email account configuration has misleading description which can lead to loss of emails
Categories
(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect)
Tracking
(Not tracked)
People
(Reporter: andr55, Unassigned)
Details
(Keywords: good-first-bug)
The problem is a misleading description. (note my version of Seamonkey is in french, so english may be approximate) In email module . Under Edit / Account preferences .. on the server parametre page (for a POP3 account) ... There is a option : "Leave messages on the server" .... And a sub-option : "Until I delete them" Unfortunately, if one deletes a message on the computer, it also deletes the message on the server. So the sub-option should read : "Until I delete them ON THIS COMPUTER" Note that this option had been checked on all my accounts, as it seemed to indicate "until I delete them on the server". Normally I keep all messages (except spam), so this was not previously noticed. What happened : 1) For some reason, all the messages still on my email server were downloaded a second time, so I had close to a thousand duplicate messages on my computer 2) I proceeded to delete the duplicate messages. 3) After deleting the duplicates on my computer, I accessed my email account via the web. There were still at least many hundreds of emails on the server. The server was apparently quite slow deleting them. 4) Because of a display problem (likely caused by the delete process on the server), I disconnected and reconnected 5) I discovered that all but a few emails had been deleted on the server. Since users may download emails on a different computer first, and then delete them, this misleading description can be very dangerous, leading to losing important emails. Because of this I classify this as having "major" severity. (Fortunately it is easily fixed.) To reiterate : "Until I delete them" (which seems to indicate ON THE SERVER) should read "Until I delete them ON MY COMPUTER"
Ping ? This very misleading description in "menu / account preferences / server parameters" option "leave messages on the server" / "until I delete them" should read "until I delete them ON THIS COMPUTER" meaning "delete a message on the server if I delete it on this computer" since it seems to imply "until I delete them on the server". This misunderstanding could result in losing important emails for those temporarily accessing their email on a secondary computer.
Comment 3•4 years ago
|
||
REPRODUCIBLE with installation of unofficial (by wg9s) De SeaMonkey 2.53.4beta 1 pre Mozilla/5.0 (NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0 Build 20200604210008 (Default Classic Theme, newly created User Profile) on German WIN7 64bit anda POP3 account of mine.
Configuration: 'Leave mails on server', no number of days checked, 'until they will be deleted'.
STR:
- Check INBOX emails with WEB interface of my emails service provider for particular email; it's on SMTPserver
- In SM select email in Thread pane and pres <Del> key
» particular email moved to "Trash" - In Web interface click 'update' Icon and check INBOX fpr particula email; it has gone.
Text in UI for option 'until they will be deleted' made me think that I will have to delete an email on the SMTP server to get rid of it there. But actually deletion on my PC makes the email vanish from SMTP server.
So I agree with reporter's suggestion.
Additional informatin
a) I think this one can be fixed easily without danger of unwanted querulous
b) I see this one as an UI problem, not as a configuration problem.
c) Needs change in all Localizations, too.
Description
•