"Failed to connect to server" after connecting to Internet

[schapel]

Whenever I establish a network connection on my laptop and then try to look at my emails in Thunderbird by clicking on an Inbox, I get a message "Failed to connect to server" for each email server I try. The next time I click on a server's Inbox, Thunderbird is able to connect.

I suppose my first question is why is Thunderbird unable to connect the first time it tries to connect with each server? My computer is connected to the Internet, so I'm not sure why it would fail the first time.

I suppose my second question is why doesn't Thunderbird automatically detect that my computer is connected and go fetch my new emails without me having to click on the Inbox? In other words, why do I even need to click on each Inbox once to see my new emails?

I'm using Thunderbird 3.1.7 on Fedora 13 on a laptop computer, and I'm connecting to mail servers at gmail.com and umich.edu. Are others seeing this issue? Does anyone know bug report numbers for these bugs?

[tanstaafl]

1. If you do something that uses a network connection (such as display a web page in a browser) before you run Thunderbird does the problem go away?

I've noticed that some computers when coming out of sleep mode take a couple of seconds after the screen is refreshed to actually restore a network connection. Perhaps somethign similar is happening with yours.

2. It normally does if you check tools -> account settings -> server settings -> check for new mail on startup.

Moved from Thunderbird bugs to Thunderbird support

[schapel]

1. No. I waited until ten seconds after the network connection had been established and Firefox had fully loaded a web page without error. Thunderbird still gave me errors with each mail server.

2. No. I think that would help only if I quit and restarted Thunderbird.

Could you move this back to Thunderbird Bugs? It seems like it's clearly a bug to me. Firefox doesn't give me an error when I first load a web page, even a second or two after the Internet connection is established. Thunderbird has a problem.

[ch_rob]

I'd like to log a "me too" on this thread. It is a bug.

I come out of suspend, I can ping hosts, then pull up a web page. I go to Thunderbird and hit "Get Mail" all of the servers fail, I click through all of the error messages, and immediately click "Get Mail" again, and they are all successful. This happens every time I come out of suspend, assuming that I check mail within a relatively short time. Unfortunately, I don't have any metrics about how long I have to wait before it would work. I can get them if it would help.

I am running Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS - Thunderbird 3.0.10.

[dieselbud]

I would like to add a ME TOO as well. This has been going on for months and has been happening ALL the time just lately. Sometimes it works fine for days and I forget about it, then it starts happening again. The last few days has been extremely annoying, and there is nothing I do differently. I used Thunderbird for over a year with out ever seeing this message, so I know it is not me or how I have my accounts set up.

Today it wouldn't even SEND my email without asking me for my password, and this has NEVER happened before.

I can sometimes close Thunderbird and open it again and have it work, but lately I am lucky if I get a successful connection every 5-6th attempt.

I have 3 telus email accounts that I have it check, and I end up with 3 separate error messages whenever I check my emails. I am ALWAYS online and I am able to go to the telus webmail site and check my messages there with no troubles.

It is getting to the point now that I am seriously considering getting a new email client. I have looked for a solution and found none so far, and i have been looking for months.

[tanstaafl]

You might want to experiment with installing 3.0.11 in a different directory and see if it has the same problems. Its possible the problem you're running into is 3.1.* specific. Usually its not a problem having two different versions installed, unless some of your add-ons require 3.1 or later

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Go_back_to_an ... hunderbird

"I come out of suspend, I can ping hosts, then pull up a web page. I go to Thunderbird and hit "Get Mail" all of the servers fail, I click through all of the error messages, and immediately click "Get Mail" again, and they are all successful."

I suspect that is a different problem, perhaps due to problems in your BIOS's ACPI support. You might try using hibernate instead of suspend. I used to have a PC that had problems with several applications if I used suspend, but none with hibernation.

[tanstaafl]

"I have 3 telus email accounts that I have it check, and I end up with 3 separate error messages whenever I check my emails. I am ALWAYS online and I am able to go to the telus webmail site and check my messages there with no troubles.

It is getting to the point now that I am seriously considering getting a new email client. I have looked for a solution and found none so far, and i have been looking for months"

You might experiment with signing up for a free Gmail account, configure its optional mail fetcher to periodically automatically fetch email from your Telus POP accounts (while leaving a copy there) into the Gmail inbox, and see if the Gmail account has the same problem. Or use Gmx.com, they have a similar feature called a mail collector. I'm not suggesting this as a workaround, but as a way to help figure out if the problem is due to Thunderbird, your ISP, or your email provider.

