1805600 - Changing individual account parameters forces a restart

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Thunderbird :: Preferences, defect)

Description

[peter.parkkali]

Steps to reproduce:

When creating a new mail account (after starting a fresh profile, or adding a new account in the preferences), modern Thunderbird forces a "wizard" UI on the user with a limited set of inputs. To escape this wizard, one has to enter phony details in the inputs, switch to another wizard, and then skip that in order to finally get to the normal account preferences view.

The above has been reality for quite a long time, and while wholly unnecessary, has worked so far: one is able to reach the account settings and enter the basic set of parameters that go with any IMAP+SMTP account.

Actual results:

In recent versions of Thunderbird, the account settings UI itself is severely broken.

After reaching the account properties as described above, changing either the host name or username triggers a modal popup informing the user that "changing <the parameter> requires a restart".

Declining the popup reverts your changes in the affected input, and restart... indeed, causes an unnecessary restart of the whole application. After the restart, Thunderbird will try to connect to a server somewhere -- using parameters it did not let you finish entering yet.

This behaviour is completely unnecessary and a rather hostile piece of UX. What should be a 2 minute task of entering the parameters for a basic IMAP account now:

• triggers at least two restarts
• takes the user away from the settings view he/she was working in
• causes Thunderbird to connect to a server somewhere on the internet with incorrect details (wrong username, encryption settings, etc)
• possibly exposes user names, email addresses, etc. to eavesdroppers, depending on what values the user managed to enter up to that poing (IMAP servers that accept plaintext connections still exist out there, for "backwards compatibility").

Expected results:

Thunderbird should never force restarts while the user is configuring a mail account (or changing any other preferences). It should let the user finish setting up his/her account, entering all required values in one go, then apply changes internally after pressing "save" / "ok" in the preferences dialog.

Additionally, Thunderbird should not force users to go through artificial "wizard" dialogues. Even if a wizard is offered by default, it should have a "skip" button immediately on available, without condescending language attached or intentionally crippled UX flows forced onto the user.

Version: 1:102.6.0+build1-0ubuntu0.22.04.1

Comment 1

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Changing server hostname and/or username requires a restart yes.
It is - in practice - necessary to do so.

For the wizard, I don't see why you wouldn't enter the proper email to begin with, then when it suggests something (or not) you have right there the opportunity to edit the settings to your desire.