544044 - leave messages on the server problem (Version 0.9.8 of GNU pop3d shipped on 30 Jan 2001 doesn't support UIDL & XTND XLST Message-Id)

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(MailNews Core :: Networking: POP, defect)

Description

[filipebatista]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.8 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/4.0.302.3 Safari/532.8
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; pt-PT; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20100111 Thunderbird/3.0.1

Since i upgraded Thunderbird from 2.0 to 3.0 i can't download my messages from the pop server.
I have the option leave messages on the server and when a try to get the messages i get this error:

"The POP3 mail server (mail.xxx.com) does not support UIDL or XTND XLST, which are required to implement the ``Leave on Server'', ``Maximum Message Size'' or ``Fetch Headers Only'' options. To download your mail, turn off these options in the Server Settings for your mail server in the Account Settings window."

In thunderbird 2.0 i was able to get the messages.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Are you sure your server is pop ? these commands apply to imap.

Can you create a pop log following the instructions at https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging , sanitize the log and attach the log here ?

Comment 2

[filipebatista]

Yes, it's pop. I have the e-mail configured in Evolution and also tried in Microsoft Outlook and it work well. Only in Thunderbird has that problem.

Comment 3

[filipebatista]

Attachment: pop3 log

pop3 log

Comment 4

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(CAPA response)
> SEND: CAPA
> RECV: +OK Capability list follows
> RECV: TOP
> RECV: USER
> RECV: RESP-CODES
(UIL, XTND XLST Message-Id are not supported by your server)
> SEND: UIDL
> RECV: -ERR Not implemented
> SEND: XTND XLST Message-Id
> RECV: -ERR Invalid command

Follow next message, please.
> The POP3 mail server (mail.xxx.com) does not support UIDL or XTND XLST,
> which are required to implement the ``Leave on Server'',
> ``Maximum Message Size'' or ``Fetch Headers Only'' options.
> To download your mail, turn off these options in the Server Settings
> for your mail server in the Account Settings window."

I guess next;
  Tb2 or older wrongly implemented "Leave Messages on Server",
  a. after RETR of a mail, don't issue DELE for the mail
  b. when a mail is deleted by user, issue DELE for the mail upon next download 
  even if UIDL / XTND XLST Message-Id is not supported by server,
  (correct implementation of "Leave Messages on Server" is impossible.) 
  based on wrong user requests.
  It caused mail loss after mail box reorganization by POP3 server.
  So, Tb3 stopped the wrong implementation, and issues the error message.

> RECV: +OK POP3 Welcome to GNU POP3 Server Version 0.9.8 <[e-mail]>

No maintenance since 2001?

(Version 0.9.8 of GNU pop3d)
> http://freshmeat.net/projects/gnupop3d/releases/11659 
>   * Rrelease-before
>   * 0.9.8
>   * Rrelease-mid
>   *  30 Jan 2001 06:12
>   * Rrelease-after

Comment 5

[filipebatista]

Basically i have no chance of having that mail server working well in Thunderbird 3.0 right?

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency from comment #4)

(CAPA response)

SEND: CAPA
RECV: +OK Capability list follows
RECV: TOP
RECV: USER
RECV: RESP-CODES
(UIL, XTND XLST Message-Id are not supported by your server)
SEND: UIDL
RECV: -ERR Not implemented
SEND: XTND XLST Message-Id
RECV: -ERR Invalid command

Follow next message, please.

The POP3 mail server (mail.xxx.com) does not support UIDL or XTND XLST,
which are required to implement the Leave on Server'',Maximum Message Size'' or ``Fetch Headers Only'' options.
To download your mail, turn off these options in the Server Settings
for your mail server in the Account Settings window."

I guess next;
Tb2 or older wrongly implemented "Leave Messages on Server",
a. after RETR of a mail, don't issue DELE for the mail
b. when a mail is deleted by user, issue DELE for the mail upon next
download
even if UIDL / XTND XLST Message-Id is not supported by server,
(correct implementation of "Leave Messages on Server" is impossible.)
based on wrong user requests.
It caused mail loss after mail box reorganization by POP3 server.
So, Tb3 stopped the wrong implementation, and issues the error message.

Any reason to believe this still exists?

Comment 7

[gene smith]

I think this may still be an issue. It was last discussed on support forum on 3-2020. It seems to now be mostly confined to yahoo pop users due to "temporary" errors produced by the yahoo server. The reporter on the support forum provided what seems like a reasonable explanation as to the reason for the problem here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1268468?page=3#answer-1294494

I haven't verified all his assertion but I think he is saying the the server puts out a capability response indicating that UIDL is not supported. Servers that don't support this will delete messages fetched from the server so tb latches off any fetches of messages from the server (to avoid data loss) so users can't get mail. Tb never check again until it is restarted and then when the server reports support of UIDL, the mail can be fetched.

This seems like a real problem but Matt and Toad-Hall contend it is only a yahoo and yahoo-like (AOL, Verizon, etc) problem.

After a bit more digging I found a tb bug report with a patch for the problem here: Bug 1577548.

I think the current bug here is maybe a duplicate of Bug 1577548. The problem reported here was actually a constant server bug that I think has been fixed in gnu pop3 server per release notes, so the effect was constant and not transient like in Bug 1577548. So I'll just close this as INVALID since the server was the cause and just reference Bug 1577548 as a related bug.