Closed Bug 163892 Opened 22 years ago Closed 15 years ago

trying to send email gives "Sending of Message Failed" error

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Networking: SMTP, defect)

Product:
MailNews Core
Component:
Networking: SMTP
Platform:
x86
Windows XP
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
major

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

People

(Reporter: dan, Unassigned)

Details

(Whiteboard: closeme 2009-03-10)

Attachments

(1 file)

Inconsistent mail status in Thunderbird
6.75 KB, image/png
Details 
User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020815
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020815

I have verified repeatedly that the SMTP server is up (even tried a different
SMTP server). Every time I send mail, INSTANTLY I will get this error:

"Sending of message failed.

An error occured sending mail: Unable to connect to SMTP server. The server may
be down or may be incorrectly configured. Please verify that your Mail/News
account settings are correct and try again."

I have verified multiple times that the smtp setttings are correct. And the
exact same settings work just fine in Outlook Express.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Configure SMTP server (shortcircuit.dyndns.org in my case), Port 4000
2. Compose a mail
3. Try to send message

Actual Results:  
I got the dialog box message entered above.

Expected Results:  
Should have sent the message to the SMTP server. While running strace on the
smtp daemon on short circuit I can see that Mozilla never even opens the socket
to the mail server.
Also, I tried to create a debug log. No log is created. Log settings:

 NSPR_LOG_MODULES = SMTP:5
NSPR_LOG_FILE = F:\MOZILLA.LOG
Do you share your profile with Netscape 6/7?  If so, this is a dup of bug
124663.  It's incorrectly marked FIXED, as it should be WORKSFORME.  However,
sharing profiles between Mozilla and Netscape 6/7 can cause data to be
corrupted.  Create a new profile instead.
Netscape 6/7 is no where on my computer. The only browsers I have are Internet
Explorer 6 (XP), and Mozilla. I can delete the profile if you think that will
fix it but I must admit that I am skeptical. 

I will try deleting the profile and re-creating it. If that fixes it then I will
post so, else the bug remains open.
Deleting the profile and re-creating it allowed Mozilla mail to connect to the
server, but it is getting authentication rejection messages every time.

After capturing the mime string sent by Mozilla Mail I have determined that it
is sending the authentication in the form of:
<NAME><PASSWORD?, i.e. no spaces anywhere. I happen to understand a little about
authenticated SMTP and I believe it should be sending in the format:
<NAME> <PASSWORD>, With the space.

Example in case this is not clear:
given a user joe with password: mypass

Mozilla mail sends: am9lbXlwYXNz (decoded to "joemypass") as the authentication
string. It SHOULD send: Cgpqb2UgbXlwYXNz (decoded into: "joe mypass") as the
authentication string.

I have checked and re-checked the settings. Even went into password manager and
deleted the smtp password and recreated it. it still sends joemypass instead of
joe mypass.
--+ Sending of message failed.
An error occurred sendig mail: Unable to connect to SMTP server %S. The server 
may be down or\
may be incorrectly configured. Please verify that your Mail/News account settings are correct and\
try again.

"\" = line break

This message also disrupted the newsreader from downloading new messages from an unrelated newsgroup on a different account.

This occurred in a situation when I had two email accounts, where one worked perfectly fine, and the other (a near exact copy of the first) would not send email (it could receive).  Furthermore, this broken email address is linked to a newsgroup account which itself can send email just fine.

All tests have shown this to be a consistant error.  I will leave the setup as it is for a while to help hunt the bug down.
--+
See also bug 179224 which describes a similar dialogue occurring when sending 
News messages.  I've noted there my observing this error not all the time but 
quite often when sending email messages.  In my case, the error is spurious -- 
the message is delivered properly.
We had a very similar problem with mozilla 1.3final and 1.4alpha on Windows     
plattform. We did a network dump and found out that our mail server was         
giving a two packet answer for 220 (smail on IRIX). This prevented mozilla      
from going on in the SMTP dialog. After changing out mailserver to give a       
one packet 220 answer, every thing was fine. Unfortunately we are not able      
to debug a windows mozilla. Mozilla for Linux and IRIX was fine.  
I'm getting the spirious error message too when I send a message.  It gets
really annoying, but I'm still able to send out mail.  Same as 202246.
I have been experiencing random failures in sending email for many months now
(I'm not sure what version it began in -- I'm currently using 1.4).  At first I
thought it only happened for replies.  The problem  can be pretty tenacious at
times.  Once a failure occurs on a given email that email is doomed.  I've tried
resending every few hours and days but to no avail.  I have even noticed it
occuring on new email, not just replies.  I am beginning to suspect that it has
something to do with the address and perhaps the mood of the mail server (timing
issue?).  In the most recent example the email was quite short and plain text --
nothing fancy.  I had used the email address many times before.  I even tried
creating the message again and copying and pasting the text.  The send mail
still stalls.  I can send test emails to myself and others and it goes through
just fine.

