Email being repeatedly redownloaded on iPhone and Thunderbird today

graemeb · 28 Jun 2008, 07:21 AM

Hi,

Both my iPhone and Thunderbird (2.0.0.14 on Kubuntu 8.04) have been downloading email repeatedly all day. I'm using the IMAP server on port 1143 in both cases (I haven't tried on my windows machine at home yet - maybe that'll have issues when I log in tonight).

I've never before seen the iPhone do this - it was downloading the 200 most recent messages it was supposed to, but the next time it checked, it seemed to start all over again. I deleted my runbox account from the iPhone and recreated it, and it seems to have been okay. I also deleted the two 'iffy' emails I had which were caused by the spam filter problem yesterday, as I was having a few problems yesterday with the iPhone email client not downloading emails properly or showing the wrong message body, and wondered if the incomplete emails might have been the culprit.

Thunderbird has downloaded my email at least 4 times today - it's set up to only pull down the headers, but I think I have something like 8,000 messages in my Inbox, so it still takes a lot of time. I used to have this issue more commonly when I downloaded the message body too, but turned that off at work to save on disk space, which seems to have led to fewer "OMG! Something changed, I have to redownload everything" moments from Thunderbird.

Has anything happened recently which might precipitate this, such as the new spam filters, or any change to the IMAP service? It might be some weird interaction with both clients, but I've been using both of these tools since the end of last year with no problems whatsoever... it just started acting up yesterday

*sigh* I probably jinxed it yesterday by posting that I was able to access runbox flawlessly with the iPhone on this very forum

Thanks,
Graeme.

PS. <Insert customary nag about new IMAP server>

carverrn · 28 Jun 2008, 07:32 AM

Graeme,

We have had several reports of error messages from the IMAP server such as "Mailbox does not exist, or must be subscribed to".

And several Apple Mail users have reported re-downloading too.

It's possible that an error could make the client think the folder is empty, then a good response would make it look like it's got messages again thus triggering a download.

We are looking into this issue.

Regards,
Rich

Dreambiz · 28 Jun 2008, 07:45 AM

Another coincidence, Rich?

jsamuelson · 28 Jun 2008, 08:12 AM

Sounds like the database getting behind the curve again.

carverrn · 28 Jun 2008, 09:26 PM

The re-downloading is most likely a symptom of an error being returned by the IMAP server, possibly due to a database timeout. We are investigating.

Regards,
Rich

28 Jun 2008, 07:21 AM	#1
graemeb Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 37	Email being repeatedly redownloaded on iPhone and Thunderbird today Hi, Both my iPhone and Thunderbird (2.0.0.14 on Kubuntu 8.04) have been downloading email repeatedly all day. I'm using the IMAP server on port 1143 in both cases (I haven't tried on my windows machine at home yet - maybe that'll have issues when I log in tonight). I've never before seen the iPhone do this - it was downloading the 200 most recent messages it was supposed to, but the next time it checked, it seemed to start all over again. I deleted my runbox account from the iPhone and recreated it, and it seems to have been okay. I also deleted the two 'iffy' emails I had which were caused by the spam filter problem yesterday, as I was having a few problems yesterday with the iPhone email client not downloading emails properly or showing the wrong message body, and wondered if the incomplete emails might have been the culprit. Thunderbird has downloaded my email at least 4 times today - it's set up to only pull down the headers, but I think I have something like 8,000 messages in my Inbox, so it still takes a lot of time. I used to have this issue more commonly when I downloaded the message body too, but turned that off at work to save on disk space, which seems to have led to fewer "OMG! Something changed, I have to redownload everything" moments from Thunderbird. Has anything happened recently which might precipitate this, such as the new spam filters, or any change to the IMAP service? It might be some weird interaction with both clients, but I've been using both of these tools since the end of last year with no problems whatsoever... it just started acting up yesterday sigh I probably jinxed it yesterday by posting that I was able to access runbox flawlessly with the iPhone on this very forum Thanks, Graeme. PS. <Insert customary nag about new IMAP server>

28 Jun 2008, 07:32 AM	#2
carverrn Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 5,606 Representative of: Runbox.com	Graeme, We have had several reports of error messages from the IMAP server such as "Mailbox does not exist, or must be subscribed to". And several Apple Mail users have reported re-downloading too. It's possible that an error could make the client think the folder is empty, then a good response would make it look like it's got messages again thus triggering a download. We are looking into this issue. Regards, Rich

28 Jun 2008, 07:45 AM	#3
Dreambiz Essential Contributor Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 329	Another coincidence, Rich?

28 Jun 2008, 08:12 AM	#4
jsamuelson Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Switzerland Posts: 138	Sounds like the database getting behind the curve again.

28 Jun 2008, 09:26 PM	#5
carverrn Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 5,606 Representative of: Runbox.com	The re-downloading is most likely a symptom of an error being returned by the IMAP server, possibly due to a database timeout. We are investigating. Regards, Rich