1300407 - Thunderbird hangs before sending: "Attaching ..."

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 532395

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Jonas Haller]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:48.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/48.0
Build ID: 20160823121617

Steps to reproduce:

All is explained here:
https://gabriolagraphics.com/thuderbird-email-client-wont-send-hanging-up-saying-attaching/


Actual results:

https://gabriolagraphics.com/thuderbird-email-client-wont-send-hanging-up-saying-attaching/


Expected results:

https://gabriolagraphics.com/thuderbird-email-client-wont-send-hanging-up-saying-attaching/

Comment 1

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Which version are you using? The report says TB 51, but this is hard to believe since this should be fixed in TB 49 beta and TB 51.

Otherwise this is also a duplicate of bug 532395.

Why are you reporting this again pointing to a webpage from Jan. 2015?

Comment 2

[Elhem Enohpi]

Commenting here since comments for bug 532395 are closed.

Fyi, this problem still exists for me with Thunderbird 50.0b3. It seems to be resolved in 51.0b1 RC from November 15, and in 52.0a2.

In 50.0b3, using a POP account, if I try to reply to a message with embedded / inline images, upon the third auto-save, I get the error message:
 
 Confirm
 There was a problem including the file PA123456.jpeg in the message. Would you like to continue saving the message without this file?
 Cancel / OK

...and the "attaching" indicator in the status bar.

If I press "OK", the image turns into a broken-image placeholder, and the mail will be sent without it. If I press "cancel", I get:

 Save Draft Error
 Unable to save your message as a draft.
 Sending of the message failed.
 OK

As a workaround, keeping the "Drafts" folder open while composing the reply prevents the problem.

Comment 3

[Kent James (:rkent)]

Elhem Enohpi, the proper path is to file a new bug. The previous bugs resolved a specific issue, so any remaining symptoms are a different issue with the same symptoms. Reproducible test cases are the key to success.

Comment 4

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

You should repair and compact your drafts folder.

This will be completely fixed in TB 52. There is no need for new bugs.

Comment 5

[Elhem Enohpi]

Jorg, thanks for the tip about doing a repair and compact on the Drafts folder, but unfortunately it doesn't fix the issues.

I've found three different cases now that provoke the "Attaching..." (no longer endless, thanks to Kent's work in bug 453196), in the current beta, 50.0b3. At least one of them is also present in 52.0a2. All are related to auto-save drafts with POP3. I can give steps to reproduce, starting with a fresh profile. Some or all may be Mac-specific, as I've only tested there.

Kent, thanks for your comment. Bug 532395 however hasn't been resolved, just closed to further comments. The bug is defined as "to collect bugs which report the same symptom ("Attaching..." endless spin), but whose causes have not been verified yet." I don't want to file a new bug that's a duplicate, so I'm not sure what to do. Would this information be helpful to either of you? If so, how should I report it?

Comment 6

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Try a 52.0a2 (Earlybird) build of today. We have just completely restructured handling of embedded images as of today. This should further avoid the "Attaching..." problem. Note that this is "alpha" software, so there are known issues which are tracked in bug 1322155.

If you can still produce the problem in this version in a reproducible fashion, we're really interested.

You can report your findings here. Thank you in advance.

Comment 7

[Elhem Enohpi]

I was using 52.0a2 from November 30. In the December 5 build, I'm no longer seeing the issue. I can see in the HTML source that you're not referencing the previous messages/drafts anymore. So that's great, thanks to both of you for all your work on this!

For the record, here's a description of three situations that produced the error messages, in case they still represent some sort of underlying corruption of the index of the Drafts folder etc., which is no longer apparent with the new method of referencing:

1. "Open and then close the Drafts folder, after a message is autosaved more than once."
(Provokes the error message in 52.0a2 Nov 30, but not in 52.0a2 Dec 5. I could reproduce this on Mac but not on Windows 7.)
- create a new profile and a POP3 account.
- start composing a message, then save it as a draft, so there is at least one message in the Drafts folder. View the message, then switch back to the Inbox.
- send a message with an embedded image to the account.
- start composing a reply to it.
- after the autosave interval, a copy is saved in the Drafts folder. Type some more text.
- after another autosave interval, the first copy is deleted, and a second copy saved. Type some more text.
- switch to the Drafts folder briefly, then switch back to the Inbox. This is the critical step that causes the failure.
- the next (third) autosave will fail with the message "There was a problem including the file mailbox:///Users/username/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/test-profile/Mail/mail.mydomain.com/Drafts?number=3&header=quotebody&part=1.2&filename=image.jpg in the message. Would you like to continue saving the message without this file?"
- note that the message number and part are correct, but the attachment fails anyway.

2. "Use maildir format message store."
(Provokes the error message in 50.0b3, but not in 52.0a2 Nov 30 or Dec 5. Only tested on Mac).
- create a new profile, and set the message store type to "file per message".
- create a POP3 account.
- reply to a message with an embedded image.
- after the autosave interval, the Drafts folder is created, and a copy is saved. Type some more text.
- after another autosave interval, the first copy is deleted, and a second copy saved. Type some more text.
- the third autosave fails with the message "There was a problem including the file mailbox:///Users/username/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/test-profile/Mail/mail.mydomain.com/Drafts?number=2&header=quotebody&part=1.2&filename=image.jpg in the message. Would you like to continue saving the message without this file?".
- note that the message number and part are correct, but the attachment fails anyway.

3. "Messages with mixed line endings in the Drafts folder" (somewhat obscure).
(Provokes the error message in 50.0b3, but not in 52.0a2 Nov 30 or Dec 5. Only tested on Mac).
- related to bug 285408 and/or bug 197733, it's possible to have a Drafts folder that contains some messages with CR/LF line endings, and some with only LF line endings.
- arrange to have such a Drafts folder (possibly by using a 14-year-old profile, or by hand editing a test profile?).
- reply to a message with an embedded image.
- on the third autosave, it will fail with the above message.
- compacting or repairing the Drafts folder does not solve the issue. The line endings in the Drafts mbox must be manually repaired first.

Comment 8

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Thank you for your long reply. Looks like in the Dec 5th version all problems are fixed. This is what will go to beta after 2017-01-23 and to release/ESR in March 2017.

Given that my time is very very limited, I won't try any of the scenarios that you described, but it's great to have them on file, so thank you very much. Some comments:

1) You couldn't produce this on Windows, so since I'm on Windows, I won't try.
2) I don't use maildir much, so that may be why I never saw this.
3) A little obscure, so I won't try.

If you notice any more problems with 52.0a2 Earlybird of Dec 5th or later, please let us know.

There still seems to be a problem with part numbers when saving drafts multiple times, watch bug 1322103.