1381805 - NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED: Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsIMsgMailNewsUrl.server] alertHook.js:48 after sending of message failed due to timeout

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[Dee]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/59.0.3071.115 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

Nothing, the Error Message Popup appears from time to time without sending any mail at all.


Actual results:

The Error Message Popup Message:"NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED: Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsIMsgMailNewsUrl.server]" appears from time to time without sending any mail at all. This happens since a week. There are days I have to close 50 or more Error Popup Messages who appear one after each other. I did have a look at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=556727 and restarted the router: same problem, then I also found https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1261686: no reply yet, and I also restarted TB with all addons disabled: again, same problem.

Comment 1

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Bug 1261686 reports an internal test failure, we'll get to it when it shows up again in our automated test suite.

Comment 2

[Dee]

Does your reply mean it has to do with bug 1261686? If not, any other suggestions? I just booted my PC and again had to close some 30+ error popups from TB...

Comment 3

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

We'll have to look into it and get the problem reproducible for a developer.

Can you try with add-ons disabled (see Help menu) or on a new profile (start Thunderbird with -p and create a new profile).

Comment 4

[Dee]

As I stated above, all addons disabled has been tried.
How do I start TB with a new profile without losing settings/mails/data? Please be more specific about -p ...?

Comment 5

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

If you start |thunderbird -p| you can create a second profile. That profile will have all default settings and no accounts configured. You can easily configure the same IMAP account and even POP account (with some care, so message are left on the server).

This second profile is for testing only so far to see whether you get the same error (which I would doubt).

Comment 6

[Dee]

Will check back on -p in two weeks, i am off to vacations tomorrow. Hopefully there are new insights by then. Take care and good luck!

Comment 7

[Dee]

hi, i just wanted to check the -p option, but realized that there are no accounts and settings set. this is no option for me, as i am using some 10 different accounts, many addons, filters etc. on my daily work... it would take ages to reconfigure everything! are there any new insights on the bug, which would let me use TB without the annoying error?

Comment 8

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Well, if you have a very sophisticated setup (10+ accounts, add-ons, filters) that it will be very hard to track down this error.

To fix it, we need a reproducible case of the error. Just saying "it happens for me in my complicated setup" don't help us in locating it. Bug 556727 got closed because we couldn't get enough details from the reporter.

What can you copy a bit more of the error message into a file and then attach this file here (see: "Attach File" above). We don't even know from your comment #0 which component issues the error.

Also please look at the error console: Tools > Developer Tools > Error Console
and attach its content in a file.

We've recently had a few bugs where people got muddled up in many accounts resulting in strange errors:
Bug 1360836 comment #11, also an error on .server.
Bug 1362885: many accounts getting the reporter in quite a tangle.

Comment 9

[Dee]

Attachment: error-console-before-error.png

Comment 10

[Dee]

Attachment: error-message.png

Comment 11

[Dee]

Attachment: error-console-after-closing-error-window.png

Comment 12

[Dee]

I figured it would be hard, and i am quite sure it wont show up on a clean install. It looks more like TB is trying to send/move an email but cant... The first comment #0 is the content of the error console... I attached now all as screenshots as well. Sorry they are in German, should I translate it (though your name (Jorg) sounds German)? The error message I copied in comment #0 did have no other indication/info on a componetn etc. so far, it is always the same (see screenshot). Can I do something else that could help you find the problem? (apart from -p)...

Comment 13

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Yes, I'm German.

So you're indeed getting the
"NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED: Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsIMsgMailNewsUrl.server] from alertHook.js:48 

  onAlert: function (aMessage, aUrl) {
    // Create a new warning.
    let warning = new nsActWarning(aMessage, this.activityMgr, "");

    if (aUrl && aUrl.server && aUrl.server.prettyName) {

So the aUrl.server fails. OK.

By by then "ist das Kind schon in den Brunnen gefallen", in other words, you get an error on creating an alert in the activity log. Too bad that fails, but the real error here is the timeout.

And that's nothing we can fix, there is something wrong with your server or your account configuration.

Comment 14

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

That's exactly bug 1261686. Aceman, care to take a look?

Comment 15

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Make that: But by then, ...

Comment 16

[Dee]

Dankeschön soweit!
Hopefully "Aceman" can help?

Prior to contacting bugzilla I did spent a lot of time on the phone with the server support of my provider, and he assurred everything is OK... Maybe its not at the end?

There was a switch/change on his side in the way security gets handled.
He suggested many changes on my account settings of TB, but none of them got rid of the error...
So I switched all back again.
All of the changes had to do with SMTP (Postausgangs-Server).

My current settings for all 3 entries are:

Server: vm224.fc-server.de
Port: 587
Username: XXXX
Auth-Method: Encrypted Password (Verschlüsseltes Passwort)
Verbindungssicherheit (Connection Security?): NONE

Comment 17

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Aceman or I might fix the problem in alertHook.js, but that doesn't fix your problem.

Your problem is that sending fails due to a timeout and we can't fix that.
Try logging for SMTP: https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging#Environment_Variables_to_set
So with SMTP:5,timestamp

Typically SMTP is set up with:
Port 465, SSL/TLS, Normal Password. No connection security would be suicide for a dissident or whistle-blower :-(

Comment 18

[:aceman]

How does the "error sending message" relate to the nsIMsgMailNewsUrl.server error? Does the latter always appear after the former?

(In reply to Jorg K (GMT+2) from comment #8)
> We've recently had a few bugs where people got muddled up in many accounts
> resulting in strange errors:
> Bug 1360836 comment #11, also an error on .server.
> Bug 1362885: many accounts getting the reporter in quite a tangle.

I don't think these are related.
Bug 556727 may be.

Comment 19

[Dee]

Attachment: smtp-error-after-changing-login-way.PNG

Comment 20

[Dee]

@jorg. after changing the way SMTP connects, the error message changed (please see the attached image, it is in german)...
so it finally IS a problem with the way TB connects to SMTP?
any idea?

PS. will try the logging for SMTP in a couple of days as i am off for a short business trip and get back to you on this

Comment 21

[Dee]

@jorg: BTW, had to change back the way SMTP connects, couldnt send any emails at all. So it is back to: Port 587, Auth.method Encrypted Password, ConnectionSecurity NONE

Comment 22

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Well, it's up to you whether you really want to use connection security "none", I think it's pretty bad. Please check your mail provider's help pages:
https://www.fc-hosting.de/support/faq_mail_thunderbird.php
They clearly state: "Normal password" and STARTTLS, so maybe not SSL/TLS as I had suggested.

Comment 23

[Dee]

Will check that and report back. Thanks! I did have a couple of times a talk with support, and we ended with the entries I mentioned, not the ones they have in their FAQs.

Comment 24

[Dee]

FYI: problem persists even with the correct settings... (see attached error-message.png)

Comment 25

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Look, this really is a support issue. We don't know why you can't connect. I asked for an SMTP log (comment #17) but you haven't provided it.

We'll fix the alertHook.js issue in bug 1261686, but that's only a secondary problem.

Please get support at:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/thunderbird

They will tell you to:
- run without add-ons
- run in Windows safe mode
- maybe run with the Firewall/AV disabled.

It's just absolutely impossible that you can't connect via STARTTLS or TLS/SSL as described on the help pages of your provider.

Altogether, this looks like bug 556727 where we also couldn't get enough information to do anything, not even with an SMTP log.