Bare line feed error and email writing

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MarkPAF
Posts: 6
Joined: January 25th, 2011, 11:06 am

Bare line feed error and email writing

Post by MarkPAF »

I find no one addressing this. I think I resolved the failed delivery based on bare line feeds being unacceptable to a server by copying and pasting my TBird email to my word processor, removing all formatting that I suspected to cause a bare line feed w/out a carriage return, pasting it back into a new TBird email & sending it.

Can anyone suggest an email editor for TBird that is easier to work with or a manual on how to format email with TBird?

I often have big fights with TBird to get it to allow my email formatting to look the way I want. I can't tell what the coding in the background is, so it makes editing very difficult and, as I now hypothesize, allows bare line feeds to end up on the email body, which results in this Undeliverable mail notice:

smtp.email-protect.gosecure.net rejected your message to the following email addresses:

example@example.com(this is a fictional email)
The mail client submitted this message with bare line feeds, which cannot be sent via SMTP protocol DATA command and receiving system does not support BDAT.

smtp.email-protect.gosecure.net gave this error:
SMTPSEND.BareLinefeedsAreIllegal; message contains bare linefeeds, which cannot be sent via DATA and receiving system does not support BDAT
W10Hm i7CPU, 16GRAM; TBird 32bit 60.x; Firefox 64bit ver 76.x
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WaltS48
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Joined: May 7th, 2010, 9:38 am
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Re: Bare line feed error and email writing

Post by WaltS48 »

Are you composing mail in HTML?

You could try this extension ThunderHTMLedit
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MarkPAF
Posts: 6
Joined: January 25th, 2011, 11:06 am

Re: Bare line feed error and email writing

Post by MarkPAF »

Thank you. I will definitely take a look at that!!
W10Hm i7CPU, 16GRAM; TBird 32bit 60.x; Firefox 64bit ver 76.x
MarkPAF
Posts: 6
Joined: January 25th, 2011, 11:06 am

Re: Bare line feed error and email writing

Post by MarkPAF »

Ugh! It doesn't work with 60.x. Is there a version that works with 60.0. I was considering updating to 68.x, but I have a few "killler app" extensions, like Nostalgy, that are necessary for my productive use of TBird.
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morat
Posts: 6404
Joined: February 3rd, 2009, 6:29 pm

Re: Bare line feed error and email writing

Post by morat »

Try ThunderHTMLedit version 2.0.0.

ThunderHTMLedit versions
http://addons.thunderbird.net/thunderbi ... 0/versions
MarkPAF
Posts: 6
Joined: January 25th, 2011, 11:06 am

Re: Bare line feed error and email writing

Post by MarkPAF »

Thanks. I've long wondered about learning some HTML. It's real now, I guess. This helps a lot.
For now, it seems to allow me to move between my word processor (Word) for drafting & formatting & saving that into HTML for pasting into the TBird HTML tab, instead of completely working in an html view. I see that Nostalgy is supposed to have an update that works with 68.x, but some of the other extensions I have still don't &/or won't.
W10Hm i7CPU, 16GRAM; TBird 32bit 60.x; Firefox 64bit ver 76.x
MarkPAF
Posts: 6
Joined: January 25th, 2011, 11:06 am

Re: Bare line feed error and email writing

Post by MarkPAF »

So, I finally tried to get back to resolving this. Unfortunately, when I look at emails in HTML, I do not know what characters or character combinations represent a bare line feed ("LF") and what represents a carriage return("CR"). As I understand it, the absence of a CR before an LF is what causes some systems, servers, or whatever the correct term is to reject the email message. I also have seen that it may be that two CR LF combinations are required to signal the end of an email. I cannot figure out how to find where in my email there are (or are not) the appropriate CR LF sequences. It seems to be only some email addresses (domains, I suspect) that can't handle such emails from me and it also does NOT appear to be cause by attachments being sent or not sent.
These are the servers (or whatever they are called) with the associated email domain name (address omitted because of confidentiality) that seem to not like my email:
mx4.mx.osmtp.net, _____@olypen.com;
perfora.net, _____@sisqlaw.com;
mx02.onyx.dfw.sync.lan, _____@centurylink.net;

In each case the body in the failed delivery notice is as follows:

(server name above) "rejected your message to the following email addresses:"

(email & email domain) followed by "The mail client submitted this message with bare line feeds, which cannot be sent via SMTP protocol DATA command and receiving system does not support BDAT."

