Python imaplib doesnt mark messages as unseen

Question

I am working on a function that collects data from email and has a switch to mark messages as unseen. During development it started to fail I don't know why. I've looked it up in documentation, I've searched stackoverflow (got to this thread, but it didn't help). Anyway. This is the code:

    mail = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL('imap.gmail.com', '993')
    mail.login(settings.INVOICES_LOGIN, settings.INVOICES_PASSWORD)
    mail.select('inbox')

    result, data = mail.uid('search', '(UNSEEN)', 'X-GM-RAW',
                            'SUBJECT: "{0}" FROM: "{1}"'.format(attachment_subject, attachment_from))
    uids = data[0].split()
    for uid in uids:
        result, data = mail.uid('fetch', uid, '(RFC822)')
        m = email.message_from_string(data[0][1])

        if m.get_content_maintype() == 'multipart':
            for part in m.walk():
                if part.get_content_maintype() == 'multipart':
                    continue
                if part.get('Content-Disposition') is None:
                    continue
                if re.match(attachment_filename_re, part.get_filename()):
                    attachments.append({'uid': uid, 'data': part.get_payload(decode=True)})

        if set_not_read:
            mail.store(uid, '-FLAGS', '(\Seen)')

I've debugged it, I am sure that with this flag the mail.store(uid, '-FLAGS', '(\Seen)') part is entered, I've also tried switching to \SEEN and \Seen instead of (\Seen).

EDIT:

What I'm trying to do is to make a script that allows user to mark email as unseen (not read), this is reset the Seen flag, and not to allow it to mark an email as seen (read).

Working with `imaplib` myself just recently, I can confirm the state of SO questions is pretty pitiful. — Wayne Werner, Aug 03 '16 at 13:33
What's the output of `mail.store(uid, '-FLAGS', '(\\SEEN)')`? — Wayne Werner, Aug 03 '16 at 13:57
"won't work" - does that mean that it produces an error? Produces nothing? Because `mail.store` *should* be producing a result. You can do `print(mail.store(uid, '-FLAGS', '(\\SEEN)')` and it should produce *something*, even if that something is a traceback. If nothing at all happens then something very strange is happening. — Wayne Werner, Aug 03 '16 at 14:17
I mean the result is a tuple ('OK', [None]) and the mail in the mailbox remains marked as read. — gonczor, Aug 03 '16 at 14:21
When you get the flags - `print(mail.fetch(uid, '(FLAGS)'))` right after you call store, what is the result? — Wayne Werner, Aug 03 '16 at 14:26
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/119022/discussion-between-wayne-werner-and-wiktor-gonczaronek). — Wayne Werner, Aug 03 '16 at 15:02
You are only searching for UNSEEN messages, so they are already unseen. Use FETCH BODY.PEEK[] so they don't get marked seen. — Max, Aug 03 '16 at 18:38
@WayneWener That may have more to do with the fact that imaplib is a very thin protocol library, and does not do any parsing work. It assumes you already know RFC 3501 and email standards. — Max, Aug 03 '16 at 18:41

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 07 '21 at 08:58

I believe you want

mail.store(uid, '+FLAGS', '(\\Seen)')

I think what you're doing right now is removing the seen flag. But I'll look in the RFC to be sure.

Edit: Yup. That's what the RFC says

-FLAGS <flag list>
         Remove the argument from the flags for the message.  The new
         value of the flags is returned as if a FETCH of those flags was
         done.

Other bits that you may find relevant:

The currently defined data items that can be stored are:

      FLAGS <flag list>
         Replace the flags for the message (other than \Recent) with the
         argument.  The new value of the flags is returned as if a FETCH
         of those flags was done.

      FLAGS.SILENT <flag list>
         Equivalent to FLAGS, but without returning a new value.

      +FLAGS <flag list>
         Add the argument to the flags for the message.  The new value
         of the flags is returned as if a FETCH of those flags was done.

      +FLAGS.SILENT <flag list>
         Equivalent to +FLAGS, but without returning a new value.

      -FLAGS <flag list>
         Remove the argument from the flags for the message.  The new
         value of the flags is returned as if a FETCH of those flags was
         done.

      -FLAGS.SILENT <flag list>
         Equivalent to -FLAGS, but without returning a new value.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to do. Mark an email as `UNSEEN`. I thought the title was clear, I'll correct it just now. — gonczor, Aug 03 '16 at 13:40
So, did you try -FLAGS (\\Seen) ? You're not using raw strings, so you need to escape the backslash. — Max, Aug 03 '16 at 18:40

Python imaplib doesnt mark messages as unseen

1 Answers1