Closed Bug 244601 Opened 20 years ago Closed 16 years ago

Mail inside local mailbox lost after getting mail from POP3 server

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Backend, defect)

Product:
MailNews Core
Component:
Backend
Platform:
x86
Windows 2000
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
critical

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: whimboo, Unassigned)

Details

(Keywords: dataloss, Whiteboard: [needs protocol log])

Attachments

(1 file)

Mailbox illustrating the problem
1.04 KB, text/plain
Details
Thunderbird version 0.6+ (20040520) I had this feeling a couple of days but I wasn't able to verify till yesterday. I have to computers where i check my inbox for new mail. The one at work and the other at home. Yesterday i received a notification from bugzilla at 3:16pm that a new comment was added to bug 240955. So i visited this bug and added a new comment for myself. This notification i also received at work. After i came home i checked the inboxes with my home pc. All pop3 accounts were processed and new mail was received. I checked them and realized that the notification mail from 3:16pm wasn't in my inbox. So what's happend? First i thought it was moved by the junk filter. But i can't find it inside the junk folder. So I searched inside all mbox files for an appearance of this mail. I got no result! Where is this mail gone? The only thing what i use is a filter to move bugzilla mail into a separate folder. Should be there the problem? But why no mbox file contains this mail? After retrieving it from the server it was also deleted there. This is a very critical bug which should be fixed very fast. Nothing is worse as losing mail! How could i get closer to this behavior? I just turned on the junk mail log but i'm not satisfied with it.
This has happened to me as well; after installing 'version 0.6+ (20040524)', all my POP3 mail accounts appear to have been 'cleaned' from any mail. All mails I received <i>after</i> the update have remained on the servers. Furthermore, the News msf files were overwritten. Apparently, they are overwritten every time Tb starts, because I lose all of my settings for a news group again and again, and after every start, Tb tells me that there are several thousand new messages in this group.
Reproducable with Mozilla on my Yahoo account. Mail is deleted on Yahoo server sometimes. My settings: 'Leave messages on server', 'for at most 30 days' and 'until I delete or move them from Inbox' I reproduced it with a mail dated 18.5.04 which is still in the Inbox. It vanished from the Yahoo server. I checked it by using the Yahoo webmail frontend. I just double checked it with the actual 1.7 (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040524) by sending myself a mail. The mail got to my Inbox and still is on the server. But as I said above 'mail is deleted sometimes'. I recommend to change the sumary to: Mail deleted on mail server after getting mail from POP3 server
(In reply to comment #2) > Reproducable with Mozilla on my Yahoo account. Mail is deleted on Yahoo server > sometimes. My settings: 'Leave messages on server', 'for at most 30 days' and > 'until I delete or move them from Inbox' I haven't checked the last two options. On my pc at work I have only selected "Leave messages on Server". > Mail deleted on mail server after getting mail from POP3 server No, this is definitly the wrong summary. I don't have chosen the option to leave the Mail on server at home! Yesterday the new mails were downloaded and also cleared on the server like expected. But it wasn't stored in the local mailbox. -> Updated summary
Summary: Mail lost after getting mail from POP3 server → Mail inside local mailbox lost after getting mail from POP3 server
(In reply to comment #3) > > Mail deleted on mail server after getting mail from POP3 server > > No, this is definitly the wrong summary. I don't have chosen the option to leave > the Mail on server at home! Yesterday the new mails were downloaded and also > cleared on the server like expected. But it wasn't stored in the local mailbox. 1. mail X is on server 2. work PC - fetch mail X with POP3 from server (option "Leave messages on Server") 3. *is mail X still on server? Can this be verified?* 4. home PC - fetch mail X with POP3 from server 5. *is mail X transferred? Can this be verified?* 5. mail X is deleted on server 6. mail X is not on home PC To create some mail traffic simply post something to de.test.
> *is mail X still on server? Can this be verified?* > *is mail X transferred? Can this be verified?* I suggest having creation of a POP3 log always activated (see http://www.mozilla.org/quality/mailnews/mail-troubleshoot.html#pop but put in it your global environment though the page discourages this). Then you can have a look at the log after retrieving the mails. For the first question you can also use an external mail-checker like PopTray or Magic Mail Monitor. All in all I can't see one of your problems. The only patches I know of changing POP code in the last time are in bug 30057.
