Error Deleting from Held Mail

[crazy8]

I received the following error intermittently Friday and Saturday and constantly yesterday and so far today...

"There was an error deleting messages from the folder "Held Mail". This is what the server said: [CLOSED] IMAP connection broken (server response)"

spam is continuing to build up and I can't delete it. I was also experiencing the same problem reported here: http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10233. But I started forwarding my filtered mail to a non-spamcop address and downloading from there to avoid the issue.

[SpamCopAdmin]

spam is continuing to build up and I can't delete it.

You should be able to clear out the spam by logging into your account at http://webmail.spamcop.net/horde/imp/login.php and clicking on the "Held Mail" icon. Or you can use the "Folders" icon to empty the folder. Click on the little + sign to expose the list of folders.

- Don D'Minion - SpamCop Admin -

.

[crazy8]

You should be able to clear out the spam by logging into your account at http://webmail.spamcop.net/horde/imp/login.php and clicking on the "Held Mail" icon. Or you can use the "Folders" icon to empty the folder. Click on the little + sign to expose the list of folders.

There must be a problem as I am unable to use your service as I have on a daily basis for several years. Here's a more detailed explanation of what I am experiencing...

I forward a lot of catch-all accounts and addresses to my SpamCop account, therefore wind up filtering thousands of spam emails per day. So I log in via webmail at various times during the day, scroll through my Held Mail folder and release/whitelist any necessary emails. Then I tick the 'check all' box, click delete and repeat the process until my held mail folder is empty.

Friday and Saturday I began receiving errors when trying to delete messages from Held Mail, however the problem was intermittent. Yesterday and today I receive the errors every single time I attempt to delete messages. The error message is as follows...

"There was an error deleting messages from the folder "Held Mail". This is what the server said: [CLOSED] IMAP connection broken (server response)"

In addition, sometimes after clicking delete a blank page loads after a long wait. When I reload my Held Mail folder nothing has been deleted.

As per your suggestion, I tried clicking Folders, ticking "Held Mail" and choosing Empty Folder. After a long wait, I was logged out. I logged back in to find no messages were deleted.

I've been forced to take SpamCop completely out of the loop as I have about 3000 emails in my Held Mail folder that I cannot delete.

Please note I also had problems POP'ing mail from SpamCop at the same time. Outlook would start downloading mail, I could see data had stopped moving and would eventually time-out. Eventually I had to forward post-filtered mail to another non SpamCop address to download. I can only assume the POP problem still exists as well but cannot confirm since I have stopped sending mail to my SpamCop address. It seemed like others were having a similar problem (http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10233) but it was marked as resolved.

Here is a webmail ping:

Pinging webmail.spamcop.net [216.154.195.51] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.154.195.51: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=38

Reply from 216.154.195.51: bytes=32 time=54ms TTL=38

Reply from 216.154.195.51: bytes=32 time=57ms TTL=38

Reply from 216.154.195.51: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=38

Ping statistics for 216.154.195.51:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 50ms, Maximum = 64ms, Average = 56ms

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[DavidT]

I forward a lot of catch-all accounts and addresses to my SpamCop account, therefore wind up filtering thousands of spam emails per day.

I apologize in advance for raising a side issue, rather than offering additional help, but..... is there a specific reason that you've not abandoned the use of "catch all" addresses, as the rest of us have long since done? Seriously, those became entirely untenable years ago due to dictionary attacks and the like, so unless you have absolutely no choice, I'd strongly recommend that you disable any catch-alls ASAP.

It seemed like others were having a similar problem (http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10233) but it was marked as resolved.

Actually...that was only one "other" and his issue seemed specific to his connection and went away. If this were a generalized problem applying to multiple mailboxes, it's likely that others would indeed be complaining, either here or in the newsgroups.

I still like the theory about a corrupted message blocking your cleanup actions. In that case, you might need to have admin intervention, so have you filed a trouble ticket with JT yet?

DT

[crazy8]

I apologize in advance for raising a side issue, rather than offering additional help, but..... is there a specific reason that you've not abandoned the use of "catch all" addresses, as the rest of us have long since done? Seriously, those became entirely untenable years ago due to dictionary attacks and the like, so unless you have absolutely no choice, I'd strongly recommend that you disable any catch-alls ASAP.

Unfortunately I really have no other choice and no offense, but don't really feel like taking the time to debate this on a forum. Just want to get my filtering back to a useable state.

Actually...that was only one "other" and his issue seemed specific to his connection and went away. If this were a generalized problem applying to multiple mailboxes, it's likely that others would indeed be complaining, either here or in the newsgroups.

I was surprised not to see anyone else complaining, so sure that makes sense. I believe I stated there must be a problem, not that it was a widespread one.

