509748 - Message list for Inbox blanks until manually selecting another folder to view (IMAP folder, after "Compact")

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Brett Leber]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/530.5 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/2.0.172.39 Safari/530.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2a2pre) Gecko/20090810 Lightning/1.0pre Shredder/3.1a1pre ID:20090810224307

For my main IMAP account, I leave Shredder open on my Inbox view which lists all messages. Over time, this message list will just go blank in one step--I don't know the trigger. If a new message arrives, it appears in the message list but no other messages are shown. I have to click on another folder for messages to populate the list. Clicking back to the Inbox shows all of my messages like normal. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Leave IMAP mail account open with Inbox message list shown.
2. Wait 10(?) minutes.
Actual Results:  
Message list is completely blank.

Expected Results:  
Nothing should have changed, except maybe some new messages in the message list if they arrived during the 10 min.

Also running Lightning nightly.

Comment 1

[rsx11m]

With Shredder 3.0b4pre on WinXP, checking for new mail every 10 minutes, I haven't seen what you describe even after leaving it open idle for a while. Since you are using 3.1a1pre, did you try to reproduce this with a build from the latest-comm-1.9.1 nightlies?

It may be 1.9.1/1.9.2-branch issue, or try safe mode to exclude any impact from extensions. If it happens with 3.0b4pre as well, it may be an interoperability issue with your IMAP server, or something in the profile causing problems.

Comment 2

[Brett Leber]

I think I meant to be testing with 3.0/1.9.1. In any case, I will try both reproducing with a latest-comm-1.9.1 nightly and also using safe mode for 3.1a1pre.

Comment 3

[Brett Leber]

I was able to reproduce in these cases:
- The original 3.1a1pre build in safe mode (existing profile)
- 1.9.1.3pre, Gecko/20090812 Shredder/3.0b4pre, safe mode (existing profile)
- 1.9.1.3pre, Gecko/20090812 Shredder/3.0b4pre, safe mode (new profile)

Steps to reproduce: I right-clicked Inbox for my IMAP account and chose "Compact". This triggered it, but it doesn't always trigger it (unfortunately).

Comment 4

[rsx11m]

If this only occurs during a routine expunge (compacting in IMAP), that may be another hint. I'm adding the IMAP experts to the CC list, but if you have some further information under which conditions the message list blanks, that would be helpful to narrow down the issue.

Comment 5

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Blank message list pane(thread pane) is easily observed by manual rebuild-index with local mail folder, using Tb trunk 2009/8/10 build on MS Win. Mails are listed by folder re-open(click other folder, then click folder again).
Compact of local mail folder resets or changes thread pane display(sort order, currently selected mail, current scroll position etc.)

If comment #0 was for one time failure, it may be a result of an internal rebuild-index due to some internal errors while running or previous run.

Comment 6

[rsx11m]

WADA, not a one-time failure per comment #3 and apparently reproducible when compacting. However, if offline syncing is used this may cause the effect you describe when re-indexing a local folder (I was assuming that the problem occurs on the remote-folder indexing, but in the offline case also the local index may become inconsistent triggering a rebuild).

Brett, do you have the uppermost checkbox activated in the Synchronization & Storage pane of the Account Settings? If yes, did you switch folders when there was current activity downloading messages for IMAP offline storage, possibly resulting in some inconsistent offline-storage stage?

Comment 7

[rsx11m]

Brett, per bug 510330, do you see any background activity (network or disk) immediately after the message list blanks? Anything in Tools > Activity Manager indicating that message headers are downloaded?

Comment 8

[Brett Leber]

Message Synchronizing is enabled--"Keep messages for this account on this computer"--for all folders in the account. I'm sure I have switched folders when there was activity downloading messages for offline storage, but the blank inbox also occurs when the client is just sitting idle.

I compacted my inbox again, got the "Deleted 2 messages from Inbox" message in the Activity Manager. Immediately afterward, I saw the main progress bar for Thunderbird fill up, but there was no message in the status area or in the Activity Manager. Then the inbox went blank. Not sure how to detect background activity besides looking at the Windows Task Manager, but things looked pretty quiet there.

Comment 9

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

FYI.
I've opened Bug 510643 for local mail folder/rebuild-index case in Comment #5.

Adding "IMAP" and "Compact" in bug summary for ease of search, to avoid confusion with Bug 510643. Sorry to Threaded View lovers.

Comment 10

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

FYI.
"Scroll position reset to top after Compact" in Comment #5 was Bug 479064.

Comment 11

[Brett Leber]

Although no one asked for one, I've gone ahead and created an IMAP protocol log. If this would be useful for anyone, I'll go ahead and anonymize it a bit and attach it to this issue.

