242776 - mail duplicate on pop3 account if set leave messages on the server

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, defect)

Description

[Francesco]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7b) Gecko/20040421
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7b) Gecko/20040421

if u set leave message on the server on a mail pop3 account
i recive mails already donwloaded in some random check new mail action
( not rare case at all...)

Reproducible: Sometimes
Steps to Reproduce:
1. pop account
2. leave messages on the servers
3. check new mail

Actual Results:  
download again all mails

Expected Results:  
only new messages

Comment 1

[Christian Eyrich]

But you don't get already downloaded ones each time?
The duplicate ones are they the new ones from the last retrieve. Or all on the
server to this date?

Info: We store downloaded messages in a file called popstate.dat. You could
watch this file if it a) is empty before retrieving messages or b) isn't updated
after retrieving messages (in this case you should copy away it before to
compare it afterwards).

Comment 2

[OstGote!]

Is your profile or mail folder hidden? See Bug 242736.

Comment 3

[Francesco]

hi
all the popstate.dat files have not the "hidden" file attribute , should it be
set to hidden ?

when duplicate mails happen it retrive all messages from the pop3 server (obv
marked as new in the mail client).


the relevant popstate.dat is not empty before retrieving messages.
It has 24 lines (like the message the client download each time it happen).

this problems seem to happen randomly in the download when i try to check mail
by client :sometimes download all message sometimes nothingh, but the bug happen
very often.

The same problem i got on another xp pc with thunderbird on the same account and
same settings (leave pop3 message on the server) 

Comment 4

[Christian Eyrich]

I've no guess, sorry. I the messages are listed in the file and loaded it's very
strange Mozilla doesn't recognize the mails on download.

If you send yourself a message and then retrieve messages, does a new line show
up in the popstate.dat?
You could also attach (use the function above please) a communications log when
checking for mails:
http://www.mozilla.org/quality/mailnews/mail-troubleshoot.html#pop
I don't expect to find anything surprising, but it's a try.

Comment 5

[Francesco]

hi

the postate.dat add a line with a new message.

i tryed then to remove, restart latest Mozilla and then was ricreated with 25
lines .

then i checked again and first replay was no new message, then at the secon
check download again 25 messages.


i run on dos 

set NSPR_LOG_MODULES=IMAP:5
set NSPR_LOG_FILE=c:\tmp\filename
C:\Programmi\mozilla.org\Mozilla\mozilla.exe

but log file was empity after downloading emails

also i tryed the setting
 NSPR_LOG_MODULES=POP:5
with the same 0 byte log 

Btw could this  be a problem of the provider pop3 server? 

set NSPR_LOG_MODULES=IMAP:5
set NSPR_LOG_FILE=c:\tmp\filename
C:\Programmi\mozilla.org\Mozilla\mozilla.exe

but no log 

Comment 6

[Francesco]

hi

i think i have found the point

i tryed with a different mail provider and all was fine.

then i tryed on another account but on same provider that i got problem
and  it happen again

the provider is lycos.it so i guss now it is a provider pop3 server problem
with md5 or what it used for the pop3 protocol

Comment 7

[Christian Eyrich]

> set NSPR_LOG_MODULES=IMAP:5
This line should be set NSPR_LOG_MODULES=POP3:5 as written in the description on
the page.

> Btw could this  be a problem of the provider pop3 server? 

Might be if the message id's in the list we use to recognize a message change
sometimes. That is, if the server genereates a different UIDL for the very same
message. But this is very unlikely.

What do you mean with MD5? The UIDL generation?

Comment 8

[Patrick Quaedackers]

(In reply to comment #0)
I have sometimes the same problem.
Once in a while Mozilla starts downloading ALL messages stored on the server.
That results often in lots of duplicate e-mails in my inbox. (about half of them
are "unread").

I don't suspect that this is a bug in Mozilla, because I think that other
mail-clients have the same problem. (Outlook)

It also happens quite often after my provider did some maintanance on the
(mail)servers.

Since every email has a unique ID inside the header, is it possible to check if
an email already exists with that ID and if found, don't download it. 

Comment 9

[Christian Eyrich]

It would be possible. With problems and drawbacks.

The problem is to scan through all local messages for every message to be
downloaded. Or Mozilla has to build up a database of all local messages (needs
only to be build once for each get messages). Both quite slow.

And on download, every message on the server (that can be twenty or
fivethousand) needs to be downloaded (or even the header) to check its message ID.

Comment 10

[Francesco]

i have wrote to isp

i discoverd that 2 different versions of server answer:

 RECV: +OK Lycos Mail POP3 v2.1.0 

 RECV: +OK Lycos Mail POP3 v2.1.2 

for european lycos server ; this seem why sometimes happen sometime not...

so i have sent an email to them using postmaster@

Comment 11

[Christian Eyrich]

And you could verify that the problem occurs only with one of the versions?
Or if the problem occurs with both versions it might be that the generated ID
are incompatible. So you get all messages if the popstate.dat contains ID from
one version and you're connected to the other one.
That would be very interesting.

Please keep us up to date if Lycos answers (unlikely I guess).

Comment 12

[Francesco]

i can not verify since i can not discover semparate box
behind pop.lycos.it ( or .de, co.uk, etc) by nslookup  or logs.

the popstate.dat is always keeping status
but some times the pop3 client return no new message some times all new  then
downloaded...

so from the log i see that a difference was the version of the server.

i could attach the log i think 1 server replay with uidl

134791168[80c4380]: SEND: UIDL
134791168[80c4380]: Entering NET_ProcessPop3 5
134791168[80c4380]: POP3: Entering state: 3
134791168[80c4380]: RECV: +OK
134791168[80c4380]: POP3: Entering state: 12
134791168[80c4380]: Entering NET_ProcessPop3 10
134791168[80c4380]: POP3: Entering state: 12
134791168[80c4380]: RECV: 1 352


and other with

134791168[80c4380]: SEND: UIDL
134791168[80c4380]: Entering NET_ProcessPop3 28
134791168[80c4380]: POP3: Entering state: 3
134791168[80c4380]: RECV: +OK 1 message, 1887 bytes.
134791168[80c4380]: POP3: Entering state: 12
134791168[80c4380]: Entering NET_ProcessPop3 12
134791168[80c4380]: POP3: Entering state: 12
134791168[80c4380]: RECV: 1 m:352
134791168[80c4380]: POP3: Entering state: 12


seem a "m:" is the difference on the same mailbox status...

Comment 13

[Christian Eyrich]

Yep, that's what I meant.
So if you are connected to a server with the same version on successive message
gets, you'll only get the really new messages reported.
But you'll get all if this message list comes from another server than the last
time.
So this explanation exactly fits the data we have and what you're experiencing.

If you agree, would you please close this bug as INVALID? If another aspect
arises you can reopen it at any time.

Comment 14

[Francesco]

ok

also surprise:

seem that the m: prefix is dissapered so seem lycos fixed it.

cheers