a message or open the last message. Then maybe it works again.

It reports also quite often "Bad server response «.» or «"some number"»"

This happens since I installed 10.04. Before (9.04) I never had this problems.

Version of Kubuntu: Lucid 10.04
Kmail: Versión 1.13.2
Comment 2 Micool 2010-08-24 20:04:10 UTC
same bug here on Kubuntu 10.04, same error message .

More over, the messages on the server are not properly taged and are often re-downloaded a lot of times. never had this before (9.10 9.04....), even with the same server configuration.
Comment 3 Micool 2010-08-24 20:07:39 UTC
Created attachment 50899 [details]
the message kmail shows (in french)
Comment 4 Micool 2010-08-24 20:10:40 UTC
Created attachment 50900 [details]
then the error number
Comment 5 CSÉCSY László 2010-09-28 23:02:52 UTC
The same happens here. Client software is KMail 1.13.5 (from KDE 4.4.5 on Frugalware Linux), server software is either an unknown something (with one of my POP3 mailboxes) or Courier 4.7.0-2 (on Frugalware Linux, my other POP3 mailbox). The first message is about the UIDL stuff, the second depends on the POP3 server: the unknown something reports that the invalid "." file cannot be read (or something like that, I'm using KMail in Hungarian), the Courier one reports that the invalid "1067" file cannot be read (whatever these means). Both the Frugalware boxes are using official Frugalware FPMs: the client uses the -current branch, the server uses the -stable one.

Is there any way to get rid of these annoyances?
Comment 6 Andre Erler 2011-02-05 18:24:27 UTC
I also have this problem. However, the symptoms were a bit different: first Kmail started downloading all the emails multiple times for no apparent reason, and only now, after about three weeks with this weird behavior have I seen the error message complaining about UIDL. 
But I think it is likely that the downloading of old mails was caused by this.
As all the users here I also configured Kmail to leave messages on the server (3 weeks). However this feature does not seem to work, as kmail regularly downloads emails that are older than three weeks (up to six weeks), which prompts me to suspect that something started going wrong about three weeks ago.
I recently changed this to a shorter period (one week; to reduce the number of mails that are downloaded each time), but to no avail.
I have to machines, both kubuntu 10.10 (kmail 1.13.5), but only one seems to exhibit this behavior (which is surprising because I synchronize the mail folders between them).
Comment 7 Andre Erler 2011-02-05 19:03:00 UTC
P/S to but a date on it, for me the bug must have appeared roughly mid-January 2011. I have maverick, maverick-security, maverick-updates, and maverick-backports, plus samrog131's ppa (http://ppa.launchpad.net/samrog131/ppa/ubuntu maverick main) enabled. Maybe that helps someone pin down where/when the bug was introduced.
Comment 8 Andreas Gustavsson 2011-05-05 12:06:58 UTC
I can confirm the multiple fetching of messages using pop3 in kmail version 1.13.5 (using QT 4.6.3 and KDE 4.4.5 in Debian Squeeze).

I have configured kmail to check my mail account for new messages with an interval of 2 minutes. This behavior (fetching all messages in my inbox and showing them as new, thus creating multiple copies of the messages in my local kmail inbox) does not occur on every check. It occurs with sporadic intervals of time.

Thus, kmail behaves correctly most of the time, but fails to recognize the messages as "old" sometimes.
Comment 9 Andreas Gustavsson 2011-05-05 14:51:03 UTC
I should add that I have NOT experienced the described UIDL error message.

Also, I should describe my situation a little clearer. When referring to the inbox in kmail I will use "local inbox", and when referring to the mail account inbox I will simply use "inbox". I have a lot of messages in my inbox which are marked as read; I will call these messages "old". 

I have noticed that if I have one or more new messages in my inbox, kmail is not guaranteed to recognize any message as new. On a mail check, the status bar of kmail can give the message "[time] Transmission for account xxx complete. No new messages.", even though I actually know that there are new messages, thanks to e.g. kopete and web browser access to my inbox.

Another thing I have noticed, when kmail finds some new messages in my inbox, is that (not necessarily, but most often, all) old messages are incorrectly recognized as new and downloaded to my local inbox. In all, except one, cases when I have noticed this behavior, all old messages in my inbox were (incorrectly) recognized as new and downloaded together with an actual new message. In the exceptional case, about one third of the old messages were (incorrectly) recognized as new and downloaded together with an actual new message.

