Constant Gmail IMAP errors

I use eM Client 6 to manage three Gmail accounts, all configured for IMAP. At random times I get a "connection failed’ error for one or two of the accounts (and not always the same one or two). And always the option to “Open Account Settings.”

There’s no anti-virus or firewall software installed other than what Windows 8 has built in.

If it helps, bottom end of the log reads like this:

10:02:01 AM [e-mail address redacted by me] [IMAP]  MailExceptions.ConnectionException: 10:02:01 AM (I/O error (stream disposed))
10:02:01 AM    at MailClient.Imap.Synchronizer.ImapCommand.ThrowIfConnectionBroken(BasicResponse response)
10:02:01 AM    at MailClient.Imap.Synchronizer.AppendCommand.Execute(WorkerStatus status)
10:02:01 AM    at MailClient.Commands.Command.Process(WorkerStatus status)

Help! Getting very, very frustrated with this.

Hi, what version of eM Client are you using? How long have you been using the application and are you a free license user/pro user or in a trial period?

Thank you,
Paul.

Version 6.0.20154.0. I’m a Pro user. Been using the app full-time for about a month.

I should also note that sometimes messages simply won’t download, even when there’s not an error. In fact, the e-mail generated by your reply is currently stuck loading, with the message “Downloading message part” in the lower-left corner and a blank preview window. 

Hi, can you please go to Tools > Settings > Advanced and turn on IMAP logging for all the account and when you receive the error from the application go back to the advanced settings window and click on send logs, please send the logs to my email address ([email protected]), and please add a reference link to this forum topic.

It would be ideal if you could send the logs once the issue occurs for all accounts, but one or two should be sufficient.

Thank you, sorry for the inconvenience,
Paul.

I’ve also started seeing this problem on the same version.

I am having a similar problem. Several times per day I get IMAP errors: “[IMAP] An attempt to connect to ***@****.com failed. This could be caused by temporary server unavailability or incorrect settings. Do you want to check the settings?”

Also, eM Client will stop syncing. This has been happening for the past few days. When I check the notifications under Operations, it shows that the program is Synchronizing subfolders and Uploading messages, but it is not doing anything – there is no change in the status indicator. 

Ditto. Have been using eM for a year, then this started happening a couple of days ago.

I’ve had similar problems with Gmail over the past couple of weeks, also.  Should I send the log to you also, Paul?  It isn’t clear to me if this is a growing Gmail problem or an EmClient problem.  To be honest, my wife’s Thunderbird is having a similar problem at times.

I’ll add another confirm. Happening multiple times a day now with Google Apps. Same IMAP connect error. Maybe Google is dropping IDLE connections quickly?

OK - I think I have this figured out. Google (strangely) uses very weird DNS. imap.google.com resolves to a CNAME, specifically gmail-imap.l.google.com. which has A records which expire very quickly (either 209 or 10 seconds!) and are load balanced to give different IP addresses. So… if a connection is made by Em Client and sits in IDLE, then a new check is made according to settings, the IP will have changed and IDLE is broken. If you’re lucky and get the same IP - it’s probably good. But you only have a chance of that happening.

Don’t want to get too DNS technical, but this is easy to see using nslookup or dig on linux. I am going to test this by putting this in a host file and seeing if disconnects are resolved. That would confirm it. I’m not sure what Em Client could do on their end to fix other than say - no IDLE with Google, only “Synchronize items every x minutes” setting.

I’m pretty confident this DNS setup on their end breaks IDLE and this is what we’re experiencing. The hosts file test will confirm it. I’ll post back. Em folks - please feel free to contact me directly if I can be of any other help.

I don’t understand all you said, but it may be a promised lead.  I hope the EmClient team can suggest what we users can do to help in our account settings.  Thanks for your efforts on this!

Hi guys, are you having the completely same issue with the application as the original poster.
Are you receiving the (I/O error (stream disposed)) message from the application?

Thank you,
Paul.

Yes Paul. Exact same error as OP.

Hi Paul.  I’ve never been aware of that kind of a message.  My own observation has seen a common symptom:  Most newly arrived messages have the message listing in the Inbox AND the message body present.  But in a given new batch of messages, commonly I find some with the message body NOT downloaded generally and all listed in a row, even if I wait a long while for the bodies to appear (and also trying “send and receive” several times to no avail).  The program often locks up and I have to force a shut down. When I re-start the program, the mail bodies now finally appear after the usual start delay while the database, etc., is re-checked.  This is not a disaster, just a continuing small nuisance.

I hope my description helps a little in your analysis.

This is the IMAP error that I get several times per day:

And for the past few days eM Client will stop syncing and I have to restart the program. It seems to get stuck during this operation:

Can you provide any assistance?

Hi, can you please send me the IMAP logs as I suggested in my second post here and send it to my email [email protected] .

Are you having the issue with one account or multiple accounts as well?

Thank you,
Paul.

Hi, you’re mentioning the application freezes, can you please download this tool (http://www.emclient.com/tools/emstackdump.exe) and when this happens again and the application stops responding, before you force a shut down, run this tool and send the output file to my email [email protected]

We’ll be looking into this further.
Thank you,
Paul.

Hi David, can you try right clicking your mail folder and select Properties > Repair, and click the Repair button?

Are you maybe using some Firewall/Proxy software on your computer?

Thank you,
Paul.

Hi Paul

I have tried using the repair button. But the errors continue. The only firewall I use is the Windows 7 firewall. It is already set to allow all eM Client traffic through.

I had another IMAP error this morning at 8:47 these are the entries at the end of the log for that time period:

08:33:46.287|00B|   A548 IDLE
08:33:46.412|01C|   + idling
08:47:36.596|017|   DONE
08:47:36.690|017|   A549 XLIST “” “%”

There are no entries after that time period. 

There have been more IMAP errors at 9:43 AM. This time on both email accounts The log entries are below:

09:29:43.164|02C|   A483 OK Success09:29:46.211|024|   A484 IDLE
09:29:46.334|02C|   + idling
09:43:36.603|02F|   DONE
09:43:36.661|02F|   A485 XLIST “” “%”

This is the entry for my second email account:

09:29:43.065|019|   A728 OK Success09:29:46.071|00B|   A729 IDLE
09:29:46.285|019|   + idling
09:43:36.607|010|   DONE
09:43:36.671|010|   A730 XLIST “” “%”

Any ideas on what the problem could be?

Update: Same error again at 10:11 this time only on one account:

09:57:52.006|00B|   A107 IDLE09:57:52.212|02B|   + idling
10:11:36.601|01F|   DONE
10:11:36.648|01F|   A108 XLIST “” “%”

It seems that the error occurs every time gmail gets a new email. I got a notification of my cell phone that the account got a new message, then eM Client gets an error message. This happened previously as well.