RETR command did not succeed - how do I fix this?
Error message = The RETR command did not succeed. Error retrieving a message. Mail server pop.3frontiernet.net responded [SYS/TEMP] problem retrieving message. When I contacted the support desk at Frontier, they said they had never seen the error message and changed my password to allow me access to their Web based email system - so I can see my emails but can not get to documents, address list etc. I deleted all the junk mail, purged many emails to lower the number of stored messages; to no avail. I now have close to 300 inaccessible emails. All this came about suddenly around August 8th.
All Replies (6)
Often, the problem with asking for support from eg: frontier is that they do not know very much other than webmail. They would not encounter server messages that deal with pop and smtp.
That error message can mean one or more emails are causing a log jam preventing download from server. The 'bad' email usually was received into server Inbox and then moved by the frontier server filter into the 'Spam' folder, but for some reason may have left a trace in the server Inbox, so causing the problem.
Log on to webmail using a browser and delete all the emails in the webmail 'Spam' folder. It is possible they are causing a log jam and preventing the server from allowing the server Inbox emails to download to the Thunderbird pop mail account Inbox.
re :changed my password to allow me access to their Web based email system Not sure why they changed the password to allow access to webmail as you should have been able to access webmail anyway using the current password. If the current password had not been working then you would not have received that error message from the server. TB was connecting with server, so password was good.
If you did not remember the password, then you could have looked in Thunderbird for it. But obviously this now irrelevant.
After deleting the items in webmail Spam folder, you will probably need to update the password in Thunderbird to match the current one used to access webmail.
In Thunderbird 'Menu icon' > 'Options' > 'Options' > 'Security' > 'Passwords' tab click on 'Saved 'Passwords click on 'Show Passwords'
right click on 'mailbox://' for the pop mail account and choose 'Edit Password' carefully type in the new password. do the same for the 'smtp://' for pop mail account. click on 'Close' Click on OK
Close and restart Thunderbird.
Many thanks for the suggestions...I think I did them all but still get the error message
If you are absolutely certain that you have deleted all the emails in the webmail spam folder (not the Junk folder in Thunderbird) then log on to webmail using a browser and look for the oldest not downloaded email in the Inbox - this would be the first one trying to download and failing. Move it to another folder.
then in Thunderbird use 'Get Messages'.
I have the The "RETR command did not succeed. Error retrieving a message. Mail server pop-server.kc.rr.com responded: no such message" message problem,
Where is the "webmail spam folder". I have never seen it.
Modified by Zeke11
To Zeke11 re :Where is the "webmail spam folder". You would need to logon to your webmail account via a browser to see it. It is not a Thunderbird folder.
In Thunderbird, spam/junk emails are put in the 'Junk' folder, but the server webmail account will probably use the word 'Spam' or similar.
Log on to webmail using a browser and delete all the emails in the webmail 'Spam' folder. It is possible they are causing a log jam and preventing the server from allowing the server Inbox emails to download to the Thunderbird pop mail account Inbox.
Thanks! I use Yahoo as my web mail account. I logged into it and deleted all my spam and trash emails. (Make sure you get them all.) reopened Thunderbird and it worked fine. No error.