Some mail on server will not download to client

[Alex Ethridge]

Expecting a reply that was late, I discovered the reply was on the FutureQuest mail server and will not download to my Thunderbird. Just as a test, I sent myself a test mail and it downloaded fine.

What would cause this and how can I prevent it?

Also, I would like to get that mail downloaded to TBird. It is a text mail absent any attachment. I do not use mail filters or any kind of blocking. I don't have a Junk folder, either.

[Kevin]

Are you using POP3 or IMAP4?

[Alex Ethridge]

Pop3

[Kevin]

That is probably the problem. POP3 was designed to download simple emails to a simple single client. It tends to fall flat when used by basic 1990s era clients.

[Bob]

Hello Alex,

Have you tried resetting the messages in that account as New, from your CNC Email Manager? Then try accessing from Thunderbird again.

If that fails then possibly the message is malformed and Thunderbird simply cannot handle it, this usually occurs with Outlook more often but it has been known to happen with Thunderbird as well.

-Bob

[Alex Ethridge]

As a test, I just ran Eudora and it downloaded just fine to it.

I recently changed to Thunderbird as I now have multiple e-mail addresses.

This is not a good thing. What might I be able to do about this? I need all my mail saved in one place, not scattered between local and net.

[Kevin]

I also use Thunderbird. I also have several email addresses. All of them are accessed via imap4.

I actually run my own imap server for most of them (because I want many gigs of email storage) but a decent imap client (like Thunderbird) can simply cache locally and it works very well.

POP3 otoh became obsolete about the time that HTTP became popular. It is only still supported because there are clients that haven't yet become compatible with the late 1990s.

[Alex Ethridge]

By the way, both TBird and Eudora are using POP.

[Alex Ethridge]

I set up a TBird IMAP account and the message downloaded.

I have continued to use POP because it was what was there in the 90's when I started using the internet and I was not even aware of the term "IMAP" until a couple of years ago, let alone what it meant.

I'm still not aware of what it means or how it is different from POP.

[Melissa]

I have continued to use POP because it was what was there in the 90's when I started using the internet and I was not even aware of the term "IMAP" until a couple of years ago, let alone what it meant.

I'm still not aware of what it means or how it is different from POP.

Hi Alex,

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. (POP stands Post Office Protocol.)

Typically with POP, email messages in the inbox on the server are downloaded to your local computer and then usually removed from the server.

With IMAP, the messages are stored on the server and accessed from there (they are not removed from the server unless you explicitly delete them). IMAP allows you to have access to the same folder structure and messages for a mailbox when you manage your email from multiple machines (since the folder structure and messages are stored on the server).

Hope that helps,
Melissa

[Alex Ethridge]

I set up the IMAP on TBird; but, I cannot send any mail from that account and I cannot find any way to adjust settings for the SMTP server in TBird.

I get the following error message when attempting to send:
An error occurred while sending mail. The server responded: Hostname/Domain name not valid or not available.. Please check the message recipient xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.com and try again.

I know the recipient's address is correct because it works fine on another account in TBird.

I click OK on the above message and then get this:
Sending message failed.
The message could not be sent because the connection to SMTP server smtp.xxxxxxxxxxxx.com was lost in the middle of the transaction. Try again or contact your network administrator.

The SMTP server above is for alexethridge on a FutureQuest server.

Another error when attempting to save the unsent message to Drafts:
Unable to save your message as draft.
Please verify that your Mail and Newsgroups account settings are correct and try again.

(I don't do Newsgroups.)

[Bob]

Hello Alex,

You have to specify the server settings for each separate account you set up in ThunderBird.

If you have a three pane view the left column should have the account name. Clicking on that will allow you to access the settings. "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" settings is what you are looking for.

-Bob

[Alex Ethridge]

I've run into this before. There is no access in TBird to SMTP settings. I did a screen shot but can't find a way here to upload it.

There is nothing about SMTP or Outgoing at all whatsoever in any of the Account Settings screens.

[Bob]

Hi again Alex,

Try clicking once on the Account Name and then in the top menu options of Thunderbird under Edit select properties and then that box should have the Option I mentioned.

-Bob

[Kevin]

Edit > Account Settings
In the left side pane of the settings window the last line should be "Outgoing Server (SMTP)"

[Kevin]

If it wasn't clear, I was describing where to add and configure SMTP servers which it appears Alex has already done. Bob was describing how to configure an email account to use a particular SMTP server from one of the servers that had been defined.

[Alex Ethridge]

Okay, I found where SMTP is listed; but, I don't see where the adjustments for ports, etc. are?

Right-click the identity> Settings> Manage Identities> Edit

I am using TBird 11 and no ports or other settings are there.

[Bob]

Hi again,

Those would not be the correct settings.

You should be able to left click on the account name...

Under View - Layout make sure you have Folder Pane selected...

Then you should be able to Left click on the Account Name for the new account and there you should see "View Settings for this Account"...

-Bob

[skolnick]

I have stuck with POP3 mostly through inertia. I've done a few IMAP configurations, mostly for infrastructure applications.

For those of us who still spend a lot of time NOT connected to the grid, do common e-mail clients have local storage of e-mail under IMAP?

[Kevin]

I have stuck with POP3 mostly through inertia. I've done a few IMAP configurations, mostly for infrastructure applications.

For those of us who still spend a lot of time NOT connected to the grid, do common e-mail clients have local storage of e-mail under IMAP?

Most email clients can cache email locally for off-line reading of imap email. In fact I wish I could disable that feature in ThunderBird as it is a complete waste of disk space in my case. There are also local folders where you can move your email to so that it is local only if you want to.

[Kevin]

Most email clients can cache email locally for off-line reading of imap email. In fact I wish I could disable that feature in ThunderBird as it is a complete waste of disk space in my case. There are also local folders where you can move your email to so that it is local only if you want to.

I should have looked harder. I had almost 300MB in a "Cache" folder within my .thunderbird dir but the OfflineCache folder was empty as I had the feature properly disabled. I just looked in the configuration editor and found browser.cache.disk.enable which I set to false and now I no longer have that waste of 300MB of disk space :yeah:

Note that I consider it a waste because my IMAP server is the same computer that serves the NFS where my home directory is stored. Therefore the cache was just as remote as the email. In fact they are on the same physical storage device (a software RAID1 volume).