Comment 12

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to comment #11)
> Although no one asked for one, I've gone ahead and created an IMAP protocol
> log. If this would be useful for anyone, I'll go ahead and anonymize it a bit
> and attach it to this issue.

Please do

Comment 13

[Brett Leber]

Attachment: IMAP, level 5, protocol log - delete/move a few emails, expunge, mail window blanks

Log file is much larger than it needs to be -- sorry -- but it captures the "compact"/expunge action followed by the blanking Inbox.

Comment 14

[Brett Leber]

Trying to find a regression window ... On Ubuntu 8.04, the behavior described in this bug happens currently, but did NOT happen with an earlier build:

No problem: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.2pre) Gecko/20090728 Shredder/3.0b4pre

Problem: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3pre) Gecko/20090805 Shredder/3.0b4pre

I was able to reproduce on the later build by clicking the Compact button. This was followed by activity in the mail window (filling progress bar) and the blanking. On the earlier build, I clicked Compact, which was followed by the compacting and notably, no activity (no filling progress bar) in the main mail window.

Comment 15

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

FYI.
"Compaction of offline-store file" by "Folder context menu/Compact" was disabled by  Bug 420115 on 21 Nov 2008.
> http://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/log?rev=e2c807892615
And it has come back by first part of patches for Bug 482476 on 03 Aug 2009.
> http://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/log?rev=9aada059ba20
See Bug 499630 for brief history of "Compact and offline-store".

Comment 16

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

http://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/pushloghtml?startdate=2009-07-28&enddate=2009-08-05

Sounds likely bug Bug 482476 caused/exposed this bug.

I see it almost on a daily basis. Click compact, old messages are cleared, bug 510330 shows, and then an empty thread pane. 

No exceptions, no nothing.

Comment 17

[Brett Leber]

I also noticed today (20090901 Shredder/3.0b4pre) that if I have messages open in tabs, these tabs (Inbox excluded) are closed when the thread pane goes blank.

Comment 18

[Chris Andrichak]

I'm seeing this too in the nightly, for maybe 2 weeks now.

Just had it happen when I hit the compact button on my inbox, and this was in the error console - assuming it is related:

2009-09-29 21:35:10	gloda.ds.pch	ERROR	PostCommitHandler callback (undefined:150) threw: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004003 (NS_ERROR_INVALID_POINTER) [nsIMsgDBHdr.setUint32Property]"  nsresult: "0x80004003 (NS_ERROR_INVALID_POINTER)"  location: "JS frame :: file:///Applications/Shredder.app/Contents/MacOS/modules/gloda/indexer.js :: anonymous :: line 150"  data: no]

Comment 19

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

I think we need this sorted out, it's *very* common.

Comment 20

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

Given the apparent relationship to bug 482476, giving to bienvenu for further investigation.

Comment 21

[David :Bienvenu]

I spent some time trying to reproduce this today, w/o any luck.

Comment 22

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Using imap mark-as-deleted may be key to seeing it.

Comment 23

[David :Bienvenu]

Now that bug 519801 is fixed, do you still see this, Magnus?

Comment 24

[David :Bienvenu]

I saw this yesterday, so it's not fixed. I suspect it does have to do with issues/errors compacting the offline store, however, which was what bug 519801 was about.

Comment 25

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Indeed, it's been better, but i just saw it myself too again.

Comment 26

[David :Bienvenu]

I do have a potential fix for this, which I'll put up in a bit.

Comment 27

[David :Bienvenu]

Attachment: proposed fix

Magnus, do you think you could try running with this patch?

Comment 28

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Comment on attachment 406326 [details] [diff] [review]
proposed fix

This looks like it is reasonable to give it a try.

Should we be logging the fact that it failed somewhere?

Comment 29

[David :Bienvenu]

The compaction code could use some logging and/or activity manager integration, but it doesn't have any now.

Comment 30

[Brett Leber]

My Inbox no longer blanks (excellent!), but compaction does appear to trigger a process of fetching a lot of information from the server (not so excellent). I don't have a sense for whether this extra activity with the server is necessary; it's been common for the past few months and always happens after a compact. (I want to say it never happened in TB 2.x, but I don't have any proof at the moment.) Is the extra activity a bug or a required process?

Comment 31

[David :Bienvenu]

Brett, are you running a recent nightly build?

Comment 32

[Brett Leber]

David, I'm running yesterday's build: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5pre) Gecko/20091020 Shredder/3.0pre

Comment 33

[Jim Oles]

I am having this problem in ThunderBird RC1 PortableApps Version.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091130 Thunderbird/3.0
It started with TB3 beta 4.