[Dovecot] great disappearing email mystery
Have there been any issues with dovecot and using outlook express
(imap) as an email client? I have had a couple of users come up with
random missing emails. Im trying to figure out if it is user error,
or something wacky in my mailserver. I cant find anything telling in
maillog files or my messages. Dovecot version is 1.0.3. Its ok to
reply to me, I get list messages digest.
thanks,
ddh
-- Dwayne Hottinger Network Administrator Harrisonburg City Public Schools
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein
"The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, preserved their neutrality." -- Dante
On Wed, 2009-02-11 at 17:27 -0500, dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Have there been any issues with dovecot and using outlook express
(imap) as an email client? I have had a couple of users come up with
random missing emails. Im trying to figure out if it is user error,
or something wacky in my mailserver. I cant find anything telling in
maillog files or my messages. Dovecot version is 1.0.3. Its ok to
reply to me, I get list messages digest.
You may find it helpful to enable mail_log plugin: http://wiki.dovecot.org/Plugins/MailLog
With v1.0 you can't get it to log e.g. message subject, but perhaps message-id is enough. At least you'll see if the user is deleting some messages.
Thanks I'll check it out. Just what I need, more log files ;-].
take care,
ddh
Quoting Timo Sirainen tss@iki.fi:
On Wed, 2009-02-11 at 17:27 -0500, dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Have there been any issues with dovecot and using outlook express (imap) as an email client? I have had a couple of users come up with random missing emails. Im trying to figure out if it is user error, or something wacky in my mailserver. I cant find anything telling in maillog files or my messages. Dovecot version is 1.0.3. Its ok to reply to me, I get list messages digest.
You may find it helpful to enable mail_log plugin: http://wiki.dovecot.org/Plugins/MailLog
With v1.0 you can't get it to log e.g. message subject, but perhaps message-id is enough. At least you'll see if the user is deleting some messages.
-- Dwayne Hottinger Network Administrator Harrisonburg City Public Schools
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein
"The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, preserved their neutrality." -- Dante
dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
On Wed, 2009-02-11 at 17:27 -0500, dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Have there been any issues with dovecot and using outlook express (imap) as an email client? I have had a couple of users come up with random missing emails. Im trying to figure out if it is user error, or something wacky in my mailserver. I cant find anything telling in maillog files or my messages. Dovecot version is 1.0.3. Its ok to reply to me, I get list messages digest.
Is it missing in the mail server or just on the client? What does your server layout look like?
We had a similar issue with Outlook and AppleMail where the uidlist would change just enough to wipe out their local index. People would tell us that they could see the E-mail in webmail but not in their client.
We haven't had the issue in a long while, but it was painful while it lasted. The key to resolving the issue had to do with upgrades to the dovecot version - we currently just made the jump to 1.1.11 and it seems to be working well.
---Jack
Quoting Jack Stewart jstewart@caltech.edu:
dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
On Wed, 2009-02-11 at 17:27 -0500, dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Have there been any issues with dovecot and using outlook express (imap) as an email client? I have had a couple of users come up with random missing emails. Im trying to figure out if it is user error, or something wacky in my mailserver. I cant find anything telling in maillog files or my messages. Dovecot version is 1.0.3. Its ok to reply to me, I get list messages digest.
Is it missing in the mail server or just on the client? What does your server layout look like?
We had a similar issue with Outlook and AppleMail where the uidlist would change just enough to wipe out their local index. People would tell us that they could see the E-mail in webmail but not in their client.
We haven't had the issue in a long while, but it was painful while it lasted. The key to resolving the issue had to do with upgrades to the dovecot version - we currently just made the jump to 1.1.11 and it seems to be working well. Shes been up almost a year now without a
reboot, with close to 750 accounts.---Jack
Jack,
My server is a linux box running sendmail, procmail, and dovecot, I
use ldap on the backend. Most of my clients use Horde for webmail,
but I have some that use outlook. The emails are missing, missing.
