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Smartermail v16 Issues & Bug List
Problem reported by Scarab - 5/19/2017 at 11:13 AM
Locked
Resolved
Figured I would start a thread with all the major and minor issues our customers have been experiencing so far with v16 of Smartermail (notwithstanding the major issues I have an open ticket for).
 
  • Installer removes blank Host Name binding when configuring pre-existing site in IIS. We use Type "http" Port "80" IP Address "All Unassigned" to handle aliases of mail.domain.tld with a redirect to https for the FQDN of our Smartermail installation. After upgrade this resulted in 404 - Page Not Found until the blank Host Name binding was readded to IIS.
  • Web interface unable to to display properly in Safari (displays only half-height of screen with no scrollbars displayed in display pane resulting in being able to view the first two lines of an email only). Unfortunately the vast majority of our webmail users (75% of our user base) are Safari users.
  • Cannot drag and drop emails to folders in Microsoft Edge.
  • MANAGE > SPOOL > SPAM QUARANTINE "Select All" does not work. Scrollbar doesn't scroll all the way down on any browser for this item.
  • MANAGE > CONNECTIONS > XMPP "Select All" does not work and unable to individually select any items listed.
  • GENERAL SETTINGS > LOGIN DISPLAY "Image for Login Screen" not working. You can upload an image but it will not display.
  • SECURITY > BLACKLIST will not display when there are a large number of items to be listed (and will lock up the browser while trying).
  • SETTINGS > BINDINGS "XMPP (5222)" automatically duplicated on all IPs listed when upgrading from previous version, generating an error that a Port cannot be used twice when attempting to modify any bindings.
This doesn't include other pre-existing issues from previous versions, such as Message Sniffer not adding score to email received from Incoming Gateways, Incoming Gateways are still triggering IDS Denial of Service (but correctly do not trigger IDS Harvesting), etc. Undoubtedly we and our customers will probably discover more after the first day of use, but I thought I'd get the ball rolling on adding to the Known Issues & Bug List lest I forget.

151 Replies

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Employee Replied
Employee Post
What version of Safari are you running?
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Scarab Replied
Robert,

I hadn't been previously asking customers who've been reporting the Safari issue but after you asked I started asking and discovered it is only occurring on Safari 10.11 and earlier. I had a customer upgrade to Safari 10.12 and the problem was immediately resolved...so that will be our standard solution going forward.
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Derek Curtis Replied
Employee Post
Hey, Scarab
 
Let me address a few of these:
 
-Installer and blank host names: We couldn't replicate that here. But we'll look into it some more.
- Drag and drop in Edge: we're hoping to get this resolved in today's build.
- Gateways triggering IDS DoS: we should have this resolved in today's build. 
Select All issues on Spam Quarantine and XMPP Connections: This should be resolved in today's build. 
- Login Display: I can't replicate this. I can do it for both the system admin login as well as the domain login by simply using a .PNG or a .JPG. It just drops the image right above the login area...If you inspect using the dev tools, are you getting any errors in the console? Have you tried toggling "Enable custom login Page HTML"? (I didn't have to do this, but thought it may be worth trying.) Maybe a permissions issue? 
 
- Security > Blacklist: Are you limiting the display to a set number of rows on the page? Leaving the default of 25 or are you changing it at all? Any console errors?
- We'll test the upgrade items you've listed again, so thanks for reporting them. 
 
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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echoDreamz Replied
Guess there is no "today's build" :(
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
You would be wrong! Were working late....
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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echoDreamz Replied
Well damn Tim - You guys go on with your bad selfs! My apologies :). Was getting a bit worried as I have clients begging for the update every 20 - 30 minutes for the EWS fix.
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Derek Curtis Replied
Employee Post
New build is live: 16.0.6348
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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echoDreamz Replied
<3
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Shaun Peet Replied
Hi Guys,
 
The installer for the initial release, and for tonight's release, both seem to have an IIS Restart command in the install script somewhere?  We have a staging version of SM16 running on a web server which has a ton of other stuff running on it, and after the first install a couple days ago, and again tonight, installing SM16 kills all running application pools (not just the one we setup for SM16) and our server takes quite a few minutes to come back alive when every application pool restarts at the same time.  Is there a particular reason why IIS has to restart instead of just the application pool designated for SM16?
 
Shaun
 
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Gideon Bakx Replied
Trying to install SmarterMail 16  (this might not be a problem with 16 and potentially impact previous versions) on a Windows 2016 Server Core box. Clean install that has also Plesk installed on it. Plesk runs fine, but the purpose of this install was to see if SmarterMail 16 is compatible with Plesk Onyx  17.5.3 ..   But can't test.  Why is there a .Net 1.1 requirement in your installer?
 
