I think that Pair's servers advertise and accept IDLE mode, but don't actually send any notifications. I added extra debug output (see below), and it's obvious that pair's mail server is accepting IDLE mode. You can see "+ Waiting for DONE", which is the IMAP server sending me a continuation after I requested IDLE mode. You can then see periodic "heartbeat" messages from the server ("* OK Timeout in X minutes"), indicating that the server is still connected and in IDLE mode.

However, no messages are ever received from the server regarding availability of new messages. As a control, I also tried using Thunderbird with the Pair account, as it supports IDLE natively, rather than via a plugin. It also does not see new messages -- no IDLE-mode notifications are received.

It looks like pair's IMAP Servers are just dysfunctional, as far as IDLE mode is concerned.


2007-08-18 22:02:44.663 Mail[2165] [* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4REV1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=LOGIN] XXXX.pair.com IMAP4rev1 2004.357-p2k server ready at Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:02:48 -0400 (EDT)]
2007-08-18 22:02:45.016 Mail[2165] [1692ea42 OK [READ-ONLY] EXAMINE completed]
2007-08-18 22:02:45.086 Mail[2165] [+ Waiting for DONE]
2007-08-18 22:02:45.086 Mail[2165] Account 'PAIR' has accepted IDLE mode
2007-08-18 22:03:45.086 Mail[2165] [* OK Timeout in 30 minutes]
2007-08-18 22:05:45.112 Mail[2165] [* OK Timeout in 28 minutes]
2007-08-18 22:07:45.111 Mail[2165] [* OK Timeout in 26 minutes]
2007-08-18 22:09:45.111 Mail[2165] [* OK Timeout in 24 minutes]
2007-08-18 22:11:45.274 Mail[2165] [* OK Timeout in 22 minutes]
2007-08-18 22:13:45.274 Mail[2165] [* OK Timeout in 20 minutes]