1783417 - Too many Chat contact requests cause email message pane to be invisible/inaccessible

Status: NEW

(Chat Core :: XMPP, defect)

Description

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

I experience a strange interdependence between chat and email functionality in Thunderbird.

I have the Thunderbird classic layout, with email message pane showing on the lower right side.

As soon as I connect a configured XMPP account, the message pane disappears (message list now taking up the whole vertical space), with no apparent way to make the message pane visible (tried menu and hotkeys).

If I disconnect the XMPP connection, the message pane is immediately restored, visible again.

Seen with 102.1.0 on Linux, Qubes OS. Specific on the profile, I only get this on one computer.
The same environment and profile has been working fine for years.

Comment 1

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

Something must have happened to this specific profile.

I can reproduce this bug with 102.0, too!

However, I've been using 102.x beta and stable versions with that profile since they were available, and today is the first day I've seen this.

What kind of change to a profile could trigger this bug?

Comment 2

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

Could this be a desktop environment bug? Might Thunderbird incorrectly judge the size of the desktop?

At the time the message pane disappears, I see the following additional changes:

• the status bar disappears
• the folder pane (left) disappears, and I cannot scroll inside it

It seems Thunderbird might falsely think that the desktop is much larger vertically, and behaves like the Thunderbird window was resized vertically - but it wasn't, window isn't maximized, I have free space below the thunderbird window.

Comment 3

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

Also seen in troubleshoot mode.

Comment 4

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

ok, I found the reason.

I have many many contact requests for my xmpp account.
When switching to the chat tab, the whole window is filled with notification bars regarding "... wants to chat with you".

Apparently this has the effect of automatically vertically resizing some inner logical area, which affects the email tab, too.

Comment 5

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

As a fix, there should be a limit on the amount of contact requests being shown, or some other way to prevent this bug, and I think a fix needs to go into esr102 stable.

I believe I have already filed a bug for the same issue in past.

I think this needs a high priority, it's very annyoing. If you come back from PTO to a computer, it's easy to have XMPP contact request spam, and be affected.

Comment 6

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

I'm trying to come up with a temporary fix, at least.

Comment 7

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

Attachment: Bug 1783417 - Show a maximum of 5 chat contact request notifications to avoid email pane resizing. r=freaktechnik

Comment 8

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

I didn't have time to make this a priority, as chat isn't my focus. However, without an enhancement like this, I couldn't use my chat account any more. I've decided to stop using the account that got too much spam.