GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 530137
Prompts for passwords on errors that are not password-related
Last modified: 2010-03-25 19:56:34 UTC
On a range of server-related errors, evolution prompts for a password, even when the password is correct, and the error is not password related. If the mail server or internet connection goes down, evolution will pop up a password prompt with the message "Error sending username." Evolution ought to only pop up a password prompt if the mail server explicitly rejects the given password.
there is a similar bug described on https://bugs.launchpad.net/evolution/+bug/245589 "The password is stored in seahorse, but if there is an error (for example "Unknown error" or "Timeout") when connecting to an IMAP server (Gmail account), Evolution asks me for the password of the account, but that's not necessary. It should check the type of error before asking me for the password."
This version is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. The current stable GNOME and Evolution version is 2.26. Can you please check again whether this issue still happens in Evolution 2.24 or 2.26 and update this report by adding a comment and changing the "Version" field? Thanks a lot. Again thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed for the version you originally used here. Without feedback this report will be closed as INCOMPLETE in 6 weeks.
A bugzilla search showed several duplicates of this issue: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=584178 http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=552631 http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=337479 http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=547903 http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=571504 http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=581949 It still happens in Evolution 2.26.
Created attachment 150589 [details] Annoying password dialog for a "try again later" error (partly in german)
I confirm that it still happens in Evolution 2.28.1, and with POP servers. I configured two POP accounts in Evolution, both polling mails every 15 mins. One fetches mails through SSL encryption, the other without encryption. Both get errors from time to time. Then a dialog says "-ERR mail storage services unavailable, wait a few minutes and try again" and it asks for the password again! Without reentering the password, the connection does not work anymore. Even canceling the dialog does not help. I understand that if a server reports any kind of error, the user should get the chance to alter the password, even if the error says something different (the server might report the wrong error). But as long as no new password is entered and OK is pressed, the old one should stay. Furthermore I'd prefer that during automatic polling such errors won't open a dialog upon their first occurrence. Evolution could retry it silently a few times before informing the user.
Just got a similar error dialog from the other POP account. This one says: "-ERR Temporary problem, please try again later" (and asks for the password).
...and a third one: "Operation now in progress". To summarize, here are my error messages where evolution should try harder before nagging the user with a pop-up or even dropping his password: "-ERR mail storage services unavailable, wait a few minutes and try again" "-ERR Temporary problem, please try again later" "Operation now in progress" ("-ERR" was literally part of the message! I do not mean it as a placeholder)
Sorry, forget the last message "Operation now in progress". This is the text of a subsequent dialog - not a reply of the pop server.
Thanks for a bug report. Let's use the oldest bug to solve them all together. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 337479 ***
@Milan: thanks for bringing more attention to this bug!