Rex Dieter wrote: >>> But I have worked out that the cause of the problem >>> is that there exists a kind of ghost folder, "uidvalidity", >>> which is listed among the folders on the kmail page >>> but does not in fact seem to exist in my maildir on the server. >>> >>> Deleting the folder under kmail has no permanent effect; >>> it simply re-appears when I re-start kmail. >>> >>> I assume the folder is listed in some way in the dovecot.index ; >>> and my question really is: if I delete this index file >>> will it be re-created automatically? >>> >>> This bug/feature seems to have been present for years, >>> which I suppose is par for KDE. > > Years? Bugs filed? If so, where? At random, here is one from 2006: <http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=364953> When I google for "Error while getting folder information" I get reports going back for several years, without, as far as I can see, any clear resolution or even explanation. > Could very well simply be a bug in dovecot and/or incompatibility between > dovecot/kmail. Well, it seems to occur equally often under courier-imap . I have solved the problem in my case, without understanding it. KMail appears to show a folder, College=>inbox=>uidvalidity But I don't find any such folder anywhere in ~/Maildir/ . I've no idea if this phantom folder should be present, and if so what it means. This folder had the setting, "Include this folder in mail checks". After unchecking this box (which I did not check in the first place) the problem goes away - I no longer get an error/warning when I Check Mail in KMail. -- Timothy Murphy e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366 s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College Dublin