Problem email client iPhone ios18.2
Hello,
I have a fairly new installation of the Dovecot server version 2.3.19.1 on Debian 12.8.
In general, the server works correctly. It sends and receives emails without issues. The clients primarily use Thunderbird on desktops and Gmail on Android.
However, some clients are using iPhones with various hardware versions. Those with iOS below version 18 work correctly without any issues. Those who have updated their phones to version 18 and now even 18.2 are experiencing problems with mailbox synchronization.
On version 18.2, the issue appears as follows: When you open the app, you can read several messages. They load correctly, but, for instance, attachments do not. If I wait for some time, the attachment eventually loads. During this time, I observe the server logs, and it shows that a certain session on the Dovecot server has ended.
Dec 17 13:13:01 iredmail0 dovecot[408]: imap(xxx@xxx.com)<44785><1QGZCHcp/+3AqM2O>: Disconnected: Connection closed (UID SEARCH finished 92.295 secs ago) in=2972 out=6076956 deleted=0 expunged=0 trashed=0 hdr_count=0 hdr_bytes=0 body_count=36 body_bytes=6059064
Dec 18 08:40:41 iredmail0 dovecot[408]: imap(xxx@xxx.com)<177412>: Disconnected: Connection closed (UID FETCH finished 90.079 secs ago) in=5126 out=1304237 deleted=0 expunged=0 trashed=0 hdr_count=94 hdr_bytes=289688 body_count=89 body_bytes=969615
Dec 18 08:42:19 iredmail0 dovecot[408]: imap(xxx@xxx.com)<177410><D5mqU4cpZ+nAqM2O>: Disconnected: Connection closed (UID FETCH finished 95.051 secs ago) in=4475 out=1162785 deleted=0 expunged=0 trashed=0 hdr_count=95 hdr_bytes=281674 body_count=61 body_bytes=839545
Dec 18 08:44:17 iredmail0 dovecot[408]: imap(edyta.kowalewska@laktopol.com.pl)<177918>: Disconnected: Connection closed (UID FETCH finished 92.132 secs ago) in=29399 out=30266644 deleted=0 expunged=0 trashed=0 hdr_count=565 hdr_bytes=1726228 body_count=628 body_bytes=28109455 After the session is closed, the attachment loads immediately. From the logs and router analysis, it appears that the download happens in another previously opened session.
After this incident, I go to another message with an attachment, and the situation repeats. There are also situations where the email body does not load, and the app waits for the server until the session closes and the content is fetched in another session.
It does not matter whether I connect to the server via the internet or through a local network.
On an iPhone 7 with iOS 15.8.3, everything works smoothly. Attachments open without issues.
On iOS 18.1.1, attachments do not load, and the session does not close on its own. It takes forever unless the app is closed.
In the Gmail app, everything works correctly without any issues.
This is clearly a problem with the mail client on iPhone. However, is there anything I can adjust in my server settings to mitigate this issue for users?
My dovecot configuration https://pastebin.com/UPNQ5dZz
Note: For the record, we are getting similar reports.. Attachment not loading with the latest release of IoS on iPhones..
Unfortunately, it's been hard to replicate so have no answers for you..
On 2024-12-18 03:25, via dovecot wrote:
Hello,
On an iPhone 7 with iOS 15.8.3, everything works smoothly. Attachments open without issues.
On iOS 18.1.1, attachments do not load, and the session does not close on its own. It takes forever unless the app is closed.
In the Gmail app, everything works correctly without any issues.
This is clearly a problem with the mail client on iPhone. However, is there anything I can adjust in my server settings to mitigate this issue for users?
-- "Catch the Magic of Linux..."
Michael Peddemors, President/CEO LinuxMagic Inc. Visit us at http://www.linuxmagic.com @linuxmagic A Wizard IT Company - For More Info http://www.wizard.ca "LinuxMagic" a Reg. TradeMark of Wizard Tower TechnoServices Ltd.
