#317 new
John Man

Invalid characters in atom ?

Reported by John Man | January 13th, 2013 @ 10:07 PM

I was using MailMate 1.5.1 and tried to delete a message from my inbox. I got the following error:

"IMAP problem for "Gradwell" account

MultiMate encountered the following error: "Server response: "J12 BAD Error in IMAP command UID: Invalid characters in atom".".
Mailbox: "INBOX"."

I clicked retry a few times but each time the error message would come back.

I quit MailMate and went in using Mail. It showed that the deleted message was still in the inbox and also multiple times in trash.

I quit Mail. Expunged the inbox. Restarted Mail - the deleted message was still in the inbox.

I restarted Mail. Deleted using Mail the messages form inbox and trash. All clean. Expunged. Quit Mail.

I restarted MailMate and brought the IMAP account online. It gave the same error and recreated the message (deleted by Mail) in the trash folder.

How do I reset MailMate so that it runs without recreating the trashed message and encountering the problem ? (And also how do I prevent the problem occurring again ?)

Comments and changes to this ticket

  • benny

    benny January 14th, 2013 @ 09:18 AM

    Try holding down ⇧ when clicking “Retry” in the error requester. That should generate a log file on the desktop which you can send to me (or add to this ticket). It'll help me figure out what the problem with the server is.

    You may be able to get MailMate out of the current state (after doing the above) by deleting the message again in MailMate. The first time you delete a file then it is moved to the trash, the second time it is expunged. But MailMate probably considers it a message which needs to be uploaded now - since it disappeared from the Inbox before a successful move was made.

    I fixed a problem with mailbox names recently which could explain the problem you have. Try holding down ⌥ when clicking “Check Now” in the Software Update preferences pane. You should get r3193 which should be a stable test version of MailMate.

  • John Man

    John Man January 14th, 2013 @ 10:16 AM

    I've carried out the following steps in the following order:

    1 Log file generated - please find attached.

    2 Upgraded to r3193. When I started this version, I first got a new error message:

    "Connection problem for "Gradwell" account Cannot make a secure connection since STARTTLS is not advertised."

    And it then gave me same error message as above, i.e. "Invalid characters in atom".

    3 I quit MailMate. On the IMAP server, deleted the problem message in trash which MailMate created and expunged. Restarted MailMate - deleted the same message in trash (it turned a red colour) - and then took the account online.

    4 MailMate seems to be working now.

    5 I quit and restart MailMate - no "cannot make secure connection" error message anymore and no "invalid characters in atom" error message anymore.

  • benny

    benny January 14th, 2013 @ 10:52 AM

    • State changed from “new” to “reproduced”

    It's a primitive IMAP server (no UIDPLUS extension), but I think the message revealed a bug in MailMate. It may not happen again with other messages.

    Do you still have the original message (I guess not)? The log indicates that the message had a very strange Message-ID header. I would like to confirm that.

    The STARTTLS problem may be caused by MailMate trying both 143 and 993 (no explicit port given in the account settings). The first port requires the use of a STARTTLS command after connecting and that might not be supported by your server. But apparently 993 works (which does SSL/TLS as part of the initial connection). A bit confusing, but you can probably avoid the problem in the future by explicitly setting 993 as the port.

  • benny

    benny January 14th, 2013 @ 10:56 AM

    • State changed from “reproduced” to “fixcommitted”

    If you can reproduce the problem then I can make a test version for you with the fix.

  • John Man

    John Man January 14th, 2013 @ 11:49 AM

    Please find attached the original message which I had downloaded using Mailsmith (POP3), saved and deleted from the IMAP server. I've just zapped out my e-mail addresses (the message was sent to my me.com e-mail address which then redirected to another address) and my name.

    If I can upload this message back to the IMAP server (I tried earlier using Mail to import it - it gave no error message but I got a blank new mailbox for some reason), I should be able to reproduce the problem. Failing that, I will get more e-mails from the sender (the airline BA's website) in the future.

    In relation to explicitly setting 993 as the port, if I go to edit source, it shows:

    • IMAP Server: pop3.gradwell.net
    • User Name: xxx
    • Port: not ticked but it does show "993" in grey
    • Require SSL: ticked

    I've ticked Port so assume that will prevent the error reoccurring.

  • John Man

    John Man January 14th, 2013 @ 01:28 PM

    I've had a look at the e-mails I've saved over the past few years and came up with the following similar message IDs:

    Message-ID: <Sat Jul 04 00:58:14 BST 2009@blx09ba01>
    Message-ID: <Fri May 18 04:01:34 BST 2012@blx09bd01>
    Message-ID: <Mon Dec 31 23:30:50 GMT 2012@blx09bd01>
    

    (being e-mails sent by certain sender(s) in ba.com but not all of them - the rest look normal)

    I don't know why the latest message ID seems to contain quotes (the attached file above) but the above three in this comment don't.

  • benny

    benny January 14th, 2013 @ 01:44 PM

    The quotes were triggering the bug in MailMate:

    Message-id: <"Thu Jan 10 04:00:50 GMT 2013"@blx09ba01>
    

    The involved code wrongly assumed that quotes were never used in Message-IDs (not intentionally assumed).

    A new test version is available in a few minutes (hold down ⌥ etc.).

    And yes, when Port is ticked then 993 is the only port used.

  • John Man

    John Man January 14th, 2013 @ 01:58 PM

    Thanks - I've updated to r3198 and assume the problem should be solved now (but will let you know if otherwise).

    (After I clicked install and relaunch for the update, it showed a blank window for the release notes and then MailMate crashed. I restarted, clicked to send crash reports to you and it seems OK now.)

  • John Man

    John Man January 14th, 2013 @ 02:01 PM

    Actually, no - if I start, quit, start, quit etc, it seems to crash every 2 or 3 starts.

  • benny

    benny January 14th, 2013 @ 02:04 PM

    I think it'll stop doing it if you disable crash reporting (General preferences pane).

    I'll make sure to fix it soon and have a new version uploaded.

  • John Man

    John Man January 14th, 2013 @ 02:11 PM

    Thanks - disabled crash reporting and after starting/stopping a few times, it seems fine now - no more crashes.

  • benny

    benny January 14th, 2013 @ 02:11 PM

    A fixed version should be out in a few minutes. Sorry about the inconvenience.

  • benny

    benny January 22nd, 2013 @ 12:43 PM

    • State changed from “fixcommitted” to “fixreleased”

Please Sign in or create a free account to add a new ticket.

With your very own profile, you can contribute to projects, track your activity, watch tickets, receive and update tickets through your email and much more.

New-ticket Create new ticket

Create your profile

Help contribute to this project by taking a few moments to create your personal profile. Create your profile ยป

Mac OS X email client.

Shared Ticket Bins

People watching this ticket

Attachments

Pages