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answ ... swer=21288 (gmail mail fetcher)
http://help.gmx.com/mail/settings/mail/ ... 1TQDnN.8** (gmx mail collector)

[dieselbud]

It definitely is not my server, because I should have added that SOMETIMES I only get 2 error messages and actually am able to retrieve an email from one of them. This just happened to me right now. Sometimes I only get one error message, sometimes 3 from all account.

I have a gmail account so I will try this anyway. Thanks for your reply!

[dieselbud]

Ooops, I should find another email address to use, thunderbird tried to download 1400 messages from gmail inbox alone.

I will get back to you when I get this done. Thanks again.

[ch_rob]

You might want to experiment with installing 3.0.11 in a different directory and see if it has the same problems. Its possible the problem you're running into is 3.1.* specific. Usually its not a problem having two different versions installed, unless some of your add-ons require 3.1 or later

I'm using 3.0.10 which comes with Ubuntu 10.04. I can try 3.0.11 and get back to the list.

"I come out of suspend, I can ping hosts, then pull up a web page. I go to Thunderbird and hit "Get Mail" all of the servers fail, I click through all of the error messages, and immediately click "Get Mail" again, and they are all successful."

I suspect that is a different problem, perhaps due to problems in your BIOS's ACPI support. You might try using hibernate instead of suspend. I used to have a PC that had problems with several applications if I used suspend, but none with hibernation.

This problem started happening with my move from Ubuntu 8.10 to 10.04 (which brings with it a new version of Thunderbird). So, it is unlikely a BIOS problem, since an earlier version of Thunderbird and other apps are not affected.

Also, FYI: I'm using one standard gmail account, two hosted gmail accounts, and one account from my ISP... Thunderbird reports that all servers are unreachable, then immediately succeed upon retry.

[tanstaafl]

It is a little awkward trying to help somebody using the version of Thunderbird provided by Ubuntu as its a third party build that they've modified. They're known to occasionally add code from the trunk (code not ready for a normal release) for example. Personally, when I boot Ubuntu I normally use a version of Thunderbird from the Mozilla Messaging web site since that gets updated more often (using the built-in mechanism) and I have a better idea whats in it.

The Ubuntuzilla project has Thunderbird packages for Synaptic that use builds based on Mozilla Messaging releases, rather than the modified releases provided by the distro. However, if you want to use the Ubuntu Software Center I don't know of a way to get normal releases. Something to consider (There is no problem asking for help with Ubuntu distro builds in these forums).

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/u ... =Main_Page
http://support.mozillamessaging.com/ko/ ... untu+Linux

[dieselbud]

It is just so random.

I added my hotmail and my yahoo account.. sometimes I get all accounts checked just fine, sometimes it picks one (or 2) of the telus accounts to fail and then this morning it checked my 3 telus accounts, my hotmail account and then was unable to connect to the yahoo account. I closed thunderbird and then when I opened it again, it was successful at checking all 5 accounts.

I have been using windows live mail now for a few days and had zero problems with any connections to telus (I do not really need to check my hotmail or yahoo accounts, I only added them to TB to see if I had the same problems). If I get an error with TB, I go to Windows live and get my emails without a hitch.

[NJC]

I also get this problem after Suspending my computer - Thunderbird 3.1.7 under Ubuntu 10.10. It's a PITA, and I just exit TB and restart. As with others, Firefox and other network dependant devices properly reconnect after Suspend.

[dieselbud]

I wish I could say the same, sometimes it will connect after restarting TB, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it will go an entire day without ever being able to check my emails and I had to go to the telus webmail site to get them. Sometimes it checks one account and not the others, sometimes it checks 2 accounts and not the last one... there is no pattern as to which account it checks or not.

I don't ever suspend my computer or put it to sleep. It is always connected to the internet.

This only started happening last summer (after using TB for a year), and sometimes it will work for days and weeks with no problems at all, and then out of the blue it starts happening again. Lately it has been so bad, I had to find another email client. I have zero troubles with windows live mail.

[dieselbud]

PS: sometimes it asks me for a password and entering that does not work. It only ever asks me for a password when it fails to connect.. never any other time.