Pop-up says unable to connect to a long dead server (Mac)

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PLNELSON48
Posts: 3
Joined: November 10th, 2021, 12:29 pm

Pop-up says unable to connect to a long dead server (Mac)

Post by PLNELSON48 »

I don't know if this is a bug or a feature, or somewhere in between, but it is befuddling.
I have used T-bird ever since it was released. Work email addresses at my university have changed several times over the years, so I have thousands of emails in various folders (many in Local Folders) that have now defunct email addresses for me. At some point, perhaps a couple years or so ago, I would on occasion, with T-bird up and running for hours, not reading or sending, get a brief pop-up message saying "unable to connect to mail.hep.uiuc.edu", a very long gone email address and server. I didn't think much about it other than it was only slightly annoying and wondering why T-bird thought it should be trying to connect to a defunct email server.
Now, with the latest T-bird (91.x.x), when I open a pdf file in email, it opens a new tab, and at the top of the tab, it shows imap://[user]@mail.hep.uiuc.edu:[blahblahblah] - the same long defunct server.
The pdf displays just fine, but why the imap reference to a dead server?

In all my folders there are many emails (from me/to me) with defunct email server addresses. Why is T-bird picking on mail.hep.uiuc.edu?
Any ideas about what is happening here and, maybe how to fix?

Further debugging notes:
Platform: Mac OS high Sierra (10.13.6)
T-bird: 91.3.0
/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/xawetmyv.default/pref.js shows several entries for mail.hep.uiuc.edu for the following variables:
mail.identity.id1.[variable names] (5 entires)
and
mail.server.server2.[variable names] (5 entries)

But I am loathe to edit prefs.js fearing I'll muck something up.
All unused mail server accounts have been deleted via the Settings -> Account Actions -> Remove Account
Last edited by DanRaisch on November 10th, 2021, 5:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: (Mac) added to Subject line.
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Pop-up says unable to connect to a long dead server (Mac

Post by tanstaafl »

Thunderbird doesn't try to connect to servers or email addresses just because they were mentioned in a message when fetching a message or opening it. What it tries to connect to is based on the account settings, unless you click on a link or it fetches a remote image.

There is no need to edit prefs.js to deal with any references to mail.hep.uiuc.edu . Use tools -> accounts settings to look at the server settings for each account. Check what mail server it uses. If it looks like it uses mail.hep.uiuc.edu and you don't need the account anymore the list box at the bottom lets you delete the currently selected account.

You might have multiple identities defined for an account that uses mail.hep.uiuc.edu, in other accounts. So before you delete that account write down its email address. Then in the remaining accounts press the manage identities button at the bottom of the pane that specifies your name and email address. Remove any unwanted multiple identities.

You can use the config editor in tools -> preferences to modify/delete settings. Its safer than editing prefs.js as if you make an error the damage is more localized. But in general you want to use tools -> account settings as much as possible to edit accounts and their settings.

I suggest you backup prefs.js before deleting any accounts as a precaution.
PLNELSON48
Posts: 3
Joined: November 10th, 2021, 12:29 pm

Re: Pop-up says unable to connect to a long dead server (Mac

Post by PLNELSON48 »

Thank you tanstaafl for the reply.
After much troubleshooting, digging into T-bird's local bowels (lots of rabbit holes), and comparing with the T-bird settings/files on 3 of my other systems, I've concluded it's not a bug - just a series of compounding non-cleanups over the past 15 or so years.

I checked all the items you mentioned.
I checked all the server settings (there are only two - imap.gmail.com and outlook.office365.com).
I checked for any additional identities in "Manage identities" (only one in each and no reference to mail.hep.uiuc.edu).

So, long story short, here's what I believe has happened after looking in the IMapMail directory:
I started using T-bird around 2004 at work (university).
Created an account using our Group's email server mail.hep.uiuc.edu (which I maintained).
Due to many circumstances, work email migrates to campus Exchange server and I decommission mail.hep.uiuc.edu after all users' email were migrated.
I did not delete my account - just changed server settings to point to Exchange.
(I guess I saw no reason to actually delete my account since all I needed to do was change the server settings.)
Campus Exchange server migrates to MS cloud using outlook.office365.com.
Again, I did not delete and recreate account - just changed server settings.
In fact, central campus IT support said to just change server settings on accounts. But they are MS and Outlook centric and probably did not realize any unintended consequences with T-bird.

So, my T-bird is the same from 2004 - just continuously updated, and my original account setup used mail.hep.uiuc.edu which never got changed in the directory ImapMail in the default profile directory - I assume because I did not delete and recreate the account for every server change. So. mail.hep.uiuc.edu shows up in many places besides prefs.js.

Solution would no doubt require deletion of current account and recreate it using the current server settings. Not worth the trouble at the moment to fix a random popup window. But I have a test machine and campus is going to drop IMAP support and require only OAuth2, so I'll test both on that system in the coming days.

Thanks again!
PLNELSON48
Posts: 3
Joined: November 10th, 2021, 12:29 pm

Re: Pop-up says unable to connect to a long dead server (Mac

Post by PLNELSON48 »

Addendum:
Of course, it's still not clear why T-bird sort of randomly wants to try to connect to mail.hep.uiuc.edu.
But there seems to be a lot going on under the hood as evidenced by the spike in CPU load (sometimes over 60%) when I'm not doing anything.
I would expect some CPU increase when reading or composing, but when it's just sitting there idle?
Recent T-bird version seems to be a bit of a CPU hog.
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