1581247 - IMAP error message not logged anywhere. Unable to connect to your IMAP server. You may have exceeded the maximum number of connections to this server

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Eric Moore]

I'm using Thunderbird 68.1.0 (32-bit) under Windows 10. Its using the profile created when I installed 68.0. I got a popup error message saying it couldn't connect to mail.messagingengine.com (the IMAP server used by my two Fastmail IMAP accounts), suggested that there were too many existing connections to the IMAP server, and that I should adjust the settings in server settings -> advanced.

I tried to select the error text and copy&paste it to Notepad. It wouldn't let me select it. I closed the popup window and verified I had no problems reading mail in either accounts inbox. I assume it was a transient error.

I looked in the activity manager - it just said there were no messages to download for my Gmail POP account.

I looked in tools -> developer tools -> error console. Couldn't find the error text anywhere. I used the filter to search for IMAP , then advanced, and then messagingengine (its part of the accounts server name) with no success. Each of those strings was part of the displayed error message. I also browsed all of the warnings and errors looking for anything that might be related such as the actual error code it got from the server.

As far as I can tell there is no record of the error message anywhere. This is very unfriendly.

Fastmail uses a modified Cyrus IMAP server and doesn't implement a limit on the number of connections AFAIK. Maximum number of server connections to cache is set at the default value of 5. None of the folders properties has "when getting new messages for this account always check this folder" checked. The PC was the only device using the router, and Thunderbird was the only email client running.

Comment 1

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

As far as I can tell there is no record of the error message anywhere. This is very unfriendly.

Take a screenshot?

Comment 2

[gene smith]

Pretty sure it was this message:
https://searchfox.org/comm-central/rev/3a81dcb150f72a7bba6bfd3ec9ad5977b4bedeb7/mail/locales/en-US/chrome/messenger/imapMsgs.properties#196

This will occur for various reasons one of which is too many connections to server. So if it happens once, no big deal. But if it happens continuously, the server may be down or really limiting connections.

However, the fact that it caused a pop-up but didn't register in activity manager is the real problem. I've seen this kind of thing too and have wondered why. However, I am still able to see the notification record that linux/KDE keeps and find it there. I'm not sure that windows keeps a record of recent notification pop-ups in the same way but probably does.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

In general, protocol related errors have never gone to the activity manager