1840246 - Messages in list continue showing unread status

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1855758

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/114.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

With version 115.0b4 (64-bit) I click the previous button at the top of the standalone message window in the toolbar.

Actual results:

I [sort] messages by date descending and start at the bottom going up. Clicking previous in the standalone message toolbar will therefore retrieve the next message up in the list. When doing this, the next message retrieved sometimes but not always retains a bold font indicating not read. When stepping through unread messages in this manner, several may not change to show they were read. Also if I click on one of these messages to render it, it still may not change to show being read.

Expected results:

As each message appears in the standalone message window it should no longer have a bold font in the list.

This issue reliably happens each day when I fetch email and go through my list, and occurs for at least one or two messages in the list. I noticed messages do not change to unread immediately. There is a delay. When I go to a previous message using the standalone message window, it may wait for up to three seconds before changing to read in the list. This indicates the click event has terminated, and changing the message in the list is performed by another thread or service event. It is very latent and laggy in this regard. Pursuant to this issue, sometimes the servicing event is not recognizing status for a message should change. This began happening with the 115 branch. I did not install 111, 112, 113, or 114 due to user interface issues, so cannot say when this problem began occurring.

Comment 1

[Steve]

I confirm this is a bug. I first experienced it in 114b1. I have not evaulated it with any prior releases (114b1) but it does not exist in 102.

Comment 2

[Steve]

(In reply to Steve from comment #1)

I confirm this is a bug. I first experienced it in 114b1. I have not evaulated it with any prior releases (114b1) but it does not exist in 102.

I'm using a Windows 10 / x64 machine and TB 115b6.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

David,
There are indeed still lingering message list issues. Check for 116 beta in about 24 hours, and let us know if it still happens. (and even 116.0b1 may still have issues)

Comment 4

[Steve]

As you foretold...116b1 has this issue also.

Comment 5

[David McDivitt]

After installing 116.0b1 (64-bit), one message in my inbox still showed unread after stepping through all using the standalone message window. While stepping through I deleted one and moved two to a spam folder. I then restored my Thunderbird folder from last night and pulled emails again making sure I did the same actions. This time it left five unread in the inbox folder.

Comment 6

[Steve]

And it's still occurring in 116.0b2

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Duplicate?

Comment 8

[Steve]

Yes. I posted in both places in the hopes it would be acknowledged and acted upon. Don't mean to add to the problem!

Comment 9

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

I cannot reproduce this. Depending on the responsiveness of the server, it can take a few seconds before the message is marked there. In fact, sometimes the network delay causes the list to go from bold (unread) to non-bold (marked read locally), back to bold (local data updated from the server where it's still unread) and finally non-bold again (server updated).

I'm assuming your settings say to mark messages as read immediately on display. Is this IMAP or POP3? Whose server is it? Are the messages marked as read if you look at them using webmail? (In other words, is Thunderbird doing the right thing but displaying the wrong state?) Is this a unified folder or an ordinary folder? How big is the folder?

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Perhaps best if Steve answers in their bug 1840255, and David answers here.

David, It will be great if you can find a regression range using https://mozilla.github.io/mozregression/quickstart.html
I would start with nightly build date range of 2023-05-20 and 2023-07-04

Comment 11

[David McDivitt]

@wsmwk, Wayne, I don't know how to do regression testing. I guess I could install different versions going back and see what version it starts with, but don't have time to do that. In my initial comment I reported seeing the issue with version 115.0b4 (64-bit). I held off a few updates due to supernova issues.

I have 116.0b7 (64-bit) now and assure you the the issue is real. Each day I download email several times and step through emails using a standalone message window. Each time one or more messages is left unread, meaning, the message retains a bold font in the list. If I double click the message to open it, again in the standalone message window, the state of the message does not change as viewed in the list. The only way to mark the message read is to double click and toggle the read/unread attribute for the message in the list. For me that's a little blue ball. If the ball is present the message is unread.

I am thinking the list rendering becomes out of sync and toggling the attribute changes then fetches whatever state is there.

The user Steve verified this issue in comments above.

Comment 12

[David McDivitt]

Geoff asked a few questions. I do not use unified email but read messages for each of my inboxes individually in a standalone message window clicking next and going through each. The problem occurs with an IMAP account, but as you know, once emails are pulled from the server it has a local read/unread status irrespective of the server. In other words all messages for me show unread when first pulled from the server whether or not already read via webmail or K-9 on android. As I read those emails the status changes to read, or at least should change to read, which is the way Thunderbird has worked for several years with no server or configuration change on my part, and why I reported this issue.

