After upgrading to 4.7.0 on my Gentoo laptop, I opened KMail, (POP3 for incoming mail and then archive to local folders), and after seeing a bunch of old messages in my Inbox, (which I had already archived to local folders), I moved them to Trash, and everything seemed to be working fine. I can send and receive email, and I can see the messages in all of my local folders, except one.

The problem folder has 4500+ messages in it, (not my largest local folder), and it will not display any messages when selected in KMail. The spinning "wait" icon is displayed on the folder icon when I select it, and the message list never appears, even after hours of waiting. I even moved another message to the folder from my inbox, and that message appears as the only message in the list. All the while the "wait" icon keeps spinning.

Any advice on how to clear this condition?

Also can someone let me know where exactly my local mail is stored? I have one folder hierarchy called Home, which has 30 sub-folders in it, all which contain messages. However, when I go to ~/.local/share/.local-mail.directory, both the Home and the .Home.directory folder do not have the sub-folder hierarchy, nor the messages in them. However, ~/.local/share/akonadi/file_db_data, does contain 52,000+ items. Do I need to perform some kind of akonadi migration?

Thanks..

Are there any errors in .xsession-errors?

These are the .xsession-errors messages after I opened KMail and I selected a local mail folder that comes up correctly, called Comcast, followed by selecting the "problem" folder called Buy;

Code: Select all

Known subscriber "kmail2" subscribes again
[/usr/bin/nepomukservicestub] virtual void Soprano::Server::LocalServer::incomingConnection(quintptr)
[/usr/bin/nepomukservicestub] void Soprano::Server::ServerCorePrivate::addConnection(Soprano::Server::ServerConnection*) New connection. New count: 8
[/usr/bin/nepomukservicestub] Soprano::ODBC::Connection::Connection() Soprano::Server::ServerConnection(0xc963c0)
Known subscriber "kmail2" subscribes again
Known subscriber "kmail2" subscribes again
Known subscriber "kmail2" subscribes again
kmail2(3830)/kdecore (KConfigSkeleton) KCoreConfigSkeleton::writeConfig:
Database "/home/user/.local/share/akonadi/akonadi.db" opened using driver "QSQLITE3"
Database "/home/user/.local/share/akonadi/akonadi.db" opened using driver "QSQLITE3"
posting retrieval request for item 174533  there are  1  queues and  0  items in mine
processing retrieval request for item 174533  parts: ("HEAD")  of resource: "akonadi_maildir_resource_0"
request for item 174533 still pending - waiting
continuing
request for item 174533 succeeded
posting retrieval request for item 174534  there are  1  queues and  0  items in mine
request for item 174534 still pending - waiting
processing retrieval request for item 174534  parts: ("HEAD")  of resource: "akonadi_maildir_resource_0"
continuing
request for item 174534 succeeded
kmail2(3830) MessageViewer::Util::fileNameForMimetype: unknown mimetype ""
[/usr/bin/nepomukservicestub] virtual void Soprano::Server::LocalServer::incomingConnection(quintptr)
[/usr/bin/nepomukservicestub] void Soprano::Server::ServerCorePrivate::addConnection(Soprano::Server::ServerConnection*) New connection. New count: 9
[/usr/bin/nepomukservicestub] virtual void Soprano::Server::LocalServer::incomingConnection(quintptr)
[/usr/bin/nepomukservicestub] void Soprano::Server::ServerCorePrivate::addConnection(Soprano::Server::ServerConnection*) New connection. New count: 10
[/usr/bin/nepomukservicestub] Soprano::ODBC::Connection::Connection() Soprano::Server::ServerConnection(0x119c420)
void Nepomuk::Query::QueryServiceClient::close()
QMetaMethod::invoke: Unable to handle unregistered datatype 'QNetworkReply::NetworkError'
void Nepomuk::Query::QueryServiceClient::close()
void Nepomuk::Query::QueryServiceClient::close()
QMetaMethod::invoke: Unable to handle unregistered datatype 'QNetworkReply::NetworkError'
void Nepomuk::Query::QueryServiceClient::close()
AkonadiAgentServer(3584) MaildirResource::maildirForCollection: Got incomplete ancestor chain: Collection ID: 56    remote ID: ""
   name: "Comcast"
   url: KUrl("akonadi:?collection=56")
   parent: 50 "Home"
   resource: "akonadi_maildir_resource_0"
   rights: QFlags(0x1|0x2|0x4|0x8|0x10|0x20)
   contents mime type: ("message/rfc822", "inode/directory")
    CachePolicy: 
   inherit: true
   interval: -1
   timeout: 1
   sync on demand: true
   local parts: ("ENVELOPE")
    CollectionStatistics:
   count: -1
   unread count: -1
   size: -1
AkonadiAgentServer(3584) MaildirResource::maildirForCollection: Got incomplete ancestor chain: Collection ID: 55    remote ID: ""
   name: "Buy"
   url: KUrl("akonadi:?collection=55")
   parent: 50 "Home"
   resource: "akonadi_maildir_resource_0"
   rights: QFlags(0x1|0x2|0x4|0x8|0x10|0x20)
   contents mime type: ("message/rfc822", "inode/directory")
    CachePolicy: 
   inherit: true
   interval: -1
   timeout: 1
   sync on demand: true
   local parts: ("ENVELOPE")
    CollectionStatistics:
   count: -1
   unread count: -1
   size: -1
posting retrieval request for item 113862  there are  1  queues and  0  items in mine
request for item 113862 still pending - waiting
processing retrieval request for item 113862  parts: ("HEAD")  of resource: "akonadi_maildir_resource_0"
AkonadiAgentServer(3584) MaildirResource::maildirForCollection: Got incomplete ancestor chain: Collection ID: 55    remote ID: ""
   name: ""
   url: KUrl("akonadi:?collection=55")
   parent: 50 "Home"
   resource: ""
   rights: QFlags(0x1|0x2|0x4|0x8|0x10|0x20)
   contents mime type: ()
    CachePolicy: 
   inherit: true
   interval: -1
   timeout: -1
   sync on demand: false
   local parts: ()
    CollectionStatistics:
   count: -1
   unread count: -1
   size: -1
continuing
request for item 113862 "{acadc71a-3427-478c-acf6-ee661d60fd88}" failed: "Resource was unable to deliver item"
ItemRetrieverException :  Resource was unable to deliver item
kmail2(3830)/libakonadi Akonadi::EntityTreeModelPrivate::fetchJobDone: Job error:  "Unknown error. (Unable to fetch item from backend)"