Neither on client or server. Thing is I looked on my backups (7 days
worth) and supposedly missing emails werent there either. So its hard
to tell how long they have been missing. Also, this server was put
online 2 years ago, so all mailboxes were migrated from the oldserver
to the new one and renamed oldmail. Nothing in their either. Were
there any gotcha's on the upgrade? Im not one to upgrade unless there
are security issues or problems and my mailserver has been extremely
stable
-- Dwayne Hottinger Network Administrator Harrisonburg City Public Schools
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein
"The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, preserved their neutrality." -- Dante
dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Quoting Jack Stewart jstewart@caltech.edu:
dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
On Wed, 2009-02-11 at 17:27 -0500, dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Have there been any issues with dovecot and using outlook express (imap) as an email client? I have had a couple of users come up with random missing emails. Im trying to figure out if it is user error, or something wacky in my mailserver. I cant find anything telling in maillog files or my messages. Dovecot version is 1.0.3. Its ok to reply to me, I get list messages digest.
Is it missing in the mail server or just on the client? What does your server layout look like?
We had a similar issue with Outlook and AppleMail where the uidlist would change just enough to wipe out their local index. People would tell us that they could see the E-mail in webmail but not in their client.
We haven't had the issue in a long while, but it was painful while it lasted. The key to resolving the issue had to do with upgrades to the dovecot version - we currently just made the jump to 1.1.11 and it seems to be working well. Shes been up almost a year now without a reboot, with close to 750 accounts.
---Jack
Jack, My server is a linux box running sendmail, procmail, and dovecot, I use ldap on the backend. Most of my clients use Horde for webmail, but I have some that use outlook. The emails are missing, missing. Neither on client or server. Thing is I looked on my backups (7 days worth) and supposedly missing emails werent there either. So its hard to tell how long they have been missing. Also, this server was put online 2 years ago, so all mailboxes were migrated from the oldserver to the new one and renamed oldmail. Nothing in their either. Were there any gotcha's on the upgrade? Im not one to upgrade unless there are security issues or problems and my mailserver has been extremely stable
That is a mystery - nothing to do with my environment.
If I understand you correctly, nothing has changed in two years and some users are now having missing messages. Assuming that this is the case, my money is on the E-mail clients.
Jack Stewart wrote:
dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Quoting Jack Stewart jstewart@caltech.edu:
dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
On Wed, 2009-02-11 at 17:27 -0500, dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Have there been any issues with dovecot and using outlook express (imap) as an email client? I have had a couple of users come up with random missing emails. Im trying to figure out if it is user error, or something wacky in my mailserver. I cant find anything telling in maillog files or my messages. Dovecot version is 1.0.3. Its ok to reply to me, I get list messages digest.
Is it missing in the mail server or just on the client? What does your server layout look like?
We had a similar issue with Outlook and AppleMail where the uidlist would change just enough to wipe out their local index. People would tell us that they could see the E-mail in webmail but not in their client.
We haven't had the issue in a long while, but it was painful while it lasted. The key to resolving the issue had to do with upgrades to the dovecot version - we currently just made the jump to 1.1.11 and it seems to be working well. Shes been up almost a year now without a reboot, with close to 750 accounts.
---Jack
Jack, My server is a linux box running sendmail, procmail, and dovecot, I use ldap on the backend. Most of my clients use Horde for webmail, but I have some that use outlook. The emails are missing, missing.
Neither on client or server. Thing is I looked on my backups (7 days worth) and supposedly missing emails werent there either. So its hard to tell how long they have been missing. Also, this server was put online 2 years ago, so all mailboxes were migrated from the oldserver to the new one and renamed oldmail. Nothing in their either. Were there any gotcha's on the upgrade? Im not one to upgrade unless there are security issues or problems and my mailserver has been extremely stableThat is a mystery - nothing to do with my environment.
If I understand you correctly, nothing has changed in two years and some users are now having missing messages. Assuming that this is the case, my money is on the E-mail clients.
Anyone knows how many imap processes starts outlook ?
the default with Thunderbird is 5 which is a nonsense one is enough
On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 05:27:02PM -0500, dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Have there been any issues with dovecot and using outlook express (imap) as an email client? I have had a couple of users come up with random missing emails. Im trying to figure out if it is user error, or something wacky in my mailserver. I cant find anything telling in
maillog files or my messages. Dovecot version is 1.0.3. Its ok to
reply to me, I get list messages digest.