604-682-0300 Beautiful British Columbia, Canada
On Dec 18, 2024, at 3:25 AM, via dovecot <dovecot@dovecot.org> wrote:
I have a fairly new installation of the Dovecot server version 2.3.19.1 on Debian 12.8. [...] On version 18.2, the issue appears as follows: When you open the app, you can read several messages. They load correctly, but, for instance, attachments do not. If I wait for some time, the attachment eventually loads. During this time, I observe the server logs, and it shows that a certain session on the Dovecot server has ended.
As a point of comparison: We're using Debian 12.8 with Dovecot 2.3.21.1 from <https://packages.debian.org/bookworm-backports/dovecot-core>, and we have not had any reports of this. I know plenty of our customers use iOS 18 (as do I).
We did have a report of one customer who could not view _any_ messages on their iPhone after upgrading (their description was that the list view worked properly, including the short previews, but when trying to view individual messages, "it just shows a blank grey background"). But that customer had more than 72,000 messages in their Inbox folder, and archiving the older messages into different folders apparently solved it; I'm not sure if the problem was even related to iOS 18.
Btu anecdotally, you might want to try upgrading to Dovecot 2.3.21.1, and/or making sure that affected customers have a reasonable number of messages in all their folders.
-- Robert L Mathews
Thank you for the answers and suggestions. I am preparing a clone of the machine and will attempt to upgrade Dovecot to the latest version, 2.3.21.1. I will inform you how everything behaves after the Dovecot update.
The users have a lot of mail, but they use yearly archives. Each folder contains a maximum of 5,000-8,000 messages. So, I would rule that out.
-- Andrzej Milewski
I also had one report of what you describe today and was able to reproduce it on two different systems. No cause found yet.
I tried to capture a packet trace using clear text imap, but then the attachment loaded immediately. I will do more tests tomorrow.
Op 18-12-2024 om 12:25 schreef via dovecot:
On version 18.2, the issue appears as follows: When you open the app, you can read several messages. They load correctly, but, for instance, attachments do not. If I wait for some time, the attachment eventually loads. During this time, I observe the server logs, and it shows that a certain session on the Dovecot server has ended.
So I managed to capture the IMAP session on my private setup at home when the attachment didn't load:
========== CUT ===========
- 4296 FETCH (UID 79319 INTERNALDATE "19-Dec-2024 08:45:58 +0100" RFC822.SIZE 4833363 FLAGS (\Recent) BODY[HEADER] {2013} Delivery-date: Thu, 19 Dec 2024 08:45:58 +0100 Received: from company.nl ([2001::]:37117) by l............... A33 OK Fetch completed (0.006 + 0.000 + 0.005 secs). A37 UID FETCH 79319 (UID RFC822.SIZE BODYSTRUCTURE)
