1734192 - Sub-Folders with New Email Not Highlighted Until Clicked

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

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

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open a highlighted (bold and blue text, icon with yellow dot) top-level folder, indicating there is new email somewhere in that folder
2. Look for highlighted (bold and blue text and/or yellow dot) sub-folders
3. Notice that none is highlighted, even though some have numbers after them. e.g. (3)
4. Click on one of the sub-folders with a number after it
5. Notice that the sub-folder is now highlighted (black text - not blue - however)

Actual results:

Sub-folders that contain new messages are not highlighted (bold and blue text, yellow dot on icon) until AFTER you click on them

Expected results:

The sub-folders that contain new messages should be highlighted when you open the highlighted parent folder

Comment 1

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Attachment: Shopping Folder indicates NEW MAIL. It is selected, not open, and has no emails itself

This screen shot shows that the "Shopping" folder contains new email - it is in BOLD, its icon has the yellow dot, and it has "(1)" after the folder name.

This folder has sub-folders, but it is now open/expanded to show them.

This folder is currently selected. Notice that the messages list is empty, showing there are no emails directly in this folder.

Comment 2

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Attachment: After cllicking the folder

Second image is after clicking the "Shopping" folder to open it.

None of the sub-folders is in bold, and none has the yellow dot on the icon.

The "$DIY" sub-folder does indicate that it has one new email: (1)

NOTE that the "Shopping" parent folder is still selected.

Comment 3

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Attachment: after clicking the sub-folder, it's now in BOLD and has yellow dot on icon

After I click on the "$DIY" sub-folder to select (not open) it, its name is now displayed in BOLD and the icon has the yellow dot

The new email is not actually directly IN the "$DIY" folder, but is instead is in yet another sub-folder. The same problem happens with that. It is not displayed in BOLD, and there is no yellow dot on its icon, until after I click on it to select it

Comment 4

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Attachment: After clicking the folder (REPLACE 2ND ATTACHMENT WITH THIS ONE)

I ATTACHED THE WRONG IMAGE FOR - 9244389: After cllicking the folder

THis is the right image.

I would copy-and-pasted the comment I entered with that attachment, but when I look at the details for it, there comment is gone??? Why? If it's not getting saved in the database, why am I bothering with this

Comment 5

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Comment on attachment 9244398 [details]
After clicking the folder (REPLACE 2ND ATTACHMENT WITH THIS ONE)

This should be the Second image. It is after clicking the "Shopping" folder to open it.

None of the sub-folders is in bold, and none has the yellow dot on the icon.

The "$DIY" sub-folder does indicate that it has one new email: (1)

NOTE that the "Shopping" parent folder is still selected.

Comment 6

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

(In reply to Mark Barnes from comment #1)

Created attachment 9244387 [details]
Shopping Folder indicates NEW MAIL. It is selected, not open, and has no emails itself

This screen shot shows that the "Shopping" folder contains new email - it is in BOLD, its icon has the yellow dot, and it has "(1)" after the folder name.

This folder has sub-folders, but it is now open/expanded to show them.

This folder is currently selected. Notice that the messages list is empty, showing there are no emails directly in this folder.

None of the folders in your screenshots are expanded to show the messages.

I see the same in my Thunderbird with a collapsed folder that contain sub folders.

Comment 7

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

I don't understand. The "$Services" folder and the "Shopping" sub-folder are open.

But I just installed the latest update and it seems to be fixed now

Comment 8

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Re-opening because I am actually still seeing the problem. I have tried restarting the app, but that didn't help. I have tried Troubleshooting mode (add-ons disabled.) That also did not help.

I have a whole lot of email folders in multiple levels. My Thunderbird Filters move some of my incoming messages to different folders.

Scenario:

All folders all closed.

I receive new messages, and some of the top-level folders now indicate new mail (somewhere) inside them: BOLD text in blue, a yellow circle on their icons (indicating NEW & Unread messages) and a number in parentheses after their folder names.

