IMAP email on K9 and native app not showing complete inbox, messages come in and disappear

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Ken_GoDaddy --

"may be more of an issue with how the application is talking to our email server"

I posted a very specific example of your IMAP server returning data that's inconsistent with itself (!), and was hoping you would comment on it, in a similarly specific manner.

Disappointed that you haven't done that.

Would have been a great way for you to point out what's wrong in "how the application is talking to our email server" -- *if* in fact you could put forward some sort of basis for those claims.

Then we could have a proper technical discussion about it. Oh well.

I also would like to reiterate that in several years, I have not received a single support email for this scenario for any other email service, except GoDaddy.

 

[lithoman23]

I give up... no one on godaddy side will take responsibility. Of course its Verizon that's the cause of this!!!! I never had a problem 4 months ago..with my phone but now I do. I even reset my phone, still the same..if its a compatibility issue with the new jellybean then let us know.. I have had problems with godaddy mail freezing on my laptop and still do.. Two different laptops too.
My suggestion to any new business owners looking for domain names with email service..DONT USE GODADDY..you will regret it!.

 

[Ken_GoDaddy]

Thank you for your replies and patience with my response. I know how frustrating email problems can be.

We have attempted to duplicate the issues described here with various Android devices and mail clients. We simply can’t duplicate the issues. If we knew the cause of the problem we would fix it and I want to reassure you that we're not giving up with trying to help.

To move forward, I need more detailed information on an individual basis. If you are experiencing the issue, can you please send me a private message with additional details about your email account? Specifically, the email address in question, Device, mail client you are using, and current Android version on your device. Again, thank you for your patience and for working with me.

 

[salosinger]

Ken,

I assume that the device has an event or error log. If you can explain how to open that log we can send you a copy, this should help in identifying the problem or help duplicate the problem. Or if someone else can explain how to get a copy of the log it would be helpful.

Thank you

 

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Here is one -- I already linked it above.

Copying here.

-----------

A GoDaddy IMAP session.

1-

kman127 SELECT "Drafts"
* 5 EXISTS
kman127 OK [READ-WRITE] SELECT completed.

^^ Server says there are five messages total

2 -

kman128 UID SEARCH UNSEEN UNDELETED
* SEARCH 1767
kman128 OK SEARCH done.

^^ My code asking the server for the list of unread messages. The server saying "there is one, and its Unique ID is 1767".

3 -

kman129 FETCH 1:5 (UID FLAGS)
* 1 FETCH (UID 1662 FLAGS (\Seen \Draft \Recent))
* 2 FETCH (UID 1671 FLAGS (\Seen \Draft \Recent))
* 3 FETCH (UID 1676 FLAGS (\Seen \Draft \Recent))
* 4 FETCH (UID 1698 FLAGS (\Seen \Draft \Recent))
* 5 FETCH (UID 1760 FLAGS (\Seen \Recent))
kman129 OK FETCH completed.

^^ My code asking the server for the list of message IDs and flags, based on the number of messages that the server reported in this folder.

Two things wrong:

- There are no unread messages (they are all \Seen, which is "read")

- There is no message with UID = 1767

- And yet, above, the server claimed there was one unread message and its UID is 1767.

------

Since I'm not a GoDaddy client -- just a lowly mail app developer -- I won't share the details about the account without the user's permission.

------

I believe (and have proof of) that the EXISTS value returned by GoDaddy's IMAP server from the SELECT command is often wrong, and does not represent the actual number of messages in a folder.

This is a basic IMAP command, used by every single mail app, on every single operating system and hardware platform, to "look inside" a folder.

 

[Greg Bassett]

I had this problem over a year ago, until it just went away, and it recently started again last week. I have tested both the android native application as well as the K-9 app, and the problem is consistent between the 2. I am running a Motorola Droid 4. The webpage access to my inbox is always correct. If I dare setup a POP account, it works fine, only the IMAP is giving me this error. I usually will see the most recent email, until the next poll, and then it will disappear. If I receive another email, it will show the new one until the next poll, and then it will disappear and the 3rd most recent email (which was not present before) will now show. It seems to always not show the 2 most recent emails after it checks with the server (unless they have just arrived). This is a pretty frustrating thing for me as this is an email account that I do most of my business on and when I am not at the office I need the phone to work properly. I will give whatever information is required to help resolve this issue, because if it is not resolved, I will have to change my provider as this is not an acceptable result for me.

 

[Greg Bassett]

Ok, problem now resolve. Went to GoDaddy chat support and informed them of the issue, they forced a resync that deleted 2 invalid email headers that were hanging out causing the count to be off, and the problem is resolved for me, showing all emails correctly currently.

 

[salosinger]

Greg,

Thank you for your post. I spoke to GoDaddy tech support this morning on the phone. At first they scratched their heads when I told them about your post. But after sending the link to the tech who was helping me, he spoke to "advanced tech support" who said they would force a resync and it would take about an hour. Less then an hour later, my email was working fine again. It seems that the issue is with the headers and resyncing eliminates the bad or duplicate headers.

 

[anon(871934)]

I can confirm that resynching works too. To avoid a long discussion and potential debate just tell them that webmail shows a quantity of email in your trash but none are there so you need your account resynched.

 

[Anthony Cavalea]

I am having the same problems. It started a few weeks ago. I have tried to solve it today by changing over to AquaMail, but it is still continuing. I have changed from SSL to no encryption, I have played with every setting. I even reduced the size of my inbox from 15,000 emails to 5,000 emails. I have come to the conclusion that this is a GoDaddy issue that needs to be fixed.