- 4296 FETCH (UID 79319 RFC822.SIZE 4833363 BODYSTRUCTURE ((("text" "plain" ("charset" "UTF-8" "format" "flowed") NIL NIL "7bit" 628 20 NIL NIL NIL NIL)("text" "html" ("charset" "UTF-8") NIL NIL "quoted-printable" 14902 273 NIL NIL NIL NIL) "alternative" ("boundary" "------------5EXWg0Iu8dW8o3YRD7dph7JE") NIL NIL NIL)("application" "octet-stream" ("name" "Kersteditie2024.pdf") NIL NIL "base64" 4815062 NIL ("attachment" ("filename" "Kersteditie2024.pdf")) NIL NIL) "mixed" ("boundary" "------------0gFkVYGlMESirTIQU37JNRX9") NIL ("en-US") NIL)) A37 OK Fetch completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs). A38 UID FETCH 79319 (UID BODY.PEEK[1]<0.393216>) A39 UID FETCH 79319 (UID BODY.PEEK[1]<393216.393216>) A40 UID FETCH 79319 (UID BODY.PEEK[1]<786432.393216>) A41 UID FETCH 79319 (UID BODY.PEEK[1]<1179648.393216>) A42 UID FETCH 79319 (UID BODY.PEEK[1]<1572864.393216>) A43 UID FETCH 79319 (UID BODY.PEEK[1]<1966080.393216>) A44 UID FETCH 79319 (UID BODY.PEEK[1]<2359296.393216>) A45 UID FETCH 79319 (UID BODY.PEEK[1]<2752512.393216>) A46 UID FETCH 79319 (UID BODY.PEEK[1]<3145728.393216>) A47 UID FETCH 79319 (UID BODY.PEEK[1]<3538944.393216>)
- 4296 FETCH (UID 79319 BODY[1]<0> {15834} --------------5EXWg0Iu8dW8o3YRD7dph7JE Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Geachte lezer,............... --------------5EXWg0Iu8dW8o3YRD7dph7JE Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <hea............ --------------5EXWg0Iu8dW8o3YRD7dph7JE-- )
- 4296 FETCH (UID 79319 BODY[1]<393216> {0} )
- 4296 FETCH (UID 79319 BODY[1]<786432> {0} )
- 4296 FETCH (UID 79319 BODY[1]<1179648> {0} ) A38 OK Fetch completed (0.006 + 0.000 + 0.005 secs). A39 OK Fetch completed (0.002 + 0.000 + 0.001 secs). A40 OK Fetch completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs). A41 OK Fetch completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
- 4296 FETCH (UID 79319 BODY[1]<1572864> {0} )
- 4296 FETCH (UID 79319 BODY[1]<1966080> {0} )
- 4296 FETCH (UID 79319 BODY[1]<2359296> {0} )
- 4296 FETCH (UID 79319 BODY[1]<2752512> {0} ) A42 OK Fetch completed (0.002 + 0.000 + 0.001 secs). A43 OK Fetch completed (0.002 + 0.000 + 0.001 secs). A44 OK Fetch completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs). A45 OK Fetch completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
- 4296 FETCH (UID 79319 BODY[1]<3145728> {0} )
- 4296 FETCH (UID 79319 BODY[1]<3538944> {0} ) A46 OK Fetch completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs). A47 OK Fetch completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs). ========== CUT ===========
I did remove the actual message data from the fragment above. Now when I shutdown the app on my phone and restart it, tapping the message again and then on the attachment, it successfully downloaded the attachment. This is a the fragment of the captured IMAP session without the actual data of the attachment:
========== CUT =========== A36 UID FETCH 79328 (UID RFC822.SIZE BODYSTRUCTURE) A33 OK Idle completed (2.245 + 2.245 + 2.244 secs).
- 4295 FETCH (UID 79328 RFC822.SIZE 4833363 BODYSTRUCTURE ((("text" "plain" ("charset" "UTF-8" "format" "flowed") NIL NIL "7bit" 628 20 NIL NIL NIL NIL)("text" "html" ("charset" "UTF-8") NIL NIL "quoted-printable" 14902 273 NIL NIL NIL NIL) "alternative" ("boundary" "------------5Xw8ldQiQkqLE7H0VdtAAAQM") NIL NIL NIL)("application" "octet-stream" ("name" "Kersteditie2024.pdf") NIL NIL "base64" 4815062 NIL ("attachment" ("filename" "AllichtHoornKersteditie2024.pdf")) NIL NIL) "mixed" ("boundary" "------------o0KKQGwxtQLV6Bq9NgmPHlIh") NIL ("en-US") NIL)) A36 OK Fetch completed (0.005 + 0.000 + 0.004 secs). A37 UID FETCH 79328 (UID BODY.PEEK[2]<0.393216>) A38 UID FETCH 79328 (UID BODY.PEEK[2]<393216.393216>) A39 UID FETCH 79328 (UID BODY.PEEK[2]<786432.393216>) A40 UID FETCH 79328 (UID BODY.PEEK[2]<1179648.393216>) A41 UID FETCH 79328 (UID BODY.PEEK[2]<1572864.393216>) A42 UID FETCH 79328 (UID BODY.PEEK[2]<1966080.393216>) A43 UID FETCH 79328 (UID BODY.PEEK[2]<2359296.393216>) A44 UID FETCH 79328 (UID BODY.PEEK[2]<2752512.393216>) A45 UID FETCH 79328 (UID BODY.PEEK[2]<3145728.393216>) A46 UID FETCH 79328 (UID BODY.PEEK[2]<3538944.393216>)
