diff --git a/mailnews/base/public/msgCore.h b/mailnews/base/public/msgCore.h
index afb9d03d5d18..69fb8efe95de 100644
--- a/mailnews/base/public/msgCore.h
+++ b/mailnews/base/public/msgCore.h
@@ -152,6 +152,8 @@ NS_ERROR_GENERATE_FAILURE(NS_ERROR_MODULE_MAILNEWS, value)
 #define NS_MSG_CUSTOM_HEADERS_OVERFLOW NS_MSG_GENERATE_FAILURE(28) //when num of custom headers exceeds 50
 #define NS_MSG_INVALID_CUSTOM_HEADER NS_MSG_GENERATE_FAILURE(29) //when custom header has invalid characters (as per rfc 2822) 
 
+#define NS_MSG_USER_NOT_AUTHENTICATED NS_MSG_GENERATE_FAILURE(30) // when local caches are password protect and user isn't auth
+
 #define NS_MSGCOMP_ERROR_BEGIN	12500
 /* NS_ERROR_NNTP_NO_CROSS_POSTING lives here, and not in nsMsgComposeStringBundle.h, because it is used in news and compose. */
 #define NS_ERROR_NNTP_NO_CROSS_POSTING NS_MSG_GENERATE_FAILURE(12554)
diff --git a/mailnews/base/src/nsMsgDBView.cpp b/mailnews/base/src/nsMsgDBView.cpp
index b01c6cad7ab4..1d24cc72aed5 100644
--- a/mailnews/base/src/nsMsgDBView.cpp
+++ b/mailnews/base/src/nsMsgDBView.cpp
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@
 #include "nsIMsgCopyService.h"
 #include "nsMsgBaseCID.h"
 #include "nsISpamSettings.h"
+#include "nsIMsgAccountManager.h"
 
 static NS_DEFINE_CID(kDateTimeFormatCID,    NS_DATETIMEFORMAT_CID);
 
@@ -1722,10 +1723,21 @@ NS_IMETHODIMP nsMsgDBView::Open(nsIMsgFolder *folder, nsMsgViewSortTypeValue sor
   m_sortOrder = sortOrder;
   m_sortType = sortType;
 
+  nsresult rv;
+  nsCOMPtr<nsIMsgAccountManager> accountManager = 
+           do_GetService(NS_MSGACCOUNTMANAGER_CONTRACTID, &rv);
+  NS_ENSURE_SUCCESS(rv, rv);
+  PRBool userNeedsToAuthenticate = PR_FALSE;
+  // if we're PasswordProtectLocalCache, then we need to find out if the server is authenticated.
+  (void) accountManager->GetUserNeedsToAuthenticate(&userNeedsToAuthenticate);
+  if (userNeedsToAuthenticate)
+    return NS_MSG_USER_NOT_AUTHENTICATED;
+
   if (folder) // search view will have a null folder
   {
+
     nsCOMPtr <nsIDBFolderInfo> folderInfo;
-    nsresult rv = folder->GetDBFolderInfoAndDB(getter_AddRefs(folderInfo), getter_AddRefs(m_db));
+    rv = folder->GetDBFolderInfoAndDB(getter_AddRefs(folderInfo), getter_AddRefs(m_db));
     NS_ENSURE_SUCCESS(rv,rv);
     m_db->AddListener(this);
     m_folder = folder;