1846109 - I have a problem to synchronize icloud message with Thunderbird

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(MailNews Core :: Networking: IMAP, defect)

Description

[Eduardo]

Attachment: Screenshot Error Thunderbird icloud.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0

Steps to reproduce:

After adding successfully, a new mail account (iCloud account). I have checked it seeing the new folder for this account as Inbox, send, etc.
And checking it sending and receiving emails in this account using other account withing Thunderbird.

Actual results:

First TB showing this error,
"The current operation on 'Inbox’ did not succeed. The mail server for account @icloud.com responded: Parse Error (took 0 ms)."

Then writing a new email from my iCloud account to another in Outlook account. The new email was sent, with a message saying that and was received in the outlook folder as well, and total message count in zero showing 1 after sending this mentioned email. But the iCloud folder send is empty, there is not any email.
In thunderbird from Outlook folder, I took the new email received from iCloud account and reply again to iCloud account. The second email was sent, the Inbox iCloud folder total amount become with 1, as received any new email, but no email was there.

Expected results:

I expect to see the outgoing email in the sent folder, and the reply email in the iCloud inbox folder. Although there is an error mentioned before, it seems the email was sent and received.
Going to iPad I cannot see the sent message to outlook as well, but I can see the reply message sent from Outlook account using TB, receiving in iCloud in the iPad inbox. I have tried to change some set up as I found in here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1370815 but applying some changes in the set-up did not resolve the problem.

Comment 1

[Eduardo]

Made a mistake in the detail
Going to iPad I can see the sent message to outlook, but in a second sent folder, and I can see the reply message sent from Outlook account using TB, receiving in iCloud in the iPad inbox as well.

Comment 2

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Eduardo, does this still reproduce for you?

Comment 3

[Eduardo]

Yes, I keep having the same problem.
Although I can connect my iCloud account into Thunderbird, I can only send an email from Thunderbird, which doesn’t get registered in the Sent folder. Also, if I send email to my iCloud account, I can’t receive it in Thunderbird, I only receive in other device using other email app not TB.

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Eckard, have you had any problems?

Comment 5

[Eckard Berberich]

I'm using an iCloud account on my Mac since several years and have no problems sending or receiving messages (TB 128-esr and TB 136).
On the other side I can't test with Outlook because I never used it.

Comment 6

[Eduardo]

(In reply to Eckard Berberich from comment #5)

I'm using an iCloud account on my Mac since several years and have no problems sending or receiving messages (TB 128-esr and TB 136).
On the other side I can't test with Outlook because I never used it.

The ticket I created is for issues in a different scenario. I have TB 128.8.1esr (64-bit) installed on a Linux system (not macOS), specifically Ubuntu 24.04, where I am experiencing problems to connect TB with iCloud account as mentioned above.

Comment 7

[gene smith]

Eduardo,
My iCloud account is working OK with TB for sending and receiving. I know you have to set up an "app specific" password for use with incoming and outgoing servers (imap and smtp) to use TB with icloud.
Also, when messages are sent, make sure they go to a folder called "Sent Messages" which must be configured in Server Settings | Copies and Folders | When sending messages automatically | Place a copy in | Other: Sent Messages on <your account name>.
Also, make sure "Sent Messages" is subscribed (right click on icloud account, choose subscribe and make sure "Sent Messages" is checked (may need to do this before the previous step for "Sent Messages" to be visible in the "Other:" list of folders and in the normal folder list).
I'm still on kubuntu 22.04 but 24.04 should be the same.

Comment 8

[Eduardo]

Attachment: Thunderbird mail warning mar25.png

Comment 9

[Eduardo]

Attachment: Place in copy OTHERS mar25.png

Comment 10

[Eduardo]

Attachment: Sent Property mar25.png

Comment 11

[Eduardo]

Attachment: Inbox Property mar25.png

Comment 12

[Eduardo]

Thank you for your prompt help.
I have decided to remove my iCloud account from Thunderbird and set it up again, taking your recommendations into account.
The iCloud account was successfully added to Thunderbird without any issues.
In Copies & Folders, under "When sending messages automatically", I selected "Place a copy in" → "Other: Sent Messages on <your account name>", and it saved without any problem (see the screenshot).

However, during testing in Thunderbird, I sent an email From: my iCloud account To: my iCloud account. Surprisingly, I couldn't see the email in either the Inbox or the Sent folder in Thunderbird.

When I checked my iPhone, I could see the email in both the Inbox and the Sent folder.
It seems that Thunderbird is not properly syncing the folders.
What else should I check or configure to resolve this issue?
Note: I have added 4 new screenshots for explaining the issue.

Comment 13

[gene smith]

I thought I remembered seeing "parse error" with icloud some time in the past such as here: bug 355205. However, this involves tags and not saving to sent.
Also found this (bug 1741748 comment 2) which sounds similar, but no mention of "parse error".

However, during testing in Thunderbird, I sent an email From: my iCloud account To: my iCloud account. Surprisingly, I couldn't see the email in either the Inbox or the Sent folder in Thunderbird.