BTW: I tried enabling logging but the log captures nothing when the problem occurs. 

This is really frustrating because it is so random.  Can anyone suggest a good
alternative mail app that is compatible with mozilla saved mail and address book?
As further evidence that there is possibly something related to the address, the
message length, and the sever timing (along with the phase of the moon)...

Regarding the short plain text email I created that refused to be sent, I tried
sending a really short message to the very same email address and it went
through.  I tried sending the "bad" message and it balked.  I then removed the
first two sentences and a blank line, and the message went through just fine. 
Unfortunately I've tried to repeat this trick but it has failed.  I've also
tried creating new SMTP accounds, with the same infoe as the old one. 
Somethimes this works, but most of the time it does not.

Note: Although nothing shows up in the log when a message balks, the
send/receive lights go back and forth a few times as if the system is trying to
send the email, but can't.
I have an email sitting in drafts that I have been trying to send for a while
now.  I've tried all my tricks including chopping out pieces of it and creating
a new SMTP account.  I still can't get it to go through.  I tried installing
Mozilla 1.0.0 and 1.2.1 to send it.  They all fail.  Mind you, the email address
is a known good one, and I can send other emails just fine to the address.  It
is just this one (as is always the case when this happens) that has the kiss of
death.

Since other versions of Mozilla fails and I recall having this problem for quite
a while now i suspect that the problem lies in some strange interaction between
Mozilla and the server.  I am using sbcglocal.net as my ISP, which is no small
outfit.  I used Outlook for a while with the same ISP with no ill effect.  So, I
suspect that the problem lies with Mozilla and has been around, perhaps, since
day one.  Only the seeming random nature of its occurence has allowed this
problem to fly below the radar for so long.  Hopefully someone can solve it soon
because it certainly casts a shadow on the solidity of the app.

--jon
The plot thickens...

There is a definite and repeatable size limit problem (at least this time).  I
kept chopping the bad email down until it would go through.  At that point,
adding a single letter in the body, subject line, or address causes the send to
stall and fail.  Shortening one area allowed the same number of letters to be
added elsewhere.  I'll be glad to send the email in question if that would be of
help.

For the record, I'm using Windows 2K, mozilla 1.4, and the email contained the
following...

13 char address
4 char subject
988 printable char in body
19 total lines in body

Assuming one unprintable char per line the total number of chars as described
above is 1024!  What is going on???

--jon
I have a similar bug on one of my Windows XP systems.  Oddly, I have another XP
machine configured the same way, and it doesn't have the problem.  One machine
has no problem sending (the smtp server is mail.nerowest.com, fwiw), and the
other errors out every time.

I've uninstalled mozilla and reinstalled. (Annyoingly, it kept the account
information around. Naughty uninstaller.)  I've deleted the accounts and the
smtp server information. I'm at a loss at this point, though I'm tempted to
reinstall the computer from scratch to see if that works.
I have the same problems. I'm using Mozilla 1.4 on XP. I have two IMAP accounts
each with their own SMTP server. Both incoming and outgoing mail use SSL.

I don't know what the conditions are for reproducing this behavior. It does not
happen consistently.

However, when it happens I get one main message dialog telling me my message
could not be sent because of connection problems with my SMTP server. A smaller
dialog in the background says the message has been sent successfully. And it all
the cases I've encountered the message has been sent. However, I have sent
messages copied to my sent IMAP folder. When this error occurs, the message is
not copied to the sent folder even though it is sent.

Bug 202426 sounds very similiar to this one.
Mozilla Thunderbird 0.5 (20040207)

Seem to be experiencing the same problem.  Just for kicks, I posted a screenshot
of the error message here:
http://tmnt.mine.nu/~chris/tb-smtp-error.jpg


Interestingly enough, at the office I am using:
Mozilla Thunderbird 0.2 (20030901)

Same exact SMTP server information and accounts, and no problems sending.

With regards to possible size limitations of messages, even a message with
"test" as both subject and body, addressed to myself ("chris@brainlink.com"),
fails to send, same error.

I am not well enough versed on how the Thunderbird and Firefox builds tie into
the main Mozilla Code Trees, but I know that they share the vast majority of the
codebase, so I think this is relevant.

For other descriptions of the same bug, see:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=374936
TPlease check <a href="http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=98098">this
thread</a>; I think this bug is showing itself again, but more consistently.  On
the other hand, it might be something completely different.
RW
Product: MailNews → Core
I encountered a similar problem after configuring Tbird for two different mail accounts (Home and away). TBird still sent to wrong account after offending account was deleted in Settings! Problem cleared after reselecting "From" account on email. Go figure. Occasional mail may have gone through ok, not sure. I've been fiddling with this for some time. Also had this problem for a time in Outlook Express. Could this be system related? -Or did I make some same mistake twice?

