117664 - Deleted IMAP folders are still visible

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(MailNews Core :: Networking: IMAP, defect)

Description

[a.ludwin]

Because of bug 101923, I couldn't delete any of my folders, so I went in and did
it through another e-mail package. When I restarted Mozilla, all the folders I
deleted where still listed under the server. If I click on one of the late
folders, I get a message such as:
The current command did not succeed. The mail server responded: SELECT failed:
cannot open mailbox Sent Items: no such mailbox
The workaround is probably to kill my profile and start again, although I
haven't tried it. I also saw this on Windows ME before I upgraded, it's probably
affecting all platforms.
Happy new year all

Comment 1

[Henry Jia]

I reproduced this bug on Win2K & solaris with Solstice IMAP server.

Comment 2

[Arno Roefs]

This is a common issue with IMAP, i've experienced it with Eudora, Outlook as
well as Mozilla. Usually updating your folders fixes it, not sure if this is a bug.

Comment 3

[André Dahlqvist]

I see this too with 2002-06-13-20 from the 1.0-branch on Linux. Mozilla didn't
allow me to delete some folders, so I used my webmail service to remove them.
Now, even with a nuked ~/.mozilla and a brand new install of mozilla the folders
are visible in mozilla.

Platform->All
OS->All
Status->NEW

Comment 4

[André Dahlqvist]

As a workaround you re-create the folders in another client, and then remove
them in mozilla. Not very ideal but...

Comment 5

[Eric Krock]

Still seeing with Moz 1.1b on WinXP Pro. Andre's workaround did work as
advertised. Outlook was the "other package." Thanks Andre!

Comment 6

[Henry Jia]

Taking. :-)

Add mscott to the CC list.

The reason is that even if you delete the folder on IMAP server, you don't
unsubscribe them. Mozilla shows the folders that are subscribed.

As a workaround, you can also create the folder in mozilla instead of outer
package then delete it.

Comment 7

[lohphat]

Two years later and still happening on 1.8a3.  Any progress?

Comment 8

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 209930 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I've seen this, inconsistently but frequently, after deleting folders in version 3.0a2pre (2008070205).  For folder which I've had hidden a long time by "show only subscribed folders".

When I try to delete a second time I get 

The current command did not succeed. The mail server responded: Can't delete mailbox ... no such mailbox

Comment 10

[Gentle]

To make this more complete:
In all versions from Thunderbird this exist, even in the newest version 3, nobody give any attention to it.
The delete folders names are staying visible in light grey italic.
Nothing will help to delete them out of your IMAP folder list within Thunderbird.
Deleting the folders in Thunderbird will not help, after restart Thunderbird they appear again, reinstall or delete the .msf files in the profile map will help either, even tough the folder name does not exist on the server, once created it will be there in light grey italic within Thunderbird.

When you delete the Trash or the Draft folder then the problems are even more worse.
Deleting the trash folder in Thunderbird give as result that messages can not be deleted anymore.
What is should expect is that Thunderbird will check if this folder exist and recreate it when not present, the same for the draft folder.
Yes I know you can create the trash folder in the prefs.js file. But it is not possible to make the trash with the same name. If you do it you will get two trash folders with the same name, one is light grey italic and the other one is the good one.
For the draft folder I did not succeed to make it and I have now two light grey folders called Draft

WHEN THIS WILL BE SOLVED?

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

needs some qa.  and I bet there are a bunch of duplicates to this.

Comment 12

[Onno Ekker [:nONoNonO UTC+1]]

Did you check on comment #6 about folder subscriptions?
Also some folder information is cached in panacea.dat file in your profile directory. See mozillazine for more info that might help:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Phantom_folders
http://kb.mozillazine.org/IMAP_folder_cannot_be_deleted

Comment 13

[Gentle]

Indeed the Phantom folders instructions helped a little.
But still I have 3 folders who are light grey, the double draft folder is gone.
If those articles are there why no programmer is solving this in the software?
You really must be enigineer as normal user to solve this kind of things, crazy.

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

please test that this is gone when version 3 becomes available

Comment 15

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

RESOLVED INCOMPLETE due to lack of response to last question. If you feel this change was made in error, please respond to this bug with your reasons why.

Comment 16

[Geoffroy Ménard]

This still happens in thunderbird 24.5 when an IMAP folder is deleted from elsewhere than thunderbird

Comment 17

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Geoffroy Ménard from comment #16)
> This still happens in thunderbird 24.5 when an IMAP folder is deleted from
> elsewhere than thunderbird

Have you checked the items in comment 10 and sought assistance at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/thunderbird ?  Also, closed bugs are typically not good places to achieve resolution, especially ones where the last previous relevant comment was 6 years ago.  I you really think there is a bug, please file a new bug.