The IMAP command APPEND failed
December 23, 2007 at 4:23 pm | In Mac OS X | 5 CommentsTags: 10.5, error, IMAP, Leopard, Mail
After upgrading to Mac OS X 10.5, I started receiving the following error whenever I tried to move an e-mail message from my Inbox to a folder on my IMAP server:
The message could not be moved to the mailbox foldername. The IMAP command “APPEND” to foldername failed with server error: APPEND failed: Unknown flag: NotJunk.
Apparently, in Leopard the Mail application is no longer compatible with UW IMAP server software.
Rather than try to get Mail to work with UW IMAP, I decided to switch to Cyrus IMAP, since it is supposedly more robust than UW IMAP. Sure enough, that fixed the problem!
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a slightly modified Cyrus IMAP is what Apple ship in their server product
(although they use the Sun server for .Mac because it really is rock solid and SCALES after nearly 20 years of development)
really this is not a problem with the server but a BUG with Apple Mail since it should find out what the server supports with the Capability command and use the correct commands
i.e. ask the server what are your Capability and if it lists Append use it BUT if not fall back to simpler IMAP commands
which it does not do so its acting like a Bad User Agent
UW is pretty stable but has less features (after add on’s) than Cyrus
it all depends on where you got your Cyrus install from
have fun
John Jones
http://www.johnjones.me.uk
Comment by JohnJones — December 25, 2007 #
VERY RARELY I when I try to copy a whole bunch of emails from an “On My Mac” mailbox to a “MobileMe” mail box I get the message: “The IMAP comand “APPEND” (to …) failed with server error: Message contains invalid header”
The error kills the copying of ALL messages following the one with the “problem”. I do not understand how I can fix this problem with Apple Mail, nor how to replace “UW IMAP” with “Cyrus IMAP”. PLEASE SEND HELP
Comment by Mel Ringel — July 23, 2008 #
I’m using UW imap-2000-11 and often get this NotJunk problem when trying to move messages from an imap folder on another server (running a different imap) to a folder on the UW server. It does not matter whether I do one at a time or multiple. It sems to me that it is particular messages which cause the problem. Once Mail has decided that a particular message has this property then, at the point at which you try to move it onto the UW server, it uses the NotJunk flag (attribute? whatever) on the APPEND command and then the UW server rejects it. Other messages do not have this problem and can be moved back and forth, singly or multiply. But I can’t find the pattern which is controlling this behaviour and so cannot find a workaround! Which I have to say (Apple!) is very, very annoying. IMAP is not a difficult protocol, SO FIX IT PLEASE!
Comment by John Sutton — November 23, 2008 #
I’m having the same problem trying to migrate some old mail boxes from Mac Mail into a Gmail (IMAP) account so I can access them via Mac Mail, iPhone and gmail.
Append fails….?
Comment by Matt Connolly — February 10, 2009 #
I think I may be fighting the exact same problem with Mac Mail and SpamArrest:
My post at Apple Discussions
The question is why does it succeed sometimes, though rarely.
Comment by Chip Roberson — May 25, 2009 #