I'm away the next days so i'll try it next week with the same build which raises this problem.
(In reply to comment #1) Sorry, I misunderstood the topic. 'My' bug is now bug #244942. Cheers, Dominik
I think my bug is somewhat simular to this, when i get my mail from a pop3 server it at times just cleans my whole inbox. It says "The file /C|/Documents and Settings/Ivo/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/default/327eyi7.slt/Mail/pop.gmx.net/Inbox? number=336230 cannot be found. Please check the location and try again" I've had this quite some times, i get this message when i select a message in my inbox (Of my pop3 account), a restart fixes this, however it also clears the entire inbox. My imap account however doesn't have this problem. This has happend for me about 21 times now, i've tried alot of diffrent settings, nightly builds, clean installs, nothing seems to help. I keep loosing all my emails like this :( I'm using Windows XP SP2, Thunderbird 0.6 (Nightly build of june 3).
(In reply to comment #0) On the computer at work, did you delete the 3:16pm notification after receiving it? I don't have Thunderbird sitting in front of me at the moment, but I do believe there is an option to delete messages from the server if deleted locally. Perhaps that option was selected? If so, that would explain why the notice was no longer available for download when you got home.
(reply to comment #0) (follow-up to comment #9) Ok, now that I do have a copy of Thunderbird in front of me I see there is an option under Server Settings such that messages are left on the server "until I delete or move them from Inbox". If you have this option checked, this could be the real root of your problem. It appears as if this would also delete messages from the server if you have a filter set up for bugzilla messages at work (like you say you do at home).
I've written in comment 3 that i haven't checked this option. I got any other mail except this one from bugzilla.
Is this bug still in recent builds? Just curious.
(In reply to comment #8) > I think my bug is somewhat simular to this, when i get my mail from a pop3 > server it at times just cleans my whole inbox. > > It says "The file /C|/Documents and Settings/Ivo/Application > Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/default/327eyi7.slt/Mail/pop.gmx.net/Inbox? > number=336230 cannot be found. Please check the location and try again" > > I've had this quite some times, i get this message when i select a message in > my inbox (Of my pop3 account), a restart fixes this, however it also clears the > entire inbox. > > My imap account however doesn't have this problem. This has happend for me > about 21 times now, i've tried alot of diffrent settings, nightly builds, clean > installs, nothing seems to help. I keep loosing all my emails like this :( > > I'm using Windows XP SP2, Thunderbird 0.6 (Nightly build of june 3). I've been running into this problem for a couple of weeks. It's almost exclusive to my Primary Inbox, but I've started to run into it with my alternate Inboxes as well. I'm running Thunderbird from my desktop and my laptop. The laptop is set to have the mail stay on the server. The desktop does a usual POP3 download and clean. The desktop machine experiences the problem far more often than the laptop. I'm running WinXP SP1 w/ all current updates, Thunderbird version 0.7.3 (20040803) on both systems. To paraphrase an earlier comment: Losing Email Bad.
Scott: Looking at bug 195330 I can't help but asking this: Could it be that the two bugs have something in common? Something like a cause that is not directly related to either POP or IMAP? If I'm completely wrong here, sorry for the spam.
The dataloss is not only present in Thunderbird. Also SeaMonkey seems to be affected at least since the 1.7 branch. The reporter works now with Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; de-AT; rv:1.8a2) Gecko/20040714 (more informations see news posting: <news:41381BB0.3040006@MoB.myfqdn.de>)
Component: General → Mail Back End
Product: Thunderbird → MailNews
Version: unspecified → 1.0 Branch
Version: 1.0 Branch → Trunk
I am affected from this bug since I formated my drive and made a clean installation (version 0.8 (20040906) branch). I had no problem with that with the same or some days older nightlies before the format... Mail is lost after it is downloaded in my inbox. I had checked "Leave messages on server" for 1-2 days. Now I don't have it checked and the problem still exists. No workaround for it? Shouldn't it be a 0.8 blocker?