Screen at: hxxp://imgur.com/a/zhb0t     (no permission to use hyperlinks in post. Replace x with t)
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
We include .NET 4.5 and we IIS Reset to avoid files being locked by IIS.
 
IIS is notorious to holding onto files and just stopping an application pool has a 10% or higher failure rate with releasing all locked files which result in an upgrade being in a mangled state.  Even an IIS Reset can sometimes leave a locked file but its rare.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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echoDreamz Replied
I will agree with this. This is not an issue to us since our IIS on SmarterMail runs only the SM interface. However, we have seem IIS lock files even after stopping the site, stopping the application pool. The process is not running, but IIS has locked X file.
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Shaun Peet Replied
I guess it's just a little strange since none of the BETAs seemed to do that and they all worked fine. I know that every environment is different, but in our case doing an IIS reset (depending on the time of day) on the SM testing environment brings down several other critical applications for several minute or longer. Our production SM environment has fewer other applications on it, but there are still some. Is there any chance the full IIS reset can be a checkbox in the installation process (default to ON and even a note recommending that it stay on). Installing / updating one piece of software on a server shouldn't affect other software, and if it does, it should be pretty clear about what it's doing during the install that might affect other applications.
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Employee Replied
Employee Post
Shaun, I will bring this up with the dev team. I don't foresee if being an issue to add that checkbox during the installation process.
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Shaun Peet Replied
Thanks Robert - much appreciated!
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Employee Replied
Employee Post
Gideon,

I just spun up a test Server 2016 core box and was able to run through the installer without any issues.

It looks like you're installing an early build of SmarterMail from 2004 in the screenshot provided. The SmarterMail 16 installer should have a timestamp of 5/10/2017 and a file length of 6,135,496 when performing a DIR command.

Could you retry this with the installer from here: https://smartertools.com/downloads/smartermail16_Setup.exe ?

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Colin Anthony Replied
I think I have found abug on the General settings page of v16.0.6348
 
The save (Commit button) is greyed out and remains so even if I make any changes. Effectively I am stuck with the settings from v15. Can someone confirm this is on the list?
 
I hope this helps
 
Regards
 
Colin
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Employee Replied
Employee Post
Colin, I am not seeing that behavior. What browser are you using?
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Employee Replied
Employee Post
Also do you have any errors in the browser console when you do make changes?
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Colin Anthony Replied
Hi Robert, This happens on EDGE, Firefox and Chrome (Latest versions)
No errors... I can confirm as an example that I can change SPAM override settings on the /interface/root#/sysadmin/settings/spam-filtering page and it saves correctly and then I can set it back?
Colin
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Gideon Bakx Replied
Ah, Thanks.. I was downloading it using bitstransfer and must have typed hxxps://www.smartertools.com/downloads/SmarterMail_Setup.exe instead of hxxps://www.smartertools.com/downloads/SmarterMail16_Setup.exe .... Seems to run, thanks!

ps: for anyone wondering if the current Plesk version supports it. No, it does not. Hope that comes soon.
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Derek Curtis Replied
Employee Post
Gideon - I've reached out to my contacts at Plesk to work on getting the issues resolved.
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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Severino Santos Replied
Hello,
Can anyone tell me if it's working with plesk?
Att, Severino Santos
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Derek Curtis Replied
Employee Post
As of now, SmarterMail 16.x and Plesk Onyx 17.x are not compatible. We're in contact with Plesk and working with them on getting the integration up and running. It's odd that things aren't working as the legacy API calls DO still work. Regardless, once there's an update, we'll be sure everyone knows.
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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Severino Santos Replied
I believe this solution should have solved since the beta.
Before even releasing the final version to the public.

Do not you think?
Att, Severino Santos
2
Ray Cook Replied
Server blacklist still spinning for me. I can add to it from the spool interface but I can't list it. Probably not the most important bug but certainly one that should have been spotted by Beta testers?
 
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Colin Anthony Replied
Hi All. Smartertools resolved this issue for me.
The issue was that v15.5 let me add the "postmaster" account as "postmaster". V16 needs the domain name afterwards "postmaster@yourdomain.com". Sounds simple but difficult to track down. Anyway it may help someone.
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Mostafa Arabameri Replied
SM16 have problem with Plesk also [cannot edit emails from plesk]
 

Internal error:

mailmng failed: SOAP ERROR: GetDomainInfo() failed: Error code 0x803d0010. Error message: There was an error communicating with the endpoint at 'http://127.0.0.1:9998/Services/svcDomainAdmin.asmx'. A connection with the server could not be established at (WebService::Error::checkResult line 106) at getRealDomainName(mikapartners.co, false)(SmarterMail::Local::Provider::getRealDomainName line 1327) at getMailName(user, domain.co)(SmarterMail::Local::Provider::getMailName line 221) at execute console command --list-attachments(vconsoleapp::start line 122) at execute D:\Plesk\admin\bin\mailmng --list-attachments "--domain-name=domain.co" "--mailname=user"(vconsoleapp::run line 139) (Error code 1)

