103478 - Inbox population stops (MSF file not updated) during initial download

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(MailNews Core :: Backend, defect)

Description

[Ere Maijala (slow)]

Steps to reproduce (requires a pop3 account with a lot of messages):
- with a new profile, create a pop3 mail account
- In server settings, tick "Automatically download any new messages" and "Leave
messages on sever"
- Close account settings dialog 
- Confirm that the account name is focused
- Press Get Msg button (Inbox starts populating)
- while download is in progress, click Inbox
-> download continues but messages don't appear in the list

Problem can be corrected by deleting inbox.msf. This has happened to me with an
older version also, and now when I tried 2001100503. At that time I think I
complained about it in the newsgroups, but didn't know how to report a bug. I'm
not sure if "Mail Database" is the correct component. Running on Windows 2000
Professional SP2.

Comment 1

[David :Bienvenu]

-> Navin - seems like a locking type problem.

Comment 2

[Navin Gupta]

We have similar bugs in the past which both sheela and I have tried to
reproduce with lots of message and these bugs have not been reproducible. 
This was also seen before I added any code to lock inbox. I myself use pop3
and have lots of messages ~4000 in inbox, i will try to reproduce it again. 

Comment 3

[Ere Maijala (slow)]

I seem to be able to reproduce it every time, so please ask if you are unable 
to. Could it have something to do with the initial creation of the MSF? At 
least it seems like it's building it when i click Inbox, because the message 
count will then run from zero to the then-current number.

Comment 4

[Navin Gupta]

Even repeatedly clicking on messages does not do what you have reported. 
The downloading seem to stop temporarily because another thread is trying to
load the message in message-pane, but once loading is over, it continues. It 
works just fine and this is on new profile. In your new profile there is no 
sort order, so it may seem that messages are not being added to the thread-pane. 
Try to sort it by date once the messages start coming and you will see scrollbar 
moving up, as new messages are added to thread-pane.

Comment 5

[Ere Maijala (slow)]

The problem is there, but it needs the exactly correct procedure (which I have 
done, it seems, twice before without thinking more about it). What I did now to 
verify it still happens was the following:
- deleted the pop account from Mozilla
- closed Mozilla (not using quick launch)
- deleted the directory from disk
- restarted Mozilla
- created the account as described before
Now be careful:
- do NOT click Inbox before you start the message retrieval
- start the download and wait a few secs or so that some of the messages are 
downloaded
- now click on Inbox for the first time

Download will continue as I said, but it definitely does not display the rest 
of messages before deleting the MSF file. 

Comment 6

[Navin Gupta]

It still works, did you do a sort on date ?

Comment 7

[Ere Maijala (slow)]

Okay, few more things (now using 2001100803):

- don't create the account using the wizard, because it will put the focus on 
the inbox and from that moment on it works correctly
- changing the sorting order does not make any difference

What has recently changed:

- restarting Mozilla now seems to rebuild the msf file or something because 
after restarting it will roll the message count from 0 to 400+ (as it should 
be) before asking for the password to get new messages. Now it will display all 
messages correctly.

I'd still like this to be resolved totally, so that it wouldn't ruin anyone's 
initial experience as it tried to do for me, but I understand that the problem 
seems to be quite rare.