The IMAP implementation of Outlook 2003 for example is not so nice. You must first figure out, if the email is missing within Outlook or if it is missing on the server too.
For example: If the mailbox is greater than 2GB, Outlook 2003 crashes and corrupts its PST file. No more mails show up. A regular crash of Outlook may also corrupt its PST file. The effect is the same. Mails may dissapear within the client.
So, if the missing mail is still on the server, run "SCANPST.EXE". If it does not help, recreate the Outlook profile.
If the mail is missing on the server, look close at their trash folder. ;)
So long, Aiko
:wq ✉
on 2-12-2009 2:10 AM Aiko Barz spake the following:
On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 05:27:02PM -0500, dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Have there been any issues with dovecot and using outlook express (imap) as an email client? I have had a couple of users come up with random missing emails. Im trying to figure out if it is user error, or something wacky in my mailserver. I cant find anything telling in
maillog files or my messages. Dovecot version is 1.0.3. Its ok to
reply to me, I get list messages digest.The IMAP implementation of Outlook 2003 for example is not so nice. You must first figure out, if the email is missing within Outlook or if it is missing on the server too.
For example: If the mailbox is greater than 2GB, Outlook 2003 crashes and corrupts its PST file. No more mails show up. A regular crash of Outlook may also corrupt its PST file. The effect is the same. Mails may dissapear within the client.
So, if the missing mail is still on the server, run "SCANPST.EXE". If it does not help, recreate the Outlook profile.
If the mail is missing on the server, look close at their trash folder. ;)
So long, Aiko Outlook does not store IMAP mail in its PST. PST's are only used for the local storage. Outlook does not crash if your IMAP mail folders are larger than 2 GB, although its IMAP implementation is pretty bad.
-- MailScanner is like deodorant... You hope everybody uses it, and you notice quickly if they don't!!!!
On Thu, 12 Feb 2009, Scott Silva wrote:
Outlook does not store IMAP mail in its PST. PST's are only used for the local storage. Outlook does not crash if your IMAP mail folders are larger than 2 GB, although its IMAP implementation is pretty bad.
Outlook DOES store some kind of cache of IMAP mail in a PST. And that PST is always located in the Local Settings directory, regardless of your system-wide default location of PSTs. I don't know what happens when this cache PST reaches its 2GB limit...
Related: I sometimes have people complaining that some emails don't show up in Outlook (2003) but are listen on webmail (Squirrel). Typically, users have 'hide messages marked for deletion' set. Changing that to show all messages makes the 'missing' mails visible, but they are then not marked for deletion.
(Running the etch-backports 1.0.15 version of dovecot-imapd currently)
This looks like it's an Outlook problem, but if a workaround at dovecot's side would help, I would be very happy.
Regards, Maarten
on 2-12-2009 10:35 AM Maarten Bezemer spake the following:
On Thu, 12 Feb 2009, Scott Silva wrote:
Outlook does not store IMAP mail in its PST. PST's are only used for the local storage. Outlook does not crash if your IMAP mail folders are larger than 2 GB, although its IMAP implementation is pretty bad.
Outlook DOES store some kind of cache of IMAP mail in a PST. And that PST is always located in the Local Settings directory, regardless of your system-wide default location of PSTs. I don't know what happens when this cache PST reaches its 2GB limit...
It would take a LOT of messages to cache 2 GB of headers.
Related: I sometimes have people complaining that some emails don't show up in Outlook (2003) but are listen on webmail (Squirrel). Typically, users have 'hide messages marked for deletion' set. Changing that to show all messages makes the 'missing' mails visible, but they are then not marked for deletion. Outlook also clashes on the POP3 side if the user has their check for messages frequency too low. I think it trips over itself and locks up. Only a full restart of outlook or sometimes a reboot of the PC will make it start again. I don't let users have their check frequency any less than 10 minutes, although repeatedly hitting the "Send/Receive" button will also lock it up. This is also an Outlook problem, along with users that think e-mail is an instant messaging application.
Outlook was designed as an Exchange client. Everything else was added as an afterthought. Thunderbird with Lightning works better than Outlook, but not a lot better.