- 4295 FETCH (UID 79328 BODY[2]<0> {393216} JVBERi0xLjQKJeLjz9MKMSAwIG9iago8PAovQ3JlYXRpb25EYXRlIChEOjIwMjQxMjEzMDcy MTIxKzAxJzAwJykKL0NyZ................. ....eHJlZgozNDcxMDMwCiUlRU9GCg== )
- 4295 FETCH (UID 79328 BODY[2]<5111808> {0} )
- 4295 FETCH (UID 79328 BODY[2]<5505024> {0} ) A49 OK Fetch completed (0.003 + 0.000 + 0.002 secs). A50 OK Fetch completed (0.002 + 0.000 + 0.001 secs). A51 OK Fetch completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
- 4295 FETCH (UID 79328 BODY[2]<5898240> {0} ) A52 OK Fetch completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs). ========== CUT ===========
So yes, it must be a client issue, but it only seems to appear on dovecot imap servers. I've tested this on my private setup at home with Dovecot 2.3.19.1 from Debian 12 repository as well as at the company where we use Dovecot-ee 2.3.21-8 from the Open-xchange repository where the same happens.
Regard, Frido
Op 18-12-2024 om 12:25 schreef via dovecot:
This is clearly a problem with the mail client on iPhone.
So yes, it must be a client issue, but it only seems to appear on dovecot imap servers. I've tested this on my private setup at home with Dovecot 2.3.19.1 from Debian 12 repository as well as at the company where we use Dovecot-ee 2.3.21-8 from the Open-xchange repository where the same happens.
How do you know it is specific to dovecot? You have tried also others? I think a lot use this cyrus not?
How do you know it is specific to dovecot? You have tried also others? I think a lot use this cyrus not?
Well, I'm not completely sure. That's why I said that it seems to only appear on Dovecot IMAP servers. I've tested it on my Google account, and Outlook where the problem doesn't exist.
Hi,
On 18.12.24 12:25, via dovecot wrote:
However, some clients are using iPhones with various hardware versions. Those with iOS below version 18 work correctly without any issues. Those who have updated their phones to version 18 and now even 18.2 are experiencing problems with mailbox synchronization.
I can't provide any solution but at least you are not alone:
<https://www.heise.de/news/iOS-18-und-iPadOS-18-Massive-Probleme-mit-E-Mail-Abruf-bei-IMAP-Konten-9952739.html> (older news from 25.09.2024)
<https://www.heise.de/news/iOS-und-iPadOS-18-2-Neue-Berichte-ueber-Probleme-mit-Apple-Mail-10198562.html> (current news from 13.12.2024)
<https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255760058?answerId=260985771022&sortBy=rank#260985771022>
<https://communities.apple.com/de/thread/255892816?sortBy=rank>
-- Regards Andreas Haerter
foundata GmbH Steinhäuserstr. 20 76135 Karlsruhe
Sitz der Gesellschaft: Karlsruhe Registergericht: Amtsgericht Mannheim, HRB 714807 Geschäftsführung: Andreas Haerter USt-IdNr.: DE284122682
participants (6)
-
Andreas Haerter
-
andrzej.milewski＠gmail.com
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frido＠0tten.nl
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Marc
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Michael Peddemors
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Robert L Mathews