The RETR command did not succeed. Error retrieving a message

[hav]

STILL! I have used TB for a while and, like many here, apparently, I seem to be getting this recently - almost every morning it happens twice ...

-download messages from the last night
-get the error after some number of messages downloaded
-close the error popup and get all messages again
-immediately get the message again
-close the error box and get all messages
-seems to download all remaining mail successfully

I often (maybe always) get a norton popup about removing a threat as well

this doesn't seem to be pop server related (seems to be happening to users of many different providers) - but could it have something to do with the interplay between TB and Norton?

[DanRaisch]

It could easily be something between Thunderbird and Norton, which is not well thought of on these forums. Still...

Do you regularly compact the message folders? Compacting is something that needs to be done regularly in any email program, particularly with POP type accounts. We recommend weekly, but many of us do it daily. When done often enough, it can be an extremely fast process. Not doing so can lead to problems like those you are experiencing. See this about how to and why it's so important: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

If you haven't been doing that before, first back up your Thunderbird Profile -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup then compact all folders. If 'compacting' them (and leaving a long enough time for the process to complete) doesn't fully resolve the problem then do the following on each account:

Close Thunderbird. Find and delete all of the files with the .msf file extension in your profile folder/Mail http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Folder#Thunderbird including your Local Folders, especially if you are using the global inbox. You must have "View hidden files and folders" on http://spywarewarrior.com/viewtopic.php?t=272 and you need to set "hide extensions for known file types" off (just below View Hidden) if you are using Windows. These are your mail summary files and do not hold any messages themselves. They will be rebuilt the next time you open each folder in Thunderbird. Compact all your folders when you have completed this.

To avoid this happening again, see the tips in these articles:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_worki ... derbird%29
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Performance_%28Thunderbird%29

[hav]

Well - I do compact fairly often - but I did all suggested and waited till this morning to see if I still got the RETR error - and I did. BTW, the Norton message is that W32.Mydoom.M@mm was found and removed.

While it seems to be only an irritation, this is still a problem.

[DanRaisch]

You might try getting rid of Norton and replacing it with freeware like Avast and Comodo. Both work well with Mozilla products. If you choose to remove Norton, note that you have to get an uninstall utility from Symantec's web site. Simply using Windows Add/Remove programs functionality will leaves pieces of Norton behind.

[hav]

Just as a little more info, I just downloaded mail again this morning and, again, there was one or more with W32.Mydoom.M@mm but I did not get the RETR error. It seems that I only get that on the first download each day. I never see it during the day after the first mail download in the morning.

[hav]

again this morning. Not sure this is a date related thing - maybe I just get two infected spams each night?? but it seems to happen every day on the first mail download of the day.

[DanRaisch]

Have you checked the messages on the email server (using a browser) to confirm that those infected messages are actually arriving new each day?

[hav]

mmm - well - no - not sure how I would recognize them?? are you suspecting they might have an old date? I'll go look - thanks

[hav]

well - webmail says no messages - and I've already done the first download this morning, so I'll check tomorrow morning before downloading. I'll make a list of what I see in webmail - then download - perhaps I can id the bad message(s) that way. good idea - thanks - I'll post again in the morning tomorrow.

[hav]

Ok still a problem but, as a quck aside, I was updated to TB 10.0 yesterday.

ok - the story continues ... this morning I tried using the webmail (cox) to see if I could figure out which message(s) was/were creating the RETR errors. There were 81 messages since I last checked mail at 3am (now @ 9:30am). So I decided that, on this first attempt to use webmail to spot or avoid the problem, I would simply delete all spam messages using webmail and then download only the good messages.

Made it most of the way through deleting spam (only shows 10 messages pes display page. When I had made it to the last page of messages, the webmail process crashed (I tried to include the traceback below but it it made my post too large for the forum limit).

When I then tried to download the 10 or so messages that were still on the mail server, I again got the two RETR errors from TB.

Upshot is that this must not be a TB problem - or, at least, not exclusively a TB problem.

[DanRaisch]

It's possible that there is an issue with the Cox servers.

The RETR command did not succeed. Error retrieving a message.

Server failure

It's also possible that Norton is creating a lag in the download process that is causing a timeout in the connection to the server.

[hav]

yeah - I'm working with the cox folks now to see why there was a mail server servlet crash when trying to read and trim out the spam using their webmail facility. I'll get back once I pursue this a bit more - not sure it's all one or the other - pretty sure I've seen more and more others having the RETR error as well but I'll let you know what I find (if anything).

Thanks for the help though.

[DanRaisch]

You're welcome.

[hav]

just to keep up to date... again this morning I tried using COX webmail to do my first mail cleanup of the day. Had 88 messages in inbox this morning. Managed to clean out spam till there were only 9 messages remaining in inbox but, when I try to go to that final page of inbox display, the mail server servlet crashed.

so I closed all browser windows - restarted the browser and went to webmail. Immediately get the servlet crash. Repeated several times always ending with the servlet crash.

If I use TB to download mail, I WILL get the RETR error.

This seems to me to either be the cox mail server (no norton involved in this case) ... OR some message that is simply whacked enough that it is causing problems for BOTH TB and webmail (at least, cox's webmail).

[hav]

I'm hoping this will be the last followup - have been using TB for 1st morning download since my last post and have not had the RETR error since. I'm pretty sure COX made some changes and I have gotten the latest TB update.

Anyway - all good (for) now - thanks Dan!