1831494 - Archiving does not use an inbox subfolder with "Keep existing folder structure of archived messages" account setting

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 697706

(Thunderbird :: Account Manager, defect)

Description

[Alexander Kriegisch]

Steps to reproduce:

I am in the process of archiving a few old POP3 accounts to local folders, folder by folder. Doing this, I want to retain the original folder structure inside the archive folder, because those accounts all have a rather elaborate tree of folders and subfolders. Therefore, in the account settings I am selecting

• "When archiving messages, place them in: a single folder" and
• "Keep existing folder structure of archived messages"

Actual results:

When archiving anything from the "Sent" folder, everything is fine. A "Sent" folder is created within the local target folder, and all messages and subfolders are archived to the expected locations there.

When however archiving anything from "Inbox", no "Inbox" subfolder is created in the archive, but all messages and subfolders are created as children of the archive base folder.

Expected results:

For both "Inbox" and "Sent" (as well as for all other top-level folders I might choose to archive), the corresponding folders should be created within the archive folder.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Does this also reproduce when using version 115 started in Help > Troubleshoot Mode?
If it does, and you have not already done so, please list complete steps to reproduce.

Comment 2

[Alexander Kriegisch]

Why would it not? Have you changed any of the corresponding code to actually address this issue? Have you at least tried to reproduce it? Clear instructions have been given already.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Alexander Kriegisch from comment #2)

Why would it not?

Because in more than a year's worth of code change (that's what we have between 102 and 115), things can and do change. And you as the person who definitely can reproduce the issue are in the best position to determine whether the behavior changed.

Have you changed any of the corresponding code to actually address this issue? Have you at least tried to reproduce it? Clear instructions have been given already.

No. Using 118 beta on a Mac I was not able to reproduce, either as a subfolder of Inbox or any other location. 115 was not tested but I expect the same results.

Your instructions are definitely greatly appreciated, but too often instructions are insufficient for someone else to reproduce or lead to a solution. It's unfortunate for you and us, because we'd certainly like to be able to help.

Comment 4

[Alexander Kriegisch]

Yes, it is easy to reproduce in 115, no change in behaviour compared to 102. I did the following, just for you to be able to start from scratch:

• Create a new e-mail account on my server.
• Add the e-mail account to TB via IMAP and SMTP.
• Send two messages to myself.
• Both inside the Inbox and Sent folders, create one subfolder called "Sub".
• Move test message 2 from Inbox to Inbox/Sub and from Sent to Sent/Sub.

The result is a folder and message structure like this:

Inbox/
  TestMsg1
  Sub/
    TestMsg2
Sent/
  TestMsg1
  Sub/
    TestMsg2

Now, specify archiving options for the new account. Quoting my original issue description:

• "When archiving messages, place them in: a single folder" and
• "Keep existing folder structure of archived messages"

Now, select each of the 4 messages in the 4 folders and archive them. The result inside the archive folder looks as follows:

Archive/
  TestMsg1
  Sub/
    TestMsg2
  Sent/
    TestMsg1
    Sub/
      TestMsg2

See? The Archive/Inbox folder is missing completely, whereas Archive/Sent exists. All inbox messages/folders are archived one folder level too high, directly inside Archive. The expected result would be:

Archive/
  Inbox/
    TestMsg1
    Sub/
      TestMsg2
  Sent/
    TestMsg1
    Sub/
      TestMsg2

I really wonder why you cannot reproduce that. It should be easy to reproduce. Maybe, you just did not read my issue description thoroughly and therefore did not comprehend what I actually explained.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Vlad does this reproduce for you?

Comment 6

[Alexander Kriegisch]

I retried on my Windows 10 Pro box and TB 115.9.0 (64-Bit), and still I can always easily reproduce it. Did anyone else but me even try to reproduce this issue? Nobody confirmed that they did, not to mention fixing it.

Comment 7

[Ramona Gavrilescu]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #5)

Vlad does this reproduce for you?

Hello Wayne!

We were able to reproduce it.
We tested on MacOS 14 platform.
Versions:
125.0b2 (20240325163039)
115.9.0 (20240314154241)
115.0a1 (20230527102516)

We tried to find if this a regression or not but couldn’t find it yet, we’ll keep looking and let you know what we find.

Comment 8

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

This seems to be by design for some reason, see https://searchfox.org/comm-central/rev/e961f5e04b40e9d60bbf4018df04e5840789d7e9/mail/modules/MessageArchiver.sys.mjs#293-303.

Comment 9

[Dan Pernokis]

And could that design be because -- as everyone knows -- the INBOX is supposed to receive mails to be processed and filtered to elsewhere, thereby leaving the INBOX empty, with no need to archive it? Just a thought...

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

This is covered by bug 697706.

Comment 11

[Alexander Kriegisch]

This exception for the inbox folder makes no logical sense. If it is by design, it is bad design. Please change it. It destroys the original folder layout as demonstrated and ends up in a jumbled mess in the archive. It is utterly counter-intuitive, and the reason given by Dan is invalid. The inbox is not meant to be empty. In fact, my inbox contains many messages, only some of which are sorted into other folders, the latter being completely optional. We cannot expect every user to add filters to sort messages into subfolders. Most users will rely on full-text search and simply leave most messages in the inbox.

Comment 12

[Alexander Kriegisch]

I also kindly ask you to reopen this issue. It is related to the other issue, but by no means a duplicate. My issue describes in better detail what is expected, what happens instead (with examples) an how to reproduce it.

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Alexander, thanks for caring about this issue. Rereading both bug reports I can't come to a conclusion other than this is an exact duplicate of bug 697706. And this isn't a regression, so it doesn't make sense to reopen this newer report. You do give an expanded illustration here which you are welcome to add to bug 697706.

Dan's description is really a personal choice about mail management and workflow - which I don't see as relevant to the essential aspects of this issue. Let's forget about that please.

Comment 14

[gene smith]

Attachment: archive-setup.png

Let's forget about that please.

As pointed out here bug 697706 comment 17, I show an easy fix for this that treats Inbox like any other folder. But, if we want to keep treating Inbox as an exception, the example in the UI that shows how to preserve the folder structure for archiving (see attachment) should NOT show Inbox as an example.