Open Bug 1767453 Opened 3 years ago Updated 8 months ago

File - "Compact Folders" doesn't seem to work (IMAP, mark as deleted)

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Networking: IMAP, defect)

Product:
MailNews Core
Component:
Networking: IMAP
Platform:
x86_64
macOS
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: calum.mackay, Unassigned)

References

Details

Until relatively recently (some weeks ago) on Trunk, using "Compact Folders" from the File menu worked well, compacting all folders for my current IMAP account.

Now [e.g. Daily 101.0a1 (2022-05-02) (64-bit)], it doesn't seem to work.

The status bar says:

compacting inbox
compacting <foldername>
…
Done compacting (approx XX kB saved)

but the folders mentioned don't seem to get compacted. i.e. deleted messages in them remain showing (marked as deleted).

Unfortunately, I didn't note precisely when this starting happening, but remember it being several weeks ago.

Note that a folder-pane context-menu compact of a single folder does still work fine.

Nothing at all appears in the JS console error window, during the compacting.

I "repaired" both my inbox, and one of the folders tested, before trying.

thanks Magnus; I had seen that, and wondered, but it does seem a bit different.

I have auto compact enabled (200MB/ask), and also never see it ask me.

But the behaviour I describe here seems different, and new: Compact Folders (plural) has always worked, up until several weeks ago. I apologise for not paying enough attention and getting a good window. I'm now a little nervous about going back a month or two in builds…

And the status bar seems to indicate that it thinks it is compacting, and even reports how much it has saved. Except that it hasn't actually done so.

I tried disabling auto compact; didn't seem to make a difference to this issue.

I'm on 101.0b1 and just tried compacting one of my GMail accounts. It took about 2 minutes but went through all folders one by one and finished.

thanks Arthur.

I just tried it on my gmail account too, and got the same behaviour as my local IMAP server: it said it was compacting, and claimed to have saved 1.8MB, but the deleted emails are still visible, both in inbox, and a folder.

What date is your build? I see my TB has today changed to: 102.0a1 (2022-05-03) (64-bit)

Anyone have any ideas how I might track down why it's not working here, please?

(In reply to Calum Mackay from comment #5)

thanks Arthur.

I just tried it on my gmail account too, and got the same behaviour as my local IMAP server: it said it was compacting, and claimed to have saved 1.8MB, but the deleted emails are still visible, both in inbox, and a folder.

What date is your build? I see my TB has today changed to: 102.0a1 (2022-05-03) (64-bit)

I'm running 101.0b1 with a Build ID of 20220502202835.

Anyone have any ideas how I might track down why it's not working here, please?

Anything showing up in Error Console (ctrl-shift-J)?

(In reply to Calum Mackay from comment #0)

but the folders mentioned don't seem to get compacted. i.e. deleted messages in them remain showing (marked as deleted).

Hey Calum, may I ask you to rewrite your report in a new comment here so that it follows the prescribed structure?

STR (every single mouse click and relevant settings like "mark as deleted")

  1. IMAP account with these settings:
  2. do this
  3. do that

Actual result

  • this happened
  • and this

Expected result

  • this should have happend

I'm not nitpicking, but an orderly report will actually make everyone's life easier, save time, and increase the chances of successful management.

Flags: needinfo?(calum.mackay)

thanks Arthur,

Anything showing up in Error Console (ctrl-shift-J)?

No, I mentioned that in my original submission: nothing at all.

thanks Thomas.

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

STR (every single mouse click and relevant settings like "mark as deleted")

  1. IMAP account with these settings:

not sure what you mean by "these settings"? You want a list of all of my IMAP settings? Do you have a suitable grep I can use on my prefs file, please? If not all, please list which settings you would like me to specify.

I do have mark-as-deleted set, as noted above.

STR:
2. Delete some messages in an IMAP folder
3. In the TB window for that IMAP folder, do: File -> Compact Folders

Actual result

  • Status bar reports: Done compacting (approx XX kB saved)
  • but deleted messages have not been removed from mail folder

Expected result

  • deleted messages should have been removed from mail folder
Flags: needinfo?(calum.mackay)
  1. In the TB window for that IMAP folder, do: File -> Compact Folders

A Compact Folders action should not be deleting files in Trash. At least not in my experience. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compacting-folders#w_how-does-compact-work

The only places where a delete Trash action can happen / be set---and only upon exiting the app---is under Account Setting > Server Settings > Message Storage > Empty Trash On Exit or by a right-click on the Trash can icon and choosing Empty Trash.

(In reply to Arthur K. [He/Him] from comment #10)

  1. In the TB window for that IMAP folder, do: File -> Compact Folders

A Compact Folders action should not be deleting files in Trash. At least not in my experience. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compacting-folders#w_how-does-compact-work

The only places where a delete Trash action can happen / be set---and only upon exiting the app---is under Account Setting > Server Settings > Message Storage > Empty Trash On Exit or by a right-click on the Trash can icon and choosing Empty Trash.

Thanks Arthur, but I'm not using the Trash folder.

by "mark-as-deleted", I mean that I am using the IMAP setting:

Server settings — When I delete a message: Just mark it as deleted

With this setting, Compacting the folder should then really remove/expunge the file, on the IMAP server, i.e. a real delete, rather than just marking it as "deleted".

Indeed, that's exactly what it does, when you Compact a single folder, using the context-menu in the folder pane. This continues to work as expected.

Whereas File -> Compact Folders should Compact all folders for the currently selected/visible account. This worked fine until relatively recently, but now doesn't seem to do anything at all.

As above, I see this with multiple IMAP servers, including gmail, so it's not server-specific.

However, you say that it's working fine for you on gmail, which is very interesting. Did you actually check that emails marked-as-deleted were actually deleted, with File -> Compact Folders?

For me, the status bar makes it look like it is working, but the marked-as-deleted emails remain, after File -> Compact Folders has finished. Whereas a single context-menu Compact works as expected.

Did "Compact Folders" recently break, such that now you have to shift-click highlight all folders in order to get it to do anything?

I thought previously "Compact Folders" would simply compact folders, ie, all folders.

Yup, that is the point I'm making here in this bug :)

Is "mark-as-deleted" required?
It may be worth testing this with the next beta

I've never used IMAP for anything. I just have regular old mail folders. I do have a lot of folder though since I use the "archive" command with per-month folders. I could have sworn this used to work, but I think it's been broken for quite some time now.

Depends on: 1776727
Summary: File - "Compact Folders" doesn't seem to work → File - "Compact Folders" doesn't seem to work (IMAP, mark as deleted)

Still see this?

Flags: needinfo?(calum.mackay)

This has been broken for over a year. Currently on "102.10.1 (64-bit)" the behavior is still that if no folder is selected it does nothing whatsoever.

If you shift-click to highlight all the folders then it attempts to actually do things, however you get lots of error pop-ups like "The folder '2023-04 on johnkw gmail' cannot be compacted because another operation is in progress. Please try again later."

If you keep trying after the popup errors with all folders shift-click selected, then eventually it works.

Sorry for delay Wayne, yes I'm still seeing this.

Flags: needinfo?(calum.mackay)

forgot to add: 115.0a1 (2023-05-09) (64-bit); MacOS Ventura 13.3.1 (a)

See Also: → 796867
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