221436 - If POP server goes down, Mozilla never checks for new mail again

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(MailNews Core :: Networking: POP, defect)

Description

[Anthony DiSante]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20030925
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20030925

POP server goes offline, for whatever reason.  Presumably, Mozilla's
auto-mail-check feature made an attempt to connect to the server while it was
down.  After the server comes back online, I notice that the auto-mail-check
doesn't seem to be happening, so I right-click on the account name and choose
"Get Messages for Account," but Mozilla doesn't.  It completely ignores my
command.  But another account that uses a different POP server works fine.

Also, closing the Mail window and re-opening it doesn't fix things.  I need to
close all my *browser* windows too, and then open Mail again, and things work
correctly.

I did try the "Go Offline..." feature, and then came back online, but that also
did not fix it.

This exact scenario has happened to me a few times now, as my POP server has
been going offline sporadically during the past couple weeks.  And I know for
sure when it's back up, because I can access it from other mail clients and from
web-based POP checkers.

I think this should probably be assigned "Major" status or higher, since an
email client refusing to download email is pretty serious, but I think that
someone will send me out if I try that.  So I'm leaving it as "Normal."

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1

[Ray Booysen]

Build 2003100804

I can confirm that the auto-check does not work, but the getting of the messages
manually. I don't suppose you want to hear this, but can you try a newer build.

Comment 2

[Anthony DiSante]

Yeah, I'll try the latest build.  I have to constantly close all my browser
windows anyway, in order to get the mail to really close, in order to cause the
mail to start working again, so I'm used to this nonsense by now.  (Not that
that makes it any less frustrating.)

Just by the way, what do the little yellow locks on the email icons mean?  I
can't seem to find any pattern to their appearance.  I've got 4 POP accounts,
and some of them have the locks, sometimes, while others don't, sometimes.

Comment 3

[Ray Booysen]

What locks are you speaking off?

Comment 4

[Christian Eyrich]

Anthony, the locks mean that this servers uses an encrypted connection (e.g. SSL).
If you uncheck "Use secure connection (SSL) in the POP or IMAP settings, the
locks should go away (at least after close and reopen of the 3pane window).

Comment 5

[Anthony DiSante]

I just installed v20031007 and the problem persists.  Also, I realized that it
happens anytime my internet connection is unavailable (i.e. it's not
specifically a POP server issue except insofar as the POP server is where it
needs to get to).

Christian, thanks for explaining the locks to me.  I guess what confused me is
that sometimes, my SSL accounts don't have locks on them; I learned that the
locks only appear after it has connected to a server, so they're not there when
you first start the mail program.

I guess my biggest complaint is that I can't force the mail program to *try* to
connect.  It's no big deal if it gets a little confused when it can't reach the
server, but right-clicking an account and choosing "Get Messages" should ALWAYS
cause Mozilla to ATTEMPT to connect, rather than relying on some state-info
about the last time it tried to connect.

And I noticed that the bug owner is excluded from mail when this bug is updated.
Does that mean I really have no hope of this getting fixed?  Should I bump up
the Severity a notch, just so the owner at least knows the bug exists? 

Comment 6

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
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you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
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If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
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Thank you for your help in this matter.

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Comment 7

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.