I click the ">" for one of the folders to open it. The folder itself contains no messages, but some of the sub-folders have a number in parentheses after their names. NONE of the sub-folders are in BOLD & Blue text with a yellow circle on their icons

When I click the ">" for one of these sub-folders to open it, then click the ">" again to close it again, THEN the text for the folder changes to BOLD & Blue. and the yellow circle appears on its icon. The number in parentheses does not change.

Alternately, when I click the folder NAME for another of these sub-folders, say the folder name is "Media" , THEN the text for this folder changes to BOLD (but not blue,) and the yellow circle appears on its icon. When I click on a different folder, then the "Media" folder's text now changes to Blue.

None of this makes any sense to me. Why should I need to open and then close a folder, or to click on a folder's name, just to know there are New, unread messages in that folder?

It used to be that any folder or sub-folder that contains New, unread message had its text in BOLD & Blue and had a yellow circle on it's icon. I'm suggesting that things should still work that way. This way one can find New, unread email much easier. If I am wrong about this, and this change is by design, please accept my apologies.

Comment 9

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Still a problem with 91.2.1

Comment 10

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Still a problem with 91.3.0

Comment 11

[George Dinwiddie]

I have the same or a similar problem with 91.3.0 (64-bit) that appeared when I upgraded to this version (not sure of what the previous version was).

I am running Mojave macOS 10.14.6 (18G9323) on a MacBook Air with an Intel Core i5.

Comment 12

[George Dinwiddie]

(In reply to George Dinwiddie from comment #11)

I have the same or a similar problem with 91.3.0 (64-bit) that appeared when I upgraded to this version (not sure of what the previous version was).

I am running Mojave macOS 10.14.6 (18G9323) on a MacBook Air with an Intel Core i5.

Comment 13

[George Dinwiddie]

I have reverted to 78.14.0 (64-bit) from an old backup, and it works much better in this regard.

Comment 14

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Still a problem with 91.3.1 updated just now

I have lots and lots of folders and sub-folders. This problem makes is very difficult to find folders containing new messages. I have to look for the number in parentheses after the folder name. This gets lost in a huge sea of monotonous text, all the same color, font, etc, and no icons. The bold, blue text and icon with the yellow circle on it really helps. Too bad this is all still very broken.

Comment 15

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Still a problem with 91.3.2 updated just now

Comment 16

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Still a problem with 94.4.1

Comment 17

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

(I meant 91.4.1, not 94.4.1) And still a problem with 91.5.0

Comment 18

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Still a problem with 91.6.0

Comment 19

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

and with 91.6.2

Comment 20

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

No need to keep adding a comment to the bug report with each new version.

The bug hasn't been confirmed, so no action will be taken until it is, then assigned to a developer, reviewed and uplifted.

Please review the Bugzilla Etiquette page.

Comment 21

[George Dinwiddie]

:walts48

Is there any way to encourage further action on this bug, or am I stuck on a really old version of Thunderbird indefinitely?
Note: while this report was written for Windows, I saw it also on MacOS.

Comment 22

[Anje]

There is a report of this problem in Support forum occuring in both Windows and MAC OS.
Reporters state this issue occurred in 91.0 after update to include star. They like the star, but issues with not detecting where the new mail is stored is a problem. In business terms it wastes a lot of time trying to locate the new mail.

The report is not just one person - there are 5 different people all experiencing this problem.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1354673

Basic issue:
IF top level folder is expanded so all subfolders are visible then subfolders receiving new filtered unread mail will display blue, bold and star plus (n) number of unread email. No problem.

IF top level folder is collapsed so subfolders are not visible, then when top level folder expanded -the subfolders do not display blue, bold, star if they have received the new unread mail.
This is a problem because no one knows which subfolder received the new mail.

