1107159 - "N" keyboard shortcut to go to the next unread message sometimes does not work

Status: REOPENED

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[jacquesdrillon]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:33.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/33.0
Build ID: 20141106120505

Steps to reproduce:

I tried to get the new unread message. I type on the "new message" button, I press "n", nothing happens. 


Actual results:

I go back to the list of messages, I open manually the next new message, it opens, and then the "new" button works.

Comment 1

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Jacques, this works for me on TB 31.3.0 on WinXP.
If we cannot reproduce your problem, there's nothing we can do.
Where is your focus before it does NOT work?
Does this happen every time until you manually select something first, or it happens only sometimes but sometimes everything works fine?

Probably wfm.

Comment 2

[jacquesdrillon]

"Wfm"?? What does it mean?
My OS is Win7, not XP.
The bug is not constant. Let's say 2/3 times. I don't understand your question: "where is your focus?". I launch TB, I see the new messages, I open the first one by clicking on it, and try to get the second one directly from the first one, with the "New" or "n" button/letter.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

 jacquesdrillon, do you still see this problem when using a current version of Thunderbird?

Comment 4

[jacquesdrillon]

Sure, since you've not fixed it. The "next" button or "N" key are active at the second attempt, in the new messages list. I have to close the first read message, go back to the list, open the following message, and then it works. Version 38.5.1.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Unfortunately lack of activity in a bug report is not a good indicator of whether the problem still exists.
So you are opening these messages in standalone window?
Did the problem not happen for you prior to version 31, for example in version 24?

Comment 6

[jacquesdrillon]

I tried 1.02. (Why have you two numberings for the versions??) It works.

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to jacquesdrillon from comment #6)
> I tried 1.02. 

We don't have a 1.02. Did you mean and earlier version like 24.0.1?

Is that the one that works?

Comment 8

[jacquesdrillon]

I mean this one (your setup file):
"Thunderbird setup.exe", 25 05 2005.

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Thanks, but unfortunately a test of 1.02 doesn't put things into perspective for "recent" versions.

Please try version 45 from http://www.mozilla.org/thunderbird/channel/ started in safe mode https://support.mozilla.org/kb/safe-mode

Comment 10

[jacquesdrillon]

Works perfectly. No "next button" bug. I'll reinstall it when it comes in french...

Comment 11

[Brent Eagles]

Trying in 38.6 (will check with requested version asap) and I can reproduce. The pattern for me seems to be this:

- with open messages in an existing message window set
- double click on a message
- keyboard shortcuts work (N for next, B for back, P for previous, etc)
- in the message list, double click on the new message (I'm not sure if it matters if it is a different folder or not I haven't checked and documented more permutations yet, but it might matter)
- keyboard shortcuts no longer work

Without knowing more about how the navigation code works, I would guess that the message window keeps context for navigation purposes and this either gets wiped or made inconsistent if loading a new message into the window via a double click. Something else that might be relevant here is that if I enable opening messages in a new window, the keyboard navigation works fine in both windows and they seemingly track what I would call their navigational context fine. I haven't tried overlaps (i.e. windows having the same message open at the same time) but I wouldn't expect this to be a problem as long as the windows are keeping their own context and not sharing global context (if so, bad! bad!).

As a workaround for other users that are stymied by this, I might suggest enabling open messages in new windows and "suffer" the drudgery of manually managing the extra windows. You might find it suits your workflow better anyways.

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to jacquesdrillon from comment #10)
> Works perfectly. No "next button" bug. I'll reinstall it when it comes in
> french...

Jacques, so this is working for you using version 45??

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Brent, does version 45 also fail using the same steps?

Today I experienced a case where navigation failed, but I do not know what triggered it.
I definitely had a message selected in the tab, but all navigation was greyed out.
It started working again, I think after I selected a different tab and came back to the problem tab.
Nothing in error console.

FWIW, https://mzl.la/2jZ88D2 lists the various navigation bug reports.

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk, NI for questions) from comment #13)
> ...
> Today I experienced a case where navigation failed, but I do not know what
> triggered it.

Ignore that part of my comment. I was seeing bug 278386

Comment 15

[Christian Riechers]

I'm seeing an issue I believe after the update to TB52.0b3.

When reading through a newsgroup thread in a new message window, one can use the 'F' key to jump
to the next message, and the 'space' key to jump to the next unread message.
Within a thread, now 'space' works only once or a couple of times.
Afterwards neither the 'space' nor the 'F' keyboard shortcuts work
anymore within that thread.
Note, the thread must be unread, or must have unread messages in it.

This does not happen when reading the thread in a new tab.
There was no such problem in beta 2.
Also happens in safe mode.

Seen in TB on both, Linux and Win7
Newsgroup mozilla.support.thunderbird on news.mozilla.com

The problem is not specific to this NG.

Comment 16

[Joe Sabash [:JoeS1]]

(In reply to Christian Riechers from comment #15)
> I'm seeing an issue I believe after the update to TB52.0b3.
> 
> When reading through a newsgroup thread in a new message window, one can use
> the 'F' key to jump
> to the next message, and the 'space' key to jump to the next unread message.
> Within a thread, now 'space' works only once or a couple of times.
> Afterwards neither the 'space' nor the 'F' keyboard shortcuts work
> anymore within that thread.
> Note, the thread must be unread, or must have unread messages in it.
> 
> This does not happen when reading the thread in a new tab.
> There was no such problem in beta 2.
> Also happens in safe mode.
> 
> Seen in TB on both, Linux and Win7
> Newsgroup mozilla.support.thunderbird on news.mozilla.com
> 
> The problem is not specific to this NG.

I was about to confirm this bug in TB52.0b3
Can reproduce there if the thread  (or a message in the thread was never opened in a tab0)However, I can not reproduce in 52.0b4 which will be released probably the first part of next week.

I can't point to a specific targeted fix in TB code that addressed this, so I assume Core Gecko.

Please update to beta 4 when it becomes available, and report back here
Thanks

Comment 17

[jacquesdrillon]

The bug I reported stil occurs on TB 45.7.1
Thanks

Comment 18

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Please don't set priority. That is for developers

Comment 19

[Christian Riechers]

(In reply to Joe Sabash [:JoeS1] from comment #16)
> Please update to beta 4 when it becomes available, and report back here

Updated to beta 4 and problem is gone.

Comment 20

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

WFM per comment 19

Comment 21

[Onno Ekker [:nONoNonO UTC+1]]

I still see this and need to restart a couple of times before the N-key works in TB52. I've just now added the Next unread button seems and that seems to work, but I haven't tried that before.

Comment 22

[Onno Ekker [:nONoNonO UTC+1]]

Only the "N" keyboard shortcut doesn't work (sometimes), the Next button and the menu Go > Next > Unread Message both work as expected, so this issue has got probably something to do with the key_nextUnreadMsg.
All other keys, like "P" for previous unread message and "F"/"B" next/previous message work normal.
If I can do anything to help fix this issue, I'm more than willing to do so, since it bugs me a lot.