Bugzilla

Ok, now I understand a bit better the problematic with this issue which due to user TB preferences (pane view/column settings) being tangled with IMAP cached data!

I still think:
- short term the default IMAP server path (IMAP cache) shall be changed to local area, because it is more problematic for people to have to wait 10mn+ to login/logout to/from a machine than having to reset pane view/column settings first time when moving to another computer...
and 
- then long term having user preference untangled from IMAP cache (unless handled by IMAP server?) and properly set separately on their own! Is msf file really the proper way to store user preferences in the first place, I wonder?!

@Alessandro,

I put you in copy of this comment/bug because separating user preference from local cache IMAP data may be something to consider improving while revamping the message list UI which is on your blueprint/timetable... for sometime in the near future...

@all,

Windows has two locations (three in practice but two mostly used by third party apps) in the User profile:
- AppData/Local  (~/.cache on Linux it seems, as per previous comment) 
-- used for cached data (for quick access/offline use) that can be re-generated/synced

- AppData/Roaming (supposedly ~/ on Linux except ~/.cache) 
-- one for preference data (for roaming use - set once by end-user used everywhere)

Both contains local user data but not for the same purpose, and it seems Linux as well...

Thunderbird already setup a user profile in both location... and use both location... but not necessarily adequately for all data it handles...

**Local** shall contained any local data mostly locally cached data on the client computer... that can be rebuilt/reconstructed from server info... so both mbox files (containing local cached message content) and msf files (containing index and msg header info) shall be placed in this location... basically anything that can be rebuild from IMAP server upon first startup...
--> Not meant to be file system copied back and forth between Windows client computer and server upon sign in/out on the computer... as other sync mechanism (IMAP) are in place to keep the data up-to-date and backed up/synced between client<->server

**Roaming** shall contained any roaming data mostly user preferences... that are set by end-user as fit best and shall remain the same on all computer when roaming... thread pane view/column settings fall into that category but I am not sure to understand why such settings were placed in msf file instead of sqlite pref file, probably by convenience originally as they may be set on a per folder settings (unless those are handled via the IMAP server somehow but I am not aware :-)
--> Meant to be copied back and forth between Windows client computer and server upon sign in/out on computer...

All those are user local data that is why they are in the user profile, but their purpose differ greatly that is why there are stored in different location on Windows... and on Linux as well...

Not sure what is meant by *local keywords* in the previous comment, may need clarification... but a *saved search* (the settings only) would fall in user preferences (aka AppData\Roaming location), but an saved search or auto-completion search cache would fall as local data (aka AppData\Local location)... if that make sense...

It shall be the same for any pref/cache data over all in TB... for example I would expect an offline cached network calendar stored in the appData\Local on a Windows computer... and so on... but that may be pushing it I guess :-)

Regards,
Richard

Ok, now I understand a bit better the problematic with this issue which due to user TB preferences (pane view/column settings) being tangled with IMAP cached data (within .msf files)! Correct me if I am wrong here!

I still think:
- short term the default IMAP server path (IMAP cache) shall be changed to local area, because it is more problematic for people to have to wait 10mn+ to login/logout to/from a machine than having to reset pane view/column settings first time when moving to another computer...
and 
- then long term having user preference untangled from IMAP cache (unless handled by IMAP server?) and properly set separately on their own! Is msf file really the proper way to store user preferences in the first place, I wonder?!

@Alessandro,

I put you in copy of this comment/bug because separating user preference from local cache IMAP data may be something to consider improving while revamping the message list UI which is on your blueprint/timetable... for sometime in the near future...

@all,

Windows has two locations (three in practice but two mostly used by third party apps) in the User profile:
- AppData/Local  (~/.cache on Linux it seems, as per previous comment) 
-- used for cached data (for quick access/offline use) that can be re-generated/synced

- AppData/Roaming (supposedly ~/ on Linux except ~/.cache) 
-- one for preference data (for roaming use - set once by end-user used everywhere)

Both contains local user data but not for the same purpose, and it seems Linux as well...

Thunderbird already setup a user profile in both location... and use both location... but not necessarily adequately for all data it handles...

**Local** shall contained any local data mostly locally cached data on the client computer... that can be rebuilt/reconstructed from server info... so both mbox files (containing local cached message content) and msf files (containing index and msg header info) shall be placed in this location... basically anything that can be rebuild from IMAP server upon first startup...
--> Not meant to be file system copied back and forth between Windows client computer and server upon sign in/out on the computer... as other sync mechanism (IMAP) are in place to keep the data up-to-date and backed up/synced between client<->server

**Roaming** shall contained any roaming data mostly user preferences... that are set by end-user as fit best and shall remain the same on all computer when roaming... thread pane view/column settings fall into that category but I am not sure to understand why such settings were placed in msf file instead of sqlite pref file, probably by convenience originally as they may be set on a per folder settings (unless those are handled via the IMAP server somehow but I am not aware :-)
--> Meant to be copied back and forth between Windows client computer and server upon sign in/out on computer...

All those are user local data that is why they are in the user profile, but their purpose differ greatly that is why there are stored in different location on Windows... and on Linux as well...

Not sure what is meant by *local keywords* in the previous comment, may need clarification... but a *saved search* (the settings only) would fall in user preferences (aka AppData\Roaming location), but an saved search or auto-completion search cache would fall as local data (aka AppData\Local location)... if that make sense...

It shall be the same for any pref/cache data over all in TB... for example I would expect an offline cached network calendar stored in the appData\Local on a Windows computer... and so on... but that may be pushing it I guess :-)

Regards,
Richard