Open Bug 1725750 Opened 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Problems moving a message into a subfolder of a subfolder

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Networking: IMAP, defect)

Product:
MailNews Core
Component:
Networking: IMAP
Version:
Thunderbird 92
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
UNCONFIRMED

People

(Reporter: robertmilesxyz, Unassigned)

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:92.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/92.0

Steps to reproduce:

Problems with Thunderbird beta 92.0b1 (32-bit):

When I have read an email message in the Inbox, it appears to allow me to move the message to a subfolder of Local Folders, but often not to a subfolder of a subfolder of Local Folders. Problem seems worst for messages read hours ago, then tagged, and then just after the tag is removed.

Clicking on the gray bar at the top and sometimes other areas can make the window switch between limited window size and full screen size. This was also seen with a few of the previous beta versions. Clicking of the symbol between the _ and the X in the top right corner should do this; clicking on the other areas is distracting and should not happen.

Using the random password generator for Bugzilla gives a password which is accepted, but is then not usable for Bugzilla.

Actual results:

Clicking on the > of the first subfolder to display its subfolders often does nothing .

Expected results:

The subfolders of the first subfolder should have been displayed, and allowed as places to move the message to.

Component: Untriaged → Folder and Message Lists

I have no issues at all copying/moving via drag and drop to sub sub folders of local folders from the local folders inbox. I created a new one just to hold the results to be sure it worked.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/91.0

What you are describing sounds to me like locked files, perhaps from antivirus scanning.
Do you have an anti virus scanner scanning the contents of your Thunderbird profile folder when the files (sometimes huge) are accessed?
Even more insidious these days are those placing the profile files into a cloud synchronised location so data corruption also is frequent from contention as large files are synchronised, or not when see duplicate mail downloads, lost data and calendars that only sort of work..

I found a little more info about the transfer bug today. Problem starts when I transfer hundreds of messages from the Inbox to another folder under the same server account, then read another message still in the Inbox. Then, Thunderbird starts downloading some of the messages already transferred and appears to give these downloads HIGHER priority than responding to user requests. If I wait for these downloads to finish before requesting anything else from Thunderbird, then the responses become normal. Thunderbird should either be able to interrupt the downloads long enough to handle the user requests, or display a message about the reason for not responding quickly.

I have an antivirus. I don't use any cloud storage.

My antivirus, from Microsoft but no longer clear that it has a name, has no obvious way to turn it off. I tried lessening the competition for CPU time today by telling BOINC to use two fewer virtual CPU cores; no noticeable effect.

Problem still present with 92.0b2 .

Problem now seems to be a problem with showing another column of possibilities if placing that column to the right of the column selected so far would place part of the new column off the edge of the screen. Previous versions placed the new column to the left of the current column; this one often doesn't show the new column at all.

Also, al anything at all is shown on the bottom line of the Thunderbird window, the problem is more likely.

I have not seen what happens if the new column is taller than the current column. I don't see the problem if the new column after a right click on the line for the message contains a choice for moving to the correct folder because that folder was selected as the previous destination.

(In reply to Robert Miles from comment #6)

Problem now seems to be a problem with showing another column of possibilities if placing that column to the right of the column selected so far would place part of the new column off the edge of the screen. Previous versions placed the new column to the left of the current column; this one often doesn't show the new column at all.

Sorry, this is all greek without a screen shot. How is it related to the original problem?

Also, al anything at all is shown on the bottom line of the Thunderbird window, the problem is more likely.

You mean the status bar at the very bottom?
Which problem - comment 0, or comment 6.

Flags: needinfo?(robertmilesxyz)

Snipping Tool won't work while the problem is on the screen. I'm not yet familiar enough with Snip & Sketch to use it instead.

Status bar at the very bottom - probably; I haven't found anything naming it.

The messages you call comment 0 and comment 6 are NOT two separate problems. They are two descriptions of the SAME problem, written with different guesses of some details of the problem.

Flags: needinfo?(robertmilesxyz)

Clicking on the gray bar at the top and sometimes other areas can make the window switch between limited window size and full screen size.

That's the "Title bar" in Windows terminology.

(In reply to Robert Miles from comment #8)

Snipping Tool won't work while the problem is on the screen. I'm not yet familiar enough with Snip & Sketch to use it instead.

Start Snip & Sketch, next to "New" in the top left pick the drop down and chose "Snip in 10 seconds", reproduce the Thunderbird issue, when snip pops up do the snip

Status bar at the very bottom - probably; I haven't found anything naming it.

You might acquaint yourself with https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/getting-started-thunderbird-main-window and View > Toolbars > Status bar

The messages you call comment 0 and comment 6 are NOT two separate problems. They are two descriptions of the SAME problem, written with different guesses of some details of the problem.

I may be clueless, but I have no idea what you mean by "columns".

People won't understand what you are saying without a common understanding of terms being used, unless there is a visual of you can share. Reference https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/getting-started-thunderbird-main-window

But as Matt suggests, this doesn't sound like a Thunderbird bug.

Still not much useful from Snip & Sketch, but I did get something; attached.

The rectangles with Open Message in New Tab an with Recent at the top are what I call columns.

A third column wasn't captured; it showed a list of folders under Local Folders, where I had selected Misc.

The fourth column showing the subfolders under Misc did not appear, so I could not select the desired subfolder there.

A Windows Shut down, then half an hour with the computer unplugged, then reconnect and reboot, then installation of 92.0b3, made the problem much less frequent but not totally gone.

Before that, I found clicking on a different folder such as Inbox allows me to select and read a message in that folder, which I can then move to a destination folder if this destination folder is no one of those hidden by the problem.

