Solved Re-index DB -> "Mail client starting" forever, mail panel empty

[WildEnte]

I had a mail search issue (after moving to a fresh profile just weeks ago to fix another one...) and couldn't get it fixed with simple methods, so I followed the

@ayespy said in Running mail filters -- non stop (bug?):

@janrif To re-index all your mail, (the second most-destructive solution) you close the browser and delete the folder:

C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\Default\Storage\ext\mpognobbkildjkofajifpdfhcoklimli

• this is also recommended in mail debugging tips although there it says to only delete the “Default/Storage/ext/mpognobbkildjkofajifpdfhcoklimli/def/IndexedDB” subfolder ... I deleted the entire mpogn.... thing.

"Mail status - accounts" says that my accounts are there and connected, but the status bar shows "Mail client is starting" forever, and the mail panel says "add your first mail account". Hm. I have two offline accounts in case that matters. Any pointers or do I need to set mail up from scratch again?

[WildEnte]

@gmg a bit surprised I can report that the newest snapshot 5.3.2643.3 fixed the issue with the mail client starting endlessly. Well done

Without knowing anything much about software development, seems like

[Mail][Performance] Faster startup by initializing threads in parallel

helped

Edit: Mail accounts are accessible again but the all messages view is collapsed and won't open; offline accounts marked for deletion in the settings are deleting forever and restart doesn't help. The profile is still borked. But: "mail client starting forever" is fixed let me know if you are interested in anything, otherwise I'll just let the borked profile exist for nostalgia.

[Ayespy]

@wildente I'm not sure. I've not dealt with the situation of having mail set up, but having the client stuck on "Mali client starting."

Are you using only IMAP?

[WildEnte]

@ayespy said in Re-index DB -> "Mail client starting" forever, mail panel empty:

Are you using only IMAP?

I have two offline accounts with imported emails. judging by the default ports that show greyed out those are POP accounts. ... maybe deleting those accounts makes the "Mail client starting" problem go away? I don't expect the emails in those accounts to survive anyway (I have backups anyway ... beta software )

[Ayespy]

@wildente Depending on your server settings (saving POP3 messages on server or not), you will lose POP messages if you nuke your mail. What you might try is an all-new, totally-clean Vivaldi standalone install, and a brand new mail setup in that, with your current version closed.

Then you can see if mail will run properly. (I don't use POP3, but if how mine runs is any indication, a new setup will do fine). Then, whether you use POP or IMAP, you will learn whether a new setup will load historical emails.

Of course if you have mail backups, good! But it might also be nice to learn whether starting fresh for you loses the old mail data.

[WildEnte]

@ayespy said in Re-index DB -> "Mail client starting" forever, mail panel empty:

What you might try is an all-new, totally-clean Vivaldi standalone install, and a brand new mail setup in that, with your current version closed.

I did that just a couple of weeks ago when I switched to Win11. Mail is generally working well for me but ever since M3 beta was released I occasionally come across emails that are not reliably found. I know what I am looking for so I find them with other search terms, then I copy the word I was originally searching for from the email body into the search field, and the search comes up empty. Then I test this particular search in a new profile and it works there.

Then I move to the new profile (or, in the case of my change to Win11 a completely new installation), and a few weeks later I have the same issue with another email. The only thing these mails have in common is that they are sent from me to me (VB-79700...)

Anyway, time to delete the two offline accounts to see if it makes mail start again...

[WildEnte]

aaaand since the two mail accounts are now stuck at "deleting" for 20 minutes, I guess it's time to move to a completely new profile.

-> be careful using the nuclear option to reindex the database.

[jumpsq]

So moving Default/Storage/ext/mpognobbkildjkofajifpdfhcoklimli is not sufficient? Strange.

I believe that it is possible to remove individual accounts by editing Default/Preferences (and maybe removing them also from Default/MailDB using sqlite). A completely new profile is always very tedious to set up ...

That said: I plan to re-do my complete profile once mail import works without changing characters because they are somehow interpreted incorrectly as utf-8. Likewise, my mail search is always messed up and I believe it is about time in general I refresh all the fine-tuning. But I very much also plan to do and keep a backup of that state, so I can return to this state at any time.

[WildEnte]

@jumpsq nope, moving Default/Storage/ext/mpognobbkildjkofajifpdfhcoklimli is what made the main problem of "Mail client starting" forever appear in the first place. I'm setting up new. No problem, I got everything secure.

