1245604 - Trash Folder ist gone, i have to create a new trash folder to delete emails

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[m_schmidt.63762]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:43.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/43.0
Build ID: 20160105164030

Steps to reproduce:

nothing it is from time to time, that the trash folder of my email ist gone and i can not delete any emails until i create a new folder named trash.

the problem is there for many YEARS!! I thougt it will be gone with a couple of updates or so i reinstalled my system many times and used the windows and linux client there is the same problem.. maybe it ist helpful to say that i always used the german client


Actual results:

the trash folder is gone and i can´t delete any emails until i create a new folder named trash


Expected results:

the folder shouldn´t be gone :-)

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

m_schmidt,

Does bug 1122010 comment 1 help?

Comment 2

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to m_schmidt.63762 from comment #0)
> Actual results:
> the trash folder is gone and i can´t delete any emails until i create a new folder named trash

"Can't delete mail when no trash can icon folder" itself is normal, because it's by implementation.
Main culprit is : No "trash can icon folder" state

> Steps to reproduce:
> nothing it is from time to time, that the trash folder of my email ist gone
> and i can not delete any emails until i create a new folder named trash.

Problem itself is old problem and were frequently reported in forums in the past.
Proposed procedures in forums were :
(a) Restart Thunderbird
(b) Create folder named "Trash" manually
(c) Create "trash", or "tRASH", or "trAsh", ..., manually
(d) Delete files named Trash/Trash.msf, then restart Thunderbird
(e) Copy files named Trash/Trash.msf from backup or from other account, then restart Thunderbird

If no Trash/Trash.msf files, Thunderbird creates Trash/Trash.msf upon restart.
So (d) should work, and (a) should usually work.
But, according to bug 1122010 comment 1, what happened looks "Trasf.msf remained, but no Trash file".
In this case, Thunderbird ignores the "Trasf.msf remained, but no Trasf file" folder, but file still exists.
So, simple "restart Thunderbird" doesn't work, and (b) or (c) is required.
Because trash folder in Thunderbird is case-insensitive, (c) also works.
(e) also works, because used set of Trash/Trash.msf is not broken.

Many peoples didn't experience problem after recovery procedures, but some peoples experienced problem again and again sooner or later.
Who experienced problem again were:
  (X) Who did (b), (Y) localized Thunderbird user who did (e)

Problem in (b) :
Even if Tb uses "trash" as trash folder and creates Trash.msf, "set of trash/Trash.msf" is never normal state.
To process trash!=Trash state, Tb saves "used file=trash,foldername=Trash" in Trasf.msf file.
This works a while, but mismatch between "trash" and "Trash.msf" produces problem sooner or later.
  "Empty Trash" can't recreate trasf folder, "Restart of Tb" can't recreate trash upon restart.

Problem in (e) : Similar thing to (b) happens.
Some versions of localized Thunderbird saved localized trash folder name in Trash.msf file.
  Call "localized trash folder name" XYZ.
    "used file=Trash,foldername=XYZ" is saved in Trash.msf => XYZ is shown at folder pane.
  this is same as "hashed file name" case.
    "used file=13de...ef,foldername=QQQ" => QQQ is shown at folder pane
Design of Thunderbird :
  no folder name, no used file name in SpecialFolderFile.msf
  show localized special folder name at Folder pane, Folder selection UI

If Trash.msf only remained, following may occur.
(1) Trash.msf contains "used file=trash,foldername=Trash" where "trash" is specified by user.
(2) Trash.msf contains "used file=Trash,foldername=XYZ" where "XYZ" is localized trash folder name.
Current "Empty Trash" =
   Delete file for trash(not Trash.msf)
 + Create file for trash(not Trash.msf) == "Trash"
 + Rebuild-Index(Repair Folder) with null file for trash.
So, "Empty Trash" may be affected by above status in Trash.msf.

IIRC, recent localized Thunderbird build won't save localized trash folder name in Trash.msf,
but Thunderbird may still save localize special folder name in special situations.

(Q1) Your mail addr is [e-mail]. Do you use Thunderbird-de build?

(Q2) If you will experience problem again, please check mail directory content.
(Q2-a) Is set of Trash/Trash.msf kept? Trash.msf only?
(Q2-b) Is localized trash folder name seen in Trash.msf?
(Q2-c) Is localized special folder name seen in Drafts.msf, Sent.msf, Templates.msf, Archives.msf and so on?

Comment 3

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Sorry typo.
Who experienced problem again were:
  (X) Who did (c),  (some peoples created "trash" instead of "Trash", then experianced again)
  (Y) localized Thunderbird user who did (e)

Comment 4

[Phoenix]

Resolved per whiteboard

Comment 5

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

I think "Incomple" is overdoing, because;
  Phenomenon of "no trash can icon" was reported frequently in the past, and it's still seen in B.M.O some times.
  When phenomenon of "no trash can icon" happened, including no folder named Trash in pop3/Local Folders,
  "Delete mail" does do nothing when local mail folder, or simpley store \Deleted if imap, is by implementation.
  As I wrote in comment #3, some cases about "when no folder named Trash phenomenon occurred" are known.
I think this kind of bugs are better consolidated to a bug and this kind of bug reports are better duped to it instead of closing 
as INCOMPLETE.

FYI.
Phenomena I know:
  If localized Trash name is written in Trash.msf by someone including localized Thunderbird himself,
  when Empty Trash, Thunderbird somehow fails to re-create Trash.
  ("Empty Trash" == delete file named Trash, recreate file named Trash, Re-Build Index==Repair Folder) using Trash.msf/null Trash)
  Further, in such situation, design is "create Trash upon restart" but Thunderbird looks to fail to create Trash upon restart,
  after "trash was used instead of Trash", "localized name of Trash is written in Trash.msf", and so on.

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

> I think "Incomple" is overdoing, because;

I would agree, except ... without further info from the reporter, can we actually match this bug to a specific previously reported bug?  Or can we tell just from the German language that it's like a duplicate of bug X?  If not, there's no lack of "Trash bugs", so we're not likely to be losing any important info by closing it.

Comment 7

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

I think a bug for "local Trash folder disappeared!" is sufficient for duping to it, because phenomenon of "local Trash folder disappeared" actually occurred in reporter's environment and a user's environment of a forum in Japan, and because at least a few users still reported the phenomenon during these several years.

By the way, I could reproduce phenomenon by intentionall modification of Trash.msf content by Text Editor in the past when problem was reported to a forum in Japan :-]