Created attachment 149047 [details]
env CAMEL_VERBOSE_DEBUG=1 evolution >& /tmp/camel.out

Dave Walker  wrote 16 hours ago:  	  #2

You can debug the communications with your mail server with environment variable CAMEL_VERBOSE_DEBUG.

   1. Exit evolution and run the command 'evolution --force-shutdown'
   2. Run the command 'env CAMEL_VERBOSE_DEBUG=1 evolution >& /tmp/camel.out'
   3. Use evolution like usual

The server traffic will be logged to /tmp/camel.out file delimited by the words "sending:" and "receiving:". Certain information such as usernames and passwords, and most message content will be hidden or not printed.

Please attach the resulting /tmp/camel.out log file. If you could produce a very short movie and screen prints documenting the problem then that may also help track down the problem.
Dave Walker 16 hours ago
Changed in evolution (Ubuntu):
status: 	New → Incomplete
Pedro Villavicencio 10 hours ago
Changed in evolution (Ubuntu):
importance: 	Undecided → Low
Steve Redmond wrote 6 hours ago: 	#3

    * camel (another copy).out (101.9 KiB, text/html)

Dave Walker:

Thank you for responding.

I have done as you suggested, with the exception that I do not know how to/or have a screen capture movie-maker.

I have included a camel.out debug log. P.S. I did not know how to/if I could add more than one attachment file, so they will follow individually.

The camel.out spans two attempts to receive all emails: Receive (1st) / Fail (on 2nd) / Receive (2nd) / Fail (on 3rd). Hopefully that is enough to see a pattern. There are 'CRITICAL' error messages embedded. There was no "receiving:" delimiter that I could find. I edited the file to obfuscate my proper email account name and email address, at 'XXX' and 'myemailname'.

The screen shots are 'before', 'receiving', 'error', and 'after' the third attempt to receive all emails. Hopefully that is enough without a movie.

Could you answer back with the command line(s) to restore normal operation properly (i.e., run without camel.out). I am new to linux/Ubuntu and would appreciate that.

Thank you again for giving this problem your time and attention.

Steve

Here is a link to the Ubuntu Launchpad Bug: 

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evolution/+bug/491709

It contains some screenshots that may be helpful.

I am sorry.  I did not realize I was suppose to assign this to Evolution/BugBuddyBugs until after I filed the bug.

Created attachment 149087 [details]
screenshots for comment 5 - part 1 of 3

Created attachment 149088 [details]
screenshots for comment 5 - part 2 of 3

Created attachment 149092 [details]
screenshots for comment 5  - part 3 of 3

Thanks for your continuing advice Dave.  I appreciate that this problem is being addressed by the community.

These are results from your last suggestion at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evolution/+bug/491709 .

I cleaned out all waiting email/headers from my server, and then arranged for numerous test emails to be sent to my account.  'Real' email has started to flood in again too.

The results are mixed.  The same problem documented earlier did repeat, i.e., receiving just the first of many emails.  However, that was not always the case, and there were other issues receiving.  Unfortunately the debug output to camel.out was turned off when all this was happening, so I will repeat the experiment and attach the output later.  I have attached screenshots which should help.

The good news is that Thunderbird received everything well: all emails sent, in the order sent, with only one copy of each.  Likewise, my webmail server received them well.  I sent email to myself, from my friend, and to myself at another server which forwards them to me, and from my friend via that server too.  There were a total of 10 emails sent every-which-way that came through AOK.  Then a batch of eBay notifications started coming in, also AOK.  There were 33 emails in this sample in total.

Evolution has a different story.  Please refer to the screens shots in the archive attached:

   1. Evolution got hungup fetching emails, while 'storing folder'.  The operation had to be cancelled manually each time this occurred. No new mailed was received when this happened. Ref: "storing folder Screenshot.png" and "error fetching Screenshot.png" (after cancel).

   2. Retrying to receive gave a different status display.  This was not a problem, but usually I don't see this message long enough to notice.  Ref: "receiving-trying Screenshot.png".

   3. Evolution repeated the error previously documented, failing to get the 2nd of many emails waiting.  Evolution can get one email at a time, if you manually guide it through the fetching/error/cancel process.  Ref: "failed again - Screenshot.png", "failed on eBay - Screenshot.png", "failed again on eBay - Screenshot.png", "failed again 2 - Screenshot.png", and "failed again 3 - Screenshot.png".

   4. Evolution received multiple copies of several emails.  Specifically in total it received two copies of 7 emails, and four copies of four emails.  Ref: "storing 2 - Screenshot.png", "Evolution received eventually - Screenshot.png", and others for receipts in progress.

   5. There was at least one instance where Evolution received two emails, albeit two copies of each, without failing.  No screenshot.

   6. Thunderbird and my webmail server received everything in good order.  Ref: "Thunderbird received - Screenshot.png" and "My webmail received - Screenshot 2.png".

   7.  Thunderbird did have an unusual occurence.  When I was expecting emails that hadn't arrived, I repeatedly hit the "Get Mail" button.  After about 4-5 tries a message appeared indicating the server would not allow this.  This behaviour was repeatable, after about 4-5 rapid tries.  Question: Could this behaviour by the server have anything to do with Evolution's problem receiving more than the first email?  Ref: "thunderbird msg Screenshot.png".

I hope this is helpful to confirm the existence of the problem.  I am sorry if the results and my reporting seem to expand the scope or nature of the issue.  It feels like a bit of a mess.  If you have advice on how to attack this, I am ready to follow-up.  

Thank you again for your time and attention.

Steve

P.S. - Screenshots were 2.7 MB in a .tar.gz, so I have had to make 3 attachments to send them all :(

Steve:

I appreciate your effort documenting this bug.  I think this is as far as I can go with it.   I moved it upstream and documented the move in Launchpad.   For now we wait for a response from the Evolution Triagers and developers. 

I'll remain subscribed to the bug so I will keep an eye on the progress. 

Good luck!

Thanks for a bug report. I'm closing this in favour of the current stable version, which is 3.20.2 (but event 3.18/3.16 should be basically the same). The debugging log shows that after the message is received from the server the server returns:
> POP3_STREAM_LINE(19): '-ERR invalid syntax'
which evolution reported as an error:
> CamelException.setv(0x895433c, 2, 'Cannot get message
> 0F0313C6-DF94-11DE-971C-00237DE4619A: Input/output error')
The log doesn't show what exactly failed, unfortunately. It can be that the POP3 code tried to execute some command, but didn't log it. Hard to tell with such ancient version.

The Thunderbird error shows that the server has setup a time limit between connections. This one is not indicated in the log.

Feel free to comment here or/and reopen, if you'd be able to reproduce this with more recent version of the evolution-data-server, notably at least 3.16.x, but ideally with the current stable series, which is 3.20.x.