Search  Rules  Login
TheBat English » The Bat! - Configuring the E-mail Client
Pages: 1
RSS
Impossible to download entire messages with big Gmail IMAP account
 
#1
0  

Hello, I have an issue with a large IMAP account on GMAIL, which is around 100 gigabytes. I want to download all the messages and attachments on my computer because, even though I have a very fast 1-gigabit connection, when I enable the "get only message header" option, often The Bat is very slow to open messages, and even worse with attachments. So, I want to download all the messages and attachments by enabling the "get entire message" option in the account properties.

Unfortunately, The Bat is unable to do this. I can leave it running for a whole week, 24/7, but it just doesn’t manage to do it. It's not even a question of time; it seems to get stuck right from the start. When I look at the "connection center" windows, I see a very long list with hundreds of messages waiting to be downloaded, but it seems like nothing is downloading, not even a single message! After several hours, I read in the "connection center": "11 MB transferred!"

This is a problem I’ve been struggling with for about 4 years now... So, it’s not a matter of The Bat needing an update. Moreover, I just downloaded Thunderbird, and this software manages to download everything in 3-4 hours!!! How is that possible? What’s blocking it? Please don’t suggest emptying my IMAP box because that’s not an option. I need to keep all the emails in this account. In 2024, I believe a professional software should be able to handle 100 gigabytes... In fact, I had the same problem back in 2020 on the same account with 68 gigabytes of data:

https://www.ritlabs.com/en/auth-forums/forum4/topic15090/message50816/#message50816

BTW, I already tried to delete The Bat account and to create a new one but I still have the same problem...

Thank you for your advice. I don’t know if there’s something to change in the settings (number of connections, IDLE management, etc.) even though I’ve tried everything. Besides quitting The Bat for good and switching to Thunderbird, I haven’t found any other solution, unfortunately. Thank you for your advice.

Edited: duralux duralux - 27 September 2024 11:04:33
 
 
 
#2
0  
Well, if you already downloaded them into Thunderbird, doesn't that offer you an option to export them to a common format that The Bat can import?
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#3
0  
It's not a problem of export or import.

I don't want to handle POP3 account, I want to handle an IMAP account
And I don't want to empty the gmail account to store everything on my pc considering that The Bat doesn't have a real search engine. Using gmail, I can find something immediately.

And the problem will remain the same for the future.  
 
 
 
#4
0  
Maybe you could try downloading messages folder by folder. RIght-click on a folder -> Properties -> IMAP-Specific -> Download preferences
 
 
 
#5
0  
Thanks. I tried that with the SENT folder which is much smaller but it's the same problem.

The problem is when I want to get entire messages.

I then get a very very long list with mails to be downloaded on the connection center but the download doesn't work.

For example now it's impossible to download more than 69MB (this appears on the connection center)....  I can wait until tomorrow and this won't change...  

Any other idea?  Thanks

BTW, what I have to choose concerning IDLE?
 
 
 
#6
0  
This sounds like a serious bug. I suggest you do some more testing: send yourself some messages with attachments, making them a couple of MB in size, put the received messages in a new folder, try to download it and narrow down the folder size which makes TB hang. Play around with IDLE options (by default they're all turned off). Then report it to support using the link above.

(This will give it a much better chance of getting fixed compared to not being able to download 100GB of messages :))
Edited: Miloš Radovanović - 27 September 2024 20:15:27
 
 
 
#7
0  
I tried to create an empty sub folders with specific download parameters

If I copy some messages with attachments they are correctly downloaded

I also tried to contact the support but don't get a convincing answer a part creating a pop3 account...  :(
 
 
 
#8
0  
Quote
It's not a problem of export or import.

I don't want to handle POP3 account, I want to handle an IMAP account
And I don't want to empty the gmail account to store everything on my pc considering that The Bat doesn't have a real search engine. Using gmail, I can find something immediately.

I didn't suggest that you switch to POP3.

I didn't suggest that you delete the messages from the server.

You wrote:

Quote

So, I want to download all the messages and attachments by enabling the "get entire message" option in the account properties.

I don't use IMAP myself, but is there any particular reason why you couldn't import (rather than download) those messages?

As for searching messages, once you have them locally, an F7 text search is actually quite fast, a matter of seconds per folder.
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#9
0  
Hello thanks for your answer.
To be honest I am not sure that to import them from Thunderbird will be the solution

My fear is that after importing them, the Bat will still see them on the Imap server on gmail and then will try to download again as duplicates

I am not sure that the imap server on gmail will decide to delete them just because they are on my machine
 
 
 
#10
0  
Well, that's easy to find out by importing just one or a few messages.
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#11
0  
I tried but they are duplicated.

I made some other tests...

For example, I can do complete download with another similar gmail IMAP account even if it's a little bit smaller (100 giga). But I still have a problem with the other IMAP account.

So I decided to isolate each folder of this account and tried first a complete download of messages only for the SENT folder (50 giga): quite slow considering my 1 giga internet connection but after I couple of days (48 hours) everything was downloaded.

The problem is with the INBOX (150 giga) folder. Impossible to download more than 20-60 mega....!

The download size of this account do not increase in the "connection center" and often after a moment  The Bat crashes

There is something on this INBOX that seems to block the download of mails and make sometimes the bat crashing... Very strange....

Any idea?  
 
 
 
#12
0  
You should be able to access the messages on the server using: Account | Dispatch Mail on Server |  All Messages

In rare cases, a corrupt message on the server may cause unexpected errors in mail clients, making it impossible to retrieve other messages.  The troublesome message is usually easy to find if messages are deleted from the server after successful retrieval (it will be the only one left), but with IMAP,as in your case, it may be like looking for a needle in a haystack. What you may want to do is check your inbox in The Bat (or your account's log file) to see what the last successfully retrieved message was. The troublesome message on the server should be the one just behind it, or close to it anyway.
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#13
0  
Good idea but I cannot see "dispatch mail on server" on the account menu? It exists also for Imap account?

BTW, I was checking the IMAP log and I see a strange recurring thing:

02/10/2024, 12:18:51: IMAP  - Authenticating (user: "XXXX", method: "LOGIN")...
02/10/2024, 12:18:52: IMAP  - IMAP server authentication OK, server says XXXX authenticated (Success)"
!02/10/2024, 13:02:06: IMAP  - The server didn't reply anything to TImapFolderCounterSearchTask command in 600 seconds
02/10/2024, 13:02:13: IMAP  - Disconnected

Why I am always disconnected after this TImapFolderCounterSearchTask command?
 
 
 
#14
0  
Quote
duralux duralux wrote:
Good idea but I cannot see "dispatch mail on server" on the account menu? It exists also for Imap account?

Maybe not! That would be too bad (I only use POP3 myself). But then, nowadays you can probably go online and check your inbox through the webmail interface.

Quote
Why I am always disconnected after this TImapFolderCounterSearchTask command?

That sounds like a question that only the developers can answer.
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
 
 
#15
0  
Quote
duralux duralux wrote:
TImapFolderCounterSearchTask
Searching the web for that code, every result relates to The Bat. So it's not something received from the server, but rather generated by The Bat. I would say, push Ritlabs support to explain this message. It could be that the actual exchange with the server would point to the problem.
 
 
 
Pages: 1