1447360 - "[CLIENTBUG] Select Command is not valid" when signing in to yahoo accounts.

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1408610

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[Bill Mattison]

Attachment: log from failed login.

Thunderbird version is 52.5.2 (64-bit).
OS is 4.15.7-200.fc26.x86_64, Fedora 26, last updated March 15.

When I try to sign in to a yahoo e-mail account via Thunderbird, it takes several seconds to get a response.  Then I often get this error message:
=====
Thunderbird
The current operation on 'Inbox' did not succeed. The mail server for account [my e-mail account] responded: [CLIENTBUG] SELECT Command is not valid in this state.
=====
I then have to exit Thunderbird, and sign in again to all the accounts I want to connect to.  I usually have to do this about a half a dozen times before it finally downloads the folder structure and message headers successfully (though v-e-r-y slowly).  I experience this problem randomly but frequently (almost daily) with all 6 of my yahoo accounts.  This problem occurs much more often with two e-mail addresses than with my other four, but I see no further pattern.  The problem has been occurring for many weeks.

My incoming server is set to "imap.mail.yahoo.com:993"; my outgoing server is set to "smtp.mail.yahoo.com:465"; connection security is set to "SSL/TLS". 

Yahoo e-mail does not work properly in my browser, so that's not a good work-around.  I've checked both yahoo and Thunderbird on-line help; I get nothing really helpful, though I notice the problem is not unique to me.

With help from Samuel Sieb in the Fedora users list, I got a log of what's happening during one of these failed login attempts.  This was done using the following three bash commands in a command line terminal in Fedora-26:
   export NSPR_LOG_FILE=/home/weilian.eng/thunderbird/log 
   export NSPR_LOG_MODULES=IMAP:5,timestamp 
   thunderbird &
The results were in “/$home/thunderbird/log”.  

After examining my log file, Samuel Sieb suggested that I open a Mozilla bug on this.  Thus I'm submitting this bug.  He pared my log file down to what's relevant.  That pared-down file is attached.

This problem was originally posted in the Fedora users list.  The thread “Thunderbird issue (OT).”, started on March 06, can be viewed here:
“https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]/thread/GRSJMPKX5R724C5WEEHXMH2ZAAP6CHTH/”.  ***Maybe*** related is the thread “empty messages from Fedora users list”, started on March 14, which can be viewed here:
“https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]/thread/FXC3HBLCEKHBF2GYU6E2GNLAUQY4N5H4/”.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

See bug 1408610.  Try the beta from http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/channel/

Comment 2

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Or try the upcoming TB 52.7.

Comment 3

[Bill Mattison]

(replying to both comment #1 and comment #2)

I am a home user on a fedora home workstation.  I have no systems administration training.  To avoid trouble, I limit myself to the weekly "dnf upgrade" for installs, updates, etc.  I'll try newer versions of Thunderbird when they arrive in the Fedora repository.  Yesterday's weekly update had no Thunderbird updates.  When will 52.7 arrive in the Fedora repository?

At the suggestion of a couple of other Fedora users list experts, I tried "Evolution" on the two e-mail accounts that give me the trouble almost every time.  (The e-mail address for this Mozilla Bugzilla account is one of those.)  I had to enter both passwords multiple times in that e-mail client also.  Annoying, but better than Thunderbird behavior where I have to terminate and re-start Thunderbird, and where the entire folder structure had to be rebuilt every time.  Evolution's behavior does suggest that at least part of the problem is on the yahoo end.

There are two significant differences between the problems that I'm experiencing and the problems reported by bug 1408610.
1. I had not changed any passwords in many months.  I log in to all e-mail accounts at least 4 times each week.
2. None of my passwords are stored in Thunderbird or any other password, login, or account management tool.  I manually enter the appropriate password each time.
So let's please not forget this bug yet; rather, keep it on the back burner.

By the way, I'm not giving up on Thunderbird and switching to Evolution.  I like Thunderbird better, and will continue using it for the four e-mail accounts that cause trouble only occasionally.

Thank-you for your time and effort on this.
Bill.

Comment 4

[gene smith]

Pretty sure this is a dup. Will look closer. I do see authentication fail in your log. I use fedora too but tb has no say as to when they provide updates.

Comment 5

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Note that bug 1408610 is shipping in TB 52.7 today, of course Linux is always lagging behind, some distros more than others.

Comment 6

[julien.coloos]

Maybe similar to what I experienced (see bug 1439137, also a duplicate).
Since a few weeks/months it seems to me that Yahoo servers have - from time to time - issues that make authentification fail (even with correct login/password - I do let Thunderbird remember mine). It happens randomly.

Comment 7

[gene smith]

Bill,
Since you are not letting tb save your passwords, is it possible that the problem occurs after you type in a password wrong?

I checked on fedora 27 that I am running and it is currently at tb 52.6 and there is no beta in the "testing" channel. So until fedora updates to 52.7 you could try this:

Download the beta from link above or, better, wait until later today or tomorrow and find the linux link for 52.7 and download that.

Unpack/extract the downloaded bz2 file in your home dir and you should see a top level Thunderbird directory with folders chrome, defaults etc plus many files under it.

With tb shutdown, go to /usr/lib64 and find and rename the Thunderbird directory there to Thunderbird-keep. Then copy the Thunderbird directory you unpacked into /usr/lib64 so now you have a Thunderbird/ and Thunderbird-keep under /usr/lib64. (I'm assuming your computer is 64 bit. If not, the Thunderbird/ directory will be under /usr/lib . Also, of course you will need to login as root or use sudo to write into the /usr/lib* area.)