(Running the etch-backports 1.0.15 version of dovecot-imapd currently)
1.1 seems to be slightly better with Outlook, or at least my Outlook users haven't been complaining as much. They could be resolved to the fact that it just doesn't work very well. You won't find it in any Debian repo that I know of.
This looks like it's an Outlook problem, but if a workaround at dovecot's side would help, I would be very happy.
Do you have outlook-idle set in the config file for pop3 and IMAP?
Regards, Maarten
-- MailScanner is like deodorant... You hope everybody uses it, and you notice quickly if they don't!!!!
On Thu, 12 Feb 2009, Scott Silva wrote:
on 2-12-2009 10:35 AM Maarten Bezemer spake the following:
Outlook DOES store some kind of cache of IMAP mail in a PST. And that PST is always located in the Local Settings directory, regardless of your system-wide default location of PSTs. I don't know what happens when this cache PST reaches its 2GB limit...
It would take a LOT of messages to cache 2 GB of headers.
I've seen users with about 1GB worth of Maildir folders and some 800MB of IMAP cache PST. So it might not be headers only in there...
(Running the etch-backports 1.0.15 version of dovecot-imapd currently) 1.1 seems to be slightly better with Outlook, or at least my Outlook users haven't been complaining as much. They could be resolved to the fact that it just doesn't work very well. You won't find it in any Debian repo that I know of.
I can see 1.1.9-1 in Experimental, but nog even in Unstable yet. So I'm not ready to try it on production machines.
The 'missing mail' in the 'hide messages marked for deletion' setting seems to be persistent. Closing Outlook for the night and then restarting it in the morning still doesn't show the messages although they still are there on the server and also visible normally in webmail. (Using imap all the way, I don't recall if I mentioned that explicitly). Strangest thing about this is that it only seems to happen when an email is read first through webmail. Not always, only just once every few weeks. Possible something in the headers or flags triggers some weirdness in Outlook, making it believe the message is marked for deletion.
Do you have outlook-idle set in the config file for pop3 and IMAP?
Not using pop3 at all, but outlook-idle is set for the imap protocol.
Regards, Maarten
on 2-12-2009 3:31 PM Maarten Bezemer spake the following:
On Thu, 12 Feb 2009, Scott Silva wrote:
on 2-12-2009 10:35 AM Maarten Bezemer spake the following:
Outlook DOES store some kind of cache of IMAP mail in a PST. And that PST is always located in the Local Settings directory, regardless of your system-wide default location of PSTs. I don't know what happens when this cache PST reaches its 2GB limit...
It would take a LOT of messages to cache 2 GB of headers.
I've seen users with about 1GB worth of Maildir folders and some 800MB of IMAP cache PST. So it might not be headers only in there...
(Running the etch-backports 1.0.15 version of dovecot-imapd currently) 1.1 seems to be slightly better with Outlook, or at least my Outlook users haven't been complaining as much. They could be resolved to the fact that it just doesn't work very well. You won't find it in any Debian repo that I know of.
I can see 1.1.9-1 in Experimental, but nog even in Unstable yet. So I'm not ready to try it on production machines.
The 'missing mail' in the 'hide messages marked for deletion' setting seems to be persistent. Closing Outlook for the night and then restarting it in the morning still doesn't show the messages although they still are there on the server and also visible normally in webmail. (Using imap all the way, I don't recall if I mentioned that explicitly). Strangest thing about this is that it only seems to happen when an email is read first through webmail. Not always, only just once every few weeks. Possible something in the headers or flags triggers some weirdness in Outlook, making it believe the message is marked for deletion.
Do you have outlook-idle set in the config file for pop3 and IMAP?
Not using pop3 at all, but outlook-idle is set for the imap protocol.
Regards, Maarten
I just found this; http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=736 I guess Outlook 2003 introduced a newer version of the PST files that has a 20GB (twenty GB ) limit, but they have to be created with 2003, and they are not backward compatible.
-- MailScanner is like deodorant... You hope everybody uses it, and you notice quickly if they don't!!!!
On Thu, 12 Feb 2009, Scott Silva wrote:
I just found this; http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=736 I guess Outlook 2003 introduced a newer version of the PST files that has a 20GB (twenty GB ) limit, but they have to be created with 2003, and they are not backward compatible.