Emails get filtered to subfolders.
IF Top level folder with subfolders in collapsed state
receives new mail which is filtered to a subfolder.
top level folder is blue, bold and star to say new unread mail since last opening - also (n) stating number of unread messages
Expand top level folder to see which subfolder has new unread message.
top level folder now not bold nor blue.
Subfolders display the (n) indicting unread mail, but not showing as blue and no star.

IF Top level folder with subfolders in expanded state - so all subfolders visible
receives new mail which is filtered to a subfolder.
top level folder not bold nor blue.
subfolder indicates blue, bold and star and (n)

In some cases where there is sub folders in subfolders - it effects the lowest subfolder.
Top level indicates new unread - blue, bold, star (n) - collapsed state
Expand and top level returns to normal state - not blue nor bold
Sub folder indicates new unread - blue, bold, star (n) - collapsed state
Expand sub folder to see sub-subfolders and returns to normal state - not blue nor bold
Sub- subfolders now visible but they are only bold with (n)
One has sub sub folders - it is bold (not blue and no star) - it is in collapsed state
select the sub sub folder to expand - it gets highlighted with a star, but it is not blue

sometimes you only discover which folder has the new mail after selecting sub folder in collapsed state - then it may turn blue with star or just get the star.

There is a video link provided by person in support forum: https://youtu.be/1-V18dvN4lc

Comment 24

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Perhaps a step-by-step scenario would help to get this bug at least confirmed and prioritized?

1. Create multiple folders with sub-folders with even more sub-folders, etc
2. Create multiple filters that move incoming emails into those folders and/or sub-folders
3. collapse all your folders so that only the top-most folders are visible
4. Go somewhere else, perhaps Gmail, and send yourself multiple emails that you know will get matched by your filters and moved into your folders and sub-folders
5. Wait for your emails to arrive into your inbox and for Thunderbird to sync them from the server
6. Note that some of the top-level folders are bold, highlighted, and marked with the icon and a count in parentheses, etc, indicating that "somewhere" in the folder hierarchy there is/are new emails(s) and how many there are
7. Open one of those top-level folders that you know has a sub-folder that had an email moved into it, and note that it's NOT bold, highlighted, etc. The folder name will just have a number after it in parentheses, in plain-text, indicating how many unread emails are therein, but no visual cue to make the folder stand out. If your sidebar isn't wide enough, you may not even see that (number) in parentheses
8. Click on that folder and watch it become bold, highlighted, marked with an icon and a count, etc

When you have a lot of folders and sub-folders, and new emails are being moved into them by your filters, it becomes very difficult to see which sub-folder has those new emails. It's a very significant usability issue.

As Anje commented, this all used to work correctly. It seems to have become broken with 91.0, when the icon was added ???

Comment 25

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Reverting back to 78.14.0

Hope this gets fixed one day

Comment 26

[David Goadby]

I may join you in reverting as no one is taking this bug seriously.

Is it safe to go back to 78.14.0? Are there any side effects to be expected?

Comment 27

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

I suspect this bug was introduced when they added to the folders list the new icon to indicate "new mail". But that's just a guess. I'm not involved in the development of Thunderbird. My programming days are over, and I never worked on native Windows apps.

I haven't seen any problems running this older version so far.

One thing to note is that when you start up 78.14.0 for the first time, you'll be told that your profile is from a newer version of the app, and that you'll have to create a new profile for this version. You'll lose all your customization if you do that. But there is a work-around.

Instead, if you want to try to use your current new-version profile, when you start 78.14.0 for the first time, you can do it from the command line. Don't let the installer open the app when the install is done. You'll want to use a command-line option , namely "--allow-downgrade", to tell the app to just use your existing new-version profile as-is.

One way to do this is to open a command line, navigate to the install folder, something like "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird" (or use Windows Explorer to navigate to that folder, right-click on empty space in the window, and select "Open Command Line Here",) and enter the following command into the command line:
.\thunderbird --allow-downgrade
After this, you can fire up the app the way you normally would.

