Opera Mail suddenly reports no new messages no matter what

[sbruce45]

sbruce45 last edited by

So yesterday at 4:29 PM another account at AOL dropped UIDL. It was OK at 4:24 PM. (they are read automatically every 5 minutes). At around the same time, accessing that account with the Courier e-mail program (also POP3), it started reacting differently and it read all the e-mails that were at the server. Now sometimes it reads all and sometimes only what is new, but when it reads what is new it says it is going to read all of them and then reports an error after receiving the new ones.

[sbruce45]

sbruce45 last edited by

So, I guess there are 3 ways to respond to no UIDL in the CAPA list. One is to QUIT, as Opera does. Another is to retrieve all messages, since it cannot find out which ones it has already, as Courier does. And then it can just issue UIDL anyway, as Thunderbird, Outlook Express, and others do.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

I think Thunderbird used to fail similar to Opera unless you unchecked "leave messages on the server" (I know that doesn't help for Opera). Perhaps forcing UIDL was a workaround they implemented (perhaps on a per-server basis).

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

Did you ever try port 110 with TLS checked (so that it uses StartTLS)? I wouldn't think it'd matter, but give it a shot just in case.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by burnout426

This probably isn't going to tell you why Opera quits after receiving the results of the LIST command, but if you want to play around, here are some step-by-step instructions.

Download "Win64 OpenSSL v1.1.1" (2nd one in list) from https://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html and install it. In the installer, choose to place the openssl dlls in its bin folder instead of the windows directory.

Launch a command prompt (windows key + r, type cmd.exe and press enter).

Type this command:

cd "C:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64\bin"

to get to the folder where openssl.exe is at.

Then, connect to the POP server:

openssl s_client -connect pop.verizon.net:995

(The server wants LF for a line ending. If a server wants CRLF, you pass the -crlf option to openssl.)

Once connected, you can type CAPA and press enter.

Then, after the server sends the result, you can log in:

USER yourusername

and press ENTER.

Then:

PASS yourpassword

Then, it should say "Maildrop ready" and you should be logged in. You can then type LIST and press enter or type UIDL and press enter or type STAT and press ENTER. Or, you can type TOP 1 5 to get the top 5 lines of the first message. You can then type QUIT when you're done.

You could also do RETR 1 to retrieve all of the first message. You can do DELE to delete the first message. Then, when you QUIT they'll be deleted. Or, you can RSET to reset the session state and unmark all those that were marked for deletion.

You can also do UIDL 1 to get the id for the first message.

You can try with:

openssl s_client -connect pop.aol.com:995

too if you want.

Note that both pop.aol.com and pop.verizon.net don't show UIDL support, yet they both support it. pop.mail.yahoo.com on the other hand does show it and supports it.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

Another thing you can do is goto "Menu -> Help -> About Opera Mail" and take note of the path to operaprefs.ini. Then, close down Opera and edit operaprefs.ini.

Under [Security Prefs] in the file (add it if it's not there), add these 4 lines:

Enable TLS v1.0=1
Enable TLS v1.1=1
Enable TLS v1.2=1
Enable TLS version fallback=1

(If any of the lines were already there, change them to the above.)

Then, start Opera Mail and try things again. If no difference, close down Opera and set the version fallback to 0, save and try again. If that doesn't work, set v1.2 to 0 and try again. If that doesn't work, set v1.1 to 0 and try again. If that doesn't work, set them all to 0 except set v1.2 to 1.

(In testing with openssl, this doesn't change anything for pop.verizon.net. It supports TLS 1.2 and using a different version doesn't change anything as far as the server listing UIDL support goes. So, the server doesn't have any wird quirks in this area. But, you can try things specifically with Opera if you want.)

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by burnout426

Try using jpop700-aol-pri.mail.vip.ir2.yahoo.com for the incoming POP server name. That one shows UIDL support and that one my be used for pop.verizon.net accounts (according to https://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://pop.verizon.net). If it lets you log in, you should be good to go as long as that particular server never disappears.

