Closed Bug 1661792 Opened 5 years ago Closed 5 years ago

Plain-text email messages modified when sent

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
Untriaged
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED INVALID

People

(Reporter: sdsol, Unassigned)

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:80.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/80.0

Steps to reproduce:

Composed a plain-text email message.

Actual results:

The message text was modified when it was sent. No way to preview what message text formatting will actually be, before sending a message.

Expected results:

The content and layout of composed plain-text emails sometimes is altered when the message is sent. Sometimes an extra space character is added at the beginning of lines of text (generally when a new message is created via Edit as New Message), sometimes a space character will be removed between words, and sometimes a blank line separating paragraphs will be removed.

I haven't figured out a consistent pattern as to what triggers this, though it may have to do with converting URL links text to clickable links when sent, which is a conversion no other email client that I've used performs (those generally auto detect and convert the URL to a clickable link, but it is shown that way in the unsent (draft) message.

The point is, it isn't what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSISWYG) in Thunderbird, when composing a message. And even the underlining of a word or phrase, allows no control over the underlining (always an extra underline character before and after the word or phrase). For decades, basic editing of text has provided a toolbar button for Underline of selected text, which is what Thunderbird should also offer. Again, it's a WYSIWYG issue.

Thunderbird only converts to clickable URL when received. Maybe your outgoing server is changing the messages?

After a message is sent, and I look at the message in the Sent folder, that's when I can see the converted clickable URL and the sometimes reformatted text.

When you said "Thunderbird only converts to clickable URL when received." that would imply only the recipient would have a clickable URL, which is not correct, because as the sender, I can see it, but again, only after the email is sent.

If I save a message without sending it, and look at the message in the Drafts folder, URLs haven't yet been reformatted to be clickable, and the other text hasn't been altered.

The only fool-proof way I can be guaranteed to see what a message I am about to send will look like to the recipient, is to first send it to myself, and examine the received email; if it is still OK, then I can Edit as New Message, change the recipient address(es), but when I do that, there is an additional space character at the beginning of each line that wasn't there in the original message.

Also, I'm using the same outgoing server as I did with another email client, and no reformatting occurs on outgoing messages with that client, so the problem is with Thunderbird, not with the outgoing server.

Reporter, does this happen for you when using version 78? You can update by going to help > about.

Whiteboard: [closeme 2020-09-25]

I don't know if this occurs in version 78. I'm using version 68.12.0. When I updated to 70+, it broke the extensions I use, so I restored the older version.

(In reply to Sol from comment #0)

The point is, it isn't what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSISWYG) in Thunderbird, when composing a message. And even the underlining of a word or phrase, allows no control over the underlining (always an extra underline character before and after the word or phrase). For decades, basic editing of text has provided a toolbar button for Underline of selected text, which is what Thunderbird should also offer. Again, it's a WYSIWYG issue.

I haven't noticed any difference in my composed plain text messages when they are displayed in newsgroup replies.

If you want the toolbar you need to set the account to "Compose in HTML format" it the Composition and Addressing section of the Account Settings.

I want to send plain-text email messages. Thunderbird is the only email client that modifies plain-text email messages when they are sent, primarily to convert links-text (URLs) to clickable links. That process modifies the rest of the text in unpredictable ways, which shouldn't happen.

If Thunderbird worked like Eudora, it would show links-text as blue underlined clickable text before amd after the email message was sent. allowing the sender to proof read the message and know exactly what it would look like, before it was sent, which is the way if ought to work.

I was instructed a long time ago to enclose a link like this < link> when composing plain text messages.

I have never seen that to fail.

I also enclose email links in pointy brackets, but the process of sending an email message shouldn't alter its contents, which is the reported problem.

I've used a number of email clients over the years, and Thunderbird lacks some fundamental features. For instance, there is no "Sent" status category, a feature that has been requested for 16 years, and should have been implemented in version 1.0. That feature has been in every other email client I've used, and would seem to be a simple addition.

There are other basic enhancements needed, such as getting the vertical scrolling position to be retained when switching tabs and returning to a tab, instead of the scroll button always being at the top. Mozilla Firefox does that properly; Thunderbird should also. IT Would seem that the same code could be used for the same function.

I appreciate you are trying to help, but the reported problem of modifying plain-text email messages upon sending makes it impossible to know what the sent message will end up looking like, which is a reflection of the sender.

Thank you for your help.

Not sure what's going on for you, but Thunderbird doesn't do the conversion you claim. It only converts plain text links to clickable links for display purposes, NOT in the text that is sent out. Maybe an add-on is doing it?

Other email clients I've used did what you said: "converts plain text links to clickable links for display purposes, NOT in the text that is sent out."

Thunderbird does format links when an email is sent, as confirmed here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/hyperlinks-in-messages-not-working under the section Problems with composing messages.

I am using three add-ons with Thunderbird: Edit Email Subject MX, Manually Sort Folders, and XNote++. The first and third are only occasionally used on received email messages, not sent messages. The second one doesn't impact email messages in any way.

I just composed a mail, pasted the link to this bug into it and sent. This is the message source received - note that it's NOT formatted:

Subject: link test
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2020 20:41:14 +0300
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:82.0) Gecko/20100101
 Thunderbird/82.0a1
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Language: en-US

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1661792

You say,

No way to preview what message text formatting will actually be, before sending a message.

Have you tried saving it as a draft message and previewing it in the Drafts folder?

When I compose an email message in Thunderbird using plain-text, it looks fine prior to sending the message, but after the message is sent, sometimes some space characters are dropped when the message is processed and sent.

I saved a message as a draft, reviewed it, which was good, then sent it, and some space characters were dropped, so that is not a work around. The reformatting by Thunderbird only occurs when an email message is sent, as noted here here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/hyperlinks-in-messages-not-working under the section Problems with composing messages.

To quote from that Web post:

This behavior is deliberate. When links are "activated", they are difficult to edit (because when you try to position the cursor within an active link you usually launch the link in the browser).

When a message is sent (or saved as a draft), Thunderbird "activates" links in the message, adding formatting as necessary and making them clickable hyperlinks. "

Even though that last line above says links are activated when saved as a draft, that is not the case. Try it yourself. The link in a draft is not clickable.

I don't know why Thunderbird thinks having clickable links when composing a message is an issue, as they describe in that above post. Every other email client I've used always allowed links to be presented as clickable during that process, including allowing typing click here, and adding an underlying link to the "here". This was never a problem; it was a feature.

You're misinterpreting the kb article. All it says is that during compose you can't open the link by clicking it, but you can when you receive it. (Anyway, that's for HTML compose, and you say you're composing in plain text mode.)

The links I typed into an email message using plain text, and saved as a draft were clickable, and opened in my browser when clicked.

Nothing is getting modified.

WaltS48,

Maybe there is a configuration setting difference, or version difference, that accounts for the different behavior of Thunderbird when I am using it from when you are using it.

I've looked through the Options settings, and some of the about:config settings, but don't see anything so far as to what may be causing this issue.

Thank you for your help.

Whiteboard: [closeme 2020-09-25]

I don't think this is our issue. If you can reproduce in safe mode (help > restart with add-ons disabled) then please attach testcases to this bug report (saved messages with .eml extension).

Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 5 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID
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