Q: Group emails not forwarded to members

@dpritchardASC Thanks for pointing me to those logs. I see further clues here:

Nov  9 07:14:06 server.genealabs.com list_server_agent[46126] <Error>: no recipients for: help

Nov  9 07:14:06 server.genealabs.com list_server_agent[46126] <Error>: no recipients for message-id=1415421693.452392.E3970C719B9C5891.msg, will retry in: 300.000000 seconds

This tells me the List Server is running and keeps trying, but is not seeing the group members as recipients. This would indicate a configuration disconnect to what list serve expects to see, and how the configuration files are written. Any thoughts on how one might continue debugging that aspect?

Also, what would be the best way to get all the backed up message copied over to a users inbox until this is sorted out?

What did you achieve with that workaround? Are you able to get the messages delivered that way?

I was wondering if this wasn't an old bug from Server 3 rearing its ugly head again, or somehow related to it (sorry, I can't find the post anymore where that was discussed).

I'm working with Apple Enterprise support to see what is causing this. Will post a possible (the one that worked in my case) solution, when we get this resolved.

I am having the same error. An enterprise engineer was working with me over the phone on Sunday for almost 3 hours. I then sent them a complete data dump of my system (log files, and whatever else they collected) to be further analyzed. I am currently waiting to hear back from them, hopefully with good news.

I haven't heard back from them, despite calling them back. I did speak with another tech a week or so ago, but he wasn't able to figure anything out either. Turns out the Enterprise Support team only helps troubleshoot the GUI, and they aren't allowed to do anything intrusive on the command line (apparently). However, I have been able to figure out that the mail queue is being help up by corrupt emails. I'm not sure what triggers this, but certain emails cause listserver to crash and restart. Those emails never get processed, and thus cause an endless loop of listserver restarting and pausing for 30 seconds until next restart, instead of processing. To get around this, I remove the oldest emails one by one until the queue is unclogged again.

These are the steps I take:

1. Open terminal, and cd into the listserver directory where the inbound list queues are:
   cd /Library/Server/Mail/Data/listserver/messages/inbound/
2. Show a listing of the folders in the directory (the GUIDS for each group):
   ls -la
3. Check the first number in front of the username of the folder in the output for the number of items contained within that directory. If the number is greater than 3, there are items stuck. Go into that directory now (you can type "cd " then the first 3 characters, then TAB to autocomplete), for example:
   cd 1FDBZ1DB-9AAD-4A45-BCC7-92D87C5A1D19
4. Let's enter super user mode:
   sudo su
5. Now list out all the messages, the first one will be the oldest:
   ls -la
6. Let's create a new folder on the Desktop to temporarily store these "bad" messages:
   mkdir /Users/serveradmin/Desktop/badmails
7. Then lets move the first email to that folder, for example:
   mv 1416492706.772710.C6A2EEF49ED40002.msg /Users/serveradmin/Desktop/badmails/
8. Now lets restart listserver and see if it flushes out the queue:
   killall list_server_mgr
9. Emails should now start flooding your inbox. If this is not the case, repeat steps 5 through 8 until successful.
10. Exit super user mode by typing:
    exit
11. And close the terminal window.

Until they fix it, it appears we may be forced to check our group emails every so often to perform this tedious task. Let me know how it works for you.

~Mike

I have put together a little script that will automatically keep the queues cleared:

on idle
  set currentTime to current date
  -- execute once per day after midnight no matter what
  if the time of currentTime is greater than 0 and the time of currentTime is less than 3600 then
  do shell script "shopt -s nullglob
mkdir /Users/<admin username here>/Desktop/badmails
cd /Library/Server/Mail/Data/listserver/messages/inbound/
for dir in *
do
  cd $dir
  for file in *
  do
  echo \"mv $file /Users/<admin username here>/Desktop/badmails/\"
  break
  done
  cd ..
done
killall list_server_mgr" password "<admin password here>" with administrator priveleges
  end if
  -- execute once an hour if more than 5 messages are piling up in a given queue
  do shell script "shopt -s nullglob
mkdir /Users/<admin username here>/Desktop/badmails
cd /Library/Server/Mail/Data/listserver/messages/inbound/
for dir in *
do
  if [$(ls | ec -l) -gt 5]; then
  cd $dir
  for file in *
  do
  echo \"mv $file /Users/<admin username here>/Desktop/badmails/\"
  break
  done
  cd ..
  fi
done
killall list_server_mgr" password "<admin password here>" with administrator privileges
  -- run again in an hour
  return 3600
end idle

To implement this script:

1. Open Script Editor.
2. Copy/paste the script above.
3. Replace <admin username here> with your server admin username (keep it in quotes, but not in brackets).
4. Replace <admin password here> with you server admin password (keep it in quotes, but not in brackets).
5. Save as "Application" file format, and check "Stay open after run handler" to your Desktop (or preferred location).
6. Double-click to the icon on the Desktop (or where you saved it to) to run it, it will run continuously, and check the queues once an hour.

Bad emails will be saved to your desktop in a folder called "badmails". I opted to place the script and the folder on the desktop, as it is hopefully temporary only.

Please let me know how it goes for you.