duplicate imap uid validities with mbsync

Question

I am using mbsync to get imap mail from my university server and then dovecot locally to serve it to gnus/emacs. This works fine on one desktop machine, and one laptop, but a second laptop creates duplicate UIDs everytime I use it to access my mail. As I have the exact same set-up (to the best of my knowledge) on all three machines I am a bit baffled as to the source of this error. Does this ring any bells for anyone? Is there some sort of hidden or temp file that might be the source of such a problem that I could look for? Any guidance is appreciated.

• mbsync version = 1.2.0
• emacs = 24.5.50.1
• dovecot 2.2.18
• gnus 5.13

P.S. A great guide to fix these problems once they occur is this blog post here: http://tiborsimko.org/mbsync-duplicate-uid.html

Dooley

I'm having the exact same problem using the exact same configuration. There's this but it's specific to mu4e, and it doesn't have dovecot in the mix... – Aseity

Anyone find a solution to this? – Parabolic

No. I just run the dovecot configuration on one machine, and use imap to talk to the university mail servers directly from all other machines. That gives me one back up on the desktop and basic functionality from my laptops. No more duplicated uids. – Dooley

I'm also having duplicate UIDs. But only when I move an email from Sent to any other mailbox. For some reason the mails I'm sending are handled differently (they go to Sent by setting the Gcc header, I think it's a Gnus thing). – Fitzger