1777606 - Unified Folders Inbox only reflects one account.

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect, P2)

Description

[René LeBlanc]

Attachment: 2022-06-30_Thunderbird Bug.jpg

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/102.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

I updated Thunderbird on Windows 10 (64).

Actual results:

Now, with Unified Folders selected, the Inbox only represents new messages one of the two accounts I am using.

Expected results:

When Inbox is selected, Thunderbird should display the merged new emails from all accounts.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

We've also had reports of issues in support. Somewhat more often than normal I think for a new release.

Comment 2

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

I can confirm this.
It seems that the counter of the "smart folder" inbox is not properly updated.

It seems that the deep count of unread messages doesn't account for Smart Unified folders containing root folders: https://searchfox.org/comm-central/rev/9c4c4ecfa55c31819010a40648601c61222e380e/mailnews/base/src/nsMsgDBFolder.cpp#3868-3893
Specifically this condition:

int32_t total = isServer ? 0 : mNumUnreadMessages + mNumPendingUnreadMessages;

So, a Smart folder Inbox containing multiple server root folders stops the count and doesn't sum it.

Comment 3

[Andrei Hajdukewycz [:sancus]]

Ping, any chance you can take this one?

Comment 4

[Ping Chen [:rnons] (away)]

I can try, but I don't know much about this

Comment 5

[Rachel Martin]

We can confirm this bug. When establishing the unified folder from two inboxes, the count was correct, 4+114=118, but after a new mail was received, 4+115 was still shown as 118. The code quoted in comment #2 hasn't changed in seven years and is unlikely to be at fault. Something is wrong with the "new message" notification system, perhaps something from bug 1683590. The best bet is to get the regression range.

Alice, can you please find the regression here. STR:
Set up a unified folder as combination of two folders:
Switch on Unified folders view, right click onto the unified inbox, "Select the folders to search", select two inboxes of two accounts.
The message count should be the sum of the counts.
Then send a message to one of the accounts. The sum isn't updated when it should be updated.

Comment 6

[Alice0775 White]

(In reply to Rachel Martin from comment #5)
Please describe

Switch on Unified folders view,

How?

right click onto the unified inbox,

Where is the unified inbox

Comment 7

[Rachel Martin]

It's shown in the attached picture in comment #0. Click on the three dots on "Folders".

Comment 8

[Ping Chen [:rnons] (away)]

The code quoted in comment #2 hasn't changed in seven years and is unlikely to be at fault. Something is wrong with the "new message" notification system

I don't know, maybe counters in unified folder didn't worked reliably long time ago. I was able to reproduce on 91 yesterday. See also bug 1692297, bug 1187319

Comment 9

[Rachel Martin]

Confirmed, count doesn't update on 91 either. Alice, so, please don't spend too much time with this. Perhaps you can try a few old versions, like 60, 68 and 78.

As for the unified folder not working at all: That's likely related to the mass MSF exodus that was fixed in bug 1773822. If the MSF is deleted the unified folder is likely broken.

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

So didn't start with 102, but we certainly have a lot of issues reported with 102.

Another example of bugs left lingering to bite our users? If we have cycles soon, I'd like to suggest we put some effort on reducing the fragility.

Comment 11

[René LeBlanc]

"Please don't spend too much time with this"????
PLEASE FIX IT!

Comment 12

[Anje]

(In reply to René LeBlanc from comment #11)

"Please don't spend too much time with this"????
PLEASE FIX IT!

Please try the following info to see if it resets situation.
This is the advise offered when people ask in Support Forum. about problems with the Unified folders.
It does not mean the bug is fixed, but see if it works for you and report back on results.

First set 'View' > 'Folders' > 'All' - uncheck the 'Unified' option.

Menu icon > Help > More Troubleshooting information
Under 'Application Basics' half way - Profile Folders - click on 'Open Folder'
A new window opens showing contents of profile folder.

Exit Thunderbird now - this is important.

Locate the 'virtualFolders.dat' file and delete it.
Click on 'Mail' folder to see contents.
Delete the 'smart mailboxes' folder

Start Thunderbird
Allow any mail to download
Set 'View' > 'Folders' > 'Unified'

Comment 13

[René LeBlanc]

I followed the advice:
First set 'View' > 'Folders' > 'All' - uncheck the 'Unified' option.
Menu icon > Help > More Troubleshooting information
Under 'Application Basics' half way - Profile Folders - click on 'Open Folder'
A new window opens showing contents of profile folder.
Exit Thunderbird now - this is important.
Locate the 'virtualFolders.dat' file and delete it.
Click on 'Mail' folder to see contents.
Delete the 'smart mailboxes' folder
Start Thunderbird
Allow any mail to download
Set 'View' > 'Folders' > 'Unified'

and Voila! This appears to have resolved the problem!

Now, the inbox count references both accounts. Thank you for your help!

Comment 14

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

For the 102 issues, maybe a result of bug 1773822.

Comment 15

[Anje]

Another report of issue with Unified folder in Thunderbird Support Forum.
AFter the most recent update (102.2.1), no emails in the Unified Inbox.
User advised to use the Unified Inbox Properties to reselect the various account Inboxes.
This fixed issue, but why did update cause the account Inboxes to be unchecked immediately after update, that is the question.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1387958

Comment 16

[newsfan]

Also here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunderbird/comments/wap218/thunderbird_10210_unified_inbox_not_working/
Other forums suggest that TB simply "forgot" all the folders that made up the unified folder. Is that a possibility?

Comment 17

[Anje]

New report of people updating to 102.3.0 current latest release and seeing empty Unified Inbox not displaying all the account Inboxes.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1390796

Comment 18

[b2]

See comment #16: Does it work if the make-up of the unified folder is re-established?

Comment 19

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Is there an adjustment to be made for comment 2?

Comment 20

[Anje]

People in Support Forum are finding either comment 12 and/or comment 15 (more common fix) will resolve the issue, but does not explain why the Unified folder 'Properties' was unchecking account Inboxes after update.

Comment 22

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #19)

Is there an adjustment to be made for comment 2?

I don't think so. Per following after that, likely something else is wrong. (Perhaps that too is faulty, even if not this bug.)

Comment 23

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

René, jonb,
Have you seen the same issue when going to version 115?

bug 1773822 does seem like a likely cause, but I don't think we will ever know for sure.
bug 1777606 comment 13 has a workaround.

Comment 24

[Jon Barrilleaux]

Just upgraded to 115. Initially unified folders were not working. In the view menu I saw that "show all" and "unified" were checked. I poked around and eventually unchecked all and/or unified and then checked them again. Went back to the mail view and unified seemed to be working. Exited and restarted TB to see if it stuck and it did. I'm not sure exactly what I did to make it work other than unchecking and then checking "all" and "unified" options. Hope this helps.