297557 - Mozilla won't delete mail off server

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(MailNews Core :: Networking: POP, defect)

Description

[d_scott]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040803
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040803

After using Mozilla for many months, around May 1 it stopped deleting mail from
the server, even though it is set to do so when I delete it or move it from the
inbox.  This causes an overflow on my mail server and new mail bounces back to
the sender, until I go back to the server and manually delete the excess.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Daniel Kies]

I see the same bug too for about the same time frame, using win32 seamonkey
nightly builds each day.

I have mail/news set to download mail every 5 minutes automatically, junk
filters enabled, and max message size set to 40KB.  When a bit of virus
generated spam arrives (such as a bogus "Error Report") with an attachment of
60KB or 172KB for example, mail/news truncates the message correctly, marks it
as spam and moves it to the Junk folder correctly, but fails to delete it off
the server.  Next time mail/news fetches mail automatically, it will download
another copy.  This will continue until I login to the mail server and delete
the offending bit of spam with another application.  If this continues
uninterrupted, mail/news might download hundreds of copies of the offending spam
mail.

This problem is intermittent.  Not every spam mail with a larger than allowed
attachment that arrives, is marked, and is moved to the Junk folder will trigger
this problem.  I have never seen a legitimate oversized email with attachment do
this; however, large legitimate emails never trigger a Junk filter and remain in
the Inbox. 

Comment 2

[Frank Wein [:mcsmurf]]

Can you create a POP3 log as described under
http://www.mozilla.org/quality/mailnews/mail-troubleshoot.html#pop and attach it
here? BTW: You might also consider updating to Mozilla 1.7.8, also if doesn't
fix your problem, it is still a good idea (security bugs fixed) :)

Comment 3

[Daniel Kies]

Frank, thank you.  I have POP3 logging started successfully, and I will attach a
log here when I have one.  As I said, it's a common, though intermittent,
problem so it might be a while before I have a log for you.  I see this bug on
seamonkey trunk nightlies: I am currently running Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U;
Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050613.

Comment 4

[Daniel Kies]

Attachment: POP3 log for bug 297557

Attached is a POP3 log illustrating the problem reported in this bug.  The log
is 201KB.  Near the end, you will see that one spam-mail (the subject line is
"Your password has been successfully updated") was downloaded -- but never
deleted -- from the server seven times (before I logged into the mail server
with another application and deleted the offending email manually).  This is
exactly the problem I described earlier -- downloading a bit of spam with an
attachment over the max size limit set in my mail/news preferences, and then
mail/news marks, moves to Junk, but does not delete the spam.

A truncated copy of the offending spam will follow.

Comment 5

[Daniel Kies]

Attachment: Truncated spam email that created the problem noted in the POP3 log

The truncated spam mail, 2KB.  Hope this helps and thank you.

Comment 6

[Daniel Kies]

FYI, I have managed to collect two more POP3 logs and the emails that triggered
this bug since my first log posting.  Let me know if you want them.

Comment 7

[d_scott]

(In reply to comment #6)
> FYI, I have managed to collect two more POP3 logs and the emails that triggered
> this bug since my first log posting.  Let me know if you want them.

Wow, I'm overwhelmed by the help you and Frank have offered.  I took the
suggestion to upgrade to 1.7.8, and I deleted everything off the Compuserve
server by using my old Compuserve software.  One or both of these eliminated the
problem, and now messages deleted on Mozilla delete from the server as well.  

Re the rogue attachment to an e-mail, I don't understand.  I get so much spam,
that I just delete it manually several times a day.  Regarding the size of
attachments, I can't set a maximum because many of my legit incoming messages
have attachemets of 600K or more, usually Word or Excel documents.  Also, I
receive occasional groups of photos which are much larger.  

Re the log, where do I create the batch file?  In a dos window?  When should I
run it, and how would I know what to look for?  This one is outside my knowledge
somewhat, although I do go back to dos machines.

Thanks again,
Davis Scott

Comment 8

[Patrick]

Dave, thanks for your feedback. Do you think this was a fluke? In other words,
can we resolve this bug as "Worksforme"?

Comment 9

[d_scott]

(In reply to comment #8)
> Dave, thanks for your feedback. Do you think this was a fluke? In other words,
> can we resolve this bug as "Worksforme"?

I can say that the problem is solved at this point.  I did take 2 suggestions,
upgrading to 1.7.8, and deleting all messages from the Compuserve server
manually, using Compuserve's software.  Since I did this at the same time, I
can't say which one solved the issue.  I do to give credence to the theory that
that the problem was caused by a malicious e-mail or attachement, but again, I
can't say whether the upgrade to a stronger client or deleting everything on the
server did the trick.  My gut tells me it may have been the latter, if for no
other reason than it made sense to me in light of the explaination of the
e-mail.  My skills are not sufficinent to understand how the upgrade would have
helped, but if it did, I say thanks.

As for the batch file, I may venture into that and forward it as time permits.

Thanks for everyone's help.
Davis

Comment 10

[Daniel Kies]

Patrick, I would say this is NOT resolved.  I still irregularly get spam mails
that mail/news fails to delete from the server.  In addition to the POP3 log and
spam mail I attached to this bug, I have two more POP3 logs and respective
triggering emails if those will help.  I can easily collect more if you need them.

Comment 11

[Patrick]

(In reply to comment #10)
> Patrick, I would say this is NOT resolved.  I still irregularly get spam mails
> that mail/news fails to delete from the server.  In addition to the POP3 log and
> spam mail I attached to this bug, I have two more POP3 logs and respective
> triggering emails if those will help.  I can easily collect more if you need them.

Dan, if they are obtained with a recent trunk build, can you please attach those
logs and give us the Build ID? Thank you :)

Comment 12

[Daniel Kies]

Attachment: POP3 log two for bug 297557

Patrick, the original POP3 log above was made with win32 seamonkey trunk
nightly 20050613.

The next two logs I will attach here (POP3 logs two and three) were created
with the same build later in the day.  POP3 log four was made with win32
seamonkey trunk nightly 20050614.

I am still now running win32 trunk nightly 20050620 (zip build), and I still
see this problem as I described it above with each nightly.  The problem is
intermittent but regular enough that I can capture two or three examples of
this problem each day.

Comment 13

[Daniel Kies]

Attachment: Truncated spam email that created the problem noted in the POP3 log two

Comment 14

[Daniel Kies]

Attachment: POP3 log three for bug 297557

Comment 15

[Daniel Kies]

Attachment: Truncated spam email that created the problem noted in the POP3 log three

Comment 16

[Daniel Kies]

Attachment: POP3 log four for bug 297557

Comment 17

[Patrick]

problem fixed for reporter, but still occurs for other, reopening.

Comment 18

[Daniel Kies]

Attachment: Truncated spam email that created the problem noted in the POP3 log four

My current UA string:  Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US;
rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050620

I am still seeing this misbehavior with most recent builds.

Comment 19

[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
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 20

[Daniel Kies]

Yes, I still see this behavior in the latest build of SeaMonkey 1.1a.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20050927
SeaMonkey/1.1a

Comment 21

[Stéphane Grégoire (yamo)]

Hi,

I never had this bug do you still have it?

Comment 22

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Dan, do you see this with current trunk? 
   ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/seamonkey/nightly/latest-trunk/

Comment 23

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

RESO INCO per lack of response to last question. If you think this change was made in error, please respond with your reasons why to this bug.