I’m evaluating eM Client as a replacement for Outlook. I’ve encountered a couple issues. Before proceeding, I should note the following:
* I’ve using eM Client version 5.0.17595.0.
* I’m connecting to SmarterMail Enterprise 11.0.4821.
* I transferred my mail from Outlook to the server using IMAP. At which point, I configured eM to connect to the server using IMAP. I have not attempted to import anything directly from Outlook into eM Client.
First, eM Client encountered a problem parsing a message’s headers. This caused the client to stop downloading messages in the folder. In other words, it didn’t simply skip the problematic message. I enabled logging [Great feature, BTW] to determine which message was causing problems. I then removed the message. At which point, eM Client successfully downloaded all the messages in the folder (over 50,000).
I mention this because the failure was pretty severe and because other clients did not seem to have this problem. That is to say, if they had a problem parsing the message, I was not aware. They seemed to successfully download all the mail. However, I didn’t specifically check for that message. It’s possible they simply skipped it.
I believe this is the relevant portion of the log file:
* 33546 FETCH (UID 33546 RFC822.SIZE 6083 FLAGS (\SEEN) INTERNALDATE “2-May-2011 11:35:30 -0400” BODYSTRUCTURE ((“text” “plain” (“charset” “us-ascii”) NIL NIL “7bit” 93 8 NIL NIL NIL)(“text” “html” (“boundary” “----=_NextPart_000_654B_01CC08BD.0AF2B0A0” “charset” “us-ascii”) NIL NIL “quoted-printable” 4874 103 NIL NIL NIL) “alternative” (“boundary” “----=_NextPart_000_2D1F4_01CE2C9E.0B7EFE50”) NIL NIL) ENVELOPE (“Mon, 2 May 2011 11:35:31 -0400” “example subject?”" (({12}
Parse error here -" (({12}
Parse error here -" (({12}
User Name NIL “username” “example.com”)) (({12}
Exception:
Protocol violation
Line User Name NIL “username” “example.com”)) (({12}
Greetings * OK IMAP4rev1 SmarterMail
Note that the subject starts with a double quote and ends with the following character sequence:
?""
Deleting the last double quote at the end seemed to fix the issue. After changing the subject (by manually editing the message file on the server), I moved the message back into the folder. At which point, eM Client was able to parse it successfully. I looked at the message in a hex editor and did not see any other unusual characters (bare LFs, null bytes, etc.).
Second, with the exception of the Inbox, eM Client does not appear to be caching the contents of any folder. When I click the Inbox folder, I see the list of messages immediately. This list appears to be cached. It may update after a second or two, but otherwise, the message list appears persistent. When clicking any other folder (Sent, Junk E-mail, etc.), I may see the messages for an instant. Then, they disappear. At which point, eM Client starts rebuilding the list from scratch.
I do not see any errors in the eM client logs. I’ve tried enabling the “Download messages for offline use” option, both at the folder and account level. I’ve run the Repair operation on various folders. Nothing seems to correct the problem. I’m not sure how to proceed at this point. As noted above, I’ve tried a few other clients. They do not exhibit this behavior.
Otherwise, eM Client seems really nice. The only feature that I’m missing is integration with the native Windows search.