Another way is to edit the shortcut you might be using to fire up the app. Right-click on the shortcut, select "Properties", select the "Shortcut" tab, and add " --allow-downgrade" to the end of the value in the "Target" field. Then click the "Apply" button and the "OK" button. Now double-click the shortcut to fire up the app as usual.

Good luck. And maybe one day this bug will get fixed.

Comment 28

[Anje]

Do remember to create a backup of the current version before you allow the downgrade.

Comment 29

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

I'm not seeing any issues with 78.14.0. I did have to make changes to get the app to stop nagging me to update. This article helped with that:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1314978

I'll have to reverse this when this bug gets fixed.

Comment 30

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

I'm sorry if this breaks "etiquette", but is there any chance this will ever get addressed?

Comment 31

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

(In reply to Mark Barnes from comment #30)

I'm sorry if this breaks "etiquette", but is there any chance this will ever get addressed?

No worries, it doesn't break any etiquette to do a gentle comment ping trying to seek update.
I haven't time to dig into this, apologies. I'll set a NI for myself and try to investigate later today if I can reproduce it, and try to fix it.
Cheers,

Comment 32

[David Goadby]

(In reply to Mark Barnes from comment #30)

I'm sorry if this breaks "etiquette", but is there any chance this will ever get addressed?

Thanks Mark for doing this. I had forgotten how annoying this bug is until I found the bugzilla email yes, you guessed it, not highlighted.

And thanks to Alessandro for a prompt response.

Comment 33

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

Yes! Thank you Alessandro for taking a look at this. I should have said this sooner.

Comment 34

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

I was finally able to reproduce this and confirm it.
Indeed, this behavior is erratic.

My gut feeling tells me that the folder row isn't properly invalidated (therefore properly rebuilt) when child folders are created (the parent is expanded).
I might be wrong, but I'll give it a try.

Comment 35

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Attachment: Bug 1734192 - [Folder Pane] Invalidate child row when parent is expanded. r=darktrojan

Comment 36

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

I think I fixed it.
Indeed, when the folders of a collapsed parent folder are added to the Folder Tree upon parent "toggling" those folders didn't go through invalidation and cache clearing, therefore they weren't visually refreshing properly unless some other selection or user interaction was forcing the clearing of the cache.

I need to do some performance assessment, because I'm not sure if this change might cause CPU spikes or any unexpected performance hit when dealing with many folders.
In theory it shouldn't, but I'll confirm this by doing some quick profiling.

If anyone in this bug feels comfortable and can load the patch I attached and test it on trunk, would be great.

Comment 37

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

I'm gonna take a guess and say bug 1163555 regressed this.

Comment 38

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/32772cdf6b2a
[Folder Pane] Invalidate child row when parent is expanded. r=darktrojan

Comment 39

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Comment on attachment 9283782 [details]
Bug 1734192 - [Folder Pane] Invalidate child row when parent is expanded. r=darktrojan

[Approval Request Comment]
Regression caused by (bug #): bug 1163555
User impact if declined: Sub folders are not properly highlighted when a new message is received and filtered directly inside a subfolder
Testing completed (on c-c, etc.): on c-c
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): low as the fix only clears the folder cache of child folders when the parent folder is expanded, guaranteeing a clean starting state

Comment 40

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9283782 [details]
Bug 1734192 - [Folder Pane] Invalidate child row when parent is expanded. r=darktrojan

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Be interesting to see how this plays out

Comment 41

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 103.0b3:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/28c96dd39685

Comment 42

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9283782 [details]
Bug 1734192 - [Folder Pane] Invalidate child row when parent is expanded. r=darktrojan

[Triage Comment]
Approved for esr102

Comment 43

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 102.0.2:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr102/rev/989a8cc0a95a

Comment 44

[Mark Barnes [:WoofGrrrr]]

I have 102.2.0 now. Thank you so much for fixing this!