Furthermore, I forwarded an email that caused the error back to the @centurylink.net recipient & separately to my own email address (mullinsfamilypa@msn.com), and the email received the exact same failed delivery notice for the attempt at the @centurylink.net recipient, but was delivered just fine to my mullinsfamilypa@msn.com email address.

All email above was sent from my Thunderbird email software on my computer and from my mullinslaw@msn.com email account/address.
W10Hm i7CPU, 16GRAM; TBird 32bit 60.x; Firefox 64bit ver 76.x
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WaltS48
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Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Re: Bare line feed error and email writing

Post by WaltS48 »

HTML line breaks are the HTML br tag.

New paragraphs the HTML p tag.

Shouldn't have anything to do with mail not sending.

I don't use anything other that Thunderbird's composition window to type up and send messages.
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MarkPAF
Posts: 6
Joined: January 25th, 2011, 11:06 am

Re: Bare line feed error and email writing

Post by MarkPAF »

Thank you. I saw the tags you mentioned using the HTML view. Q1: Are you saying/thinking that the br tag is not HTML's representation of LF and the p tag is not a representation of CR? Having looked at emails that were delivered & others that were "Undeliverable" I haven't been able to identify a telling pattern difference, though I still suspect there is one. I have not tested sending an email edited with HTML yet, because the HTML formatting process is still too complex for me to undertake with any level of confidence.

I don't think the problem is that the email does not send. I think the problem is that when my email server (which I guess is outlook.com) sends it on to the receipient's server some recipients have a server that reject it because of bare line feeds.

Q2: Am I correct to infer from your sentence "I don't use anything other that Thunderbird's composition window to type up and send messages." that you do not ever get these "Undeliverable" error messages?:
(server name above) "rejected your message to the following email addresses:"

(email & email domain) followed by "The mail client submitted this message with bare line feeds, which cannot be sent via SMTP protocol DATA command and receiving system does not support BDAT."

By the way, I get them in emails from postmaster@outlook.com in which the subject line will always say "Undeliverable: " followed by the Subject line in the undeliverable email I sent. Also, if an email is NOT rejected, I get an email confirming delivery to the server as follows: "Delivery to these recipients or groups is complete, but no delivery notification was sent by the destination server:" followed by the email address to which the mail was sent. Eventually, if the recipient responds, I'll get their reply to my email. Of course, as you know, email addressees do not always answer, but at least I know the email was properly delivered to their server (i.e. they "got" the email as good as I can get it to them).

Q3: Perhaps, then, your email server fixes Thunderbird email and sends it on the the recipient's server with the LF & CR properly included in the email so it is not rejected? Q:4: Could it be that you never email to domains that have servers that prohibit bare line feeds? Q5: Is your TB configured as IMAP or POP3, or (Q6: ) would that make no difference?

I think my basic (only?) question might be this: Q7: How can I tell if a TB message I have prepared contains a bare line feed and how can I either remove each one or avoid having them included in my email?
W10Hm i7CPU, 16GRAM; TBird 32bit 60.x; Firefox 64bit ver 76.x
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DanRaisch
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Re: Bare line feed error and email writing

Post by DanRaisch »

I am no expert on HTML but that error message makes no logical sense at all. What the devil would "The mail client submitted this message with bare line feeds..." even mean? If taken at face value, it would seem to mean that it not permissible/possible to send an email which included blank lines (created by adding just a line feed) to create double blank lines between paragraphs of an outgoing email.
Have you tried copying your message to your own account to see if arrives? Have you tried viewing the message as stored in Thunderbird's Sent folder to see if perhaps all text had been lost and it consisted of nothing but an empty "message"?
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