IMAP clients hanging on Copy To Sent folder on server

[Sean Howard]

We’ve been searching the web for some time now and while we’ve found users mentioning the symptoms, we can’t find the problem. Times out. Mail is sent, but copy was never put to the sent folder.

Symptom: IMAP client hangs when copying a sent file to the Send folder on the server (INTERMITTENTLY)

Clients tried: Apple’s Mail app and Thunderbird 1.02

Server: 10.3.8 update

The server shows no log activity on the hang from the client. The client appears to be functioning correctly in IDLE mode (getting notices of new mail, etc.) Was able to generate logs from Apple’s mail and there was nothing in the logs at the time of the hang. Every five minutes, apple was sending a NOOP.

Has anyone else experienced this or have any ideas on what might be the cause?

Sean Howard

[Sean Howard]

I tested dragging a file from Tbird to the Save folder and it worked.

Then I left Tbird running, sending messages to myself every so often. My test at about the 30 minute mark hung on copy to Save folder on server.

So I hit cancel and attempted to drag it. No response. Nothing in server log and no action taken by Tbird. Dragged a file to a different folder and it went immediately.

UPDATE: Relaunched client and let it sit for over 40 minutes. All attempts to drag mail to the Sent folder by hand worked. System Log showed no authentication occuring so it appears I remained in IDLE. Any thoughts?

[Sean Howard]

SOLUTION

As there are other people posting about this problem elsewhere without resolution, I thought I would share what I found.

It’s the connection.

We’re with a baby bell’s business ADSL service and the latency and dropped packets are so extreme that our IMAP clients are unable to reach the host and are timing out.

Have been unable to recreate the problem from the majority of the other providers in our area. Time to shift services. Oh joy. 😉

Sean

[Author]

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