Opera mail synchronizing forever

Opera mail synchronizing forever

Hello.
For the past few versions of Opera browser (presently 12.04 in my computer) running under Linux (now I'm in Ubuntu, but it also happened with Arch Linux, Debian, Chakra, Aptosid and some other distros I've tried), the mail has never worked particularly well, at least when it comes to IMAP accounts. It takes much longer in synchronizing mail than with any other mail client. But the bug that annoys me the most is when it synchronizes forever. Since my last FRESH installation of Opera one month ago, I setup an email account (Yahoo), and in the lower left corner I see the "synchronizing (0/6)" message, which stays there the whole session unless I click on the red cross. But if I do, then, two minutes later, the message shows up again, and then again it remains for as long as I have Opera open. If I don't click on the red cross, it synchronizes forever.

Someone experiencing this same bug? Some clues?

Despite its many flaws, and bad rendering of websites, I like the Opera browser. I really do, and I try to stick to it against all obstacles, as it has many interesting features that other browsers lack. But, Gee!, sometimes it's hard and frustrating to deal with this creature...

Originally posted by zogoibi:

Someone experiencing this same bug? Some clues?

Yahoo mail servers are very buggy. Many users have problems with Yahoo.

Are you using IMAP or POP though?

If POP, are all your messages till on the server?

Sounds like you're using IMAP though. If so, you can delete the account and add it back in. That should fix it. If not, you can close down Opera and delete the mail folder. Then, add the IMAP account back in?

Also, if you are using IMAP, what specific IMAP server are you using?

Also, is this a yahoo account that you signed up for directly at mail.yahoo.com or is it a yahoo address that you got free with your ISP?

Originally posted by zogoibi:

presently 12.04 in my computer

I assume you mean 12.02.

Originally posted by zogoibi:

But, Gee!, sometimes it's hard and frustrating to deal with this creature...

You've picked the worst mail provider and buggiest mail server to work with. Try GMX, mail.opera.com, fastmail or Gmail and connect to them via IMAP. Then it just works.

Also note that if you've been upgrading for a long time, your mail folder might be corrupted. Might be best to start with a new one to rule that out. If you use POP and not all messages are on the server, see <http://my.opera.com/operawiki/forums/topic.dml?id=1162442> for how to retain them.

Also note that yahoo mail servers (and yahoo in general) will randomly act up for some users. It might last for weeks and then start working again.

Thank you for your quick reply, Burnout.

Yahoo mail servers may be buggy as you say, but I'm happily using them for 23 years now (no exaggeration) with NO problem whatsoever in any mail client except for Opera. Besides, I've also set up another IMAP account (didn't say it before for not complicating the post) which works perfectly well with another mail clients, but with Opera mail I can't even move messages from one folder to another.

I can try mail.opera.com for the sake of a sane understanding between my browser and the mail server, but I can't stop using my yahoo account. Too many years with it, too many contacts, too many websites I've signed up with it, etc. As to Gmail, don't mention it! I once had a Gmail account and, when setting it up with Opera, it was such a nightmare that I had to stop using the account (all for the sake of keep using Opera).

Of course I'll do what you suggest (deleting the account, or even the mail directory itself, and creating it again), but that's what I've been doing for some years now whenever I had problems with Opera mail, and that's the last resource I would use once more. That's why I've made up my mind for posting the bug here. Anyhow, as I say in my post, this is a FRESH install of Opera. It's only one month old, and the mail accounts were added only two weeks ago.

Your other questions: my IMAP server is imap.mail.yahoo.com. And this account is, as I say, 23 years old. I signed up directly for it at yahoo.com, and it has always worked flawlessly. Yes, I meant 12.02. Sorry, that was a typo.

Anyhow, IMHO, it's _undeniable_ that there's something wrong with Opera mail. I've been using Opera browser (in Linux) on and off for many years now, and I've never been satisfied with the results of the mail client. Different Linux distros, different Opera versions, different mail accounts... always problems. But I repeat: I really like the browser, and I'd love to be able to stop having problems with the mail client, so that I can discard any others and just use Opera for both browsing and mailing, which would be great.

Originally posted by zogoibi:

Besides, I've also set up another IMAP account which works perfectly well with another mail clients, but with Opera mail I can't even move messages from one folder to another.