(I don't know if changing the server name of an already-existing account in Opera Mail will work. so, if it doesn't, create a new POP account in Opera Mail and try that server (port 995, TLS checked).

[sbruce45]

sbruce45 @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 Thanks for all these suggestions and information. Sounds interesting to try, when I get time which is hopefully soon. The six accounts is down to one that works. Luckily, it's the one with the most mail, but I figure they'll change that one too soon. At least Thunderbird and Outlook Express work.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

The first thing I'd try is https://forums.opera.com/post/156548. The rest of the new suggestions probably won't help.

[sbruce45]

sbruce45 @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 Well I finally got a response from an AOL Email Support Specialist with the dreaded reply: "that this might happen if the application that you are using is not supported anymore." Such nonsense. The POP3 protocol has not changed.

[sbruce45]

sbruce45 @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 I tried replacing pop.verizon.net as my server with jpop700-aol-sec.mail.vip.ir2.yahoo.com and it does not authenticate. So I created a new account and it won't authenticate either.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @sbruce45 last edited by

@sbruce45 Oh well. It was worth a try.

Another idea I have is to patch operamail.dll and flip a popServerSupportsUIDL bool to true even if the server doesn't report it. But, in looking, I didn't find where to do that, yet.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @sbruce45 last edited by

@sbruce45 said in Opera Mail suddenly reports no new messages no matter what:

Well I finally got a response from an AOL Email Support Specialist with the dreaded reply: "that this might happen if the application that you are using is not supported anymore." Such nonsense. The POP3 protocol has not changed.

If you could find a server admin contact and explain the situation to the admin, you might have a chance.

[sbruce45]

sbruce45 last edited by

Well, AOL finally got around to changing the server for my final account. Now I can receive no e-mail with Opera.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @sbruce45 last edited by

@sbruce45

[sbruce45]

sbruce45 @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 AOL has just gotten much worse. I think they are trying to force people to IMAP. With SeaMonkey I just got this error on one of the mail accounts which worked 4 hours ago:

The POP3 mail server (pop.verizon.net) does not support UIDL or XTND XLST, which are required to implement the Leave on Server'', Maximum Message Size'' or ``Fetch Headers Only'' options. To download your mail, turn off these options in the Server Settings for your mail server in the Account Settings window.

[sbruce45]

sbruce45 @sbruce45 last edited by

@sbruce45 No changes and now it works OK.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @sbruce45 last edited by

@sbruce45 said in Opera Mail suddenly reports no new messages no matter what:

The POP3 mail server (pop.verizon.net) does not support UIDL or XTND XLST, which are required to implement the Leave on Server'',Maximum Message Size'' or ``Fetch Headers Only'' options. To download your mail, turn off these options in the Server Settings for your mail server in the Account Settings window.

Yeah, I saw an old thread about that for Thunderbird which is why I suggested turning of "leave messages on server" in Opera Mail. But, unfortunately it didn't help in Opera Mail's case.

In testing on the command-line with the non-UIDL verizon/AOL servers, I was able to issue a retr commands to get the full contents of a message without removing it from the server. Seems like mail clients should be able to do that in this case, but oh well.

@sbruce45 said in Opera Mail suddenly reports no new messages no matter what:

I think they are trying to force people to IMAP.

Possibility. I like IMAP better anyway.

[sbruce45]

sbruce45 last edited by

AOL is acting up again, this time with Thunderbird, as well as Opera. Many days it does not accept my password for one or two accounts, but other days it does. I tried it with Opera just to see if it is Thunderbird or Sea Monkey, but it happened with Opera too. I checked the log of Opera and it rejected the password. I can log into the e-mail account online, so it has the correct password. For a week this was happening with just one account, then yesterday it happened with another account.

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 @sbruce45 last edited by

@sbruce45 Perhaps you need to re-evaluate the frustration costs of remaining with AOL eMail accounts. Your patience and persistence with them has been remarkable over the course of this thread amid the constant instability of their server settings/behavior, but at some point, one has to recognize they simply aren't capable of or truly interested in providing stable POP3 service per traditional standards. Just sayin'...