1529254 - Folder compaction dialog is confusing for non-technical users, should not be shown by default

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 286888

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0

Steps to reproduce:

A relative of mine, who is 79, is using Thunderbird to read and write emails since about 6 years. This works really well and I congratulate the developers of Thunderbird for the ease of use of the user experience. Thank you very much!

This relative is a non-technical person who doesn't follow technobabble. The "do you want to compact your folders now?" message is technobabble and confusing. When it popped up recently, my relative called me anxiously, wondering if the computer is broken and something went wrong. My attempts to explain the meaning of compaction were unhelpful and were not understood.

I understand that the usefulness of this dialog has been discussed about circa 1.5 decades ago in bug 115499 and bug 321641 and back then, it was then decided to keep it by default.

Maybe it is time to reconsider. From a user experience perspective, I want to propose to remove the dialog and have compaction done by default without explicitly asking the user.

Actual results:

• non-technical relative started Thunderbird
• compaction dialog appeared, confusing relative with technobabble
• relative read dialog, does not understand what's going on, turns off computer
• distraught relative called me next day, wondering if computer is broken and what to do now

Expected results:

• non-technical relative started Thunderbird
• compaction happens by default when necessary
• happy relative
• no call to designated tech-support relative required

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Agreed, it is very confusing. Two things would help with that

• Bug 716412 - (better wording of the compact dialog) compact dialog prompt: unchecking "Always ask me before compacting folders automatically" fails to change or keep mail.purge.ask preference to false

• Bug 286888 - Always make compacting folders automatic, with no UI

What you are asking for is the last bug above, correct?

Comment 2

[Hanno Zulla]

Indeed, I am asking for Bug 286888, which i didn't find prior to filing this request here.