1769089 - Outgoing Server (SMTP) Settings lost after update to 91.9.0. Multiple prefs files - prefs-1.js, ...

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Thunderbird :: Account Manager, defect)

Description

[Robin McCain]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:100.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/100.0

Steps to reproduce:

Existing mail accounts from different providers set to a different SMTP server for each account. This has worked for years, but several previous updates have wiped SMTP settings (as happened this time).

I use external email providers (gmail, etc) rather than host email on my colo server, which runs 40 domains using Virtualmin on linux.

Actual results:

All outgoing SMTP settings were deleted. Instead a new SMTP setting appeared pointing to one of the domains on my colo server (which has mail disabled as I'm using another mail provider)

I was forced to recreate all the SMTP accounts

Expected results:

SMTP setting should not have been deleted and should have remained functional

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Im' not aware of anything that would cause this.

Comment 2

[Matt]

I had a single instance in support where someone claimed this. I have seen the entire list of SMTP servers simply load only a couple I items. I have a bug filed for it somewhere, but I have yet to see the SMTP servers actually missing from the prefs.js file.

Comment 3

[Robin McCain]

Next time it happens I will try to remember to look in the profile and backup the prefs.js file for you before I correct the entries. There were 20 backups of the prefs.js in the profile - the last from 8/8/20 but there was no more recent backup.

Comment 4

[Matt]

Those backups. Were they versions of prefs.js with just a number appended to the name? Generaly those type files only get created when some other application on the PC is locking the file when Thundebird tries to write it. IT is not a backup. It is saved settings that never actually get to the point of being used. I blame antivirus scanning for the majority of these as they tend to mostly seem affect js files, so I guess when Thunderbird opens them the anti virus starts scanning so Thunderbird gives up and tries another name.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Matt from comment #4)

Those backups. Were they versions of prefs.js with just a number appended to the name?

Robin??

Comment 6

[Robin McCain]

Yes, they are named prefs-1.js through prefs-20.js and date from 11/12/2019 to 8/8/2020
and are in my c:/users/robin/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/(number).default-release folder. File sizes vary from 0 to 39 KB. (The current prefs.js file size is 52 KB)

As an aside, I'd also like to point out that it is very difficult to easily update an email account password/servername in Thunderbird when changing mail providers. /Tools/Settings/Privacy&Security/Saved Passwords is very quirky and sometimes remembers old accounts and passwords even if you try to remove them.