Claws Mail SMTP issue; cannot send

Question

I am abandoning Thunderbird after it has slowly become a terrible, terrible piece of software for me. I have gotten everything set up with Claws, except sending. There are no official forums for this program, so I've been left to explore other options... here.

Below is the log message I get when trying to send a message in Claws mail. I cannot see anything wrong off the top of my head, except that I have no idea what a NOOP is. I have replaced the server information for the sake of privacy.

* Account '[email protected]': Connecting to IMAP4 server: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:143...
[16:23:27] IMAP4< * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 SASL-IR SORT THREAD=REFERENCES MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT LITERAL+ IDLE CHILDREN NAMESPACE LOGIN-REFERRALS UIDPLUS LIST-EXTENDED I18NLEVEL=1 STARTTLS LOGINDISABLED] Dovecot ready. 
* IMAP connection is un-authenticated
[16:23:27] IMAP4> 1 CAPABILITY 
[16:23:27] IMAP4< * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 SASL-IR SORT THREAD=REFERENCES MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT LITERAL+ IDLE CHILDREN NAMESPACE LOGIN-REFERRALS UIDPLUS LIST-EXTENDED I18NLEVEL=1 STARTTLS LOGINDISABLED 
[16:23:27] IMAP4< 1 OK Capability completed. 
** Server requires TLS to log in.
[16:23:27] IMAP4> 2 STARTTLS 
[16:23:27] IMAP4< 2 OK Begin TLS negotiation now. 
[16:23:27] IMAP4> 3 CAPABILITY 
[16:23:27] IMAP4< * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 SASL-IR SORT THREAD=REFERENCES MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT LITERAL+ IDLE CHILDREN NAMESPACE LOGIN-REFERRALS UIDPLUS LIST-EXTENDED I18NLEVEL=1 AUTH=PLAIN 
[16:23:27] IMAP4< 3 OK Capability completed. 
[16:23:27] IMAP4> Logging XXX to XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX using LOGIN
[16:23:27] IMAP4< Logged in.
[16:23:27] IMAP4< Login to XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX successful
[16:23:27] IMAP4> 5 LIST "" "" 
[16:23:27] IMAP4< * LIST (\Noselect) "/" "" 
[16:23:27] IMAP4< 5 OK List completed. 
[16:23:27] IMAP4> 6 SELECT Queue 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft) 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft \*)] Flags permitted. 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< * 0 EXISTS 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< * 0 RECENT 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< * OK [UIDVALIDITY 1290097352] UIDs valid 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< * OK [UIDNEXT 9] Predicted next UID 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< 6 OK [READ-WRITE] Select completed. 
[16:23:28] IMAP4- [fetching UIDs...]
[16:23:28] IMAP4> 7 UID FETCH 1:* (UID) 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< 7 OK Fetch completed. 
[16:23:28] IMAP4> 8 APPEND Queue (\Seen) {690} 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< + OK 
[16:23:28] IMAP4> [data - 692 bytes]
[16:23:28] IMAP4< [APPEND data - 73 bytes]
[16:23:28] IMAP4> 9 NOOP 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< 9 OK NOOP completed. 
[16:23:28] IMAP4> 10 UID STORE 9 +FLAGS.SILENT (\Seen) 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< 10 OK Store completed. 
* Account '[email protected]': Connecting to SMTP server: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:25...
[16:23:28] IMAP4> 11 UID STORE 9 +FLAGS.SILENT (\Deleted) 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< 11 OK Store completed. 
[16:23:28] IMAP4> 12 EXPUNGE 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< * 1 EXPUNGE 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< * 0 RECENT 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< 12 OK Expunge completed. 
[16:23:28] IMAP4- [fetching UIDs...]
[16:23:28] IMAP4> 13 UID FETCH 1:* (UID) 
[16:23:28] IMAP4< 13 OK Fetch completed. 
[16:24:27] IMAP4> 14 NOOP 
[16:24:28] IMAP4< 14 OK NOOP completed.

Solution

This is only a response to one part of your question - as has been said in comments, the log you've shown is only for IMAP, and you need to look for the SMTP logs in order for anybody to help you with sending.

The question that I can answer, however, is what the NOOP command does. It literally does nothing; it is sort for "no operation", and its only purpose is to keep the IMAP connection open. If you don't send any data through a TCP connection, it will be shut down by either the server or the client computer after a specific time, since one of them will consider it non-active. Sending NOOP and getting a reply to it will keep that from happening.

Comments

[Gryphius]

maybe not a claws issue...are you sure you had port 25 for the outgoing server in thunderbird? many providers block this port outgoing nowadays and force you to use 587 instead. verify with telnet maybe?

[Joshua]

I did have port 25 in thunderbird, I have the settings open in front of me. I will try port 587, however.

[Gryphius]

also make sure "smtp authentication" is enabled in the send options of your account. and if neither makes a difference it would be helpful to know what error message you actually get when sending. your log only shows the "connecting " part of the smtp transaction, all the rest is IMAP and not related to sending.

[Joshua]

The error is "an error happened during SMTP session." and something about trying to resend from the main menu using "send queued messages" (this option is not available) And that log is the entire available log. I included the whole thing.

[Gryphius]

without a real error message we (or at least I) can only guess. one thing that comes to mind is verifying the SSL settings (STARTTLS / SSL) for the outgoing account. also make sure no firewall/local antivirus interferes with your connection. if that doesn't help it would be helpful if you can get the error message from the server side if you are/know the admin there.

[Joshua]

I'll see if there are any logs available to me aside from what I've already provided.

[DerfK]

The log you have pasted here is an IMAP log, which is only for reading mail. The SMTP log for sending mail (if there is one) must be somewhere else.

[Eric]

That is, if you still need this 5 years later.