[/usr/bin/nepomukservicestub] virtual void Soprano::Server::ServerConnection::run() thread done.
[/usr/bin/nepomukservicestub] virtual Soprano::ODBC::Connection::~Connection() Soprano::Server::ServerConnection(0x119c420)
[/usr/bin/nepomukservicestub] void Soprano::Server::ServerCore::serverConnectionFinished()
virtual Soprano::Server::ServerConnection::~ServerConnection() Removing connection
[/usr/bin/nepomukservicestub] void Soprano::Server::ServerCore::serverConnectionFinished() Connection removed. Current count: 9

I can see now that there is a problem retrieving "item 113862", although I don't know what to do to correct the condition.

Thanks..

Hi !

same problem here ?

Hello jajaX.

I'm not having the same problem that you indicate in your screenshot. It's not that the message list is "grayed" out, in my problem folder. It's that I can't see anything in it at all.

Thanks..

I had a similar problem when upgrading to KMail 2 (using Arch Linux). I didn't have the spinner showing, but I did have all my folders empty except for my inbox. Here's the blog entry I wrote on how I solved it:

Last night I did an upgrade of my Arch Linux system. Today I opened my e-mail to find all my e-mail missing except my inbox…!


The e-mail was still on in my ~/Mail folder, but not in KMail. I was able to find it again by going into “Settings” > “Configure KMail”, and to the “Accounts” section.

Here, under “Receiving”, I had “Gmail” with all three “Retrieval Options” checked, but “Local Folders” had only “Include in Manual Mail Check” and “KMail Folders” had nothing checked. I checked “Include in Manual Mail Check” on the latter, and “Check Mail on Startup” on both, then closed and re-opened KMail. All my missing e-mails are back!

I’m sure I could have just clicked on “Check Mail” rather than restarting KMail, and I might want to uncheck some of those options I checked (for better performance), but for now I’m glad to just have my missing e-mails accessible again.

I recommend checking the "Local Folders" settings, just to confirm if that does or does not help.

Thanks Chris,

Nothing was checked, so I checked the include in manual check, and check on startup options. I then quit KMail, and then restarted it, and I still wasn't able to see the message list in the problem folder, and the folder icon just keeps spinning. (It was worth a shot though.. Thanks)

BTW, I also tried the forced akonadi migration method described in the forums here, and that simply resulted in my losing both the problem folder and its messages, and a whole lot of other folders and messages as well. (I restored from my backup and am back to the same problem described above with my one folder)

Thanks..

