dovecot - Feb 2009 - email stuck in outbox

Can anyone here help me out with a client side Outlook issue? I know
outlook is a horrible imap client :(

We intermittently have a problem where mail gets "stuck" in Outlook
users' outboxes.

Might have anything to do with dovecot? Is there anyway I can
troubleshoot this server side? Are there any settings I can tweak?

We have a new and an old dovecot server (see below) and both exhibit the
same behavior (occasionally) for heavy mail users. 

We haven't ruled out a layer 2 issue but nor have we found one....

If anyone has any ideas (other than suggesting a different email
client), they'd be much appreciated.

Dovecot version(s) 1.19 & 0.99.11

Configuration from 1.19:

# 1.1.9: /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 2.6.9-78.0.13.ELsmp i686 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release
4 (Nahant Update 7) ext3
syslog_facility: local0
ssl_cert_file: /usr/local/etc/ssl/****************
ssl_key_file: /usr/local/etc/ssl/*****************
disable_plaintext_auth: no
login_dir: /usr/local/var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable: /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
mail_location: mbox:/home/%u/mail:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u
mbox_write_locks: fcntl
auth default:
  debug: yes
  passdb:
    driver: pam
  userdb:
    driver: passwd

barnaby cockcroft wrote:
> Can anyone here help me out with a client side Outlook issue? I know
> outlook is a horrible imap client :(
>
> We intermittently have a problem where mail gets "stuck" in
Outlook
> users' outboxes.
>
> Might have anything to do with dovecot?
I really doubt so. It could be a problem with your SMTP server, but
dovecot is only used for reading messages, not for sending.
>  Is there anyway I can
> troubleshoot this server side? Are there any settings I can tweak?
>   
Check your mail server logs. But first see what Outlook tells you: there
might be a clue.

This often happens when an invalid e-mail address is passed, which
causes rejection of the message and it stays in the outbox (and then
gets reject again, and so on). Are all the recipients valid e-mail
addresses?


-- 
In fiction the recourse of the powerless is murder; in life the recourse
of the powerless is petty theft.

Eduardo M KALINOWSKI
eduardo at kalinowski.com.br
http://move.to/hpkb

on 2-24-2009 10:46 AM barnaby cockcroft spake the
following:
> Can anyone here help me out with a client side Outlook issue? I know
> outlook is a horrible imap client :(
> 
> We intermittently have a problem where mail gets "stuck" in
Outlook
> users' outboxes.
> 
> Might have anything to do with dovecot? Is there anyway I can
> troubleshoot this server side? Are there any settings I can tweak?
> 
> We have a new and an old dovecot server (see below) and both exhibit the
> same behavior (occasionally) for heavy mail users. 
> 
> We haven't ruled out a layer 2 issue but nor have we found one....
> 
> If anyone has any ideas (other than suggesting a different email
> client), they'd be much appreciated.
> 
> Dovecot version(s) 1.19 & 0.99.11
> 
> Configuration from 1.19:
> 
> # 1.1.9: /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf
> # OS: Linux 2.6.9-78.0.13.ELsmp i686 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release
> 4 (Nahant Update 7) ext3
> syslog_facility: local0
> ssl_cert_file: /usr/local/etc/ssl/****************
> ssl_key_file: /usr/local/etc/ssl/*****************
> disable_plaintext_auth: no
> login_dir: /usr/local/var/run/dovecot/login
> login_executable: /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
> mail_location: mbox:/home/%u/mail:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u
> mbox_write_locks: fcntl
> auth default:
>   debug: yes
>   passdb:
>     driver: pam
>   userdb:
>     driver: passwd
> 
> 
> 
> 
Most of the time that my users run across this it is one of three things;
1) Outlook is locked up and a re-start fixes it (sometimes an Outlook restart,
sometimes it takes a reboot).

2) Bad e-mail address. It only takes one invalid address to leave the file in
the outbox.

3) Full PST file. Older PST files and those that are associated with IMAP use
are limited to 2 GB of data. Outlook caches a lot of info about IMAP use, and
also stores local copies of read messages. Sometimes a compaction will free
space, and sometimes not. Or you create new PST files and move things around.

-- 
MailScanner is like deodorant...
You hope everybody uses it, and
you notice quickly if they don't!!!!

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