Since yesterday's (17 August 2025) Neon update, Kmail, Korganizer and Kontact won't start, giving the message ""Personal information management service is starting" and then "A required backup service is not operational".
In a terminal,
'akonadictl stop' gives "Akonadi is not running",
'akonadictl start' gives "Akonadi is already running" and
'akonadictl restart' gives "Akonadi is not running".
I found what sounds like the same problem for ArchLinux ( https://lists.archlinux.org/archives/list/arch-general@lists.archlinux.org/thread/F4IPTWJZVYWAU5YTVKVIOG5NGJMONV5K/ ).
The recommendation was to remove knotes and akonadi-notes . For KDE Neon, I don't see akonadi-notes, so I removed kpim6-akonadi-notes instead. Doesn't seem to work, though.
Any suggestions hugely appreciated!
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That is strange, the “start” and “stop” command are essentially contradicting each other.
What does akonadictl status tell you?
Do you see any Akonadi processes in your process list, e.g. in Systemmonitor or in a terminal with ps x|grep akonadi?
Hi,
Thank you for your message.
akonadictl status reports.
“Akonadi Control: stopped
Akonadi Server: running
Akonadi Server Search Support: available (Remote Search)
Available Agent Types: akonadi_archivemail_agent, akonadi_birthdays_resource, akonadi_contacts_resource, akonadi_davgroupware_resource, akonadi_etesync_resource, akonadi_ews_resource, akonadi_ewsmta_resource, akonadi_followupreminder_agent, akonadi_google_resource, akonadi_ical_resource, akonadi_icaldir_resource, akonadi_imap_resource, akonadi_indexing_agent, akonadi_kolab_resource, akonadi_maildir_resource, akonadi_maildispatcher_agent, akonadi_mailfilter_agent, akonadi_mailmerge_agent, akonadi_mbox_resource, akonadi_migration_agent, akonadi_mixedmaildir_resource, akonadi_newmailnotifier_agent, akonadi_openxchange_resource, akonadi_pop3_resource, akonadi_sendlater_agent, akonadi_unifiedmailbox_agent, akonadi_vcard_resource, akonadi_vcarddir_resource
Plenty of processes, but all sleeping:
2338 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_control
2606 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_archivemail_agent --identifier akonadi_archivemail_agent
2607 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_birthdays_resource --identifier akonadi_birthdays_resource
2608 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_contacts_resource --identifier akonadi_contacts_resource_0
2609 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_followupreminder_agent --identifier akonadi_followupreminder_agent
2610 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_google_resource --identifier akonadi_google_resource_7
2611 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_ical_resource --identifier akonadi_ical_resource_0
2612 ? SNl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_indexing_agent --identifier akonadi_indexing_agent
2613 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_maildir_resource --identifier akonadi_maildir_resource_0
2614 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_maildispatcher_agent --identifier akonadi_maildispatcher_agent
2615 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_mailfilter_agent --identifier akonadi_mailfilter_agent
2616 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_mailmerge_agent --identifier akonadi_mailmerge_agent
2617 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_migration_agent --identifier akonadi_migration_agent
2618 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_newmailnotifier_agent --identifier akonadi_newmailnotifier_agent
2620 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_pop3_resource --identifier akonadi_pop3_resource_2
2621 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_pop3_resource --identifier akonadi_pop3_resource_3
2622 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_sendlater_agent --identifier akonadi_sendlater_agent
2625 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/akonadi_unifiedmailbox_agent --identifierakonadi_unifiedmailbox_agent
51717 ? Sl 0:07 /usr/bin/akonadiserver
I may have killed akonadiserver, hence it’s much higher Process ID.
That looks like a fully running system, just the “Akonadi Control: stopped” looks out of place.
If you log out and log in again, is this also the state you are seeing?
I assume your main issue is that an application is no longer working?
There could be “error” files in $HOME/.local/share/akonadi
Hi Kevin,
Yes, my main issue was that kmail, korganizer and kAddressBook won’t start, throwing the message Personal information management service is starting" followed by “A required background service is not operational”.
At your suggestion, I have just tried switching it off and switching back on again, and …. it’s now working. I am suitably embarrassed. I thought stopping and starting akonadi and killing kmail/korganizer/kaddressbook was sufficient, but clearly not. I don’t know whether removing knotes and akonadi-notes, as per the ArchLinux suggestions, made any difference.
No matter, it seems to be working now, and my thanks to you for guiding me to a satisfactory outcome. (Strangely, Korganizer is displaying any times on the display of the day, but I can live with that for now.)
Thanks and regards
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Usually that should be fine, though I would do it the other way around and first end the UI programs before issuing the akonadictl restart
Somehow your setup got into a state in which applications couldn’t “see” that things were actually up and running.
The session log out helps because systemd will very thoroughly kill all processes associated with the session, allowing the new session to start with a clean slate.
Hi all, in my case everything started with a PIM Migration notification on start-up couple of days ago after some vacation days, experiencing since then that behavior. Any update on how to solve it? Thx
You are likely experiencing this bug
Seems to be caused by KNotes or a related package
Yeap, it is that bug. Solved as it says with “pkcon remove knotes kpim6-akonadi-notes”, hopefully not using it.
Thanks!