1842419 - Incorrect prompt for next unread folder when using N and T to navigate to unread

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[Bill Taroli]

Attachment: tb116b1-NT-race-condition.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0

Steps to reproduce:

Use "N" or "T" to navigate to next unread message/thread, when the current folder has no unread messages.

Actual results:

Focus shifts to the next folder with unread messages.

Next message isn't displayed.

A message is shown asking whether you want to navigate to the NEXT folder with unread messages.

Then current folder finishes downloading headers/body.

If you cancel the prompt for the NEXT folder and then hit N or T again, it correctly takes you to the next unread messages you expected to back in first step.

Expected results:

Expected that focus would change to the next unread message in the next folder the first time. And possibly that when the folder list displays an unread count that messages were pre-retrieved to avoid the lag and apparent race condition for the user.

In the attachment, you can see that focus is on a folder shown to have unread messages, but the pop-up signifies that it wants to naviage to the NEXT folder... this happened merely after pressing N and after focus changed to the folder shown in the screencap. No extra user action occured; hence "race condition." It's suggesting navigating away because it apparently thinks I typed N again and there are no unread messages in THIS folder. Wrong. But not until it actually downloads them I guess.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Does Bug 1845011 describe your issue?

Comment 2

[Bill Taroli]

No. That bug describes that N gets "stuck" in one folder, instead of proceeding to the next.

The behavior I have observed is that "N" (or "T") does in fact go to the next folder. But if the message headers and body haven't yet been retrieved -- I have synchronization enabled -- then it instantly asks whether I want to proceed to the next folder after that, which is very annoying.

So I dismiss the prmopt. Wait a few moments for the messages to download, and then hit N or T again to actually read them.

And this is why I call it a race condition. It's testing for the state of unread messages (of which there are some) but fails to detect them because the contents haven't yet been downloaded, so it prompts me as if there are no unread messages and to proceed to the next folder.

Comment 3

[other.tent0831]

I'm seeing the same behavior when using "n' to navigate to the next unread message, when the current folder has no unread messages in Thunderbird 115.4.1 (64-bit).

Comment 4

[raphael.barrois]

The behaviour also occurs on thunderbird 115.5.0 (64-bit). Configuring the IMAP account to download all emails locally does not address the issue.
The issue didn't happen on thunderbird 102.12.0.

Which additional details would be required to help in investigating the issue?

Comment 6

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

Attachment: Bug 1842419 - Wait until all messages have been loaded when navigating across folders. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

Comment 7

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

Does this still happen in current versions of Thunderbird? The patch above may fix this, but I haven't been able to reproduce the actual issue ...

Comment 8

[other.tent0831]

(In reply to Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw] from comment #7)

Does this still happen in current versions of Thunderbird? The patch above may fix this, but I haven't been able to reproduce the actual issue ...

I'm still seeing it in Thunderbird 128.0.1esr (64-bit) on Windows 10.

Comment 9

[Renato Botelho]

I'm seeing this behavior every day for so long that I don't even remember how it used to be when it worked.

I'm running 131-b5 on macOS

Comment 11

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/aaae1e75f0bd
Wait until all messages have been loaded when navigating across folders. r=mkmelin

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Please request uplift to esr, so we can determine whether it heps bug 1857806

Comment 13

[Vlad Lucaci, Thunderbird QA (:vlucaci)]

Confirming this issue as verified fixed with 133.0b3(20241107210012) using Windows 11, macOS 14, and Ubuntu 22.

Comment 14

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

Comment on attachment 9396914 [details]
Bug 1842419 - Wait until all messages have been loaded when navigating across folders. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

[Approval Request Comment]
Regression caused by (bug #): bug 1845011
User impact if declined: Navigating to the next unread message across folders may fail if messages haven't finished loading.
Testing completed (on c-c, etc.): c-c and beta
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): low

Comment 15

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

Release Note Request (optional, but appreciated)
[Suggested wording]: When navigating across folders to the next unread message, wait until all messages have loaded.

Comment 16

[Corey Bryant]

Comment on attachment 9396914 [details]
Bug 1842419 - Wait until all messages have been loaded when navigating across folders. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

[Triage Comment]
Approved for esr128

Comment 17

[Daniel Darnell [:dandarnell]]

Thunderbird 128.4.3esr:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr128/rev/99d03bdd8686

Comment 18

[Vlad Lucaci, Thunderbird QA (:vlucaci)]

Confirming this issue as verified fixed with 128.4.3(20241108210256) on macOS 14, Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.