dovecot - Jan 2011 - Multiple Concurrent IMAP Connections For Same User

Hi

I've been using courier for some time, but have just built a new box and 
am using dovecot (V1.2.9), Ubuntu 10.04LTS. I have a question regarding 
multiple concurrent imap connections and how to get dovecot to behave in 
the same way that courier does. I have searched the wiki, but find 
little relevant to my specific issue.

Courier-Imap Behaviour

If I have thunderbird pointed at the 'Inbox' folder via IMAP, then 
connect another IMAP client to the same mail account (in this case an 
iPhone), and then delete an email using the iphone, then after a couple 
of seconds, the inbox shown by Thunderbird updates, removing the now 
deleted email. It does this without my having to touch Thunderbird.

Dovecot behaviour

Performing the same test on a different mailbox, this time hosted via 
Dovecot, I again see the two views, one in Thunderbird and one on the 
iPhone, but when I delete the email on the iPhone, the change is not 
reflected in the view on Thunderbird. If I select the email on 
Thunderbird, then it has no content. If I restart thunderbird, the 
deleted email is still shown. I have to delete (the already deleted) the 
email also in thunderbird before it finally dissapears.

How can I get the courier behaviour where the inbox in one email client 
automagically reflects the changes made to that inbox in another client? 
If I am better sticking to Courier to get this functionality, thats 
fine, but if I can configure the behaviour I desire and still retail the 
benefits of dovecot then thats even better!

Kind Regards

Nigel

On 26/01/2011 11:47, Nigel Webber wrote:
> Hi
>
> I've been using courier for some time, but have just built a new box 
> and am using dovecot (V1.2.9), Ubuntu 10.04LTS. I have a question 
> regarding multiple concurrent imap connections and how to get dovecot 
> to behave in the same way that courier does. I have searched the wiki, 
> but find little relevant to my specific issue.
>
> Courier-Imap Behaviour
>
> If I have thunderbird pointed at the 'Inbox' folder via IMAP, then 
> connect another IMAP client to the same mail account (in this case an 
> iPhone), and then delete an email using the iphone, then after a 
> couple of seconds, the inbox shown by Thunderbird updates, removing 
> the now deleted email. It does this without my having to touch 
> Thunderbird.
>
> Dovecot behaviour
>
> Performing the same test on a different mailbox, this time hosted via 
> Dovecot, I again see the two views, one in Thunderbird and one on the 
> iPhone, but when I delete the email on the iPhone, the change is not 
> reflected in the view on Thunderbird. If I select the email on 
> Thunderbird, then it has no content. If I restart thunderbird, the 
> deleted email is still shown. I have to delete (the already deleted) 
> the email also in thunderbird before it finally dissapears.
>
> How can I get the courier behaviour where the inbox in one email 
> client automagically reflects the changes made to that inbox in 
> another client? If I am better sticking to Courier to get this 
> functionality, thats fine, but if I can configure the behaviour I 
> desire and still retail the benefits of dovecot then thats even better!
>
I use dovecot.

I don't have an iPhone, but use the Android mail application.

I can't replicate your problem.

Either it's iPhone specific, or something to do with your dovecot 
configuration.


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Am 26.01.2011 11:47, schrieb Nigel Webber:
> Hi
> 
> I've been using courier for some time, but have just built a new box
and
> am using dovecot (V1.2.9), Ubuntu 10.04LTS. I have a question regarding
> multiple concurrent imap connections and how to get dovecot to behave in
> the same way that courier does. I have searched the wiki, but find
> little relevant to my specific issue.
> 
> Courier-Imap Behaviour
> 
> If I have thunderbird pointed at the 'Inbox' folder via IMAP, then
> connect another IMAP client to the same mail account (in this case an
> iPhone), and then delete an email using the iphone, then after a couple
> of seconds, the inbox shown by Thunderbird updates, removing the now
> deleted email. It does this without my having to touch Thunderbird.
> 
> Dovecot behaviour
> 
> Performing the same test on a different mailbox, this time hosted via
> Dovecot, I again see the two views, one in Thunderbird and one on the
> iPhone, but when I delete the email on the iPhone, the change is not
> reflected in the view on Thunderbird. If I select the email on
> Thunderbird, then it has no content. If I restart thunderbird, the
> deleted email is still shown. I have to delete (the already deleted) the
> email also in thunderbird before it finally dissapears.
> 
> How can I get the courier behaviour where the inbox in one email client
> automagically reflects the changes made to that inbox in another client?
> If I am better sticking to Courier to get this functionality, thats
> fine, but if I can configure the behaviour I desire and still retail the
> benefits of dovecot then thats even better!
> 
> Kind Regards
> 
> Nigel
first show your conf
to make sure what you configured dovecot

and i tested same scenario many times
with tb and android k9 mail imap
dovecot 2.0x i see it working like expected at deleting moving mail
for sure there always might be time, time drifts
by differnt network speeds and refreshing imap cons


-- 
Best Regards

MfG Robert Schetterer

Germany/Munich/Bavaria

I should have mentioned that this is not iPhone specific, the same 
behaviour may be observed for 2 simultanious connections from 2 separate 
machines running Thunderbird.

