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Using Apple email IMAP server. Error: Invalid UID fetch attribute XSENDER

  • 37 replies
  • 14 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by chrisnt

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Thunderbird has stopped fetching new messages, giving this message.

The current operation on 'Inbox' did not succeed. The mail server for account ... responded Invalid UID fetch attribute XSENDER

I'm running release 52.2.1 on Windows 7.

Only the most recent messages give this error. Previously fetched messages display properly.

There has been no change to the account settings. Whatever happened seems to have happened at between 9 PM yesterday and 4 AM today. Subsequent messages are listed, but don't open, giving this message.

Thunderbird has stopped fetching new messages, giving this message. The current operation on 'Inbox' did not succeed. The mail server for account ... responded Invalid UID fetch attribute XSENDER I'm running release 52.2.1 on Windows 7. Only the most recent messages give this error. Previously fetched messages display properly. There has been no change to the account settings. Whatever happened seems to have happened at between 9 PM yesterday and 4 AM today. Subsequent messages are listed, but don't open, giving this message.

Modified by Dickr

Chosen solution

The problem resolved itself over night. This is consistent with it having been an Apple problem.

Thanks for your response, and the pointer to the other report.

Dick

Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (17)

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Yes, mine is working today as well. All emails visible including the ones I just downloaded. We'll see if it holds...

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Double posting removed.

Modified by chrisnt

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Mine is working too as of 9 am edt. Yes, let's see it it holds.

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Unfortunately, mine just stopped working approx. 10 am EST

Modified by chrisnt

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One thing — some of my new emails are visible (in a simplified form, at least) if I select "View message body as plain text".

Modified by chrisnt

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works for a while and then not! really something fishy going on here, and the opacity of mozilla and apple is beginning to annoy me. is someone working on this or not? i cannot be bothered with the logging procedure as i have already wasted too much valuable time on this. yes, i like thunderbird and firefox and have used them since their inception. nostalgia however is not enough to shackle me to a time-consuming proposition.

what seems obvious is the location of this issue inside the imap protocol for incoming mail. a tag or code on incoming messages seems to trigger the malfunction by disabling tb's ability to download the message. (next time this occurs look at the lower tool bar and you will see downloading activity logs. again, this leads me to surmise a problem when the mozilla program interfaces with the apple mail server. all the message are on your account server whether you look at the phone, icloud, or macmail).

A PLEA TO MOZILLA: PLEASE FIX THIS!

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i cannot be bothered with the logging procedure as i have already wasted too much valuable time on this.

Too bad. The problem cannot be fixed if it isn't understood. You're the one with the problem, and you can reproduce it. So you're in a position to help the developers understanding the problem. Thunderbird is a community project after all, not a Mozilla product.

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haven't we explained this enough?

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Jmozillq said

A question: if the problem source is apple changing its IMAP settings, why does windows live mail still work fine on my pc and only thunderbird is having a problem? (if apple changed the settings for non-apple email clients, shouldn't it affect all non apple client software?)

Hi Jmozillq, I see your point, and I can not answer your question. I also agree with you that if apple did something, it should affect all non-apple clients.

Maybe tbird has the most peculiar dialect, but let me ask you this; have you updated tibrid app or changed your account setting when this happened? I know I have not, yet the timing of this problem is too precise to be a coincidence.

Has any one of us altered or updated or done anything to the tbird account setting? I think not. That's why I suspected the source is on apple side.

Thanks, Ryosuke

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Ryosuke, i'm using (or rather Was using) Tbird 52.2.1 32 bit (latest version). Prior to the problem i made no setting changes. Since Windows live mail works fine why even bother with TB? I've given up using TB. Or if for some reason later i decide i want to go back to TB i'll just use my gmail instead of my apple address. Gmail works fine with TB even now. It's either apple or mozilla/TB that is the cause of the issue. And looks like no one is responsible for fixing it, so.... I've moved on. WLM is fine and it works. TB is not that great anyway. Remember the often and still recurring issue where a sent email won't copy for some reason to the sent folder?

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A couple of questions:

Would it be worth noting the time when we notice an "outage" when emails start to go blank? For example, when I first checked my emails earlier this morning, all the new ones that arrived overnight and up until 8:00 am (EST) were fine, but I just checked again and a new one that came in at 9:06 am is blank.

Also, on 8/9/17 at 1:31 PM christ1 posted something about "logging" and included this link: tps://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging. I voiced interest in the idea but said I need step-by-step logging instructions for Dummies and and, if possible, a dumbed-down explanation of what logging is all about and how it's used. christ1, are you doing the logging thing and has anyone else tried it?

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A kind soul (nobody from this thread though) posted log data about the problem. This is the current state of affairs:

Looking closer at the log for imap.mail.me.com it appears that tb is doing the right thing. When a mailbox authenticate response contains XSENDER capability, tb includes the XSENDER in the "UID FETCH" request. For mailboxes that do not contain XSENDER capability in the authenticate response there is *no* added XSENDER flag in the "UID FETCH" request to the server.

The problem occurs when the server reports XSENDER capability for the connected mailbox but then rejects the "UID FETCH X:Y (XSENDER ...)" request. For example, the connection for "Sent" mailbox reports the following capability:

[Unnamed thread 0x7f74f97771a0]: I/IMAP
0x7f74dfc11800:imap.mail.me.com:NA:CreateNewLineFromSocket: 1 OK [CAPABILITY XAPPLEPUSHSERVICE IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 ACL RIGHTS=tekx QUOTA LITERAL+ NAMESPACE UIDPLUS CHILDREN BINARY UNSELECT SORT CATENATE URLAUTH LANGUAGE ESEARCH ESORT THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES CONDSTORE ENABLE QRESYNC CONTEXT=SEARCH
CONTEXT=SORT WITHIN SASL-IR SEARCHRES METADATA ID XSENDER X-SUN-SORT ANNOTATE-EXPERIMENT-1 X-UNAUTHENTICATE X-SUN-IMAP XUM1 IDLE] User gd.smth logged

Then on the same mailbox the following UID FETCH occurs with an error response from the server:

[Unnamed thread 0x7f74f97771a0]: I/IMAP 0x7f74dfc11800:imap.mail.me.com:S-Sent:SendData: 8 UID fetch 1,2:3 (XSENDER UID RFC822.SIZE BODY.PEEK[])
[Unnamed thread 0x7f74f97771a0]: D/IMAP ReadNextLine [stream=0x7f74e03952c0 nb=43 needmore=0]
[Unnamed thread 0x7f74f97771a0]: I/IMAP
0x7f74dfc11800:imap.mail.me.com:S-Sent:CreateNewLineFromSocket: 8 BAD Invalid UID Fetch attribute XSENDER

This information should be reported to Apple so they can fix their server.

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thanks for this valuable data. i for one will contact apple with this information.

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rdannin,

I've been away for a week and my emails now seem to be fine. Has the problem been fixed?

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the problem has resolved. i still haven't connected with apple to submit the log data you kindly forwarded to me. i intend to do so. do you think this could be viral? just a thought but the way it cropped up and then gradually disappeared exhibits a pattern of biological viruses.

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rdannin said

i still haven't connected with apple to submit the log data you kindly forwarded to me.

Hi rdannin,

Actually it wasn't me (chrisnt) but rather "christ1" that forwarded the log data. Christ1 obviously understands the deep innards of the software. In contrast, I'm the guy who was asking for "step-by-step logging instructions for Dummies", which gives you a good idea of my level of knowledge on the subject.  :)

Anyway, I'm thankful there are some folks who understand all this stuff, and relieved that the situation seems to have been resolved. Let's hope it doesn't recur.

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