 

[Anthony Cavalea]

Adding even more confusion... The 2 most recent emails in my inbox do not appear. If I send myself a test email, it pushes the third oldest email onto my Android inbox. If I send another test email, it pushes the next one, and so on.

 

[Ken_GoDaddy]

@Anthony Cavalea,

I am with GoDaddy and came across your post. As you may have seen in the thread, many others have come across the same issues as you. However, a few other users have indicated that an email re-sync on our end resolves this for them.

I would like to try this and see if this resolves the issue for you. Can you follow up with me via private message with your email?

I look forward to hearing from you.

-Ken

 

[jcradd42]

Maybe my problem is simpler than what some others are seeing, although it is similar. I also can't see all of my mail, and I have at times gone to a folder, seen a bunch of emails for a couple of seconds, then saw them disappear. I use IMAP and store a lot of older emails. I can see my most recent emails, but I can't see older ones.
Here are some additional facts.
- Like others here I use Godaddy, however I also use Hover and have seen the same problem at the same time with both of those IMAP email server providers.
- I use IMAP to enable accessing my email from both my android clients and windows clients. I first ran into this problem months ago when I started trying to use Outlook 2013 on windows 8. At that time, all other clients worked fine, including a couple of different android email clients and older versions of Outlook. I found a lot of other people complaining about Outlook and IMAP (I can't post links but search on "Old emails not showing in IMAP Outlook 2013" and you will find plenty) and did not find any answers, so I started using alternate clients on windows (I have outlook 2007 on a windows 7 machine that still sees all email, and I am using Thunderbird on my windows 8 desktop and that sees all of the old email as well.)
- Only recently did I start having this same problem using my default email client on my android phone. (Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with Android 4.4.2).
I'm starting to think there are IMAP synch issues in general that need to be worked out ...? I'm seeing this issue with more than one provider (not only Godaddy, although they are one) and more than one email client on more than one operating system.
Let me know if there is anything I should try, check, or info I could provide that might be helpful. Up until recently, I knew that I could be out somewhere with just my phone, and access my old email from months or years back that I have stored and organized in folders if I needed it ... now suddenly I cannot. I'd sure like to get that ability back.

 

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Anthony -- AquaMail developer here.

This happens (in my app and others) when the mail server reports the wrong value for the total number of messages in a folder.

Called "EXISTS" in the IMAP protocol, I've seen a number of cases (in actual log files from the users) where this was the case.

And when a mail server provides data that's just plain wrong, well.... Garbage in, garbage out.

I've already posted here on this thread in the past with precise technical details, and although I've not seen what's happening in *your* account, I'm reasonably sure it's the same issue.

To my knowledge, there is no other mail provider whose mail server returns wrong data like this. So it's not a general IMAP problem, it's something unique to GoDaddy, and has been going on for years with no conclusive fix.

You can try to ask their support to "resync your account" (those exact words). It's my understanding that this helps sometimes, although it's not a sure bet.

 

[anon(871934)]

Resynchronizing the account seems to always fix the issues that I have. I usually have to do that once per month. I would love to change providers from GoDaddy if I could. My criteria is that I want to keep my personal domain with the 4 email addresses that exist on it and have the ability for a catch-all account (any *@domain.com I give people goes to one of the email addresses). Anyone know of a good provider in the US that fits the bill?

 

[Anthony Cavalea]

I came back here because the issue is still going on with my phone and GoDaddy. The last 2 messages are always missing. Yes, I know it's not an Aquamail issue because this happens with all apps except GoDaddy's app. The problem with GoDaddy's app is 1) email responses are changed to rich text format even showing the html line break code and so older parts of the message become indecipherable, 2) multiple email addresses are not auto formatted in a way the app will recognize, 3) I don't get automatic notifications of new messages, and 4) my work does not save-if I get a phone call I lose everything I was doing. GoDaddy's app sucks even worse.

Will Resynching help? Yeah maybe, but do I really need to call GoDaddy every month for this?

Why can't GoDaddy fix the main issue?

 

[Anthony Cavalea]

I came up with a pretty good workaround this morning. The issue is only with IMAP; POP works ok. So what I did was go back to the native email app and set up the same account twice, one with IMAP settings and one with POP settings, and I labeled each account thus. The POP email just have it pull 25 (the minimum) emails with notifications and sync turned on every 15 minutes. I keep email on the server unless deleted-I think the native app only gives you a choice about the delete part. I turned off notifications for IMAP and made it sync less often. I then use the "combined inbox". Now I can see all of my messages and it's a hybridization of IMAP and POP and bypasses the header issue that causes the missing email bug with GoDaddy.

 

[anon(871934)]

I switched my GoDaddy email over to Google Apps for Business last week. Tired of the GoDaddy problems. I was surprised how easy it was. Google has automated the conversion both in terms of updating the routing information with GoDaddy and in migrating your entire GoDaddy email storage. It took about 10 minutes to do the settings update until I was live in Gmail with my same domain and email address. The email migration took only about 24 hours. My only regret is not doing it sooner.

 

[Crashdamage]

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've had no problems at all with GoDaddy IMAP service. We don't handle a large volume though. Using AquaMail for mobile and Thunderbird for Linux and Windows desktops.

Android since v1.0. Linux user since 2001.