Message mailmng failed: SOAP ERROR: GetDomainInfo() failed: Error code 0x803d0010. Error message: There was an error communicating with the endpoint at 'http://127.0.0.1:9998/Services/svcDomainAdmin.asmx'. A connection with the server could not be established at (WebService::Error::checkResult line 106) at getRealDomainName(domain.co, false)(SmarterMail::Local::Provider::getRealDomainName line 1327) at getMailName(user, domain.co)(SmarterMail::Local::Provider::getMailName line 221) at execute console command --list-attachments(vconsoleapp::start line 122) at execute D:\Plesk\admin\bin\mailmng --list-attachments "--domain-name=domain.co" "--mailname=user"(vconsoleapp::run line 139) (Error code 1)
File Agent.php
Line 219
Type PleskUtilException
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Ray Cook Replied
this now seems ok
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Shaun Peet Replied
Any chance this can get rolled into the next update's installer?
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Mr Unique Replied
Our users are reporting the following issues:
 
Message lists do not auto-refresh when new mail arrives.
Attachment filenames are being dropped and replaced by generic names.
UI performance is generally horrible.
 
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
Be sure you are on the latest release which was on Friday. After a major version of this magnitude we are making sure to do weekly releases to ensure were reacting quickly to customers concerns. There was a significant fix in this latest release for cached javascript files which dramatically reduces load times logging in and popups. There is still a concern with Firefox and were looking into it. Firefox is much slower than all other browsers at the moment. Attachment Filenames was an issue previously but was resolved in one of the minor releases. I don't think we are aware of any auto-refresh issue. If that continues, you might have a SignalR issue which might be a configuration problem in IIS.

Hope this helps..
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
No. Modifying the installer is no easy task. Also, Robert may have been a little premature with that response because locked files are the single biggest issue with the installer because IIS does such a poor job releases them. This requires a lot of thought and discussion on our end because the number of install problems will dramatically increase if IIS is not shutdown which will ultimately result in more downtime for people such as yourself.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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Ray Cook Replied
actually it's not - still churns
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Mr Unique Replied
We are using 16.0.6369 from last Friday. There is no auto-refresh at all, and our users are all screaming. We use FireFox on all corp machines.
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Mr Unique Replied
Just tested in Chrome as well - there's no auto refresh in it either.

Just to confirm the complaint: what I'm talking about is, when a new email is received, the web UI does not update at all - the only way to see new email is to click to another folder then back to the inbox.
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
That would explain why you are seeing some slowness. Firefox is the one that is giving us some trouble and were not sure why.

All parts of SmarterMail are automatic. If an email comes in it puts it in the list automatically. Same with calendar appointments, contacts, and many other areas of the system. That is what I was referring to with SignalR. So, there could be an IIS configuration issue preventing SignalR from running properly. I would suggest you contact support.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
That is why I am saying you need to contact support. All of SmarterMail runs off SignalR which sends all updates from server to the web interface. This isn't just for mail... its everything! There is something in IIS or even Firewall preventing SignalR from working.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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Shaun Peet Replied
@Tim I can appreciate your concern for OUR server. I have no issue with the installer bouncing the AppPool being used by SmarterMail but a full IIS Restart creates other issues for us. I fully accept the risks of not bouncing IIS to update to the latest version of SmarterMail. This wasn't an issue with the bi-monthly updates from the past, but since things are coming out weekly (and given the frequency of reports in the community it looks like this is going to keep going for a while) I believe that simply having an option in the installer to only bounce the AppPool rather than all of IIS - with the sternest of warnings provided - seems like a rational compromise.

BTW - I couldn't pick you out of a crowd of 2 and certainly don't know how you interact with people in the real world. But pretty much every time you interact with your, ahem, customers on this forum you come off sounding like a better-than-thou, know-it-all jerk. Every one of your employees are much more respectful and cordial in how they interact with people on here. Ever since v16 has come out I've spent countless hours participating in your community and in support tickets because we have a mutual interest in SM16 being the best product it can be. The level of mutual respect has room for improvement here.
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echoDreamz Replied
I myself do not see a big issue with this. The fact that you have other sites running on your SmarterMail system does not seem like a SmarterTools issue. We have seen the issues ourselves with IIS locking files (even with only cycling the SmarterMail application pool).

