Email client Balsa unable to download email on Debian/XFCE

[anon71761032]

I’m on the latest and up-to-date Debian (as of end 2023) with XFCE.

I’ve installed Balsa.

I can configure SMTP and send emails, no problem.

I cannot configure POP3 and receive emails.

There is to my knowlege no logging, and there are no error messages; all I get is a small dialog which flashes up briefly and says something like “checking inbox”.

I have with the same email configuration set up the client client on my phone (e/OS), which works.

I’ve tried everything I can think of, and all combinations there-of, including for example putting or not putting the port number on the server IP name (it’s not clear from the docs if you must do this, or if it is optional).

I can’t make it work, and there’s no error information, at all. Brick wall hit, unable to move on (going to write my own email client now - Thunderbird went the wrong way for me, and I’ve found after considerable searching nothing else I actually like or want to use, not on XFCE at any rate).

[albrecht.dress]

Which version of Balsa do you use? The one coming with Debian Bookworm, or a self-compiled one from Github? Unfortunately (as we were lazy re. new releases… ) the former is a little outdated. In particular, the setup wizard has been improved in the meantime. However, as SMTP works, it should be possible to use POP3, too (unless your ISP supports simple authentication for SMTP, but only OAuth2 for POP3, which is not supported by Balsa).

As you mentioned that Balsa does not emit any error or warning message (which is actually strange – can you please check Edit → Preferences → Settings, then Status messages if they are enabled?), you might want to run Balsa with the following debug output from a terminal:

G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=libnetclient /path/to/balsa

The output contains all network transactions (“R” indicates the messages received from the remote server, “W” the commands sent by Balsa). Please check it for any error messages reported by the server.

Note that the output contains your credentials in clear text so do not post the lines containing them here unless you remove the credentials. In particular, never post lines sent by Balsa (“W”) containing USER or PASS, or the command following an AUTH … (e.g. AUTH PLAIN). Anonymising these lines is fine, though.

[anon71761032]

Which version of Balsa do you use? The one coming with Debian Bookworm, or a self-compiled one from Github?

That which comes with Debian 12, which is version 2.6.4-2.

Unfortunately (as we were lazy re. new releases… ) the former is a little outdated. In particular, the setup wizard has been improved in the meantime. However, as SMTP works, it should be possible to use POP3, too (unless your ISP supports simple authentication for SMTP, but only OAuth2 for POP3, which is not supported by Balsa).

I am not using the setup wizard.

POP3 is POP3S (port 995), with a normal password.

Note that as far as I can see, Balsa doesn’t connect to the POP server. I was watching the server logs, and nothing ever showed up (unlike the mobile phone client, which works).

As you mentioned that Balsa does not emit any error or warning message (which is actually strange – can you please check Edit → Preferences → Settings, then Status messages if they are enabled?), you might want to run Balsa with the following debug output from a terminal:

Too late I’m afraid - uninstalled. Can’t go back to it now, been trying on and off for two weeks or so to get it to work, motivation expended.

FWIW, when I set up SMTP, I did once have an error message, which showed up as a “system-type” message, in the corner of the screen - the type of message when say battery is low. It was on the screen for just a second or two, so there was no time to read it properly (but it was something about SMTP auth failing - and it was, I had the wrong username. SMTP then worked.