Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Issue with (and fix for) broken IMAP on Exchange 2013

Recently I ran into an issue configuring some new Exchange 2013 servers for IMAP4. I'll share my configuration, troubleshooting steps and the solution here in this article.

Enabled and started the IMAP4 and IMAP4BE services and created a virtual service on the load balancer listening on port 993. I've done this many times before and was quite surprised that the initial testing with Outlook in IMAP4 mode failed. From a testing perspective I prefer Outlook because it allows not only connecting, but also authentication and actually accessing a mailbox through IMAP4.

I proceeded with a telnet to the load balancer VIP on port 993 and got nothing more than a black screen. Not exactly sure what to expect on port 993 because the encryption I tested port 143 directly against the server, bypassing the load balancer. Here I expected the IMAP banner but saw again just an empty window.

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Blank screen, hitting any key resulted in the PowerShell prompt gain. Telnet on the local server to localhost instead of the server name:

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So a telnet to localhost results in the IMAP banner, all other options fail. Time to look under the hood and consult Managed Availability. Get-HealthReport reported the Health Set IMAP.Proxy in an offline state:

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Setting the state back to active did the trick:

Set-ServerComponentState -Identity ex01 -Component ImapProxy -State Active -Requester HealthAPI

With all components in an active state I was able to connect with IMAP with both telnet and Outlook.

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I have seen this issue on multiple servers now, happened to be all running CU7. On the other hand, some other servers did not have this issue. If you run into issues trying to get IMAP4 working on Exchange 2013, maybe the information above helps you to find the cause.

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54 comments:

  1. PatrickMarch 20, 2015 at 10:51 PM

    Hi !

    You saved my life with your tip !
    Was becoming insane lol.

    Thx a lot !!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 27, 2015 at 10:33 PM

    You are the man. Had the same exact problem on CU7. Your commmand fixed it. Thank you thank you thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Atomic ShrimpApril 21, 2015 at 2:30 PM

    Brilliant fix. Saved my skin. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lars KMay 5, 2015 at 10:01 AM

    Thanks for this fix! After a crashed Exchange 2013, I had this problem. It was also running CU7, and and upgrade to CU8 did not fix it. But your fix solved it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMay 11, 2015 at 12:32 PM

    Encountered this issue today on CU5 after performing a reboot of the server over the weekend, this was very helpful, thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jetze MellemaMay 11, 2015 at 4:16 PM

    You're welcome, Anonymous. Now proceed and update your server to a more recent CU. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousMay 22, 2015 at 6:20 PM

    Thank you! I'm on CU7 and your command fixed it. My DC was offline this morning which I think caused this, but I had never encountered this before. Your fix worked like a charm.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousAugust 6, 2015 at 4:14 PM

    Also needed in Exchange 2016 Preview...

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2015 at 12:35 PM

    Thank you so much! I had this issue on Exchange 2013 sp1 cu9, after an imap4 service stop.
    You saved my day.

    ReplyDelete
  10. JSFSeptember 10, 2015 at 3:24 PM

    Jetze, bedankt, ook voor ons was dit de oplossing om IMAP4 werkend te krijgen. groet uit Friesland

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousOctober 15, 2015 at 3:41 PM

    You have solved my issue after two days of suffering.
    Thanks a lot............

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousOctober 19, 2015 at 3:28 PM

    Same issue Exchange 2013 sp1 cu9

    Thumbs up!

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousOctober 26, 2015 at 2:03 PM

    Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousOctober 27, 2015 at 3:01 PM

    Thanks you very much!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousNovember 4, 2015 at 10:35 AM

    Jetze, thank you so much, a very helpful hint!

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousNovember 5, 2015 at 1:11 PM

    Thanks man !! after 3 hours of searching I found this article.
    Immediately worked.

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousNovember 8, 2015 at 3:21 PM

    Hi,

    We are facing issue with exchange 2013CU10 and SP1 with IMAP.

    We are trying to configure the IMAP outlook profile but it was not configured.

    Please help

    ReplyDelete
  18. Jetze MellemaNovember 9, 2015 at 9:49 AM

    Not sure what you're asking. Please follow the steps in the article to validate if the server side is setup correctly and is working as expected. Then configuring the client should be a piece of cake.

    ReplyDelete
  19. AnonymousNovember 16, 2015 at 5:42 PM

    WOOT! This really saved my bacon. I couldn't figure out why an imap request would sometimes work and sometimes fail.

    ReplyDelete
  20. UnknownNovember 18, 2015 at 5:08 PM

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  21. UnknownNovember 18, 2015 at 5:09 PM

    Thanks! Cool solution. It's work!

    ReplyDelete
  22. UnknownNovember 18, 2015 at 5:11 PM

    for Anonimous (Nov 8, 2015 at 3:21 PM) http://blogs.technet.com/b/mspfe/archive/2015/08/24/exchange-server-2013-cu9-watch-your-imap-clients.aspx

    ReplyDelete
  23. AnonymousNovember 20, 2015 at 2:50 PM

    Thanks !

    this help me to solve Imap service at my organization

    ReplyDelete
  24. UnknownDecember 2, 2015 at 6:41 PM

    After too days off fighting :
    I restart the services throw services.msc many times ==> KO

    TNX

    ReplyDelete
  25. BertrandJanuary 14, 2016 at 10:27 AM

    Thank you! I had this problem on one server, but IMAP services were OK.
    That's fixed :)

    ReplyDelete
  26. MyshaakJanuary 27, 2016 at 11:05 AM

    ¨Thank you, you saved my company :)

    ReplyDelete
  27. AnonymousFebruary 5, 2016 at 5:39 PM

    Thank you. Just for your information, Telnet 127.0.0.1 143 works fine, but not the Telnet on the server IP Address. Same problem with CU11 (problem only occurs on one node of my 2 node cluster).

