1121870 - Compose window sometimes becomes unresponsive and loses focus to main window

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 942610

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Onno Ekker [:nONoNonO UTC+1]]

Sometimes when typing a message body, Thunderbird becomes unresponsive and switches focus to the main window. This has some very bad side effects, because the text I typed for the message body also go to the main window, causing me to accidentally archive messages or kill threads...

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Onno, are you still seeing this problem?
And if not, how did you solve it?
(we're seeing lots of reports about this recently, particularly with windows 10 users)

Comment 2

[Onno Ekker [:nONoNonO UTC+1]]

Unfortunately I still see this. I think it is related to the auto check for new messages every x minutes steeling focus, because today I saw a new message in the thread pane when it happened.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Onno Ekker [:nONoNonO UTC+1] from comment #2)
> Unfortunately I still see this. I think it is related to the auto check for
> new messages every x minutes steeling focus, because today I saw a new
> message in the thread pane when it happened.

bug 1233575 reports something similar

Comment 4

[markb77]

I am seeing this bug regularly, on two different Windows 7 machines.  The behavior started, on both machines, only within the last few weeks.  I don't know if it's related to a recent update, or to the increasing size of my mailbox...

It's a terrible bug I have also accidentally deleted emails this way.

Comment 5

[markb77]

my version: TB 38.6.0

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to markb77 from comment #4)
> I am seeing this bug regularly, on two different Windows 7 machines.  The
> behavior started, on both machines, only within the last few weeks.  I don't
> know if it's related to a recent update, or to the increasing size of my
> mailbox...
> 
> It's a terrible bug I have also accidentally deleted emails this way.

markb77, thanks for commenting. Is your OS the same as nONoNonO (win7)?  

If you start thunderbird in safe mode does the problem go away?
Or if you revert to 38.5.0 or 38.4.0? 
http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/38.5.0/win32/en-US/
http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/38.4.0/win32/en-US/

Comment 7

[kgc+github]

I'm seeing the same problem on multiple Windows 10 systems, all running 45.4.0.  This bug is severe enough that it effectively prevents me from using Thunderbird.  If there is anything I can do to help track down the bug I'm happy to do so.

Comment 9

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Bug 942610 is report for similar symptom when new mail notification(toaster popup) is shown/hidden.
There are some bug reports for similar symptom by unknown reason. This bug seems such one.
Setting dependency to Bug 942610 for ease of anlysis/search/tracking.

Comment 10

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to kgc+github from comment #7)
> I'm seeing the same problem on multiple Windows 10 systems, (snip)

If Windows 10, Bug 1234317 can occur too(phenomenon with slideshow in Thunderbird is described in Bug 1258152).
If Windows 10 and you use slideshow, see Bug 1258152.

Comment 11

[KitchM]

This is a duplicate of 942610.

Comment 12

[Walt Scheper]

Wayne and Onno this sounds very much like my issue which was reported with both Thunderbird and Daily. I notice this occurs as new mail arrives and  filters (very extensive) run to file the email to the correct folder. I too have had focus moved to the main window where queued keystrokes are transferred to the main window resulting in deletion of emails as well as other unwanted actions.

This in my case was improved by removing some tasks from startup. I conjecture these were causing contention on the file system. That contention with the filter logic and data storing of new messages wasn't handled well and loss of focus occurred.

Even though I am no longer seeing these symptoms constantly I continue to see them occasionally even after the changes.

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Walt Scheper from comment #12)
> ... I notice this occurs as new mail arrives and filters (very extensive) run to file the email to the correct folder. 

How many filters?

Comment 14

[Walt Scheper]

Wayne I have 151 named filters. Most are for a keyword in subject and a sender. A couple are checking for unwanted/spam emails that are simply discarded. The larger one of these has 40 email addresses.

My work is as a DBA/Tech Lead for a large Data Warehouse. We have 10 Divisions with over 100 jobs running daily and emailing results. Some jobs generate 1 message per job step. This can be as many as 140 messages per day. I estimate 300-400 job messages per day are received. I receive another 30 to 50 work emails daily from clients and our Security/Technology grops. The job emails are filtered into folders named for the division and system.  These are on an Office 365 imap server. Our organization purges emails after 10 months. To maintain history every folder and every email is copied locally to Local Folders which has an identical folder structure.

Comment 15

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Walt Scheper from comment #14)
> Wayne I have 151 named filters. Most are for a keyword in subject and a
> sender. A couple are checking for unwanted/spam emails that are simply
> discarded. The larger one of these has 40 email addresses.

Good info. To reduce confusion, let's continue in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1158079  If we find information useful to this bug we can pull it from the support topic.

Comment 16

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Onno, would you say your symptoms are much the same as bug 942610?

Comment 17

[Onno Ekker [:nONoNonO UTC+1]]

Yes, my symptoms are much the same, but it is not restricted to reply messages only as the summary of bug 942610 says, but holds for any compose windows, be it write new message, reply or forward.

Comment 18

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

OK. Let's call this a duplicate of bug 942610 - which was reported on linux but has one or two windows bugs duped to it.