Did you just compose in TB a new message that you sent to yourself? Or was it an older message you accessed and did an "Edit as new" on it before sending? If old and did "edit as new" it may contain the problem leading "From" as discussed in bug 1741748.

Another thing to try is to compose a message and save it to Drafts. Does it appear in Drafts? FYI, saving to Drafts is the same imap server command as saving to Sent (imap append).

I've done several tests with icloud account sending to self and I see the message appearing in the Sent folder and in Inbox like it should. So if you can duplicate the problem, I think the only way to know why icloud is giving you the "parse error" is to record an IMAP:4 log as described here: https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging#Linux/unix, then attach the log file.

Comment 14

[Eduardo]

Attachment: thunderbird_imap_log.txt.moz_log

Comment 15

[Eduardo]

(In reply to gene smith from comment #13)

Did you just compose in TB a new message that you sent to yourself? Or was it an older message you accessed and did an "Edit as new" on it before sending? If old and did "edit as new" it may contain the problem leading "From" as discussed in bug 1741748.

Another thing to try is to compose a message and save it to Drafts. Does it appear in Drafts? FYI, saving to Drafts is the same imap server command as saving to Sent (imap append).

I have created a new email from scratch, not by editing an old message as new.

When testing by creating a new email and saving it as a draft, I cannot see it in the Drafts' folder as well in Thunderbird. However, if I check on my iPhone, I can see it in the Drafts folder.
Attached, you will find the log "thunderbird_imap_log.txt.moz_log" . I hope you can identify the issue.
Thanks again.
Note: Please take into account that I manage multiple accounts in Thunderbird (including Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, accounts, etc.).

Comment 16

[gene smith]

Reply to comment 9: (Wrote this before I saw your comment 15)

Attached image Place in copy OTHERS mar25.png — Details

I doubt if this will affect your problem, but you still have OTHER just set to "Sent". I think it would be better to set it to "Sent Messages". With it set to "Sent" it is no different than selecting the top radio button "Sent folder on <your account>". Also, "Sent Messages" (and "Deleted Messages") are the icloud assigned names for "Sent" (and "Trash"), so you should use them in TB to match up with how other apple products (ipad/phone) will probably be using by default.

Make sure "Sent Messages" is subscribed in TB to see it. Also, once you set OTHER to "Sent Messages" you can delete (or unsubscribe) "Sent" folder if you want. Of course, if deleting it, first copy anything in "Sent" to "Sent Messages".
Note: When I deleted "Sent" many of the icloud folders became unsubscribed. So, if you do this, you may have to re-subscribe to see all your folder. Right-click account name and choose "Subscribe..."

Comment 17

[gene smith]

From comment 14 attachment:

66 UID fetch 5 (UID RFC822.SIZE FLAGS BODY.PEEK[HEADER.FIELDS (From To Cc Bcc Subject Date Message-ID Priority X-Priority References Newsgroups In-Reply-To Content-Type Reply-To x-send-later-at x-send-later-recur x-send-later-args x-send-later-cancel-on-reply x-send-later-uuid content-type [e-mail])])

66 BAD Parse Error (took 0 ms)

It looks like you have set something in prefs that request some "custom" headers be fetched? I'm not sure how this works or if it is OK or not but for some reason icloud doesn't like it. Your messages are getting put into the correct folders (Sent, Draft, Inbox etc) but when TB tries to fetch the headers it needs, icloud refuses.
If you added these to prefs (Config Editor) at some time, I would recommend removing them and see if it makes a difference. Then restart TB and do your test again.
My guess is that icloud doesn't like the last one with a @ in. Either that or the string is just too long?

Comment 18

[gene smith]

Added your custom headers to mailnews.customHeaders and I see the parse error. If I remove just the last one (the email address) icloud remains happy and I see the sent messages in Inbox and Sent Messages

Comment 19

[Eduardo]

(In reply to gene smith from comment #18)
Excellent news, thanks to explore more in detail and find the problem!!!!
But please help me, I do not know where is the Config editor for change mailnews.customHeaders. I have tried to find it, but I couldn't find it.
Thanks again.

Comment 20

[gene smith]

You go to "hamburger" and select Settings.
Then go to General, then at very bottom at far right, click button "Config Editor"
In config editor search bar, enter customh and you should see mailnews.customHeaders
Click the "pen" icon to edit or remove the custom headers.
FWIW, when I edit to this x-send-later-at: x-send-later-recur: x-send-later-args: x-send-later-cancel-on-reply: x-send-later-uuid: content-type: x-support-newsletterATflightaware-com it works.
Then to save click the check mark. Best to restart to make sure TB sees the change.

Edit: I've never used or helped anyone with custom headers. But this describes what they do:
https://kb.mozillazine.org/Custom_headers
Note also, the content-type header is a default header TB always asks for. So not really needed in the customHeaders list.

Comment 21

[Eduardo]

Finally I found it and I can fix the problem. Thanks a lot for your help. It is very strange this email [e-mail] it is not related to iCloud account, but it is true, I can see all the same email that I can see in the Inbox and sent folders from my iPhone and from thunderbird in Ubuntu. Thanks again.

Comment 22

[gene smith]

Ok, glad you can now use icloud again with imap!