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to David McDivitt from comment #11)

@wsmwk, Wayne, I don't know how to do regression testing. I guess I could install different versions going back and see what version it starts with, but don't have time to do that. In my initial comment I reported seeing the issue with version 115.0b4 (64-bit). I held off a few updates due to supernova issues.

The beauty is https://mozilla.github.io/mozregression/quickstart.html totally automates the process - you give it start and end dates and how you want the profile directory to be managed, and it literally does everything for you (for example picking the Thunderbird builds, downloading them and starting them) other than you doing the steps to reproduce and telling it which download works or doesn't. Your production profile and program installation isn't touched.

It's the very best option to getting this resolved unless the reporters here fine steps to reproduce that the developers can also reproduce - so far between three reporters that hasn't happened.

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

https://mzl.la/44ShZh0 might have other matches

Comment 15

[Steve]

I am on Windows 10 latest build as of 8/2/23.
I went back and installed each b1 version after 102 - starting with 103b1.
When I got to 111b1 Build 4 the problem I have been writing about showed up.
In fact, all sorts of fonts changed and I had an entirely different message panel than in previous versions.
So, somewhere, in 111 something changed significanly to affect how things appear and whether or not the font reverts to normal after being marked as read. The icon did change from green to clear so the app is recognizing the fact the message has been read. It's just failing to modify the font accordingly.

Comment 16

[David McDivitt]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #13)

The beauty is https://mozilla.github.io/mozregression/quickstart.html totally automates the process - you give it start and end dates and how you want the profile directory to be managed, and it literally does everything for you (for example picking the Thunderbird builds, downloading them and starting them) other than you doing the steps to reproduce and telling it which download works or doesn't. Your production profile and program installation isn't touched.

It's the very best option to getting this resolved unless the reporters here fine steps to reproduce that the developers can also reproduce - so far between three reporters that hasn't happened.

I program for a living wanting to retire, but am still going to help my team for awhile. I will check out quickstart.html out of curiosity. I can make a test Thunderbird folder with gobs of emails, set to unread, then play with versions to see what happens. That might be fun. I don't know if manually setting emails to unread versus being unread because just downloaded will make a difference. The issue is a minor annoyance since emails moved to trash may make the trash folder show unread emails.

Comment 17

[Steve]

I did a little more testing and determined that the last release - 110b4 - worked like I expected but that release 111b1 Build 1 did not.

Comment 18

[David McDivitt]

I think 110 b4 was the last before Supernova and I know the issue did not exist then. I skipped a few because of Supernova issues and when I finally resumed it had the issue.

Comment 19

[Steve]

117b2 the saga continues

Comment 20

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to David McDivitt from comment #18)

I think 110 b4 was the last before Supernova and I know the issue did not exist then. I skipped a few because of Supernova issues and when I finally resumed it had the issue.

Yes, supernova on beta started with 111.0b1 build 4 on 2023-02-27.
And on daily version 111 builds at 2023-01-16

(In reply to Steve from comment #19)

117b2 the saga continues

If it goes away, please post an update. Otherwise, we will safely assume the bug continues, so no comment is needed.

Comment 21

[Steve]

I notice, on this page, a section called "Tracking".
It lists Thunderbird116 along with a status of "wontfix".
In view of the fact that you have requested I no longer update the release and the fact that the issue is not resolved every time there is a new release how am I to interpret this status of "wontfix"?

I am on release 102 which works just fine.
All subsequent issues starting with 111 have this problem.
I would like to update my production environment to 115.
Since there is no resolution or the status is "wontfix" to my issue I assume I am stuck with the "bug".

Is this correct?

Comment 22

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

If a fix is found it may be backported to 115.
116 was released already (beta only for tb), and wouldn't get a fix.

Comment 23

[David McDivitt]

In version 117.0b6 (64-bit) I still see this issue but it has changed. If I step through messages quickly before the status of a message changes in the message list, the status will not change to read. This happens reliably.

Previously if status for a message failed to update in the list, double-clicking that message and opening it still would not change the status. Now, opening messages will change the status in the list.

Comment 24

[David McDivitt]

Possibly fixed with bug 1855758