I have *not* noticed that kmail incorrectly recognizes old messages as new if there are only old messages in my inbox. However, I cannot guarantee that this could not occur.

Has someone noticed that the above case can occur?

I cannot guarantee that the above is an exhaustive description of the erroneous behavior of kmail, but I hope it helps in pinpointing the root of the problem.
Comment 10 Andre Erler 2011-05-05 15:41:47 UTC
I'm pretty sure this behavior (recognizing old messages as new and downloading them again) also happens when there is no new message in the inbox.
Comment 11 Claude Jones 2011-05-13 02:08:07 UTC
With me, I'm not experiencing the multiple downloads of the same messages. I get an excruciatingly long delay whenever I start KMail. This can last up to 15 minutes. I have mine set to leave the messages on the server for 7 days. After the long pause, I get the UIDL error message. After that, KMail appears to work perfectly. On checking my server, I found that the old mail was not being deleted. I deleted all the stuff older than 7 days (thousands of msgs), but that didn't fix the problem. Starting up KMail after the delete still resulted in a long delay followed by the error message, and then followed by seeming normal behavior, but, checking the server after a couple of days showed that older than seven days mail was still there. I switched my settings on Thunderbird used on a different computer to delete the mail after seven days, and it starting doing so.
Comment 12 Andre Erler 2011-05-13 02:21:53 UTC
This bug was originally filed for kmail version 1.13.5 and I'm still using this version. Is anyone here not using 1.13.5 ? Or are there any reports of this bug appearing in more recent versions? (i.e. is it worth upgrading?)
Comment 13 Alois Steindl 2011-05-13 10:15:59 UTC
(In reply to comment #12)
> This bug was originally filed for kmail version 1.13.5 and I'm still using this
> version. Is anyone here not using 1.13.5 ? Or are there any reports of this bug
> appearing in more recent versions? (i.e. is it worth upgrading?)

I am now working with version 1.13.7 and haven't seen the problem for quite a while. Looks like the problem has been solved (or maybe hidden).
Alois
Comment 14 Claude Jones 2011-05-13 12:36:49 UTC
(In reply to comment #13)
> (In reply to comment #12)
> > This bug was originally filed for kmail version 1.13.5 and I'm still using this
> > version. Is anyone here not using 1.13.5 ? Or are there any reports of this bug
> > appearing in more recent versions? (i.e. is it worth upgrading?)
> 
> I am now working with version 1.13.7 and haven't seen the problem for quite a
> while. Looks like the problem has been solved (or maybe hidden).
> Alois
Unfortunately, that's the version I'm running, and I still have the problem...
Comment 15 Christophe Marin 2011-05-13 16:13:57 UTC
FWIW, the kdepimlibs version is more important than the KMail one for this issue
Comment 16 Claude Jones 2011-05-13 17:27:09 UTC
(In reply to comment #15)
> FWIW, the kdepimlibs version is more important than the KMail one for this
> issue

Here's mine:
kdepimlibs-4.6.2-1.fc14.x86_64
kdepimlibs-akonadi-4.6.2-1.fc14.x86_64
Comment 17 Andre Erler 2011-05-13 17:34:39 UTC
I have a couple of packages relating to kde-pim and akonadi.
libkdepim4 is v4.4.9, kdepimlibs5 (transitional package) and all the akonadi stuff libakonadi-* is v4.5.5.
Comment 18 daniel_schulte 2011-06-01 13:42:43 UTC
Same problem here. There was the UIDL error for some weeks, but now it disappeared and kmail wants to download all my old messages from the mailserver. I'm using 
KDE 4.6.3
kmail 1.13.7 (package version is 4.4.11.1)
kdepimlibs 4.6.3
akonadi 1.5.3
on Arch Linux.
Comment 19 quazgar 2011-09-12 21:37:34 UTC
Generally reproducible (hangs for quite a long time, sometimes with UIDL message) for this version:

KMail 1.13.7
Kontact 4.4.11
KDE 4.6.5
on Gentoo x86_64
Comment 20 Laurent Montel 2015-04-12 10:13:35 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.