The RETR command did not succeed. Error retrieving a message

[LGM]

I keep getting the below message when I try to retrieve mail in one of two different Yahoo accounts I have set up in TB:

The RETR command did not succeed. Error retrieving a message. Mail server pop.mail.yahoo.com responded: problem retrieving message.

I have googled the issue and tried a few things but am stumped. What I've tried to no avail:

--compacting folders in TB
--disabling Avast shields
--verifying the server and account settings in TB for that Yahoo account
--in Web mail, I've moved all emails after the last downloaded email in the problematic account into a temp folder
--I deleted in both TB and web mail the last downloaded email to TB
--I went into web mail and made sure there was no mail in the junk or trash folders
--I created a brand new duplicate of the problematic Yahoo account in TB but when I try to download mail to it, the same error message pops up

Things to keep in mind: My other Yahoo account in TB is working fine. And the same Yahoo account that won't download to TB anymore is working fine in Aqua Mail on my Android smart phone.

Anyone have any ideas what the issue is?

While looking at my folders in TB, I also just noticed some folders called "Uncertain" that I never saw before. They have recent mail in them too and exist for all my accounts. I have no idea how they got there. Should I open a separate thread about this? I would like to get rid of these folders.

[tanstaafl]

I'm not aware of any reason why Thunderbird would create a "Uncertain" folder unless its a side effect of some add-on. You could delete it, run Thunderbird in safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled) for a while and see if it is only re-created when later on you run Thunderbird normally (with add-ons enabled).

The RETR command is used to retrieve mail. That means you managed to login and successfully check for new mail in that account. Since you don't have a similar problem with your other Yahoo accounts perhaps Aqua Mail is more tolerant than Thunderbird in what it considers a "bad" message. I suggest you forward (inline, using webmail) some of the new mail that won't download to the other yahoo account to see if it has the same problem. That will help identify if the problem was the messages you received.

You can have a POP and IMAP account for the same username and mail server at the same time. I suggest you experiment with adding a Yahoo IMAP account and try reading the remaining new messages. It would be a temporary workaround and you might learn something useful about whats causing your problem. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Yahoo .

[tanstaafl]

"I created a brand new duplicate of the problematic Yahoo account in TB but when I try to download mail to it, the same error message pops up"

Did you delete the old account and create a exact replacement, or create a duplicate while the other account still existed? You shouldn't be able to do the latter (though its sometimes possible due to bugs) as the new account wizard expects a unique combination of the account type (POP/IMAP), username, and mail server name when creating a new account.

[LGM]

I'm not aware of any reason why Thunderbird would create a "Uncertain" folder unless its a side effect of some add-on. You could delete it, run Thunderbird in safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled) for a while and see if it is only re-created when later on you run Thunderbird normally (with add-ons enabled).

There is an "Uncertain" folder for each of my TB accounts. They must have been created by something I did or installed, but I can't remember what I could have done that made them appear. I assume this is a separate issue and I should break this off into a separate thread?

I suggest you forward (inline, using webmail) some of the new mail that won't download to the other yahoo account to see if it has the same problem. That will help identify if the problem was the messages you received.

The problem is that there are thousands of emails in this account -- including hundreds of "new" ones since the last successful download into TB. It's a little used Yahoo account, which is why I rarely check on it. Trying to ferret out a potential offending email this way could take days and days.

You can have a POP and IMAP account for the same username and mail server at the same time. I suggest you experiment with adding a Yahoo IMAP account and try reading the remaining new messages. It would be a temporary workaround and you might learn something useful about whats causing your problem. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Yahoo .

I will try creating the IMAP equivalent in TB. If it works at least that will let me easily try to clean out that account, and that may fix the problem. Using the web interface to clean an account is too cumbersome and slow, and I'd rather do it from TB. As for the link, I'm not sure what's relevant there. I did check all my account settings in TB, and they seem to be fine.

Did you delete the old account and create a exact replacement, or create a duplicate while the other account still existed? You shouldn't be able to do the latter (though its sometimes possible due to bugs) as the new account wizard expects a unique combination of the account type (POP/IMAP), username, and mail server name when creating a new account.

I created a duplicate while the old one was still there. Since that was unsuccessful, I've since deleted the duplicate account.

Thanks for your help!

[tanstaafl]

Creating a separate thread about the uncertain folder is a good idea.

[tanstaafl]

I just created http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3026119 , mentioning your "uncertain" folder and a weird folder that just appeared in my yahoo account.