This may or may not be helpful to Charlie, but others might find it helpful
I use kmail ( version 5.5.2). I have it set up to download all e-mail as
local IMAP(not stored on server) so that each message is a separate file on my
PC. Hasn't been a problem in a long time. Recently, I've gotten some
"ghostly" messages that I could not delete. There was a cryptic error message
pointing at the akonadi database.
>From searching the web, I found that there is a management program called
akonadiconsole. It allowed me to solve my problems.
Here is what I did and some notes on what I found. So, I downloaded and
installed it. Note that it should be run as a user (not as root) to access
that user's e-mail. The program opens with 5 windows. Top left is
"Collection" which are the various folders that the e-mail is stored in. Top
right doesn't have a title, but displays the "ID", "Remote Id" and "MimeType"
of each message. What I found (your results may be different) is that the
messages that I was having problems with did not have an entry in the MimeType
column. I right clicked on a message without a "MimeType" and chose "delete".
(once I select a message, the body of the message displays below the message
list) The problematic message was gone. It took a very few minutes for me to
go through my messages, and clean out the problems.
WORD OF WARNING: This is a low level database access tool. Changes that you
make are immediate, and not reversable. You can mess things up badly if you
are not deliberate and careful. (I did not try to mess my stuff up to find
out), so be very careful.
Good luck, and best wishes,
Mark
On Saturday, February 17, 2018 4:07:27 PM EST charlie derr wrote:
> Apologies if this turns out to be a duplicate message. I tried to send
> to the list using my problematic Kmail client (and a message appeared
> in my sent mail folder) but so far I don't see it having posted when I
> look at the web archives for debian-user.
>
> I sent a similar message to debian-kde this morning, but it appears
> there's not much activity there, so I figured I'd also try here.
>
> I've been a debian GNU/linux user (I like KDE for my desktop, though I
> generally keep openbox (and gnome) available as "fallbacks") for quite
> some time now (decades at least) and am in general a very happy user.
> I've been using both thunderbird and claws-mail as IMAP clients for
> some time, but recently (a few months ago) I set up Kmail (and I like
> it very much, as integration with gnupg was relatively painless). I am
> again using it as an IMAP client (with a different gmail address). I
> have two computers, both running debian 9 stretch. On one of them (the
> laptop), Kmail is functioning properly, but on the desktop machine
> which I'm writing from now, incoming email has not been appearing since
> the end of January. I don't see any obvious menu entries which would
> give me access to log files in order to try to troubleshoot the
> problem, so I'm looking for any advice as to how I might go about
> correcting the issue so this instance of Kmail can again receive email
> (it's possible that the problem is as simple as an incorrectly entered
> password though I've just attempted to reenter it with no improvement
> in mail fetching behavior). I'm not currently subscribed to this list,
> so CCing me is perfectly fine (though I'll monitor the web archives for
> responses on which I may not be CCed).
>
>thanks so much in advance for any information anyone may have to
>share with me,
>
> ~c