True, for anything but IMAP. IMAP in Outlook2003 is still forced to be non-unicode in old-style PST's. (Which indeed does screw up when receiving mails in Russian unicode charset.. rather badly.) Starting from Outlook2007 you can use unicode PST's for IMAP connections.
I'm seriously considering doing some evaluation of the Bynari Insight connector, which could make my life somewhat easier. Problem is that Dovecot is not officially supported, and it has some notes about email virus scanners having to be disabled for it to work properly. (And of course the licensing / activation issue which makes it less practical for setups that have intermittent internet connections.) Is there anyone here who has experience with this?
[yes, I think I'll start a fresh thread about that..]
Regards, Maarten
on 2-12-2009 3:48 PM Maarten Bezemer spake the following:
On Thu, 12 Feb 2009, Scott Silva wrote:
I just found this; http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=736 I guess Outlook 2003 introduced a newer version of the PST files that has a 20GB (twenty GB ) limit, but they have to be created with 2003, and they are not backward compatible.
True, for anything but IMAP. IMAP in Outlook2003 is still forced to be non-unicode in old-style PST's. (Which indeed does screw up when receiving mails in Russian unicode charset.. rather badly.) Starting from Outlook2007 you can use unicode PST's for IMAP connections.
I'm seriously considering doing some evaluation of the Bynari Insight connector, which could make my life somewhat easier. Problem is that Dovecot is not officially supported, and it has some notes about email virus scanners having to be disabled for it to work properly. (And of course the licensing / activation issue which makes it less practical for setups that have intermittent internet connections.) Is there anyone here who has experience with this?
[yes, I think I'll start a fresh thread about that..]
Regards, Maarten
If you HAVE to use Outlook, it only shines with Exchange. Everything else about outlook is just not great.
-- MailScanner is like deodorant... You hope everybody uses it, and you notice quickly if they don't!!!!
On 2/12/2009, Scott Silva (ssilva@sgvwater.com) wrote:
I just found this; http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=736 I guess Outlook 2003 introduced a newer version of the PST files that has a 20GB (twenty GB ) limit, but they have to be created with 2003, and they are not backward compatible.
Cool! Now Outlook can corrupt 20 whole GB of my email!
not...
Ok, off my anti-outlook soapbox... anyone using Outlook 2007 can confirm that its IMAP support is better? WIf so, how much better? I know it can now Save Sent messages to an IMAP folder without having to kludge it with an outbound rule.
--
Best regards,
Charles
Words by Maarten Bezemer [Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 12:31:28AM +0100]:
On Thu, 12 Feb 2009, Scott Silva wrote:
on 2-12-2009 10:35 AM Maarten Bezemer spake the following:
It would take a LOT of messages to cache 2 GB of headers.
I've seen users with about 1GB worth of Maildir folders and some 800MB of
IMAP cache PST. So it might not be headers only in there...
We have users with 40GB used :)
-- Jose Celestino | http://japc.uncovering.org/files/japc-pgpkey.asc
"One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh." -- Robert A. Heinlein
On 2/12/2009, Maarten Bezemer (mcbdovecot@robuust.nl) wrote:
I've seen users with about 1GB worth of Maildir folders and some 800MB of IMAP cache PST. So it might not be headers only in there...
Or they never compact their PST files.
This MUST be done manually... tha auto-compact 'feature' is highly unreliable.
While Outlooks Mail/Calendar integration is excellent, and calendar functionality as a whole is very polished, I loathe the mail client aspect enough to have avoided it since the first time I was forced to use it for about 6 months (Outlook 2000).
Currently, Thunderbird+Lightning still has a long way to go, but it is 'good enough' for my purposes.
--
Best regards,
Charles
On Fri, 13 Feb 2009, Charles Marcus wrote:
On 2/12/2009, Maarten Bezemer (mcbdovecot@robuust.nl) wrote:
I can see 1.1.9-1 in Experimental, but not even in Unstable yet. So I'm not ready to try it on production machines.
I could never use a distro that required me to use outdated/buggy software...
