> First I am seeing this anywhere. So, if on IMAP, you just delete the mailbox file and the associated ".msf file", it will re-download from IMAP? What if there are "mixed messages", and one of the "pair" or "parters" from that bad mix was already deleted? Will it rebuild half a message? Will it delete half the content? Also, Thunderbird is slow enough as it is, and crashes when left open long enough. How long does this "rebuild" take? I don't want it to crash in the middle of that. I was think only about IMAP when I wrote the above. For local folders or POP, you should just do the repair and, if that doesn't help, only delete the XXX.msf since there is no server to re-fetch message bodies from and you will lose the XXX mbox file content if you delete it! Again, this is to work-around a bug in a beta, so release users shouldn't need to do this. I don't know how long it will take, only the bigger the imap folder the longer it will take. Haven't seen TB being real slow or crashing (which I guess is the original subject of this bug). I don't know what you mean by "half a message"? The XXX mbox file contains the full messages for a folder concatenated together. The XXX.msf stores the headers (in unreadable form) for the folder. The XXX mbox files's main purpose is for reading messages when offline so it's actually optional for IMAP. The XXX.msf is always present in IMAP. (For local folders you will have both files. Also, folders created under a pop account, except INBOX, are basically local folders since they have no connection to a remote email server. Richard wrote: >Does it mean TB Repair feature for IMAP folder is buggy and need fixing? This issue could have been a good occasion to look into it... No one should have to manually delete TB files on file system to fix issues. This could be hazardous and create more issues than it fixes... It feels like dirt hidden under the carpet in the hope it would disappear ;-) I've never actually seen this "emails pasted together" problem so I can't say for sure the just repair won't fix it. That's why I suggested just repair as the first step. But I've read that other beta user's had to delete at least the XXX.msf and some the mbox XXX file itself to recover. So maybe the best step would be: 1. try to repair the folder if that doesn't work, 2. delete the XXX.msf file and let TB rebuild it if that doesn't work 3. For IMAP only (not pop or local folders), delete XXX and XXX.msf and let TB rebuild them if that doesn't work, maybe start over with a brand new profile or wait for the complete re-write of IMAP and other stuff in javascript.
Bug 628646 Comment 37 Edit History
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> First I am seeing this anywhere. So, if on IMAP, you just delete the mailbox file and the associated ".msf file", it will re-download from IMAP? What if there are "mixed messages", and one of the "pair" or "parters" from that bad mix was already deleted? Will it rebuild half a message? Will it delete half the content? Also, Thunderbird is slow enough as it is, and crashes when left open long enough. How long does this "rebuild" take? I don't want it to crash in the middle of that. I was thinking only about IMAP when I wrote the above. For local folders or POP, you should just do the repair and, if that doesn't help, only delete the XXX.msf since there is no server to re-fetch message bodies from and you will lose the XXX mbox file content if you delete it! Again, this is to work-around a bug in a beta, so release users shouldn't need to do this. I don't know how long it will take, only the bigger the imap folder the longer it will take. Haven't seen TB being real slow or crashing (which I guess is the original subject of this bug). I don't know what you mean by "half a message"? The XXX mbox file contains the full messages for a folder concatenated together. The XXX.msf stores the only the message headers (in unreadable form) for the folder. The XXX mbox files's main purpose is for reading messages when offline so it's actually optional for IMAP (but enabled by default). The XXX.msf is always present in IMAP. (For local folders you will have both files. Also, folders created under a pop account, except INBOX, are basically local folders since they have no connection to a remote email server. Richard wrote: >Does it mean TB Repair feature for IMAP folder is buggy and need fixing? This issue could have been a good occasion to look into it... No one should have to manually delete TB files on file system to fix issues. This could be hazardous and create more issues than it fixes... It feels like dirt hidden under the carpet in the hope it would disappear ;-) I've never actually seen this "emails pasted together" problem so I can't say for sure the just repair won't fix it. That's why I suggested just repair as the first step. But I've read that other beta user's had to delete at least the XXX.msf and some the mbox XXX file itself to recover. So maybe the best step would be: 1. try to repair the folder if that doesn't work, 2. delete the XXX.msf file and let TB rebuild it if that doesn't work 3. For IMAP only (not pop or local folders), delete XXX and XXX.msf and let TB rebuild them if that doesn't work, maybe start over with a brand new profile or wait for the complete re-write of IMAP and other stuff in javascript.