IMAP issue: "Cannot connect to server" :: 3 LIST (SPECIAL-USE) "" "INBOX/*" [BAD, Missing required argument to List]

Using /e/OS Applications
1

The configuration of a new IMAP account fails in the Mail application with the error “Cannot connect to server”. The /e/ Mail application (version 5.6) does not provide any other information, the configuration cannot be completed and one gets completely blocked: I have not found any way of using the email account.

After some debugging and extracting the log file, I found that the connection and authentication with the server works fine but the IMAP LIST command issued by the application to retrieve the folder configuration fails as follows:

  • command: LIST (SPECIAL-USE) “” “INBOX/*”
  • response: #3# [BAD, Missing required argument to List]

Further investigation in the web shows that this is (or was) a frequent issue with K-9. Some people claim that it is due to the fact that the client sends the LIST command before time and that it is not a server error.
With K-9 this error is usually ignored without major consequences as it is rather benign: it does not prevent to complete the configuration of the new account and to start using the application. I could confirm this behavior myself by giving a try to K-9 (same version: 5.6) in a ‘standard’ android device with the same email account and configuration parameters: I got the same error (although K-9 displays the error message on the screen what makes one’s life easier) but I could continue the configuration and start using the email account.

The problem that I have with /e/ Mail is that I do not manage to make the application ignore this error and use my email account. I would appreciate any comment, info or idea about:

a) any possible workaround to bypass the LIST error at the first initialization. Once the account is configured this error seems not to happen any more.

b) advantages of using /e/ Mail instead K-9 (or other recommended email client)

2

b) The /e/ Mail app from stock is a fork of K-9. They share some problems. Both had issues with the IMAP IDLE feature (push messages).

You could use the very sophisticated Fairemail instead and get finally rid of all these problems.

3

Thank you irrlicht , I will give a try to Fairemail and compare, all these email clients are completely new to me.

4

From my side and after some more time investigating this matter I also found this workaround that consists in installing and using K-9 first to configure the email account and export the configuration settings to a file. And then importing the account settings from the file into /e/ Mail:

It has worked for me and I have now finally my IMAP account configured and operational in /e/ Mail. And two additional interesting findings:

  • I used the last release of K-9, version 5.734, not flagged as stable but that looks very nice.
  • The original configuration issue, the error with the LIST command that was present in version 5.6 of both K-9 and /e/ Mail, seems to be fixed in this newer version.

So, I will install also Fairemail and play a little bit with the three clients for a while before deciding what to do.

I am starting with this, still learning and in my case the email client is by far the most important application. So, any other advice or comment is still more than welcome!