Closed Bug 1334884 Opened 8 years ago Closed 8 years ago

After an account is removed, its data is kept but lost

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
Untriaged
Version:
45 Branch
Platform:
x86_64
Linux
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 274452

People

(Reporter: alexey.muranov, Unassigned)

References

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:51.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/51.0 Build ID: 20170127171024 Steps to reproduce: I am using Thunderbird under Linux (Ubuntu and NixOS). I set up my existing IMAP e-mail accounts to work with Thunderbird. The messages from these accounts were downloaded. Then I removed all my accounts. In fact, one account I removed and recreated several times, before finally removing everything. Actual results: The accounts are completely removed from Thunderbird interface, and there seem to be no way to access the messages from the removed accounts. However, I checked the profile folder `.thunderbird/6zzwd8rf.default/`, and it seems that all the messages from the removed account are still there. In my case, this `ImapMail` folder alone takes 2.6 GB. Moreover, it contains several copies/versions of the account that I deleted and re-created several times. Expected results: Either the data from removed accounts should be removed, or it should be accessible from Thunderbird interface for removal or recovery. It looks like currently these data are just "leaked", taking space and possibly storing sensitive information but being inaccessible through the UI.
OS: Unspecified → Linux
Hardware: Unspecified → x86_64
That was fixed in bug 274452. The new function is available in TB 52 beta.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 8 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
I do not know what the current fix is, but IMO all files in profile folders should be either accessible or removable through the UI.
The fix is to prompt the user whether he/she wants to remove the files. That's the same Windows does when you remove a user account. You might want to keep the files for further processing.
Well, my point is that TB account is not like Windows account, files there are normally not intended to be accessed by user directly (even the profile folder name is not particularly user friendly). IMO it would be a proper solution to put TB completely in charge of the contents of the profile, so that the user be unaffected even if TB decides to store the profile in a database or elsewhere instead of a directory hierarchy. This means that for files left from a removed account there should be options (1) to restore them elsewhere, (2) export in some format, or (3) remove. Besides, there should be a "clean up" command to go through the profile directory and remove all files that are unused and unrecognised by TB. A simpler fix would be to just add such "clean up" command somewhere in the menu. If i for some reason do not remove files associated with an account when i remove the account, i would not even know later how to cleanly remove everything associated with that account without breaking things.
Aceman, please comment here, this user doesn't seem to be happy with the implemented solution.
Flags: needinfo?(acelists)
(In reply to alexey.muranov from comment #4) > Well, my point is that TB account is not like Windows account, files there > are normally not intended to be accessed by user directly (even the profile > folder name is not particularly user friendly). IMO it would be a proper > solution to put TB completely in charge of the contents of the profile, so > that the user be unaffected even if TB decides to store the profile in a > database or elsewhere instead of a directory hierarchy. A power-user does want to know where the data is stored and have access to it. If we went the database route, it could become just another secret format like Outlook did. I don't think Tb want's to go such a route. > This means that for files left from a removed account there should be > options (1) to restore them elsewhere, (2) export in some format, or (3) > remove. Yes, we implemented option (3) now as an option when removing an account. > Besides, there should be a "clean up" command to go through the > profile directory and remove all files that are unused and unrecognised by > TB. Any similar and relevant application that does this? On user's data, not cached temporary files. > A simpler fix would be to just add such "clean up" command somewhere in the > menu. > If i for some reason do not remove files associated with an account > when i remove the account, i would not even know later how to cleanly remove > everything associated with that account without breaking things. Then why do you choose the option to NOT let the application do it (on account removal), when you can't then do it yourself? The app asked you and you answered you know better. So why complain? The option is there for users that can utilize it. We do not pretend to know better and be in total charge of user's data (as you called it). Yes, before bug 274452 there was no option and we silently left user's data on the disk, which he may not be aware of. We now say so publicly in a dialog and let the user decide. A cleanup option could be implemented but it may be overkill and complicated. Also it is not as trivial as you think. When an account is removed, it contained some data that may be necessary to properly remove the residual files later. If only the account type and path, which determines where the message data was stored. Just going blindly through the profile and remove files/folders we think we do not recognize in the current version is very dangerous.
Flags: needinfo?(acelists)
Still unhappy, but i do not insist of course. If even for Thunderbird it is so non-trivial to clean up lost files in its profiles, then i am sorry for the power-user who decided to keep the files around for some reason and then wanted to clean them up.
Humans can guess some things that a computer can't.
Of course, but it would be nice if no guessing was necessary.
Blocks: TB52found
I have thought a bit more about this, and i admit that the "clean up" operation as i suggested is somewhat non-trivial and roughly amounts to computing the difference of two sets (the set of existing files and the set of used files). Probably it could be solved be keeping some kind of "index" of used files, but this looks like an unjustified complication. How about a somewhat different solution (for advanced users): add two commands to Profile Manager to Move and to Copy the contents of a profile to a new profile? The move operation probably should have an option to keep or remove any junk left from the former profile.
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