1751441 - attachments not opening properly TB 97.0b2 on Mac: all content type actions unexpectedly reset to "Save", and Save-as dialog not prefilled with file name

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1753819

(MailNews Core :: Attachments, defect)

Description

[mike.roswell]

Attachment: Screen Shot 2022-01-21 at 11.50.08 AM (2).png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:98.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/98.0

Steps to reproduce:

Emailed attachments appear in a bar at the bottom of the viewing pane. When i try to download them, things get a bit weird. I have tried clicking the individual files and the open all/save all icon at the bottom right.

Actual results:

Files not opening by default application. A save window (macOS 12.1) opens but the file name and extension do not carry over.

Expected results:

Should open by default in MS word or at least save as with filename and extension.

Comment 1

[Richard Leger]

Attachment: openfile_action_missing.png

After upgrade to Thunderbird Beta 97.0b2 (64-bit) on Windows 10, double-clicking an attachment does not open it. It open the prompt to save it instead!

It seems indeed that somehow the default action for attachment was changed to "Save File" within the TB general settings for all attachments type!!! Really not convenient and no way to change default action (was "Always Ask" supposedly) for all file type at once... which make it very inconvenient to revert back to what it was for most file types!

Was that change really necessary?!!! Likely coming from Firefox itself...
"Always ask" seem to be a better default action for Thunderbird email client software and end-users.

For Thunderbird can the default value be reverted back to what it was? To avoid issues to end-users...

Strange that this was not spotted prior publishing the beta to have it fixed... beforehand...

Comment 2

[Richard Leger]

Right click on attachment and choosing Open has the same effect... instead of opening the attachment, I am prompted to save it somewhere...

Comment 3

[mike.roswell]

Just updated to 97.0b3, seems like issue persists.

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

It worked in 97.0b1?

Comment 5

[mike.roswell]

Not 100% sure I had 97.0b1, but it worked on whatever I was using before the change to 97.0b2. Decent chance I was not on the beta channel at that time, but I think I was.

Comment 6

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Hi Richard, thanks for following up on these things. We've fixed a number of attachment issues, but it's like a bottomless pit. Not sure atm about the status of such fixes in Beta.

(In reply to Richard Leger from comment #2)

Right click on attachment and choosing Open has the same effect... instead of opening the attachment, I am prompted to save it somewhere...

Could you please file that as a separate bug, because "Open" must never do "Save" (I think), that sounds like wrong UX. It may or may not be a very old implementation-level bug. These things are intertwined in the weirdest of ways. Or maybe I'm wrong and "Open" is defined by those actions, and "Save" is the one which should never change...

Comment 7

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to mike.roswell from comment #0)

Created attachment 9260175 [details]
Screen Shot 2022-01-21 at 11.50.08 AM (2).png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:98.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/98.0

Steps to reproduce:

Emailed attachments appear in a bar at the bottom of the viewing pane. When i try to download them, things get a bit weird. I have tried clicking the individual files and the open all/save all icon at the bottom right.

Hi Mike, thanks for taking time to report this. Kindly add more information.

• We need a bulleted or numbered list of steps to reproduce (instructions where you tell us what to do) how to get into your situation.
• Also pls attach a screenshot of your related settings (as Richard L. did in comment 1) here on BMO using the Attach New File button above comment 0: ≡ > Preferences > Files & Attachments
• Pls note: save-all cannot be expected to open files, so that's out of scope for this bug (and should work).

Actual results:

Files not opening by default application. A save window (macOS 12.1) opens but the file name and extension do not carry over.

Richard, are you seeing no filename in save-as dialog also on Windows 10?

Expected results:

Should open by default in MS word or at least save as with filename and extension.

Filename should show for save-as of a single file, yes. Open with external app mostly only if you had set it to that before. So now the problem is, you said in comment 5 that maybe you switched channels, i.e. we cannot be 100% sure that you had actually set this up on beta channel.

Comment 8

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Richard Leger from comment #2)

Right click on attachment and choosing Open has the same effect... instead of opening the attachment, I am prompted to save it somewhere...

After double-checking on this, I can confirm that:

• What happens when you choose "Open" in the context menu (or double-click on the file) is actually defined by those content type actions in the Preferences. So if the preferences for .docx files are set to "Save" (and Save is set to "Always ask"), it will prompt you to save after you choose open. So for the mental map, where you see "Open", it's really "Default action as defined in preferences". I must admit there might be an element of UX confusion somewhere, but it will probably non-trivial to address.

Comment 9

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

This needs more analysis and probably disentangling. Tentative summary.

Comment 10

[mike.roswell]

@Thomas8, thanks, your edits look great. Open All has this problem. I can confirm that if I change the default behavior to Open instead of Always Ask, filename is carried over and MS word docs (.docx) open as expected in MS word, saving the file in the default Downloads folder. About to attach a screenshot of relevant attachment settings. Thanks!

Comment 11

[mike.roswell]

Attachment: Screen Shot 2022-01-31 at 2.55.03 PM.png

Settings sufficient to recreate issue with opening/saving .docx files.

Comment 12

[mike.roswell]

1. click to open attachment with icon with filename at bottom of message pane
   1a. click Open all attachments at bottom right of message pane
2. default setting for filetype is Always Ask or Save
3. macOS save/finder dialog opens. Filename does not populate, nor file extension

Comment 13

[mike.roswell]

@ThomasD, did this clarify? I'm sorry, this is a pretty bare-bones recipe. Note that I just verified this now with macOS 12.2 and TB 97.0b3

Comment 14

[Richard Leger]

(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #7)

Files not opening by default application. A save window (macOS 12.1) opens but the file name and extension do not carry over.
Richard, are you seeing no filename in save-as dialog also on Windows 10?

When double clicking the attachment or right click > Open, a prompt windows appears to choose a location to save the file, the windows has no title and the attachment name is missing in the File Name field.

When pressing Save button in attachment panel, a prompt windows appears to choose a location to save the file, the windows has Save Attachment title and the attachment name is present in the File Name field.

Comment 15

[Richard Leger]

(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #6)

Right click on attachment and choosing Open has the same effect... instead of opening the attachment, I am prompted to save it somewhere...

Done. See Bug 1753819.

Cloning automatically set it as depends on this bug. I'll let you decide if you want to keep it this way or just set it as See Also bug instead.

Comment 16

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

I'm fairly sure this is the same as bug 1753819 and I'll post there shortly with what I think has happened. I'll file another bug about the Save As dialog.

Comment 17

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

Bah! I didn't mean to change the title. I kept changing my mind about whether to fix that here or file a new bug.