1664931 - Use Paragraph format instead of Body Text by default does not stick

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Preferences, defect)

Description

[bugzilla.account]

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

Steps to reproduce:

Tools>Options>Composition>unselect 'Use Paragraph format instead of Body Text by default' and it works while Thunderbird is open. Close Thunderbird, come back later and launch again and Tools>Options>Composition>'Use Paragraph format instead of Body Text by default' IS SELECTED! I just UNSELECTED it.

Actual results:

Close Thunderbird, come back later and launch again and Tools>Options>Composition>'Use Paragraph format instead of Body Text by default' IS SELECTED! I just UNSELECTED it. Happened on version 68 also.

Expected results:

The checkbox should have remained UNSELECTED, and stop double spacing my lines in a paragraph.

Comment 1

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

I can't reproduce using 78.2.2 on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Linux, or the Ubuntu supplied 68.10.0

Comment 2

[bugzilla.account]

I'm not sure a comparison between Windows and Linux are appropriate. Nonetheless, let me present the issue/bug from another angle.
I click 'Write' to start a new e-mail message, then click in the text area to begin typing. In the format bar, or whatever it's called, the default selection on the left is 'Paragraph'. I switch it to 'Body Text' then start typing. I press enter, and that 'Body Text' selection IMMEDIATELY switches itself back to 'Paragraph'. What gives? If I make a selection, WHY is it changing my selection?? This is the same darn thing that microsoft word does, but microsoft word does not automatically change my selection back to the previous setting.

I don't care to have my typing/formatting/spacing settings change FOR me. This should all be based on 'user choice'.

Does this help you? If you can't reproduce it on a Linux box, maybe you can try it on a Windows box; if possible.

Thanks

Comment 3

[Alex Ihrig [:Thunderbird_Mail_DE]]

The preselection has to be done in Thunderbirds options dialog - not in the compose window. What you do is to change the option only for the one paragraph - not for default.

Comment 4

[Anje]

(In reply to Alex Ihrig [:Thunderbird_Mail_DE] from comment #3)

The preselection has to be done in Thunderbirds options dialog - not in the compose window. What you do is to change the option only for the one paragraph - not for default.

The reporter did mention in first comment:
"Tools>Options>Composition>unselect 'Use Paragraph format instead of Body Text by default' and it works while Thunderbird is open. Close Thunderbird, come back later and launch again and Tools>Options>Composition>'Use Paragraph format instead of Body Text by default' is selected."

The point is unchecking that option should modify the prefs.js and remain in that state.
An exit and restart of Thunderbird should not be overriding the user selected option.

I currently have a person in the Support Forum also complaining about this issue.
So far, this is the information acquired.
They are using OS Windows 10 Pro20H2 and currently using Thunderbird 78.6.0 win32 bit version, but the problem has been occuring since version 64.
Observed:
After setting : Options>Composition>unselect checkbox 'Use Paragraph format instead of Body Text by default'
Exit Thunderbird and access 'profile name' folder
the 'pref.js' file was copied to desktop and opened.
The following line was in the file: user_pref("mail.compose.default_to_paragraph", false);
So at this point all is correct and is as expected.

After restarting Thunderbird, they rechecked the 'pref.js' file and that line had been removed. It was not the same as the copied version. Something had forced a reset and edited the 'prefs.js' file when they restarted Thunderbird.
There are no additional 'prefs.js' files eg: 'prefs-1.js', so it is not a new 'prefs.js' file being created.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

You would think things like this might trigger something in error console

Comment 6

[Anje]

I checked out a bug report : bug 1489976
comment 7 mentions an error
Jorg then goes on to mention: mail.ui-rdf.version

So I advised someone to do the following in support forum: https://support.mozilla.org/bm/questions/1276948
That was using version 68.4.1

Exit Thunderbird and access profile name folder
delete 'permissions.sqlite'
Open 'prefs.js' file using eg: Notepad or similar text editor program. Note: you could create a copy of 'prefs.js' on desktop as a temp backup in case you make a mistake.
look for preference: mail.ui-rdf.version
Set the value to 17, so it looks like this : user_pref("mail.ui-rdf.version", 17);
Save the 'prefs.js' file.
Start Thunderbird and then reset the preference in Options

This worked. But note the current setting value in 78.8.0 is user_pref("mail.ui-rdf.version", 23);

Other users in Support forum mentioned they chose to completely delete profile and restart and create new profile and all is ok

Another user found the 'prefs.js' file did not contain the user_pref("mail.compose.default_to_paragraph", false); they edited the file to contain that line, but upon restart the line was again removed. They completly removed the 'Thunderbird' folder from the 'Roaming' folder, thus removing all profiles. Restart Thunderbird and created new profile to resolve issue.

Another Support Forum user reported the following which is very interesting.

I was having the same problem with defaulting to 'Paragraph' format instead of 'Body Text'.
I have 6 email profiles in one Windows User account on Thunderbird 68.12.1. Turns out, ONE profile had the checkmark checked, while the other 5 did not, and somehow that affected ALL Profiles. I found this by looking at the ConfigEditor/paragraph and then at all the individual Prefs.js files across other non-related User accounts on the same PC.
The SOLUTION for me --'''check all profiles and be sure the Checkmark is not checked in all PROFILES'''.

Comment 7

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

mail.ui-rdf.version is a running value for migrations.
Maybe the user did something unexpected with one of the prefs, or something unexpected happened during one of the migrations so that something "bad" got left behind.

It's possible the error console could show something.

Comment 8

[Anje]

bugzilla.account would need to communicate with information in order to know what is causing the issue in their case.
Need info on:
what if anything is in the 'Error Console'
If now using current version 78.8.0:
In 'profile name' folder, in the 'prefs.js' file, do you see :

user_pref("mail.ui-rdf.version", 23);

In the Thunderbird 'Profiles' folder, do you have more than one 'profile name' folder?
If yes, do all of those profiles have the following setting in the 'prefs.js' file:

user_pref("mail.compose.default_to_paragraph", false);

If some have a 'true' setting :
Exit Thunderbird and then modify the 'pref.js' file in all of the 'profile name' folder so all have same 'false' setting.

Feedback would be appreciated.