dovecot - Oct 2014 - Thunderbird ignores some folders

Dear readers

we are using Dovecot 2.2.7 and all of our users are using Thunderbird as
their mail client. Some of them additionally use their iPad/iPhone and a
very few an Android Mail-Client.

Now one user noticed that two of his mail folders disappeared. He first
believed that he accidentally deleted those folders but then he realized
that they are still visible from his iPad. I checked this users maildir and
everything looks normal. Deleting the index-files made no difference: New
index-files were created but those two folders are still invisable from
Thunderbird.

My main concern is to find the reason for this behaviour. Maybe folders of
other users have disappeared and they have not yet noticed. A fresh
installation of Thunderbird will most likely fix this single users problem,
but I cannot do this for all of our users.

So here's my question: How would I debug such a situation?

Kind regards

Peter Koch

And here's our config file:

# Dovecot configuration file

default_process_limit = 2048

protocols = imap
listen    = *
base_dir  = /var/dovecot/

mail_location = maildir:/mail/%u:LAYOUT=fs

ssl_cert = </etc/ssl/certs/naev+chain.crt
ssl_key  = </etc/ssl/private/naev.key
ssl_ca   = </etc/ssl/certs/naev-ca.crt
ssl_verify_client_cert  = yes
ssl_cert_username_field = x500UniqueIdentifier
auth_ssl_username_from_cert = yes

service imap-login {
  inet_listener imap {
    port = 0
  }
}

service auth {
  client_limit = 4096
}

service anvil {
  client_limit = 5000
}

passdb {
  driver = checkpassword
  args   = /usr/dovecot/bin/checkpassword
}

userdb {
  driver          = passwd
  override_fields = home=/mail/%u
}

protocol imap {
   mail_max_userip_connections = 1000
}

dovecot.pkoch at dfgh.net wrote:
> we are using Dovecot 2.2.7 and all of our users are using Thunderbird
> as their mail client. Some of them additionally use their iPad/iPhone
> and a very few an Android Mail-Client.
> Now one user noticed that two of his mail folders disappeared. He
> first believed that he accidentally deleted those folders but then he
> realized that they are still visible from his iPad. I checked this
> users maildir and everything looks normal. Deleting the index-files
> made no difference: New index-files were created but those two folders
> are still invisable from Thunderbird.
Have you checked the folder subscription? I had some cases of folder
"mysteriously" disappearing from Thunderbird (Linux/Windows/MacOS,
doesn't matter) and in all but one case (the one case being the user
really had deleted the folders) they were no longer subscribed to. 

Or at least Thunderbird thought so. 

Restarting Thunderbird and resubscribing fixed the issue in my cases.

Gr??e,
Sven.

-- 
Sigmentation fault. Core dumped.

IPad email client shows unsubscribed folders (?) whereas by default TB 
does not (see server settings->advanced under the account).

Just a guess...

Alex


On 03/10/14 19:03, dovecot.pkoch at dfgh.net wrote:
> Dear readers
>
> we are using Dovecot 2.2.7 and all of our users are using Thunderbird as
> their mail client. Some of them additionally use their iPad/iPhone and a
> very few an Android Mail-Client.
>
> Now one user noticed that two of his mail folders disappeared. He first
> believed that he accidentally deleted those folders but then he realized
> that they are still visible from his iPad. I checked this users maildir and
> everything looks normal. Deleting the index-files made no difference: New
> index-files were created but those two folders are still invisable from
> Thunderbird.
>
> My main concern is to find the reason for this behaviour. Maybe folders of
> other users have disappeared and they have not yet noticed. A fresh
> installation of Thunderbird will most likely fix this single users problem,
> but I cannot do this for all of our users.
>
> So here's my question: How would I debug such a situation?
>
> Kind regards
>
> Peter Koch
>
> And here's our config file:
>
> # Dovecot configuration file
>
> default_process_limit = 2048
>
> protocols = imap
> listen    = *
> base_dir  = /var/dovecot/
>
> mail_location = maildir:/mail/%u:LAYOUT=fs
>
> ssl_cert = </etc/ssl/certs/naev+chain.crt
> ssl_key  = </etc/ssl/private/naev.key
> ssl_ca   = </etc/ssl/certs/naev-ca.crt
> ssl_verify_client_cert  = yes
> ssl_cert_username_field = x500UniqueIdentifier
> auth_ssl_username_from_cert = yes
>
> service imap-login {
>    inet_listener imap {
>      port = 0
>    }
> }
>
> service auth {
>    client_limit = 4096
> }
>
> service anvil {
>    client_limit = 5000
> }
>
> passdb {
>    driver = checkpassword
>    args   = /usr/dovecot/bin/checkpassword
> }
>
> userdb {
>    driver          = passwd
>    override_fields = home=/mail/%u
> }
>
> protocol imap {
>     mail_max_userip_connections = 1000
> }
>