Blank email with no header cannot be deleted andreappears

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Zenbr01
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Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2018 10:56 pm

Blank email with no header cannot be deleted andreappears

Post by Zenbr01 »

I have two completely blank emails coming back to an Outlook profile from the Zimbra server.

They go to the Junk folder.
They are totally blank, no subject, no to, no from, not even a header.
They only appear in Outlook linked to the Zimbra account using IMAP.
They do not appear in the Zimbra Web login.
I have completely deleted and re-create the entire Outlook profile.
I can delete them, permanently delete them, they always come back.

Seems like something is flagging delivery for these emails, but the actual data is long gone.

How can I be getting email with no header?
Where do I go to permanently delete these?

This is a test migration account from Exchange to Zimbra, Exchange is forwarding new email only to Zimbra.
I need to resolve this before I migrate all our accounts to Zimbra, so this does not happen to any real users.
My last resort was to delete the account and completely re-migrate this account back into Zimbra.
The issue started some time after the original migration, not due to it.
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DualBoot
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Re: Blank email with no header cannot be deleted andreappears

Post by DualBoot »

Hello,

maybe you could provide the source of the email ?

Regards,
Zenbr01
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2018 10:56 pm

Re: Blank email with no header cannot be deleted andreappears

Post by Zenbr01 »

The source now on these emails is unknown, as there is no header, no subject, no To, no From, no body on these emails.
How is it even possible to get an email into Outlook with a blank header???
Have worked with various email systems for a few years now and never seen this before.

A bit more info:

The original source of the email was a LogMeIn automated sign in notification which was delivered to 'Junk' folder.

I tried to delete then permanently delete this email and it kept coming back. It just reappeared every time the IMAP sync ran.

I actually deleted two folders on the Zimbra account to try to troubleshoot what was going on, 'Junk E-mail' and 'Junk Email' which exist in addition to 'Junk" due to the migration from Exchange. In doing this the trouble emails seemed to delete, but then came back as 'ghost' email with no content or header. So it seemed to be some conflict with the multiple Junk folders or something.
Zenbr01
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2018 10:56 pm

Re: Blank email with no header cannot be deleted andreappears

Post by Zenbr01 »

I might have misunderstood your request for the source.

There is no 'Source' or 'Original' of these ghost emails, the source is blank as well.
In Outlook, 'Actions > Other Actions > View Source' gives a blank page for these emails.

It really seems like there is an index or entry in the database an email exists, and to sync it with IMAP, but there is no data for that email. Really strange.
Zenbr01
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2018 10:56 pm

Re: Blank email with no header cannot be deleted andreappears

Post by Zenbr01 »

I had two more email sent to 'Junk' folder. I deleted one from Outlook and one from Zimbra Web Portal.
One became a Ghost email. It appears still in Outlook and Zimbra Web Portal, as a blank email now.
Except this time, in the Web Portal I could see some 'Source' information. This source seems to indicate it is Outlook re-creating the ghost email.

Message-ID: <011a01d47c3c$3b88a580$b299f080$@Domain>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 16.0
Thread-Index: AQIfFYRm7NvjES1MBy2EsVHchcK6Tg==
X-OlkEid: 00000000C307D7CDEE34974F88FC5DDB013F97D5070034AD76187591974DBF6C4F76951C873A0100150000000000D9539C2261A6BB45B9DAB62C7081B3C10100602D000000005FC3F2B2183FAA4495D83FFC684DE3EE
Zenbr01
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2018 10:56 pm

Re: Blank email with no header cannot be deleted andreappears

Post by Zenbr01 »

Deleting the Ghost email from Zimbra Web Portal, has permanently deleted the new Ghost email which appeared in both.

I am wondering if this is Outlook confusion between 'Junk' ( Zimbra )and 'Junk Email' ( Outlook ) folders.
This issue is only happening on emails which end up in the 'Junk' folder. Any other folder behaves correctly.

Is there a way to set Zimbra to use a specific junk folder name( Junk Email instead of Junk )?

The two new Junk email I received today, had a copy in the Inbox as well as the Junk folder. So it does appear there is some issue with Outlook 2016 IMAP and the Zimbra Junk folder.


I am going to try Outlook 2013 on a different computer never connected to this Zimbra account and Thunderbird.
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DualBoot
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Re: Blank email with no header cannot be deleted andreappears

Post by DualBoot »

Is there a way to set Zimbra to use a specific junk folder name( Junk Email instead of Junk )?
No
Zenbr01
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Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2018 10:56 pm

Re: Blank email with no header cannot be deleted andreappears

Post by Zenbr01 »

I was able to resolve this, but still not sure why it occurs.
Problem seems to occur occasionally when deleting Junk email using Outlook 2016 connected to Zimbra by IMAP.

The same ghost emails appeared in Outlook 2013 IMAP new connection to the account and in Thunderbird when connected to the account.
This confirms they are on the Zimbra side, not in Outlook, but it is likely Outlook 2016 which causes the issue on the Zimbra side.

How I was able to delete the 'Ghost' emails:
-If they appear in the Zimbra Web Portal, deleting them from there will permanently delete them.
-I was able to re-send them to Junk in Thunderbird, then delete them from Thunderbird, and they permanently deleted.

Hopefully this issue does not persist for other users when I migrate all our email accounts to Zimbra. Installing Thunderbird to keep cleaning up ghost emails on all our users is not really an option.
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