So you prefer to use the new&shiny versions of the software that include all new&shiny bugs? Given my experience with a lot of software, that's just not an acceptable policy. Not everything is as bad as Microsoft software, which usually needs at least Service Pack 1 to operate normally, but in general, bleeding edge isn't the way to go.
For production environments, I'm more than happy with Debian Stable plus backports versions of things like dovecot. That way I don't have to worry about upgrading every single package by hand when (not if) security updates have to be applied, and still have the advantage of running a close-to-bleeding-edge version of packages like dovecot. Without having to do much about it when new versions come out. If they prove to be good enough for unstable and testing, I can grab them and use them.
On 2/14/2009 9:59 AM, Maarten Bezemer wrote:
I can see 1.1.9-1 in Experimental, but not even in Unstable yet. So I'm not ready to try it on production machines.
I could never use a distro that required me to use outdated/buggy software...
So you prefer to use the new&shiny versions of the software that include all new&shiny bugs?
Please don't put words in my mouth. I said what I said, and meant it.
Given my experience with a lot of software, that's just not an acceptable policy.
With software that is a fast moving target and bugs get squashed quickly, it is the only sensible policy, imnsho.
Of course, as the old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it - and this is NOT in contradiction to what I said earlier... I said I wouldn't use a distro that REQUIRED me to use outdated/buggy s/w...
in general, bleeding edge isn't the way to go.
For SYSTEM packages, I totally agree. But again, for software that is a fast moving target, quick upgrades to latest versions THAT FIX BUGS BEING ENCOUNTERED BY THE CURRENT VERSION is the only sensible thing to do.
For production environments, I'm more than happy with Debian Stable plus backports versions of things like dovecot.
I prefer Gentoo due to its 'rolling release' nature (mine has been kept up to date from day one for the last 5 years, with not one major glitch that most of the critical packages I use are updated to latest versions
- knock on wood). I keep the 'system' pinned at stable, and keyword the fast moving packages to unstable... accomplishes the same thing, except
within hours or days (with some irritating exceptions, like Samba), as opposed to weeks or months like most other distros.
But to each his/her own...
--
Best regards,
Charles
On Fri, 13 Feb 2009, Charles Marcus wrote:
On 2/12/2009, Maarten Bezemer (mcbdovecot@robuust.nl) wrote:
Strangest thing about this is that it only seems to happen when an email is read first through webmail.
What were you using for webmail again?
Squirrelmail, using the same imap server as a back-end. Nothing special happens to the emails in question. The mail store is Maildir++, and the message files don't change. They are moved from new/ to cur/, and the Seen flag is added, but that's something that happens all the time and works fine. Except for some strange cases, but I doubt that has anything to do with the Seen flag. Outlook seems to be seeing a Deleted flag which obviously isn't there.
Maarten
On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 10:17:41AM -0800, Scott Silva wrote:
on 2-12-2009 2:10 AM Aiko Barz spake the following:
On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 05:27:02PM -0500, dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Have there been any issues with dovecot and using outlook express (imap) as an email client? I have had a couple of users come up with random missing emails. Im trying to figure out if it is user error, or something wacky in my mailserver. I cant find anything telling in
maillog files or my messages. Dovecot version is 1.0.3. Its ok to
reply to me, I get list messages digest.The IMAP implementation of Outlook 2003 for example is not so nice. You must first figure out, if the email is missing within Outlook or if it is missing on the server too.
For example: If the mailbox is greater than 2GB, Outlook 2003 crashes and corrupts its PST file. No more mails show up. A regular crash of Outlook may also corrupt its PST file. The effect is the same. Mails may dissapear within the client.
So, if the missing mail is still on the server, run "SCANPST.EXE". If it does not help, recreate the Outlook profile.
If the mail is missing on the server, look close at their trash folder. ;)
So long, Aiko Outlook does not store IMAP mail in its PST. PST's are only used for the local storage. Outlook does not crash if your IMAP mail folders are larger than 2 GB, although its IMAP implementation is pretty bad.
"Therefore, the .pst files for IMAP or HTTP accounts in Outlook 2003 are limited to 2 GB." http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830336
Yes, it crashes badly...