(In reply to comment #16) > the same or some days older nightlies before the format... Mail is lost after it > is downloaded in my inbox. I had checked "Leave messages on server" for 1-2 Have you enabled all log functions? If not please do it now! 1. http://www.mozilla.org/quality/mailnews/mail-troubleshoot.html#pop 2. If you use message filters activate their logging 3. If you use the junk filter activate it's logging If you can confirm the dataloss and give us a snippet out of the log you would push us forward because currently we don't have an idea where the dataloss occurs.
Scott, do you have any idea why we run into this problem? Currently we don't have as much as information to fix this bug.
Flags: blocking-aviary1.0?
I made a new clean installation, without touching "Leave messages on server" and till now I don't have this bug. I don't say that this is the cause of the problem, it may be a coinsidence...
minusing for now pending more information. I haven't seen anyone post a POP3 log. And I haven't gotten swamped with complaints with users running into this yet other than the handful of folks here. Please post a log!
Flags: blocking-aviary1.0? → blocking-aviary1.0-
Please look at bug 265553 which could probably be the problem. It seems that the mail isn't lost but only invisible.
Product: MailNews → Core
still a problem?
(In reply to comment #22) > still a problem? I have seen this behavior some days ago while running a filter on my inbox. Messages disappear from the thread list. Hadn't time to dive a bit deeper into this problem. I will do this the next days. What I can say is, that the status of each message was set incorrectly. Please give me some days.
Today I suffered from the same problem. In my case, the cause is an invalid formatted message: "In-Reply-To:" refers to the same message, i.e., "In-Reply-To:" is exactly the same as "Message-ID:". To reproduce the problem, copy the attachment to your Thunderbird e-mail folder and start Thunderbird afterwards. The folder should contain two messages with subject "Valid message" and "Invalid message". Unfortunately, Thunderbird only shows the "Valid message". To solve the problem, exit Thunderbird, delete the InvalidMail.msf file and remove the line "In-Reply-To: <1234@xxx>" from the message with subject "Invalid message". Now start Thunderbird again an notice that both messages are shown in the folder. While removing the "In-Reply-To:" line solved the issue for me, I do not know whether this is the only thing preventing mails from being shown in the message list.
Lorenz, what version are you running? That was a bug in 1.5.0.8 that I thought was fixed in 1.5.0.9
(In reply to comment #25) > Lorenz, what version are you running? That was a bug in 1.5.0.8 that I thought > was fixed in 1.5.0.9 Yes, you are right. It's fixed in 1.5.0.9. I am using 1.5.0.8, because 1.5.0.9 and TB2.0b1 are not usable for me due to the "hourglass bug" (comment 12 of bug 364647). In this case, I have nothing to add here.
(In reply to comment #23) > (In reply to comment #22) > > still a problem? > > I have seen this behavior some days ago while running a filter on my inbox. Henrik, you referred in comment 21 to bug 265553 -- that bug seems to be about problems with downloading a complete message after a partial message (headers-only or limited by size) has been loaded. Were you configured for this when you originally reported this bug? Are you now? > Please give me some days. We've given you some months! :)
(In reply to comment #25) > Lorenz, what version are you running? That was a bug in 1.5.0.8 that I thought > was fixed in 1.5.0.9 Bug 360409, right? I don't think that's the problem Henrik encountered.
> > Please give me some days. > > We've given you some months! :) Yeah, that's nice from you all but the main reason is that I wasn't able to see it again. I cannot talk about something which is invisible for me at the current time. I haven't time to look at my inbox and target folders with the help of a text editor every day. These bugs are really hard to find. :/ > Bug 360409, right? I don't think that's the problem Henrik encountered. Right. That's not my initial issue.
Mail arbitrarily disappeared from my Inbox when I closed the left-hand mailbox list window. It was the mail item being CURRENTLY read and in the text body window. Got some hokey logic here, I suspect... This was a subsequent iteration of a currently-being-read mail item disappearing. The first time it happened was when I switched from the Inbox to another mailbox then back to the Inbox. Hope this helps- can't afford to lose mail in this fashion. If there is any specific assistance I can provide, please ask. Thanks, Rick Contestabile/gargoyle@acm.org