TLS/SSL is used on both.

dovecot config file below:

Nigel

# 1.2.9: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 2.6.18-028stab069.5 x86_64 Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
protocols: imaps
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable: /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
mail_privileged_group: mail
mail_location: maildir:~/Maildir
mailbox_idle_check_interval: 5
mbox_write_locks: fcntl dotlock
auth default:
   mechanisms: plain login
   passdb:
     driver: pam
   userdb:
     driver: passwd
   socket:
     type: listen
     client:
       path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth-client
       mode: 432
       user: postfix
       group: postfix

On 26.1.2011, at 12.47, Nigel Webber wrote:
> How can I get the courier behaviour where the inbox in one email client
automagically reflects the changes made to that inbox in another client?
Try talking IMAP protocol manually:

telnet localhost 143
a login user pass
b select inbox
c idle

Then do changes in another client. Are any written to the telnet session?

mailbox_idle_check_interval is the only setting related to this, and since you
have set it to 5 seconds it really should be sending changes. If no changes are
sent, I guess it's a bug in v1.2.9.

I know that this is a somewhat old thread but I do have some useful input.

Basically, this seems to be a Thunderbird problem (or at least an 
interaction problem between Thunderbird and Dovecot).

Before Thunderbird version 3 there wasn't a problem, the mailbox within 
Thunderbird would sync correctly. As of version 3 they seem to have 
changed their mailbox header list caching code and it gets horribly 
confused when mails disappear from the mailbox without it doing so. The 
only way to fix the view within the program is the rebuild the 
(Thunderbird) index.

This is not the only problem TB3 has with Dovecot. Quite often if there 
are large attachments TB doesn't fully load the attachments (and 
sometimes not even the mail itself). I've found changing TBs setting so 
that it only uses one connection to the server rather than the default 5 
helps mitigate this.

I'm not sure why TB3 has such a hard time when talking to Dovecot as no 
other clients have any difficulty and TB2 never did.

Steve

P.S. Our system is a Solaris 10 x86 box running Dovecot 1.2.x with 
Maildir++ folders.
-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IT Systems Administrator,                     E-Mail:- steve at earth.ox.ac.uk
Department of Earth Sciences,                    Tel:-   +44 (0)1865 282110
Oxford University, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK. Fax:-   +44 (0)1865 272072

Knute Johnson put forth on 3/5/2011 8:36 PM:
> On 03/05/2011 12:24 PM, Stan Hoeppner wrote:
>> Stan Hoeppner put forth on 3/5/2011 1:34 PM:
>> Also, did you delete the sync copies and the GLODA sqlite index file
>> from the user profile?  IIRC, TB will still read the files if they
>> exist, even after disabling their parent function.  TB just won't
write
>> to them any more.  Yes, it's stupid, I agree.  But I recall running
into
>> this problem and needing to delete all the cached mbox files and the
>> sqlite db to get everything working correctly.
>>
>> Specifically answering your "change" question, the one big
difference
>> between TB 3 and TB 2 is GLODA, and there have been a large number of
>> problems with it.  I noticed some of them on day one and disabled it.
>>
>> I use both TB and RoundCube.  With both open, I can delete a group of
>> messages in RC in an IMAP subfolder and the messages automatically
>> disappear from my TB view in about 5 seconds, and remain gone.  I just
>> performed a test deleting a group of 8 messages via RC in an IMAP
>> subfolder containing list mail from linux-ide.  It works fine the other
>> way around as well, though I must manually refresh RC as it's a
>> stateless web app.  I just deleted 6 messages in TB, and simply
clicking
>> the folder in RC showed the messages were gone.  Deleting a message via
>> RC in INBOX required punching the Get Mail button in TB to reveal the
>> message had been deleted.  Not sure why the INBOX case required a
manual
>> refresh.  The messages are all is still gone, after closing and opening
>> TB again.
>>
>> I don't recall ever having the problem you describe, using TB 3.0
>> through TB 3.1.9, and Dovecot 1.0.15 through 1.2.15.  My point is that
>> TB and Dovecot can be configured properly to eliminate this problem
>> you're having.
> 
> Thanks very much for this post as I have been having the same problems
> with TB and my phone.  I did the things you posted but when I delete a
> message on my phone it doesn't always get deleted in TB.  Sometimes it
> disappears right a way and other times it never goes but it is better
> than before when it would never delete on TB.
If you're not doing local sync with TB and you have GLODA disabled, TB
is going to show you exactly what's in your Dovecot mailbox.  If the
message doesn't disappear from your TB view sometime after deleting it
on your smartphone, then I'd say it's very likely that Dovecot
didn't
receive the delete and/or expunge command from the phone.  Check your
Dovecot logs and see what the phone is actually sending, or not sending.

Both of you mentioned problems specifically WRT smartphones.  It's
likely the IMAP implementation in these phones is simply buggy, or your
network coverage is spotty.  I don't use a smartphone so I can't really
say.  What smartphone are you each using?

-- 
Stan