I'd examine the log for both IMAP servers to see if there are any errors.

I don't know why you're having problems with IMAP. IMAP works awesome in Opera and dragging from one IMAP folder to another works fine for me.

However, try this for your yahoo account (in a new mail folder and after the account is set up but before you try to move any messages):

Close down Opera and edit incomingN.txt (where N is the number for the account as seen in accounts.ini) in the mail folder and set "Force Single Connection" to 1 and save.

Then, see if your yahoo account behaves. If so, that means the server is buggy when a client uses 2 connections.

For your other IMAP account in its incomingN.txt, first set "Disable QRESYNC" to 1. If that fixes it, it means the server supports QRESYNC but has bugs with its support. If that doesn't help, you can try forcing a single connect for it. The log will show if QRESYNC is supported and being used or not.

As for Gmail IMAP, there were some major issues back in the day. But, it's awesome now and Opera autoconfigures itself for Gmail IMAP. But, you can disable special use in its incomingN.txt file to make Opera treat it like some regular IMAP server.

Also in incomingN.txt, you can try disabling "COMPRESS". But, if you find that you have to disable UIDPLUS in incomingN.txt to get things to work with your IMAP server, it means your server's UIDPLUS support is buggy or it doesn't support it at all (because it's older than dirt).

Anyway, that should give you some things to try.

Thanks a lot for such a lot of information. I'm trying sequentially all the sets you say, and checking how the server behaves. I'll come back when I get to some conclusion.

Also, when you enable logging, Opera sends an ID response (that used to be required by Yahoo IMAP). So, just enabling logging *might* make things work better (although it shouldn't).

Ok, Burnout. Thanks again. Sorry for taking so long in replying, but it's really hard to debug those issues taking into account that several things might be broken at the same time, and considering that often the mail client agonizes forever with "synchronizing (0 of 3)" type of messages.

I've tried the first two hints you pointed, and it's hard to get sure a pattern of Opera Mail's behaviour with my accounts, but I'd say that:

1.- Setting "Disable QRESYNC" to 1 and "Force single connection" to 1, mostly solves the problem in Yahoo accounts, allows me to move messagges between folders (*), and prevents the client to stay in "synchronizing" state forever.
(*) Moving messages from folders within the same account works as expected, but moving messages between folders in different accounts only COPIES them. However (and this is most baffling), when, besides disabling RESYNQ:

2.- Setting "Force single connection" back to 0, then messages moved from Yahoo account to another account work as expected, BUT the messages moved from another account to a Yahoo account get only copied. (???)

(Can you please tell me which is the default expected behaviour of moving? And, when I say "moving, I'm always talking about "drag and drop" moves.)

So, in any case, thank you very much. The QRESYNC variable has been decisive, and I can even change the title of my post to [SOLVED]. (Nope, I can't. The forum doesn't allow me.)

Now the philosophical question, just for a sane polemic. According to your previous posts, these fixes mean that Yahoo servers have this or that bug. But, then, why with Thunderbird, Outlook or Iceape mail clients I've never had any problems, and everything works as expected out of the box? We can't expect the world to be perfect for having a product work as people expect, can we? If one of the main mail servers out there is buggy, shouldn't Opera adapt to it, instead of expecting Yahoo adapt to the "standards", and to the rightful Opera behaviour?

Originally posted by zogoibi:

but moving messages between folders in different accounts only COPIES them.

Opera purposely does that. Just like when you drag from one drive to another in windows explorer, it copies instead of moves.

So, dragging from one IMAP folder to another in the same account is a move. Ctrl + dragging is a copy. But, dragging (and ctrl + dragging) to another account is always a copy.

Originally posted by zogoibi:

But, then, why with Thunderbird, Outlook or Iceape mail clients I've never had any problems

Not sure if they use more than one connection like Opera or if they even support qresync (and even if they do support qresync, they might not follow the spec as strictly as Opera and they might include workarounds for buggy servers).

For Yahoo, if forcing a single connection and turning of qresync fixes things, that's something Opera could try to do by default for yahoo IMAP. The autoconfig file that Opera uses (mailproviders.xml) doesn't support autoconfig elements to specify defaults for that 2 options in incomingN.txt. But, Opera could be made to.