Hello, I don't know if this is the same bug because I don't know if the cause is the same, but the fact is that I have lost many mails from my incoming folder. It was friday, I lost one day and a half. And I don't know what I did. On the web, I found some "tricks" speaking about similar problems with Thunderbird and advicing to do Index reconstruction. I did and I think I lost even more mails. One of the "results" of my mail lost is that I had "instead of them" an empty mail (it was a mail without shown, not even a header shown by Thunderbird; and looking at its source, it was like it was cut in the middle of recipient info). Unfortunately I cannot show the mail source if needed because it disappeared by itself after several attempts of index reconstruction/folder compactage. And today I notice that in fact I have also a full month (from 24/04 to 25/05) absent!!! So this is very bad for me, because I work a lot with mails, and need to find old mails often! I don't know how to reproduce this, and I don't know which detail I have not said. I really haven't seen what has been the origin of such a bug. But if you need info, don't hesitate to ask. I will answer what I can...
The first thing you should do is a backup of your whole profile folder! After that you can do experiments. Due to the use of compacting the folder you have really lost your messages. They were removed from the inbox mbox. Please take a text viewer and open one of the mbox files were you miss messages. Can you find them there? What is the mozilla status on top of such a message? Are you using message filters, junk filter or do you move messages by hand into other folders? And please remember to backup your files first before doing any of this actions. There is a program called mbox viewer which could help you searching for messages within a mbox file: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mbox-viewer
That's what I thought about the use of compaction. It was probably a stupid thing to do. Anyway I won't die of it (though it is annoying). I cannot do your tests now, because I am not at work. I already tried to open the mbox files in vim and search in it with message titles, but it was difficult, among other things because they are really really big files (I receive dozens of mails everyday and I began to work 3 months ago) so hard and slow to navigate; and I found none of my lost mail (but I cannot be sure as I could remember very few "strings" of them to look for). I will try again tomorrow with the adviced software. To answer questions before that: yet I use message filters, and also junk filter and I also move many messages by hand into other folders.
Jehan, I think you are using Thunderbird 2.0? If yes, you should have a look at bug 368112 which states the problem when moving multiple messages between different folders. This will be fixed for the upcoming release 2.0.0.4 of Thunderbird within the next days. I hope that this is your problem. Just test with the new release when it's available. If you still can see dataloss you should run your filters manually and compare if all messages are moved. If not find the appropriate ones and have a look at the message headers X-Mozilla-Status and X-Mozilla-Status2.
Hello all, I am sorry I haven't given any news here. Wayne Mery has just sent me an email to get update about the issue I had. So here si a near-copy of what I answered him: If you want to know whether I could retrieve my lost emails, the answer is "no". I considered this as a past issue because I need to go on. This is a little annoying, but there is worse than just losing emails! ;-) So in this way, the problem is not solved here, just overpassed. If you wonder whether this happened again, the answer is no too. Also I upgraded Thunderbird several times since then, so maybe the bug which had been the origin of this emails loss has been fixed now? I don't know. And I sure hope it won't happen again indeed, but for now it is OK. Then in this way: yes it is "maybe" solved. At least it happened only once (but a big "once": one month of emails loss!), never again. I don't know if I can be of any more help though... I really don't know what caused this.
Assignee: mscott → nobody
QA Contact: backend
Product: Core → MailNews Core
Henrik, so I think we are left with your issue. Have you seen it since comment 29?
Whiteboard: [needs protocol log]
Not that I'm aware of. But having more than 100 emails per day someone can't really tell if something is missing. We could close it for now as WFM if you want.
sounds reasonable => WFM
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 16 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
I am having the same problem with Thunderbird 3.1.7
Richard, did you check for information at http://www.mozillamessaging.com/support ? If you are still having a problem please file a new bug, or a support topic http://getsatisfaction.com/getsatisfaction/
(In reply to comment #40) > Richard, did you check for information at > http://www.mozillamessaging.com/support ? If you are still having a problem > please file a new bug, or a support topic > http://getsatisfaction.com/getsatisfaction/ I searched here first. At your suggestion I in "support" but the fix for a problem that was sorta kinda like my problem was ineffective. I'll file bug report. Thank you for your courtesy in replying to my comment.
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.

Attachment

General

Creator:
Created:
Updated:
Size: