1481430 - Ignore thread: un-ignore doesn't work, suggested documentation improvements

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[[e-mail]]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:61.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/61.0
Build ID: 20180621125625

Steps to reproduce:

First of all, thanks to all the authors of Mozilla Thunderbird for a long-term functional and maintained e-mail client. Thanks for the possibility to file bug reports :-)

Precise version: 52.9.1 32bit (= latest release, IMO) on Win7 64bit, two different systems with different individual update histories and SW install histories. In both cases, there's only the Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus in the system. 

Reproduced in Thunderbird in an IMAP account, connected to a Cyrus 2.4.17 on Debian 8.8.

Go to your IMAP inbox and select some message. Preferably a message belonging to a running thread. In the selected message, press "k" or select "Message" -> "Ignore Thread". The message and all its thread-siblings will disappear. Have your conversation partner reply to you in the same thread (keeping the message ID). The newly arrived message will raise the reported number of unread messages for the inbox, but the message won't appear in the listing. So far this is expected behavior. Note: the ignored messages can still be reached in at least two ways:
A) search for the message in the folder, e.g. by subject or by sender. The ignored messages will be returned by the search dialog, and can be viewed in a newly open tab.
B) or just use View -> Ignored Threads .
But for the problem: try using "k" or the "Ignore Thread" menu item, to un-ignore the thread. It doesn't work!


Actual results:

No matter what you try, once a thread is flagged to be ignored, there doesn't seem to be a functional way to un-ignore it, to cancel that pesky "ignore" check mark. 
The only work-around currently is to have the ignored threads displayed regardless.

If you go googling for "disappearing messages in Thunderbird", you get like three relevant Mozillazine entries on the topic, each of them 1-2 pages long, and the "ignore thread" pitfall is never ever mentioned! I discovered the "ignore" check mark by pure chance, while fumbling desperately in the menus.


Expected results:

I would expect the "k" to un-ignore (un-kill?) a thread in the first place. This is the actual bug I'm trying to report here. 

It *should* work that way, according to this support topic:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ignore-threads

But another part of the problem is, that some keystroke commands present pitfalls without a warning sign, and difficult to find help.

In that context, I would expect a big fat warning, in relevant Mozillazine topics, about inadvertent activation of commands such as "a" (Archive) and "k" (Ignore Thread). The particular web pages to update:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disappearing_mail
http://kb.mozillazine.org/New_messages_do_not_appear
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=653807

This is certainly something worth a try in the first place, before you start uninstalling your antivirus/firewall in Windows.

As a feature request, I'm wondering about the possibility of some noobie warning sign, telling the user "some messages are hidden from your view, and this is why". Or at least an activity log that could be checked "after the fact".

I have a BFU colleague who keeps fuzzing Thunderbird (and my knowledge thereof) by inadvertent keystrokes like this - and both "a" and "k" have given me a hard time. And while I'm pulling my hair "what it is this time around", he never fails to comment "I wish I had Outlook". Well *that's* where I would *not* be able to help :-)

One last note, this time on localization: in my Czech (CZ) mutation of the user interface, the menu entry for "View -> Threads -> Ignored Threads" actually reads "Ignorovat vlakna", which means "Ignore Threads". The verb is in infinitive, suggesting an "imperative mood". I suggest an alternative translation: "odkryt ignorovana vlakna" = "unhide ignored threads" or some such.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Marcin, can you reproduce this?

Comment 2

[Marcin Szewczyk (:wodny)]

Sorry, I don't use Thunderbird anymore. Only mutt.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Franktisek, do you see this when using version 68?

I use this with some frequency, and don't see a problem

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

WFM per me