I have that very same problem, except for all of my folders - ever since I migrated to 4.7. 4.6 was fine in that respect.

Deleting my Local Folders agent and letting the automatically created new Local Folders agent resynchronize my mail hasn't helped. A new Akonadi database is like opening Pandora's box and has at first created a bigger problem while solving this problem, then (the second time around) helped with that bigger problem, but reintroduced this problem (for details, see the thread linked in the post directly above).

I am now testing what influence Nepomuk has on this. Disabling didn't help. A new database might help but right now, it doesn't look like it. Would be glad to receive help.

I was able to solve this problem by switching from SQLite to PostgreSQL as a backend. Or at least so it seems, of course I cannot guarantee that there is a causality.
More details here.

After appearing to me, that there is no real solution to this problem of the "stuck folder" display, I thought I'd fix it by simply backing up my local mail folder hierarchy of ~/.local/share/.local-mail.directory, and "start clean" by importing the emails back into an empty KMail user directory. That's when I discovered the slightly unsettling fact that not all of my emails were in my ~/.local/share/.local-mail.directory hierarchy. There's been some posts here, that suggested a possible bug with KMail where it will not store emails that are temporarily in ~/.local/share/akonadi/file_db_data, into the ~/.local/share/.local-mail.directory hierarchy. I was surprised to find that my ~/.local/share/akonadi/file_db_data directory did in fact contain 52,000+ items.

So now, not only was my email not working correctly, I couldn't even backup my local mail folder hierarchy, without going through KMail first. So using the KMail archive folder feature, I tried to backup my local mail folders into compressed archive files, first at the top level folder, where I would invariably get a KMail error about not being able to archive the folder because it couldn't read all of the messages in a specific sub-folder. So I ended up archiving my email, folder by folder, just so I could build a correct KMail local folder hierarchy. I notice hitting F5 (update) on a folder where KMail stated that it couldn't read all of the messages would actually result in KMail deleting messages, one by one, for no apparent reason. I scrolled to the bottom of the folder email list, and then watched KMail delete the bottom (oldest) email one by one, every time I hit F5. Prior to my KDE 4.7 upgrade, I had backed up my system, so I was able to restore my older ~/.local directory, and try again. I eventually migrated most of my email, using this KMail archive subfolder -> copy to another directory and extract, process, to a create a correct ~/mail.archive/.local/share/.local-mail.directory KMail hierarchy, out of the control of KMail.

I don't know what happened to KMail, but when it became arduous for me to simply find all of my emails, and to see the program actively deleting my emails in this way, I realized that there was something seriously wrong. This may be a problem in expecting KMail to inherit old settings/config files/email hierarchy, each upgrade, and still behave nicely, but if the correct process was to migrate old email/folder/hierarchies to a new one using an export and then import process so it's done cleanly, this should have been more clear. For myself, once I got all of email out of KMail, I actually converted them to a Claws Mail compatible folder hierarchy, and am now using Claws.

Thanks..

I can confirm that kmail is -- I kid you not -- actually storing
mail in ~/.local/share/akonadi/file_db_data in a huge number
of individual mail message files instead of in the assigned
kmail mail folder.

Obviously, this makes backups a complete **** shoot.

Well, the word "****" is certainly appropriate.

EDIT: I see my language was edited automatically and without
warning ... kind of like the way kmail behaves LOL

Your posts haven't been edited - merely censored.

The data stored under ~/.local/share/akonadi is simply a cached copy of your data - the real data is probably still stored in the appropriate folders.

bcooksley wrote:The data stored under ~/.local/share/akonadi is simply a cached copy of your data - the real data is probably still stored in the appropriate folders.

In my case, this wasn't true. I had a local mail folder called Home, with approximately 31 sub-folder in it. When I checked my ~/.local/share/.local-mail.directory/Home.directory hierarchy, there were only 4 subfolders under it. Additionally under another local mail folder, I noticed that while all sub-folders where there, there were also sub-folders that had been deleted for some time, still there. It took quite some time and effort to produce a clean local mail folder hierarchy, as I described previously.

Also in my case - as I stated - the mail is not in
~/.kde4/share/apps/kmail/mail which is the selected
maildir for kmail

Instead, it is in the akonadi db file ...

Copying the mail to another local folder seems to have
worked - that is, to have actually transferred the files
into the correct directory

Unfortunately, the messages seem to have been left
in the akonadi db file (~/.local/share/akonadi/file_db_data)
which has now grown to about 300 MB with more than
1100 files !! Does this thing ever get cleaned out?