I still like the theory about a corrupted message blocking your cleanup actions. In that case, you might need to have admin intervention, so have you filed a trouble ticket with JT yet?

These have been my first posts to this forum, so I don't know who JT is or how to file a trouble ticket. Could you kindly point me in the right direction? Support links all seem to point to the forums, so if there's a better way to get this issue resolved I'm all ears. Thanks for your help.

[DavidT]

Unfortunately I really have no other choice and no offense, but don't really feel like taking the time to debate this on a forum.

If you have no choice, then fine....just letting you know that *most* webmasters dumped those a long time ago (and life is MUCH better for having done so). :-)

I was surprised not to see anyone else complaining, so sure that makes sense. I believe I stated there must be a problem, not that it was a widespread one.

I got the idea you were implying that it was more widespread, primarily through the pluralization of "others."

These have been my first posts to this forum, so I don't know who JT is or how to file a trouble ticket. Could you kindly point me in the right direction?

Log into the webmail:

https://webmail.spamcop.net/horde/imp/login.php

Among the buttons in the toolbar at the top, there should be a "Problem" button--use that to contact JT, the owner/admin of the mail system.

DT

[Farelf]

...These have been my first posts to this forum, so I don't know who JT is or how to file a trouble ticket. Could you kindly point me in the right direction? Support links all seem to point to the forums, so if there's a better way to get this issue resolved I'm all ears. Thanks for your help.

Jeff Tucker - owner of the E-mail side. Other contact options - write to support[at]spamcop.net or use the form at http://mail.spamcop.net/contact.php An autoresponse ticket number should be issued when you do.

[agsteele]

These have been my first posts to this forum, so I don't know who JT is or how to file a trouble ticket. Could you kindly point me in the right direction? Support links all seem to point to the forums, so if there's a better way to get this issue resolved I'm all ears.

The SpamCop Email service is provided by a different company to filtering service. So Don, who posted earlier, represents the reporting/filtering side of things. JT is the proprietor of the Email service.

You can file a problem with the Email service inside webmail - where there is an icon which you can click on or via the Email service at http://mail.spamcop.net/ where you can follow the contact us link. I'm not sure which method is thought to be more effective.

You could also try removing your held mail by going to:

http://www.spamcop.net and logging in. Then follow the held mail tab and select all the items then choose delete from the drop down list.

Andrew

[On Edit: And having completed the message I see others have variously answered parts of what I have said as we each were typing ]

[crazy8]

I got the idea you were implying that it was more widespread, primarily through the pluralization of "others."

Sorry didn't actually mean to imply that. I didn't read the other thread close enough and thought a couple people had the same problem. SpamCop has always been rock solid for me and any issues are always fixed promptly. So I figured if there was little discussion on the boards it must only be affecting a small number of users.

Among the buttons in the toolbar at the top, there should be a "Problem" button--use that to contact JT, the owner/admin of the mail system.

Ah I forgot that button existed and went straight to the forum. Submitted a ticket...thanks!

You could also try removing your held mail by going to:

http://www.spamcop.net and logging in. Then follow the held mail tab and select all the items then choose delete from the drop down list.

Tried this and get a bunch of errors like "Message-ids have changed, cannot alter ######"

Thanks Farelf and agsteele for your help + additional details I wasn't aware another company provided the filtering.

[michaelanglo]

Ah I forgot that button existed and went straight to the forum. Submitted a ticket...thanks!

Tried this and get a bunch of errors like "Message-ids have changed, cannot alter ######"

When "Message-ids have changed, cannot alter ..." appears (basically a synchronisation problem) I have had good results by just clicking on "Held Mail" and doing the action again.

[crazy8]

When "Message-ids have changed, cannot alter ..." appears (basically a synchronisation problem) I have had good results by just clicking on "Held Mail" and doing the action again.

That used to work for me as well. I received a response to my ticket yesterday saying I was trying to delete a large number of messages during heavy load times, and it probably overwhelmed the servers. My failed attempts were in the logs. They were able to empty my Held Mail folder and I was back in business. Everything worked normally for a short time but soon I started receiving the following error much of the time...

"There was an error deleting messages from the folder "Held Mail". This is what the server said: [CLOSED] IMAP connection broken (server response)"

Since then I've had more success clicking the Folder button, ticking Held Mail and emptying that way but sometimes it just results in a blank page after a long wait. Errors above are happening even when I have a small # of messages in my Held Mail (say 30 or less) so not completely sure the problem is due to the amount of spam I receive. I replied to the email last night but have not received a response so my fingers are crossed the errors disappear soon

[DavidT]

Here's another option....as long as you never have any false positives, and have no need to inspect the items in your Held folder, you can simply ignore it, and the items that are over two weeks old will be automatically deleted. Here's another thread that confirms this:

http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9197

DT