mailbox.log full of "invalid message sequence number" errors

[Lebha]

Recently our mailbox.log has been filling up with entries like this:

2009-09-03 17:24:30,897 INFO [ImapSSLServer-1443090] [name=first.last@domain.com;mid=2426;ip=1.2.3.4;] imap - S: 2660179.624 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*

Before the problems, mailbox.log used to be ca. 50MB per day. Since the problems appeared a week ago, log file size jumped up to gigabytes per day. This errors seems to appear on about 20 of our 800 users.

What could cause this weird behavior? The affected users don't seem to notice any problems with their accounts (with one exception: one user whose messages are multiplied when sending to certain other user).

[Baylink]

I may be having a related problem: I'm getting that error from a perl deduper script... *on empty folders*.

Did you acquire a new user who creates nested folder where some folders only contain other folders?

I'm working with the author of delIMAPdupes to see which side it's on (which is to say that I've reported it to him, and patiently await a reply :-).

[juniper]

Originally Posted by Lebha

Recently our mailbox.log has been filling up with entries like this:

2009-09-03 17:24:30,897 INFO [ImapSSLServer-1443090] [name=first.last@domain.com;mid=2426;ip=1.2.3.4;] imap - S: 2660179.624 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*

I'm having similar problems - was there ever a fix for this?

[cmnoyes]

We are having the same issues here, but its been debugged down to a very specific set of criteria.

The client is using Mac OSX with Mail.app to retrieve their messages.
They delete 30+ messages, which causes the server to move them into their trash folder.
The client then empties their trash folder, which in turn causes their client to start producing large amounts of invalid message sequence numbers. In our case it was enough to severely hamper server performance.

We've been able to successfully reproduce this error with 30 or more messages being deleted then emptied. It does not always happen when less are deleted. Here is some of the log information that we are seeing:

User deleting messages:
2010-05-04 10:03:01,072 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] mailop - Deleting Message (id=58855).
2010-05-04 10:03:01,075 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] mailop - Deleting Message (id=58856).
2010-05-04 10:03:01,080 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] mailop - Deleting Message (id=58857).
2010-05-04 10:03:01,086 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] mailop - Deleting Message (id=58858).
2010-05-04 10:03:01,087 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] mailop - Deleting Message (id=58877).
2010-05-04 10:03:01,092 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] mailop - Deleting Message (id=58878).
2010-05-04 10:03:01,097 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] mailop - Deleting Message (id=58881).
2010-05-04 10:03:01,099 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] mailop - Deleting Message (id=58884).
2010-05-04 10:03:01,100 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] mailop - Deleting Message (id=58890).
2010-05-04 10:03:01,101 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] mailop - Deleting Message (id=58909).
2010-05-04 10:03:01,182 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] mailop - Deleting Message (id=58911).
2010-05-04 10:03:01,184 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] mailop - Deleting Message (id=58923).

*snip* (hundreds of emails deleted)

Which immediately produces this:

2010-05-04 10:03:25,041 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 205.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:16
2010-05-04 10:03:25,071 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 206.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:32
2010-05-04 10:03:25,085 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 207.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:64
2010-05-04 10:03:25,097 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 208.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:128
2010-05-04 10:03:25,109 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 209.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:256
2010-05-04 10:03:25,123 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 210.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:512
2010-05-04 10:03:25,137 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 211.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,167 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 213.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,183 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 214.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,201 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 215.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,220 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 216.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,233 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 217.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,251 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 218.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,267 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 219.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,285 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 220.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,302 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 221.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,319 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 222.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,335 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 223.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,353 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 224.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,369 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 225.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,387 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 226.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,405 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 227.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,421 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 228.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,435 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 229.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,453 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 230.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,469 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 231.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 10:03:25,491 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 232.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*

*snip* (10's of thousands of lines)

2010-05-04 11:41:35,306 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 291726.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 11:41:35,362 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 291727.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:*
2010-05-04 11:41:35,432 INFO [ImapSSLServer-634329] [name=user@zimbra;mid=419;ip=ip;] imap - S: 291729.299 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 2:*

This ends when the client either closes mail.app or turns their connection on and off (which seems to renegotiate without producing the error again).

It seems like a bug in mail.app, I am curious if there is anything that can be done on the server side to prevent this from happening?

Thanks

[NOZIL]

problem is more related to imap as we had the same symptoms
whith thunderbird under windows xp

[goo0h]

Just now realized we're seeing this too. Haven't (yet) heard of any problem reports, however.

2010-06-04 00:45:52,382 INFO [ImapSSLServer-2112521] [name=user@our.domain;mid=6268;ip=x.x.x.x;] imap - S: 9.249 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:28
2010-06-04 00:45:55,506 INFO [ImapSSLServer-2112521] [name=user@our.domain;mid=6268;ip=x.x.x.x;] imap - S: 36.249 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 27
2010-06-04 00:45:55,560 INFO [ImapSSLServer-2112521] [name=user@our.domain;mid=6268;ip=x.x.x.x;] imap - S: 37.249 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 28
2010-06-04 01:45:26,970 INFO [ImapSSLServer-2102865] [name=user@our.domain;mid=7628;ip=x.x.x.x;] imap - S: 1419.183 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 1:15
2010-06-04 01:45:28,568 INFO [ImapSSLServer-2102865] [name=user@our.domain;mid=7628;ip=x.x.x.x;] imap - S: 1434.183 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 15
2010-06-04 05:13:44,669 INFO [ImapSSLServer-2118130] [name=user@our.domain;mid=6572;ip=x.x.x.x;] imap - S: 15.1442 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 16:*
2010-06-04 05:32:23,886 INFO [ImapSSLServer-2110150] [name=user@our.domain;mid=4412;ip=x.x.x.x;] imap - S: 157.1652 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 910:*
2010-06-04 06:02:09,332 INFO [ImapSSLServer-2110150] [name=user@our.domain;mid=4412;ip=x.x.x.x;] imap - S: 177.1652 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 910:*
2010-06-04 09:11:41,934 INFO [ImapSSLServer-1887671] [name=user@our.domain;mid=11592;ip=x.x.x.x;] imap - S: 3611.829 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 377:*
2010-06-04 10:34:24,539 INFO [ImapSSLServer-2125030] [name=user@our.domain;mid=7708;ip=x.x.x.x;] imap - S: 88.1209 BAD parse error: invalid message sequence number: 398:*

[kaadye]

The error shows up only when we select empty folders

[phoenix]

You do need to give more information about your problem/question when posting in these forums. Your Zimbra version and which mail client you're using would be a good start. You should also not add your post to a thread that's over a year old.

Originally Posted by kaadye

The error shows up only when we select empty folders

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