Start thunderbird and you should be running the new version (check help|about to be sure) so you can see if it solves your problem. 

To go back to the original tb, just remove the /usr/lib64/Thunderbird you copied in and rename the Thunderbird-keep back to just Thunderbird. Optionally, delete the downloaded bz2 and the unpacked Thunderbird directory from home dir. Doing this won't affect your tb profile containing all your emails since it is hidden under your home directory.

Feel free to email me directly or ask here if you need help. (I did this once myself a while back and it worked.)

Comment 8

[julien.coloos]

I should also add that I manually checked login (through some simple JavaMail code) on a Yahoo account during one of those times: it also failed (and works otherwise).
Which is why I believed it to be an issue on Yahoo servers.
But at least the fix in Thunderbird will be helpful since it will get rid of the "[CLIENTBUG]" situation. And then it will be properly seen as an authentication issue.

Comment 9

[gene smith]

julien, Thanks for the information. I have a single direct yahoo account (not through a 3rd party, e.g., Verizon) that I never see a problem with authentication (with the bugfix in place). Although, as Bill reported, it does seem a lot slower than my other accounts.

Comment 10

[Bill Mattison]

(replying to comments 4 through 9)
Finally, I have a few minutes to reply.

(4. Gene; 5. Jorg) Thank-you for letting me know that 52.7 is released.  I already assumed that when a new patch or release shows up in the Fedora repository is controlled by Fedora, not the software provider.  If I understand the output from "dnf check-update Thunderbird" correctly, 52.7 is not in the Fedora repository this (March 26) morning.  I'll keep checking daily.

(6,8. Julien; 7,9. Gene)  The short notifications in the bottom left (the status bar?) of the Thunderbird display had me thinking the login was successful.  This is where I see messages like "sending", "looking for..."opening inbox", "loading message", "Downloading message...", etc.  They go away too fast for me to write them down correctly or screen-capture them, and I do not have a cell phone to video-record them.  But what I see after entering the password suggested the login was successful: Thunderbird says it's looking for folders, creating folders, and opening folders.  However, a short while ago, I deliberately mis-typed a password to see what would happen.  I expected to be re-prompted for the password (Thunderbird used to do this).  That did not happen.  It proceeded to look for folders, etc., and then show the behavior similar to that originally reported in this bug.  Considering both Thunderbird and Evolution behavior has me thinking problems are on both ends (yahoo and client).  This morning, I slowed down and entered passwords very carefully (except for the deliberate wrong-password test).  But both clients prompted me multiple times for the passwords.  I just looked at bug 1439137.  I now accept that this bug is a duplicate of bug 1439137 and bug 1408610.  I'm preferring to wait for 52.7 to show up in the Fedora repository.  It does sound promising.

(slowness)  That's very probably a separate issue from this bug.  You're all invited to watch (login not required), even participate in (login is required), the Fedora users list discussion on this:
"https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]/thread/FXC3HBLCEKHBF2GYU6E2GNLAUQY4N5H4/".
I hope to post more on that problem there today.  I don't see the slowness in Evolution.  But I don't know what that client is doing "under the hood".  So I don't have sufficient clear evidence of a problem in Thunderbird to submit a bug.

I thank everyone for the time and effort on this.
Bill.

Comment 11

[Bill Mattison]

(In reply to gene smith from comment #7)
> Bill,
> Since you are not letting tb save your passwords, is it possible that the
> problem occurs after you type in a password wrong?
> 
> I checked on fedora 27 that I am running and it is currently at tb 52.6 and
> there is no beta in the "testing" channel. So until fedora updates to 52.7
> you could try this:
> 
> Download the beta from link above or, better, wait until later today or
> tomorrow and find the linux link for 52.7 and download that.
> 
> Unpack/extract the downloaded bz2 file in your home dir and you should see a
> top level Thunderbird directory with folders chrome, defaults etc plus many
> files under it.
> 
> With tb shutdown, go to /usr/lib64 and find and rename the Thunderbird
> directory there to Thunderbird-keep. Then copy the Thunderbird directory you
> unpacked into /usr/lib64 so now you have a Thunderbird/ and Thunderbird-keep
> under /usr/lib64. (I'm assuming your computer is 64 bit. If not, the
> Thunderbird/ directory will be under /usr/lib . Also, of course you will
> need to login as root or use sudo to write into the /usr/lib* area.)
> 
> Start thunderbird and you should be running the new version (check
> help|about to be sure) so you can see if it solves your problem. 
> 
> To go back to the original tb, just remove the /usr/lib64/Thunderbird you
> copied in and rename the Thunderbird-keep back to just Thunderbird.
> Optionally, delete the downloaded bz2 and the unpacked Thunderbird directory
> from home dir. Doing this won't affect your tb profile containing all your
> emails since it is hidden under your home directory.
> 
> Feel free to email me directly or ask here if you need help. (I did this
> once myself a while back and it worked.)

Finally, in the latter part of last week, I got 52.7.  It never did show up in the Fedora 26 repository; I got it when I upgraded to Fedora 27.

I've been using 52.7 for several days now.  I no longer see the "CLIENTBUG" messages.  The folder structure no longer gets erased.  I thank everyone who worked on this problem for their successful efforts and time.  But I do have questions and suggestions relating to this.  Gene: May I discuss these with you off-line?

Bill.

Comment 12

[gene smith]

Yes, I noticed the same thing that 52.7 is just in f27 that I recently upgraded to. An offline question/comment via email is fine.