Yesterday, I saw similar problems under so many other programs that it probably wasn't a Thunderbird bug, and therefore couldn't write this reply then.

Picture not attached, but I now have it in a file. How do I attach that file?

"You might acquaint yourself with https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/getting-started-thunderbird-main-window and View > Toolbars > Status bar"

That link goes to a page which does not even mention Status bar.

View > Toolbars > Status goes to a place where I can turn off the Status bar and turn it back on; so that's the proper name for where the messages I was referring to appear.

Today, I noticed that the problem is frequent if the total number of unread messages for my Gmail account is 5500 or higher, but almost stops if that number is 5000 or lower.

Problem still present in 92.0b4 .

I suspected that the very large number of messages stored in folders under my gmail account in Thunderbird could be related to the problem, so I moved all of those from 2020 or before to folders under Local Folders.

One group of those downloaded second copies of about 90% of the messages; this gives a good reason why beta Thunderbird needs to allow some method of deleting any duplicate messages in the samr folder. It's less important whether this method is built into beta Thunderbird, or is an add-on that can be loaded for beta Thunderbird.

However, this did make it easy to identify and delete a few dozen messages that were scrambled by not starting in the right places in their source files.

Since then, I found that gmail accounts, and possibly other IMAP accounts, often make heavy use of cloud file storage, especially for the All Mail folder. When moving messages from this folder to a local folder, Thunderbird is likely to download all of the messages on All Mail again from this cloud file storage. I've decided to let Thunderbird run overnight again so it can finish this downloading and moving to a local folder. Before I started moving parts of this folder to local folders, there were probably 2.5 gigabytes in this cloud storage.

I have made no deliberate use of cloud storage, but it looks like the combination of Gmail and Thunderbird has made heavy and poorly documented use of such storage.

I have now moved all of the messages in All Messages and Important folders that are older than the oldest unread message in my main unread messages folders from folders under the Gmail account to folders under Local Folders. For the folders under Local Folders, it is now faster to read the messages and move them to other folders, since it is now much less common for the desired other folders to fail to display during attempts to choose which other folders. The messages newer than the oldest unread messages aren't moved yet; I want to see if Thunderbird automatically deletes them if I delete the copies in the main unread messages folders.

Also, I have noticed that it is easier to select the desired destination folders at times of the day when I expect less activity on the internet, and therefore less interference from slow internet operations.

It is easier to select the desired destination folder if I close, then restart Thunderbird, restrict the initial Gmail operations to letting Thunderbird download any new messages, then I find an unread message in a folder under Local Folders, read that one, and if it's one that should go to the desired destination folder, move that one first. Since a message was just moved to the desired destination folder, a Move to "folder" Again choice will now appear earlier in the destination folder selection process, so fewer levels of selection are needed for any more messages that should go to that destination folder. This makes it less important how many levels of selection are properly displayed, even if I then go to the Gmail Inbox folder and start reading and moving messages there.

Problem not fixed in 92.0b5 .
Release notes for 93.0b3 suggest that it may be fixed in that version.

Thunderbird 93.0b1 now often tells me it needs to do a database compression that will save about 249 megabytes of space. If I let it do this compression, it then tells me that it has saved a much smaller amount of space, such as 60 kilobytes. This suggests that internet connection speed is part of the problem, as in compatibility of Thunderbird's IMAP with slow connections

93.0b1 still has the problem with moving messages from Gmail folders to local folders. This problem occurs less often at times of the day when I'd expect less traffic on the internet.

I've now read and moved the troublesome message. To do this, I noted its timestamp, went to the Gmail All Mail folder, and found it by that timestamp, and was able to read and move it. The did not remove it from the local folder, so I then read and moved that copy also.

I've now installed 93.0b2. It appears to have at least part of the problem, even though I see it less often.

(In reply to Robert Miles from comment #18)

Thunderbird 93.0b1 now often tells me it needs to do a database compression that will save about 249 megabytes of space. If I let it do this compression, it then tells me that it has saved a much smaller amount of space, such as 60 kilobytes. This suggests that internet connection speed is part of the problem, as in compatibility of Thunderbird's IMAP with slow connections

There will be no correlation of compact to internet speed.

93.0b1 still has the problem with moving messages from Gmail folders to local folders. This problem occurs less often at times of the day when I'd expect less traffic on the internet.

I've now read and moved the troublesome message. To do this, I noted its timestamp, went to the Gmail All Mail folder, and found it by that timestamp, and was able to read and move it. The did not remove it from the local folder, so I then read and moved that copy also.

You have the troublesome message saved somewhere?

I've now installed 93.0b2. It appears to have at least part of the problem, even though I see it less often.

Solve which problem? Before removing the message, or after?

Flags: needinfo?(robertmilesxyz)

I saved to troublesome message somewhere, but then forgot where.

Even with that message moved, 93.0b2 still sometimes has problems with selecting a folder to move a message to.

When I do a compact for Gmail messages, Thunderbird often downloads at least some of those messages again. Therefore, internet speed will have ab effect on compact speed.

Flags: needinfo?(robertmilesxyz)

I've had two computer failures since my last comment, and have lost most of my saved messages. This is probably no longer see the problem.

probably why I no longer see

Ok am I reading this right.

Your account is GMail.
You move hundreds of messages from this Gmail account to local folders and issues occur. And some of them download again

Is the account IMAP perhaps?

The account is IMAP.

Component: Folder and Message Lists → Networking: IMAP
Product: Thunderbird → MailNews Core
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