Topic: IMAP mail disappears from Inbox

[idp_qbn]

Hi,
I have an SME box just as an IMAP mail server. It works perfectly for me at home. The SME box is server/gateway.

For a volunteer group I have tried to set up something similar. They have a Windows domain - I have no control over the PDC. I added a freshly installed SME box, with Fetchmail added to be a mail server for them.

Clients are WinXP, using Thunderbird and local folders on their H:drive (network)....which are so large (300Mb) their logon can take ages to complete. I set up their accounts to collect mail from the IMAP server, which it did.

Mail was displayed for a few minutes, dealt with, then Thunderbird was closed. Upon re-opening, the mail displayed (sometimes) but sometimes all the entries in the inbox had disappeared. Other folders (sent, deleted etc) were OK. Eventually, in all cases, the Inbox was empty...it may be a time factor, I am not sure. BUT, the other folders were still OK; only the Inbox was affected.

I have pored over the Thunderbird settings to see if there is any thing there clearing out the Inbox, but I can't see one. (I have checked every entry on every tab and drop down menu).

As far as I can tell, the setup is the same as I have at home, except at home I don't run a Windows Domain (ie No PDC). The SME mail settings are the same; the Thunderbird settings are the same as far as I can tell...only the mail account names differ.

Can anyone give me a clue as to what is happening to the emails in the Inbox? I am hoping they are still there somewhere and I just need to adjust some setting and they will magically re-appear. Hmmm....triumph of Hope over Experience?

Cheers
Ian

[CharlieBrady]

Mail was displayed for a few minutes, dealt with, then Thunderbird was closed. Upon re-opening, the mail displayed (sometimes) but sometimes all the entries in the inbox had disappeared. Other folders (sent, deleted etc) were OK. Eventually, in all cases, the Inbox was empty...it may be a time factor, I am not sure. BUT, the other folders were still OK; only the Inbox was affected.

The most likely cause of that is a POP client being used on that mailbox. The only two things which will remove a message from the INBOX are:

- a pop client pulling the message
- an imap client marking the message as deleted and then purging the mailbox

[idp_qbn]

Thanks -  a good hint. I will go and have another look to see if that's it. I would hope it is, so the emails are actually somewhere we can get to them.

Cheers
Ian

[mmccarn]

You should be able to get some useful information by looking at

• /var/log/pop3/current
• /var/log/pop3s/current
• /var/log/imap/current and
• /var/log/imaps/current