Closed Bug 1559807 Opened 6 years ago Closed 6 years ago

folder names randomly capitalized

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
Untriaged
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: musiquegraeme, Unassigned)

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:67.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/67.0

Steps to reproduce:

Nothing

Actual results:

random folder names were capitalized and this lead to the failure of associated filters.

Expected results:

Nothing

I don't know how this could be found except by looking at possible places where folder names are changed. It's been happening for a while - I think 3 or 4 folder names have been changed. There has been no obvious rationale to this and it only becomes obvious when filters break.

Well that's weird. Lets start with the easy questions.

Full version of TB?
What protocol do you use for email (POP,IMAP)?
When did you create the folders?
Is the capitalized letter always the first letter or is it also random within the folder name?
Can we get a screenshot of the folders you know weren't capitalized before the bug occurred?

Yes, full version using Pop3. By the way - I'm using Unified layout. I have 4 different email accounts. I can't begin to guess when I created the folders. It's always the full name that's capitalized. Like I had a folder Computer and then suddenly it's COMPUTER.
I don't know if it would be possible to make filters NON case sensitive. The issue would lose importance then as filters would work.

Also the folders that have been capitalized were not all capitalized at the same time. Just randomly I would notice that another one would change.

Ben was asking for the full TB version, as in 60.7.1 or 68 beta 1. I've never seen a folder being renamed.

Yes, filters are stored in msgFilterRules.dat and they can contain folder URLs like

name="Mozilla"
enabled="yes"
type="17"
action="Move to folder"
actionValue="mailbox://nobody@Local%20Folders/Mozilla"
condition="OR (from,contains,bugzilla-daemon@mozilla.org)"

and they'd stop working if the folder were renamed.

(unless there is a bug of course)
a) folder renames done in Thunderbird cause the filter folder target to be adjusted - so see "c" below
b) in the Windows world it's virtually impossible rename a folder [changing only case] - TB will complain a folder of the name already exists
c) if you have a folder name changing from something like Computer to COMPUTER it highly unlikely to Thunderbird changing it, in which case Thunderbird cannot be expected to adjust the filter

The upshot is, suggest you look for causes that are not Thunderbird. Maybe an addon

p.s. this bug is set to version 64, which is very old. So it is either incorrect, or you should retest with a newer beta

OK so the problem was that it has been happening for a while - that's why I put the version as 64. However this morning it happened again. Now I have 68.0b1.
As regards addons, I have my own, singledomain... Lightning and OWL for exchange. I can't see any of those doing this. I'll remove Owl for exchange.

Does it happen in version 60?

And to clarify item b) in comment 5, I mean if no letters change in the name, and only case changes - thunderbird will complain the folder exists and won't do the rename.

I don't remember when it started - It's possible that it started after version 60 as I use the beta release. I think the reason I didn't comment earlier was precisely that I couldn't see how to find what was doing it. It didn't seem too bad, but it is definitely a bug somewhere.. Sorry I can't be more helpful than that. I can't even really go back to version 60 because I'd not know if it hadn't happened because it's not predictable. I guess I would know if it did happen but there's no knowing when it might happen. :(

I looked back at my backups and found that the Dec 2018 one had no file discrepancies but the Feb 2019 one had capitalized INBOX DRAFTS and GRAEME but all the other files were not capitalized Inbox.msf, drafts.msf and Graeme.msf and Graeme.sbd were as before.

So Dec / Jan something was added to the system that caused this issue. Given that I would imagine there would be a HUGE amount of people affected if it was something within TB I'm going to go out on a limb and say its a software that was installed or updated that might go around touching files. Sense you seem to know your way around backups, I'd check the system restore points and see if there was something installed or changed around that time outside of TB.

Its reminds me vaguely of a bug in the SMB protocol a few years back but that is more to do with networks and roaming profiles.

Randomly, I mentioned today to my wife, who is not computer savvy, about this issue and she told me that she had the same thing with her Thunderbird folders... So that's on a different computer.. I wonder how many have it but just don't feel it's worth bothering about. I had it all that time and only just mentioned it. Strange thing is that there seem to have been two changes since I mentioned it and that could mean it's going to grow in effect... :(
I'll look at restore points or at least google how to look at them. Backups were infinitely easier to consult.

Careful with system restore on Windows, you can mess up your system easily.

I'm a heavy POP user with thousands of folders and many filters and I haven't see a folder go uppercase on me yet. If it were IMAP, I could imagine the server switching to uppercase. Are you using a localised version of TB? It's imaginable but highly unlikely that localisations changed, the standard folders like Inbox, Drafts have their names localised in the UI. But that wouldn't explain why GRAEME is suddenly uppercase. And it should change on disk either.

I still think there's some 3rd party software doing damage here.

I should have made it clear, I don't want you to mess with the restore points, only to check to see if anything anomalous happened.

I still think there's some 3rd party software doing damage here.

I'm with Jorg I cant see any reason why this would be in TB directly. Given that you and your wife are having the same problem, maybe its a software you both share? Same AV or Backup suite?

Silly question, have you tried to change the files back to what they are supposed to be? Not in TB, but going to the folder where your msf files are stored and renaming GRAEME.msf back to Graeme.msf.

Beyond going through your software systematically and disabling them one by one I can't think of any other way to diagnose the issue.

Any luck finding the issue Musiquegraeme?

Flags: needinfo?(musiquegraeme)

No, I haven't found the issue... I knew it would be challenging and it hasn't happened for a while..

Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 6 years ago
Flags: needinfo?(musiquegraeme)
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
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