For years I’ve been using pop3 to collect my gmails, without problem. However, since yesterday it is failing. I use getmail and have made no changes since originally getting it working. When I use getmail -vvv I get the following error:

Retrieval error: server for SimplePOP3SSLRetriever:recent:«myaddress>@gmail.com@pop.gmail.com:995 is broken; offered message GmailId1718e4039279f0fe but failed to provide it. Please notify the administrator of the server. Skipping message…

I don’t see any notification of recent changes, but my mail client is devoid of gmail functionality now.

Answer

Mostly fixed by meticulous work; it appears that specific files were breaking the pipe, whether on my client’s (getMail) side or gmails I’m not sure. Here is what I did:

1. Execute my getmail script with verbose -vvv and note the message id when I first receive an error:

   Retrieval error: server for SimplePOP3SSLRetriever:recent:@gmail.com@pop.gmail.com:995 is broken; offered message GmailId1716fef0cfd11486 but failed to provide it. Please notify the administrator of the server. Skipping message…

2. Stick that message id into my oldmail file, causing it to be skipped when getMail is downloading it (I just made up the timestamp after the ^@ symbol (difficulty getting it to display here; looks like a CARROT and AT symbol in my editor) by switching one of the middle digits):

   GmailId1716fef0cfd114861589308874

   The oldmail file was in my getmail directory at /home/<MYUSER>/getmail/oldmail-pop.gmail.com-995-recent-<ME>@gmail.com.

3. Re-run my getmail file like this: getmail -vvvvv -r<MEFILE>@gmail.com

Each time I did this it would download a few hundred more of my back-logged messages before showing me another “broken” error that started with another message id. After three iterations I had all my messages and was up-to-date.

EDIT: Speaking with the good folks at the getmail mailing list, it seems the error was with gmail itself deciding to “offer but fail to provide”. I’m not sure what led their server to do this, but getmail is functioning properly (and was flexible enough for me to get this workaround).

Resources & Followup

https://www.reddit.com/r/GMail/comments/g3t8oj/gmail_pop3_broken_since_yesterday_message_offered/