My first bug report, pls excuse any errors.

Toby
I'm seeing this with Thunderbird 1.5.0.10 trying to send authenticated mail to a sendmail server.  If I turn off authentication, it works.  Doing a network monitor shows that it connects to the server, sends "EHLO" and gets the EHLO response back, then just drops the connection (immediately after the response is received, the client system sends a TCP FIN), and the above message pops up.
I am experiencing this problem if I take too long to compose a message and am using Thunderbird version 2.0.0.0 (20070326).

Initially a form appears titled [Save Draft Error], "Unable to save your message as draft.  There was an error attaching. Please check if you have access to the file."  I have not made any attempts at attaching files at this point.

Then when I send the email, "Sending of Message Failed" is displayed. I notice that the [Save Draft Error] form does not appear until I input text into the Message subject.

Compare the status bar to the dialog box -- they're in direct contradiction with each other. The dialog box is wrong.
This bug plagues me. See the previous attachment.

I use IMAP to read and organise my mail, and I store my sent mail on the IMAP server so I can read it from other computers. At random points in time, I will receive a "Sending of message failed" error while, at the same time, the status bar shows that the message *WAS* sent.

Sending mail presumably takes a two-step process: Step 1 is to send the mail via SMTP. Step 2 is to copy the mail into the Sent folder on IMAP. If Step 1 fails, I have no choice but to send the message again to force the mail into Sent. The mail **WAS SENT** but the compose window just sits there looking stupid. Nothing gets copied into Sent. So I can but dump duplicate mails on the recipient (great fun if they have large attachments) until Thunderbird is willing to acknowledge that the send operation worked.

Switching away from the compose window while it sends -- despite the overall CPU usage only being in the 20-30% range -- seems to notably increase the odds that Thunderbird will fail to recognise that the message sent. (I don't have Windows set to prioritise frontmost applications.)

I am not using any authentication for SMTP or anything fancy.

Thunderbird 2.0.0.4, Windows 2000.
I have found a couple of things about this problem so far whilst creating messages.
1.  The form that appears appears titled [Save Draft Error], "Unable to save your
message as draft"  does not occur if I am replying to a received message.
2.
I have found a couple of things about this problem so far whilst creating
messages.
1.  The form that appears appears titled [Save Draft Error], "Unable to save
your
message as draft"  does not occur if I am replying to a received message.
2.  If I create a new message, enter some details into the mew message, then save.  Then I delete the message I am currently working on, and retrieve it for the [Drafts] folder. I can now work on the message as long as I like without any problems occuring (in relation to this bug anyway).
3.  I use 3 different email accounts (3 inboxes, 3 drafts folders etc.). This bug does not appear to occur on the default email account (also the first account I set up in Thunderbird.
(In reply to comment #21)
>
> Switching away from the compose window while it sends -- despite the overall
> CPU usage only being in the 20-30% range -- seems to notably increase the odds
> that Thunderbird will fail to recognise that the message sent.

Telcontar, can you quantify the difference?  EG, fails 5/8 times when switched away, versus 1/8 times when compose is in foreground.

Does this happen with trunk build?
 ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/nightly/latest-trunk/
Hm, I've not experienced this bug for a long time. My anti-virus package (BitDefender 10 Free) scans outgoing mail, which screws up sending long mails as Thunderbird sees the message send, and then times out on waiting for a reply while the mail scanning service slowly sends the message out the cable upstream. (OE 6 simply asks you if you want to keep waiting, instead of writing off the attempt.)

Even here, however, Thunderbird lets you make another attempt to send the message, as well as correctly handling the problem of copying to a Sent folder on IMAP failing. (Too bad that after retrying several times, several copies of the mail will finally make it through the secret undocumented anti-virus outbound mail scanner...)

The bug no longer occurs for me.
I have a similar problem.
I think it's IMAP related.

Send a mail, and a window pops up saying "Sending of message failed. The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server ......."

The message WAS actually sent however!

Moving the window a little reveals the "Sending message" status window - and it says "Mail sent successfully".

I know the IMAP server here sometimes hickups, and as best I can tell the problem sending a mail is not SMTP related - but instead related to saving the message in the IMAP Sent-mail folder.
Assignee: mscott → nobody
If folks are still having problems with this bug, then we need to see protocol log for when the error occurs.

Details of how to get a protocol log can be found here: https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging

Please attach to the bug when you have one.
QA Contact: sheelar → networking.smtp
Product: Core → MailNews Core
Anyone still see this problem?
Whiteboard: closeme 2009-03-10
RESO INCO due to lack of response to last question. If you feel this change was made in error, please respond to this bug with your reasons why.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 15 years ago
Resolution: --- → INCOMPLETE
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