#1080 new
Denis Ricard

Internal inconsistency loop

Reported by Denis Ricard | March 19th, 2015 @ 05:58 PM

Hello,
I can't use Mailmate at the moment because each and every time I try to sync my mailboxes I get a alert about an internal consistency problem. I am presented with 3 options: do nothing, rebuild database based on cached messages, or rebuild by redownloading. I've tried all 3 and still get the same message (but with a different uid number in the "Mailbox (INBOX) does not contain uid 13382" message.

I tried with the latest beta (and really this has happened in the past but usually got fixed by one of the 2 later options). Since it didn't work I tried the last official release by re-downloading from the web site and I have the same issue.

I don't remember if I have the 'send crash report' selected and I can't get to the preferences (that's modal dialog and the options are 'quit' and 'relaunch'). I probably set it to send, although it doesn't really crash.

A quick console search gave me a few lines that might mean something to you:

2015-03-19 11:44:45.498 AM MailMate[2387]: Antidote - Texteurs: Module texteur installé dans /Applications/MailMate.app (com.freron.MailMate)

2015-03-19 11:53:20.449 AM MailMate[2404]: WARNING: The Gestalt selector gestaltSystemVersion is returning 10.9.2 instead of 10.10.2. Use NSProcessInfo's operatingSystemVersion property to get correct system version number.
Call location:

If you find it useful I can send more information about these.

Thanks,
Denis

Comments and changes to this ticket

  • benny

    benny March 19th, 2015 @ 07:36 PM

    Thanks for the details. One of those output lines indicates that you have antivirus software installed. This might explain what's going on, because there is a known issue with antivirus software removing files from the MailMate database (they usually call it quarantine). MailMate then ends up in an internal inconsistency (looking for a file that does not exist). It's tricky to handle, because if MailMate just refetched the message then it would become an infinite loop.

    I did try to work around this issue recently in the test version of MailMate: Hold down ⌥ when clicking “Check Now” in the Software Update preferences pane (r5074). My solution here is to immediately check for the existence of the file after saving it and if it disappears then it is replaced by a dummy file.

    Let me know whether or not this helps you.

  • Denis Ricard

    Denis Ricard March 19th, 2015 @ 09:40 PM

    I had tested with r5074 and it failed, that's why I tried to revert to the latest non-beta version by downloading from the site. That failed too and that's when I opened this ticket.

    I did try again just now and I could download version r5075, although not without crashing (I can send the crash report if you'd like). This is tricky: I opened Mailmate and got the dialog, I choose to redownload so I could have time to update before getting the modal dialog. It restarted and I could go into the prefs and started the download but then it crashed as I tried to relaunch it while it was still downloading.

    Is there a way to prevent sync on launch with a key combination?

    Anyhow, upon restarting it I had r5075 and I got the same error. I tried the two options and got the same results.

    I can see how a virus software yanking an email into quarantine might affect Mailmate, but I'd expect either option from the modal dialog to fix these inconsistencies?

  • benny

    benny March 19th, 2015 @ 10:10 PM

    If the problem is antivirus software then rebuilding won't help, because as soon as MailMate fetches the problematic message then it happens again. It would also mean that my workaround does not work.

    I suggest taking the machine offline, launch MailMate, and then take your IMAP accounts offline (use “Mailbox ▸ Take Offline”). You can then take the machine online again and I suspect the crash won't happen. You can then take your accounts online 1 by 1 until you find the one triggering the issue. Using the same strategy, you can do it for a single account by first taking its mailboxes offline and then take them online one by one.

    If you do have antivirus software, have you tried disabling it before launching MailMate?

  • Denis Ricard

    Denis Ricard March 20th, 2015 @ 12:00 AM

    Hm, I don't understand how that works then. I usually get a message from the virus protection when it moves a message to quarantine, and I didn't get any during all my tests to fix this.

    In any case, yes turning the virus protection off before launching Mailmate fixes the problem. Strangely, turning it back on after Mailmate finished synchronizing doesn't cause any problem. I don't understand it but it works so I'm happy. If it does happen again I have a way to fix it.

    BTW my virus protection is Avast. Having Mailmate play nice with virus software would be a good thing down the road, so if there is anything I can do to help with that let me know.

    Thanks,
    Denis

    P.S. you're due for a blog entry! :) Suggestion of topic: what's the status of the small crowd funding for visual work on Mailmate (to which I contributed gladly)?

  • benny

    benny March 20th, 2015 @ 08:57 AM

    It didn't crash afterwards, because Avast only checks the file when it is saved to disk. If you move it then it'll happen again since then it also moves on disk.

    It would actually be a great help if you could reproduce the issue. My best guess is that you can do it by moving a recent junk message to a different folder since those are most likely to have content triggering antivirus software. If you can do that then I can add some debug output to MailMate to see why my current workaround fails to work.

    (To be honest, I'm pretty tired of antivirus software behavior, but I'm willing to work around the issue if possible :-) )

    Blog entry: Yes, I am. I'm working hard on getting version 1.9 ready to be released and replace the aging 32 bit version on the homepage. After that I can hopefully be a bit more blog-active.

    Graphics crowd fund: I have updated the page a couple of times. Since then it has passed 50% and I'm actively corresponding with a graphics designer. Thanks for the support!

  • Denis Ricard

    Denis Ricard March 21st, 2015 @ 02:39 AM

    Hey there,
    sure I can try to reproduce the issue. I'll try this weekend, and if it doesn't work I'll be sure to send you console logs when it reappears.

    I can understand your tiredness regarding virus software and I appreciate you looking into this!

    Thanks for update on the 1.9 status and the graphics.

  • Denis Ricard

    Denis Ricard March 23rd, 2015 @ 05:00 PM

    I couldn't reproduce the issue (I guess no infected files) but I'll keep an eye out and send news your way. You can close this ticket or leave it open as you think best.

  • Denis Ricard

    Denis Ricard March 23rd, 2015 @ 06:36 PM

    BTW, I'm also trying to reproduce a crashing bug that happened to me twice when closing the 'Drafts' folder with the carret. Are you aware of this? I can't reproduce it at the moment. I'll open another ticket if/when I can.

  • benny

    benny March 23rd, 2015 @ 07:44 PM

    • State changed from “new” to “cantreproduce”

    No, I'm also not sure what you mean by “closing the “Drafts” folder with the caret”?

    In an case, yes, let me know if you can reproduce it.

  • Denis Ricard

    Denis Ricard March 23rd, 2015 @ 07:53 PM

    It happened twice that MM crashed when I clicked on the little triangle to close the 'drafts' folder (I have many email accounts so there are many drafts folders).

  • benny

    benny March 23rd, 2015 @ 07:57 PM

    Ah, based on your crash report I can see that this is an issue which happens very rarely in general, but it has happened before. It might be an important hint that it is related to closing a mailbox.

  • Denis Ricard

    Denis Ricard April 1st, 2015 @ 02:38 PM

    I had another issue with internal inconsistencies today but the rebuild worked, so your fix seem to work well :)

    Thanks,
    Denis

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