    ReplyDelete
  28. UnknownMarch 1, 2016 at 1:22 PM

    This saved me pulling my hair out, thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  29. AnonymousMarch 11, 2016 at 9:45 AM

    saved my day, thx!

    ReplyDelete
  30. dcMarch 23, 2016 at 2:09 AM

    Huge save from your blog. CU11 cause the proxy to go offline. This was the fix. Thanks!!!

    ReplyDelete
  31. AnonymousMarch 28, 2016 at 10:42 AM

    YESSSSS, also worked for me. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  32. AnonymousMay 3, 2016 at 6:49 PM

    cu12 did the same, this fixed it! thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  33. AnonymousOctober 1, 2016 at 1:08 AM

    Same issue with CU13. This fixed it.

    ReplyDelete
  34. guitman423October 6, 2016 at 4:51 PM

    Confirmed also after CU13, this fixed it.

    Is this a fix that will last after a reboot?

    ReplyDelete
  35. UnknownOctober 10, 2016 at 9:59 PM

    This saved my skin just like the rest- thank you. I did have to run the command twice and restart the IMAP service, but it worked!

    ReplyDelete
  36. ArjanNovember 11, 2016 at 3:40 PM

    Lifesaver. Dankjewel vanuit Assen.

    ReplyDelete
  37. AnonymousNovember 12, 2016 at 1:41 PM

    Same on Exchange 2016. Thank you, that saved a lot of time!! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  38. HeikoNovember 22, 2016 at 2:44 PM

    Same issue with CU13 stand-alone. It occured out of the blue after a reboot.
    This fixed it, thank you very much!!!

    ReplyDelete
  39. AnonymousDecember 9, 2016 at 7:38 PM

    Very Very Good Post, amazing!! It solved my problem.
    Thanks a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  40. Ray CockshellDecember 19, 2016 at 1:45 AM

    Many thanks for this lifesaver.
    Happened to me after applying Windows Updates and rebooting.
    Was at CU11 at the time, updating to CU15 did not fix it.
    Nothing in any logs, even with Diagnostic Logging turned up.
    Just a reminder to turn off all logging now we know where to look.

    ReplyDelete
  41. AnonymousFebruary 10, 2017 at 3:10 PM

    Thanks for the Fix!

    ReplyDelete
  42. AnonymousMarch 10, 2017 at 9:26 PM

    Not sure what causes this, but it seems to happen when the server does not have a graceful shutdown. We just had a 2 power outages where the UPS ran out of juice. Did not get to server in time to have a graceful shutdown, and had this issue (and fix).

    Graceful shutdowns do not seem to result in this issue for me.

    ReplyDelete
  43. AnonymousApril 12, 2017 at 10:25 AM

    thanks Jetze,

    After a restart of the IMAP4 service we encountered the same issue (even on CU15!). Your description of the issue & how to resolve it saved me a lot of headache! regards from Scheveningen!

    Paul W

    ReplyDelete
  44. AnonymousApril 18, 2017 at 7:12 AM

    Thanks Jetze,

    Just ran into the same problem and have been beating my head against the wall for 3 hours. Resolution worked a treat.

    Cheers,

    CM

    ReplyDelete
  45. AnonymousApril 25, 2017 at 1:27 AM

    Also ran into this issue and your resolution helped us out as we are not Exchange SMEs - thank YOU!

    ReplyDelete
  46. AnonymousMay 10, 2017 at 11:14 AM

    Damn, had the same problem, thanks a ton for this!

    Thanks,
    Dominik

    ReplyDelete
  47. AnonymousMay 12, 2017 at 2:25 PM

    when I telnet localhost, i'm getting response as expected but when I telnet the fqdn internet, no response and blank screen.

    I made ImapProxy with above command, restated the imap service and all is working fine

    ReplyDelete
  48. AnonymousOctober 18, 2017 at 10:59 PM

    YOU SAVED MY LIFE BRO !!!!!
    Thanks a lot

    ReplyDelete
  49. AnonymousNovember 29, 2017 at 8:06 AM

    Many thanks man! Initially my health checks were failing so I restarted IMAP and make sure health checks are fine but IMAP was still not working. Rebooted the server, thought some other service is still stuck but it didn't fix the issue. Everything started to work after I enabled the services!

    ReplyDelete
  50. KennyDecember 11, 2017 at 1:20 PM

    i LOVE you

    ReplyDelete
  51. AnonymousMarch 25, 2019 at 5:02 PM

    This was just what I needed.
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  52. AnonymousJune 6, 2019 at 1:42 PM

    +1 for this. !!! nice job man!

    ReplyDelete
  53. AnonymousJune 7, 2019 at 1:33 AM

    Thank you! Upgraded Exchange 2013 Build 1395.4 DAG and this fixed my issue. I was seeing this problem via a Kemp LoadBalancer.

    ReplyDelete
  54. UnknownAugust 2, 2019 at 2:06 PM

    Thanks man! You did help for a lot of people!

    ReplyDelete