I will leave the broken profile up for a little longer in case there's something to be learned.

[gmg]

@wildente

Note that if only the search is broken then the search db is not in the same place.
It's in Default/MailDB and Default/MailDB-journal

To refresh the search you can run the Rebuild Mail Search Database which can be found here

1. Click Mail Status Button
2. Click Settings
3. Choose "Rebuild Mail Search Database"
   

[WildEnte]

@gmg I did that before trying the nuclear option, didn't help.

The issue was very close to what we discussed in my "Bourbon Whiskey" bug VB-75874

In this case I had sent to myself (the common pattern for many many mail related issues I have found ... master bug VB-79700) some email in which I documented how I had configured a self hosted bitwarden / vaultwarden instance on my synology, which also required changing the hosts file on my OS. I didn't find the email looking for the keywords 'vaultwarden hosts'. I did find it using 'vaultwarden synology'. As I had remembered, the email contained the word 'hosts'. But when I copied the word 'hosts' from the email and pasted it into the search field, the email search would come up empty (also when I just typed it in). Very similar to what we found with VB-75874. In a different profile the problem did not appear. Since I can't reproduce it - no bug report. Maybe with this additional info you have some idea shrugs

EDIT: I sent the raw message to the VB-75874 bug address in case you are interested.

[WildEnte]

@gmg the latest snapshot gives me additional detail in the status bar that I didn't see before - I found it in the log. With this info, is there something I can save or you would be interested in? Or is it a lost cause (in which case I just finally set up a new profile, haven't come around doing so yet)

To recall: I deleted Default/Storage/ext/mpognobbkildjkofajifpdfhcoklimli and since then I have "mail client starting" forever, the mail accounts are found in settings but the mail panel

(EDIT: I saw that some errors relate to feeds I have subscribed to - I deleted those, then deleted the Default/Storage/ext/mpognobbkildjkofajifpdfhcoklimli again, but the mail client is still not starting)

[gmg]

@wildente

So you already deleted the xkcd feed I presume then?

[WildEnte]

@gmg yes, I did that after I saw this in the error messages. I also went to the settings and deleted two offline accounts by hitting the minus under the account list. Since a couple of days now both accounts keep saying "deleting" in the list. I'm currently setting up the new profile.

Importing is a bit of a bumpy ride still... importing from Thunderbird gives me green checkmarks but imports zero messages, importing from Opera Mail works reasonably well but lots of messages are imported as Unread. I would like to import from an mbox file or directly from the other Vivaldi profile (the latter is probably not a very common usecase)

Edit: I am done moving my profile now so no need to help fixing the old one.
EDIT 2: the issue with 0 messages imported is probably because those messages were imported from an Opera 9.5 archive into Thunderbird before, which was in itself tricky enough. I assume the tricky import into thunderbird lead to some config issue - not a standard case.

[gmg]

@wildente
The Thunderbird import... Do you have it set up as MailDir maybe? Any issues in the console there?
Regarding the Opera import. We're reading it out of x-opera-status. Someone else seems to be running into that. Did you make a bug?

[WildEnte]

@gmg I'll write a bug report describing the steps I take and what I see, and also post in a new thread here (?). With that info you can then guide me to provide more info. Thanks for your interest

[mottenmouse]

Is there any news in this regard?

For no apparent reason, I also have the message "Mail Client starting ..." after a restart. Mail and feeds no longer work.

Do I understand correctly that the easiest and fastest fix is a new profile?

[gudmundurg74]

@mottenmouse Any chance you could post your logs here?

@WildEnte's logs had a constraint/DB error, I wonder if yours have too.

[mottenmouse]

@gudmundurg74 Do you meen this one

Otherwise I need exact instructions. I´m only a normal user ;).

[gudmundurg74]

@mottenmouse yes exactly. I don't see anything there that might be breaking the mail though.

[mottenmouse]

@gudmundurg74

Things I've noticed:

• First reboot of Ubuntu (20.04 LTS) after update from Vivaldi Stable 5.1 to 5.2
• Mail Status Bar Accounts shows "Connected". Settings/Mail/Mail Accounts shows "Verifiying".
• A newly added mail account is not shown in the mail panel.
  It is also not shown in DevTools/App/Storage/IndexDB/M3V1/accounts.

Therefore I think a reinstallation is the only reasonable solution.

Bug report for a non-reproducible error?