We too also do staging to make sure the update's API still works properly with our control panel, we however, have a small dedicated virtual machine for this rather than putting a "testing" or "staging" system on a production web server.
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Shaun Peet Replied
@Christopher - That's a fair point, however, I think you'll agree that each hosting environment is different. All I'm advocating for is a choice because I would assume that you - as the administrator of your environment - know more about your environment than I do (and more than anyone else, for that matter). And vice versa. So for a variety of reasons our production mail server environment has other applications on it which we deem to be (as shocking as it may sound) more important in terms of uptime than the mail server. Since I no longer have the choice to update the mail server without bringing down the rest of the server - and in our case it's 5-10 minutes or more to get everything back online - I now have to schedule updates to the mail server in the 25th hour of a 24 hour day of which I'm already working 16.

If a full IIS Reset only exists to address rare issues, then it would be appreciated to have that option to not do it.

Robert did say it wouldn't be a big deal... :)
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
Shaun... You made the comment that you know your environment the best. We know our product the best and how IIS is unforgiving with locked files and the shit storm you will have when a file is locked and you end up with a bad install.

Somehow you consider that bad social skills and feel justified to insult me.

Not sure what more I can say. Been trying to help you and share our knowledge and experience.

Bottom line, I'm not going to introduce something in the installer to satisfy a customer when it will screw them and other customers.

Again... Robert was a little premature with his response and that it will require a lot of thought to overcome the obstacles and limitations of IIS.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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Shaun Peet Replied
@Tim - If your comment above is taken in isolation then you're right, there'd be no need to make any comment about your writing style and how it reflects your tone / attitude. But there is a pattern of several interactions with me and others where you make a religious argument rather than a technical one and/or fail to make any attempt to understand the other side's concerns (or at least acknowledge them). Instead, you immediately dismiss their concerns as either wrong or not important. It's easy to go back through this community and read your comments, and over half of them have that same better-than-thou tone which really rubs people the wrong way and I've not been the only person to comment about it. You can take that as an insult or you can take it for what it really is - a concerned long-time customer trying to help.

You've also made at least two posts in the past couple weeks that have crude or foul language in them. That might be an attempt at levity but there's definitely other ways to do that which aren't so inappropriate in a public setting and don't reflect poorly on you or your company.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone make a comment towards any of your other employees attitude / tone. All those interactions never seem to get personal and stay focused on the product / problem / solution. There's something to learn from that.
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Shaun Peet Replied
Compare this:

No. Modifying the installer is no easy task. Also, Robert may have been a little premature with that response because locked files are the single biggest issue with the installer because IIS does such a poor job releases them. This requires a lot of thought and discussion on our end because the number of install problems will dramatically increase if IIS is not shutdown which will ultimately result in more downtime for people such as yourself.

To this:

@Shaun - Thanks for the suggestion, however, after several internal discussions we have decided to defer this request until a later date so we can focus development on other reported bugs and requested features. The main concern that we have is the potential, however rare, for a corrupted installation which could create bugs related to the installer / IIS rather than the product itself, and at this time we're really trying to zero-in on making sure that the code we can control works flawlessly in as close to a controlled environment as possible. Perhaps we can investigate adding a warning message within the installer about the full IIS Reset just as a reminder to the person doing the installation that other applications running in IIS on that server will be affected. No guarantees on that though because, again, we're focusing development in other areas at this time. We also recommend limiting the number of other applications running on the mail server if at all possible, but recognize that for some this may not be the case. For those environments with other critical applications, unfortunately at this time all we can suggest is to schedule updates in non-peak hours.

-------------------------------

Both of those basically say the same thing, but the "no" part is a little gentler and empathetic, and it also doesn't throw Robert under the bus. To the general public reading something like that - if I complain and say it's not reasonable then it would be me that comes off sounding like a whiner. That type of response shows that you've heard the complaint, understand and appreciate the concerns, rebut them with rational arguments that benefit the greater good, and offer workarounds with an empathetic tone.
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
I'm answering your technical questions and concerns and you continue to attempt to shape and critique my personality and writing under the cloak of better customer service.

I'm not the normal CEO. I have the normal CEO duties but I also participate in the products (trenches) as well as our community. When I participate in the community it is on the most difficult of topics. Sometimes I'm required to support my employees when they are right and sometimes I need to correct my employees.

In regards to customers, I attempt to share the technical reasons why a feature or suggestion might not be good for our products or for the customer. I also attempt to share why we made a certain decision.

As you can see, every single post or comment I respond to will make someone unhappy because I'm the one that needs to make the final decisison.

So, we do the best we can within our 60 hour work weeks. I would hope that you would see that the participation and efforts that SmarterTools takes in the community means we not only listen but attempt to make the best possible decisions for our products and customers.

What I won't tolerate is the insults... I'm just responding to your technical questions and concerns.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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Shaun Peet Replied
I fantasize that someday I can get back down to a 60 hour average work week.
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Derek Curtis Replied
Employee Post
Hi, Mostafa...what version of Plesk are you using?
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com