So long, Aiko
-- :wq ✉
dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Have there been any issues with dovecot and using outlook express (imap) as an email client? I have had a couple of users come up with random missing emails. Im trying to figure out if it is user error, or something wacky in my mailserver. I cant find anything telling in maillog files or my messages. Dovecot version is 1.0.3. Its ok to reply to me, I get list messages digest.
Dwayne,
I've seen a lot of answers to your question which talked about Outlook, not Outlook Express. As far as I know, Outlook Express is a completely different piece of software.
I've been using Outlook Express and Thunderbird as IMAP clients for years (more than 8 years in the case of Outlook Express) and hundreds of thousands of emails, and there's never been any systematic problem with either of these applications used as IMAP clients.
Occasional apparent "missing" emails were caused by: headers and message bodies" on the local file. But if your
- The local Outlook Express mail file getting out of sync with the server. Fixed by using the button to "delete all
missing emails are also missing on the server, then this is irrelevant.
My email is retrieved using fetchmail and delivered to my mailserver using exim. When moving the whole operation to a new server, there was a glitch when some deliveries were accidentally made to the old server which was still running. The emails were not lost but they had to be retrieved from the old server. As I see that you changed servers 2 years ago, is it possible that you have a similar issue?
Spam filtering and other automated sorting: my Popfile system occasionally puts emails into unexpected places. When in doubt, I check the Popfile logs. But this is generally an issue for current emails. Are your users running any kind of sorting or filtering tools?
I really can't see any way in which Dovecot could be involved in losing emails from the mailserver.
John
-- John Allen Bofferdange, Luxembourg allen@vo.lu http://allenlux.dyndns.org
Quoting John and Catherine Allen allen@vo.lu:
dhottinger@harrisonburg.k12.va.us wrote:
Have there been any issues with dovecot and using outlook express
(imap) as an email client? I have had a couple of users come up
with random missing emails. Im trying to figure out if it is user
error, or something wacky in my mailserver. I cant find anything
telling in maillog files or my messages. Dovecot version is 1.0.3.
Its ok to reply to me, I get list messages digest.Dwayne,
I've seen a lot of answers to your question which talked about Outlook, not Outlook Express. As far as I know, Outlook Express is a completely different piece of software.
I've been using Outlook Express and Thunderbird as IMAP clients for years (more than 8 years in the case of Outlook Express) and hundreds of thousands of emails, and there's never been any systematic problem with either of these applications used as IMAP clients.
Occasional apparent "missing" emails were caused by: the Popfile logs. But this is generally an issue for current emails.
The local Outlook Express mail file getting out of sync with the server. Fixed by using the button to "delete all headers and message bodies" on the local file. But if your missing emails are also missing on the server, then this is irrelevant.
My email is retrieved using fetchmail and delivered to my mailserver using exim. When moving the whole operation to a new server, there was a glitch when some deliveries were accidentally made to the old server which was still running. The emails were not lost but they had to be retrieved from the old server. As I see that you changed servers 2 years ago, is it possible that you have a similar issue?
Spam filtering and other automated sorting: my Popfile system occasionally puts emails into unexpected places. When in doubt, I check
Are your users running any kind of sorting or filtering tools?
I really can't see any way in which Dovecot could be involved in losing emails from the mailserver.
John
-- John Allen Bofferdange, Luxembourg allen@vo.lu http://allenlux.dyndns.org
Thanks for the information. I totally agree with you in that dovecot
couldnt be involved in any missing email. I think the user either A.
deleted the emails sometime ago and forgot or b. They didnt get moved
over from the old mailserver when it crashed. The user said that
they should have emails from 2004, but I couldnt find any newer than
Jan. 2007. Also, none of the 'missing emails' were on my backup, and
I get 5 days worth of backups of mail and home folders.
take care,
ddh
-- Dwayne Hottinger Network Administrator Harrisonburg City Public Schools
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein
"The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, preserved their neutrality." -- Dante
participants (10)
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Aiko Barz
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Charles Marcus
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dhottinger＠harrisonburg.k12.va.us
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Frank Bonnet
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Jack Stewart
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John and Catherine Allen
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Jose Celestino
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Maarten Bezemer
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Scott Silva
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Timo Sirainen