Yahoo IMAP doesn't get much focus at the moment though as yahoo has stated that they don't want desktop clients connecting to their IMAP servers as they're not ready for primetime yet. Their IMAP servers are only meant for simple mobile IMAP clients. It wasn't that long ago that you had to modify your desktop IMAP client to send an invalid response (that mobile IMAP clients send) just to use Yahoo IMAP.

Ok, thanks a lot for your great help! In any case, I've now things fixed and I can use Opera as my main browser & mail client, as I wanted. Pity it can't work as a file manager as well, like konqueror does!

By the way, I was mistaken in my previous message: drag'n'drop messages between different accounts always moves them, as you say.

One last question: Is there any way of making messages go to the account's Trash folder when hitting "del" key on them? I like that behaviour much better than the Opera's sending those messages to the "local" trash, because, this way, I can always access the Trash bin from another computer, as the messages still remain in the server. As far as I know, if I want to do that with Opera, I have to drag'n'drop the message to the Trash, but can't do it with Delete key. Is this right?

Originally posted by zogoibi:

drag'n'drop messages between different accounts always moves them, as you say.

No. That shouldn't happen. They should always copy (and I can confirm with my IMAP accounts that they do always copy, including to and from my yahoo IMAP account).

when I disable QRESYNC _and_ don't force a single connection in the Yahoo server, then if I drag'n'drop a message _from_ a Yahoo account to another non-Yahoo account (not vice-versa), the message gets moved, not just copied. How come?

Don't know why. It's probably the yahoo server deleting the original copy for some reason (it doesn't like 2 connections maybe). Or, you tried dragging a ghost message that was created by the problem with 2 connections. Not sure.

As for QRESYNC, I checked my yahoo IMAP log and the server doesn't support it. So, disabling QRESYNC shouldn't have any effect.

Originally posted by zogoibi:

One last question: Is there any way of making messages go to the account's Trash folder when hitting "del" key on them? I like that behaviour much better than the Opera's sending those messages to the "local" trash, because, this way, I can always access the Trash bin from another computer, as the messages still remain in the server. As far as I know, if I want to do that with Opera, I have to drag'n'drop the message to the Trash, but can't do it with Delete key. Is this right?

On the "IMAP" tab in the IMAP account's properties, you can set a trash folder. Then, del will move the message to that folder. If you don't have a trash folder set, del will just add the \Deleted flag to the message ("All Messages/Trash" shows messages with the \Deleted flag. Other clients have other ways of showing them). The message will still exist on the server until you expunge it (in Opera you do this by emptying the trash or deleting the message from "All Messages/Trash"). Undelete (as seen in "All Messages/Trash") will remove the \Deleted flag from the message.

Some other clients though will hide \Deleted messages. Some webmails might autoexpunge them as soon as you log in. So, yes, you might like having an IMAP trash folder set. Also, when you do, "All Messages/Trash" will sync with the IMAP trash folder.

Yes, you're right. It was a lapsus on my part. Where I said "always moves" I wanted to say "always copies". Also, as to the asymmetric behaviour of copying versus moving to and from Yahoo accounts, I was wrong. I tested again and it always copies, no matter which server. That's why I edited my post. But I guess you got a copy of the original (previous to editing) in your mail. Sorry about this.

If yahoo IMAP servers don't support QRESYNC, I don't know what has improved my browser's behaviour. Maybe simply forcing a single connection did it?

As to trashing with "delete" key, I've done what you say and it works. Awesome! I owe you one.

In any case, still (dammit!) it takes ages for Opera mail to synchronize some accounts (except the myopera.com one), compared to other clients.

Originally posted by zogoibi:

In any case, still (dammit!) it takes ages for Opera mail to synchronize some accounts (except the myopera.com one), compared to other clients.

Other clients can be faster indeed. Note though that some of them (like Thunderbird) don't sync the headers for all messages right away (they wait till you select a folder to view it to sync messages for that folder) like Opera does. There are pros and cons to each way. Also, Sylpheed for example doesn't do strict checking by default like Opera does. But, it would be nice if Opera was faster at syncing in general.

Originally posted by zogoibi:

I don't know what has improved my browser's behaviour. Maybe simply forcing a single connection did it?

That seems to be the trick in my testing.

Originally posted by zogoibi:

It was a lapsus on my part.

O.K.