IMAP mail not syncing to all devices

[craigberry]

We have a new problem on our hmailserver (Version 5.6.7-B2425 on Windows server 2008 8Gb Ram no performance issues) whereby we are getting mail delivered as expected automatically to IOS devices but they don't appear on our desktop mail clients (Thunderbird/Outlook) unless we restart the client completely.

We have 150Gb in hmailserver/data and the server has been running fine for many years.

Can anyone shine any light on why this would suddenly happen as its very frustrating

Cheers,

[mattg]

Make sure that you have all of the IMAP extensions selected in the admin GUI

[craigberry]

Thanks we had 'sort' turned off - will this need a restart of hmailserver?

regards,

[Strickt]

I'm having the exact same problem. Server has been the same and almost untouched for 3 years and working solid. Then about the same time, 6/13/2019 of this year I started getting multiple users reporting their phones were still updating but their desktop email clients were not. Some using Thunderbird, some using Outlook 2013, some using Outlook 2016, and all connecting via IMAP. Recently it stopped updating for me too and I use Thunderbird.

Nothing has changed recently...

Most users reporting inbox is not updating, one user reporting he's receiving hundreds of duplicate emails...then they all disappear. Some reporting that certain emails have potentially been deleted by the antivirus so we checked antivirus logs and nothing reported. We shut off antivirus...still having problems.

All extensions are checked under IMAP and always have been..

[mattg]

Please start a new thread and link back to this one if you think relevant

I'm having the exact same problem.

The the exact same solution should apply


Please detail some specs of your server, and detail the workload

[Strickt]

I looked at that, it was already checked. All the extensions were. Nothing has changed on the server in 3 years. Not even new accounts or domains..

[SorenR]

I looked at that, it was already checked. All the extensions were. Nothing has changed on the server in 3 years. Not even new accounts or domains..

You probably picked up a buggy MS update along the way

hMailserver is not changed in 3 years, IOS & Android work - so the only other "unknown" in the equation is Windows...

[craigberry]

I hate to have to open this thread but we are having the same original problem as first posted - with no changes to our set up and hmail imap extensions - all boxes ticked.

Our data older is now 200Gb and we have about 2m mail messages and we are having imap sync issues all over the shop but mostly with emails coming down fine to phone but not to desktop (mac or pc)


Is our database too large as we are being advised or are we looking at this the wrong way and the problem lies elsewhere?

Thanks in advance.

[mattg]

it's not a database issue unless you are using the MS SQL CE

It's more likely a combination of IMAP protocol and Bandwidth that is your bottleneck.
How many users?
How many devices access the same account?

WHat is the size of the largest accounts (in message count and GB)?

I'd try and archive as many mails as possible.
I have a dummy local domain set up, that I archive old messages to. Sure it is slow when I need it, but that is rarely once or twice per year. Keeps my main mail system running better.

My largest account is some 65000 messages.

[craigberry]

Sorry for late reply thanks for the suggestion.

Not sure how many messages but we found one account was 40Gb! We are trying to get users to archive / delete emails.

We have one user who has four devices accessing the same account - I think this is the one with the highest no of devices accessing a single account.

Are you saying you are archiving your messages locally on your laptop?

cheers,

[mattg]

Are you saying you are archiving your messages locally on your laptop?

I created a dummy mail domain on my server, with an account.
Connect to both the real account and the dummy account from same mail client, and drag and drop mail from one to the other.

If I need to access something that has been archived, then I connect using the archive account and dummy domain.
This is so rare that when needed, a few minutes extra to load is no big deal.
The time saved by NOT accessing this old mail EVERY TIME I access mail is immense.
I can often go years between viewing mail that has been archived.

[reheh]

Good day,

I had the same problems as mentioned in the previous thread. What i did was disable the firewall on the machine and ran test to see if mails came in, which it did. It may be possible that an update caused this problem for hmailserver. i enabled the firewall and add an entry for the hmailserver.

good luck.

[berg128]

Seems to me that the number of items in folders or subfolders are creating the problem. For both the client and the server it's a hell of a job to constantly sync high number of items in a folder most certainly if more devices access the same account.

My advise would be to try and test the maximum number of items in one folder and then create subfolders per month/quarter/year according to your findings.

I guess more then 32000 items in a folder isn't a best practice for any mail setup.

[reheh]

ok i stand corrected, it was a coincidence it worked. It was not the firewall. I am still hunting.