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A couple of users in my organisation use IMAP4 to connect to Exchange 2007 (Update rollup 9 applied) because they prefer Thunderbird / Postbox clients. One of the users is generating errors in the Application Log as follows:

An exception Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConversionFailedException occurred while converting message Imap4Message 1523, user "*******", folder *********, subject: "******", date: "*******" into MIME format. Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConversionFailedException: Message content has become corrupted. ---> System.ArgumentException: Value should be a valid content type in the form 'token/token'
Parameter name: value
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Mime.ContentTypeHeader.set_Value(String value)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.MimeStreamWriter.WriteHeader(HeaderId type, String data)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ItemToMimeConverter.WriteMimeStreamAttachment(StreamAttachmentBase attachment, MimeFlags flags)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ItemToMimeConverter.WriteMimeStreamAttachment(StreamAttachmentBase attachment, MimeFlags flags)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ItemToMimeConverter.WriteMimeAttachment(MimePartInfo part, MimeFlags flags)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ItemToMimeConverter.WriteMimePart(MimePartInfo part, MimeFlags mimeFlags)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ItemToMimeConverter.WriteMimeParts(List`1 parts, MimeFlags mimeFlags)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ItemToMimeConverter.WriteMimePart(MimePartInfo part, MimeFlags mimeFlags)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ImapItemConverter.<>c__DisplayClass2.<WriteMimePart>b__0()
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConvertUtils.CallCts(Trace tracer, String methodName, String exceptionString, CtsCall ctsCall)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ImapItemConverter.WriteMimePart(ItemToMimeConverter converter, MimeStreamWriter writer, OutboundConversionOptions options, MimePartInfo partInfo, MimeFlags conversionFlags)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ImapItemConverter.GetBody(Stream outStream)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ImapItemConverter.GetBody(Stream outStream, UInt32[] indices)

From my reading around it seems that the suggestion is to ask users to log in to Outlook / OWA and view the messages there. However, having logged in as the users myself, the messages cannot be found either through searching or by browsing the folder detailed in the log entry. The server returns the following error to the client:

"The message could not be retrieved using the IMAP4 protocol. The message has not been deleted and may be accessible using either Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access. You can also try contacting the original sender of the message to find out about the contents of the message.

Retrieval of this message will be retried when the server is updated with a fix that addresses the problem."

Messages were transferred in to Exchange by copying them from the old Apple Xserve, accessed using IMAP.

So my question, finally:
1. Is there any way to get the IMAP Exchange connector to rebuild its cache of messages since it doesn't seem to be pulling them directly from the MAPI store?
2. Alternatively, if there is no database, any ideas on why these messages don't appear in Outlook or OWA would be gratefully received.

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2 Answers 2

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The Exchange 2007 IMAP4 server pulls messages directly from the Information Store database. There is no "cache" of messages.

I have no explanation re: why the messages aren't showing up in OWA or Outlook.

I believe the issue you're seeing is the one reported here, which the Microsoft poster proports will be fixed by Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2. I'd have a look at migrating to SP2 and seeing if that resolves the issue.

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  • Thanks Evan, useful to know that there's no cache as such - rules that one out. Looks like the link could be the issue, I'd like to see if it's possible to somehow get to the messages to get rid of them before applying the upgrade though. I'm confused as to why the IMAP connector can see them but MAPI can't...
    – MikeB
    Dec 7, 2009 at 22:04
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It may just be that that particular message is corrupt.

You could make a telnet connection to the POP3 port on the server, log in to the users mailbox and issue the LIST and UIDL commands and look for the message number in both listings. If you don't see it in both listings then there's a problem with the mailbox and\or message. Try deleting the message in question and see if that resolves the issue.

The formatting in my comment didn't come out right (Duh). Here's what I was trying to get across as far as the telnet commands are concerned:

  1. telnet servername 110 (whatever port number that POP is running on)
  2. user username
  3. pass password
  4. list
  5. uidl
  6. dele message_number
  7. quit
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  • Thanks for the quick response joeqwerty. Unfortunately every time I try to connect to the POP3 port using Telnet it closes the connection straight away. POP3 access is enabled under Client Access and for the user. Anything else that I could be missing here?
    – MikeB
    Dec 7, 2009 at 21:59
  • Not knowing your environment (firewalls and such) I would recommend running telnet directly on the server. Make sure to check what port POP is configured to use on the server and connect to that port: telnet server 110 user username pass password list uidl dele message_number
    – joeqwerty
    Dec 7, 2009 at 22:12
  • See the edit on my answer for a response to your comment. Sorry for any confusion.
    – joeqwerty
    Dec 7, 2009 at 22:17
  • Finally connected. Looks like the message doesn't exist: RETR 1523 -ERR The specified message is out of range. Which makes me wonder how the IMAP connector is finding it in the store at all... unless Ive mis-understood RETR or the error reference of course.
    – MikeB
    Dec 8, 2009 at 0:11
  • There's a disconnect between what the IMAP client and server thinks is there. When you Pop'ed to the server and issued the LIST and UIDL commands, did message number 1523 not show up? If not, then I would recommend deleting the Outlook profile and creating a new one. Sometimes the "agreement" between the IMAP\POP client and the server gets out of whack and they no longer "agree" on which messages the client has or doesn't have (message state). If message number 1523 did show up in the LIST and\or UIDL commands then I would recommend trying to delete it from the server using the dele command.
    – joeqwerty
    Dec 8, 2009 at 0:50

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