Open Bug 1849270 Opened 2 years ago Updated 5 days ago

Unified folders change all by themselves - Trash folder re-added at each restart (real trash folder is Deleted Items)

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
Folder and Message Lists
Version:
Thunderbird 115
Type:
defect

Tracking

(thunderbird_esr115 affected, thunderbird_esr128 affected)

Status:
UNCONFIRMED
Tracking Flags:
Tracking Status
thunderbird_esr115 --- affected
thunderbird_esr128 --- affected

People

(Reporter: mjurgens, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug)

Details

(Keywords: regression, Whiteboard: [Supernova3p])

Attachments

(2 files)

Screenshots of various states of unified folders
76.54 KB, image/jpeg
Details
Non-expandable Inbox
4.93 KB, image/png
Details

Steps to reproduce:

Install Thunderbird. Set up 4 accounts. Switched to Unified Folder View. Change the "Select Folders to Search" for Inbox to just 2 Inbox folders.

Actual results:

Was ok for a few days. Some time later, without restarting Thunderbird, suddenly I look and Thunderbird has decided all by itself to add the Trash folders to the list of folders for Inbox. I changed the selection back to just the 2 Inboxes.

This has happened multiple times. Also, it has magically self-selected folders other than Trash as well eg Junk

Other possibly relevant info:

  • I normally leave Thunderbird running for many days at a time.
  • This is a fresh install of Thunderbird with a brand new profile for v115
  • I only recall this affecting the Inbox Unified Folder and not any others eg Sent

I think I can reproduce it.
If I set the list of folders to the 2 Inboxes and update it. It looks ok. I then close Thunderbird. I then start it again. And then I see Thunderbird adding the Trash folders back to my Unified Inbox view. This has happened now about 5 times in a row.

Expected results:

The list of folders should not have changed since I never changed it

And of course, just after submitting the bug, I can no longer consistently reproduce it as described above. I don't know if this is relevant but I unselected "Search Online" when updating the folders back to 2 Inboxes. Initially, the fault still occured but a couple of cycles later, 2 times the Trash folders never came back by themselves. I cycled that "Search Online" option and Thunderbird a couple more times and now 3 more times in a row it has magically self-added Trash back to my view.

Please describe behavior of 115.2.0

Component: Untriaged → Folder and Message Lists
Flags: needinfo?(mjurgens)

Upgraded to 115.2.0
Upon first restart of new version, the same behaviour was observed.
Updated the Inbox Unified folder to remove Trash.
Restarted 2 more times and each time, Trash was magically added to Inbox Unified folder

Something else that may be relevant is that in the account settings, I have configured a custom folder that I call "Deleted Items" for putting items that I delete. So the folder called "Trash" is actually not used but still exists on the IMAP server.

Flags: needinfo?(mjurgens)
See Also: → 1844951
Blocks: sn-folderpane
Keywords: regression
Whiteboard: [Supernova3p]
status-thunderbird_esr115: --- → affected
Summary: Unified folders change all by themselves → Unified folders change all by themselves - Trash folder re-added at each restart (real trash folder is Deleted Items)

Upgraded to 115.2.3

Now the behaviour is even more strange. I will try and describe it

Action: Start TB
Result: Inbox unified folder shows 2 inboxes and 2 trash (as per original bug report)

Action: Update Inbox folder properties to select only the 2 inboxes (4 were selected)
Result: Inbox unified folder shows 2 inboxes (as per original bug report). This is how it is expected to behave

Action: Restart TB
Result: This is where is starts to get strange. The next few steps happen very quickly (less than 1 second). I had to screen record it and play it back to work out what was happening. Inbox unified folder shows 2 inboxes. Inbox unified folder shows 1 inbox (first email account). Inbox unified folder shows 1 inbox (second email account) and the trash folder of the second email account.

Action: Update Inbox folder properties to select only the 2 inboxes (4 were selected but clearly not all shown)
Result: Inbox unified folder shows 2 inboxes (as per original bug report). This is how it is expected to behave

Action: Restart TB
Result: Inbox unified folder shows 2 inboxes (as per original bug report). This is how it is expected to behave

Action: Restart TB
Result: The next few steps happen very quickly (less than 1 second). I had to screen record it and play it back to work out what was happening. Inbox unified folder shows 2 inboxes, just like we expect. Inbox unified folder shows zero sub folders of any description.
More Info: At this point, emails are still shown and looking at the folder properties shows that 2 inboxes and 2 trash (as per original bug report)

Action: Restart TB
Result: Inbox unified folder shows 2 inboxes and 2 trash (as per original bug report)

Action: Restart TB
Result: Inbox unified folder shows zero sub folders of any description.

Action: Restart TB
Result: Inbox unified folder shows 2 inboxes and 2 trash (as per original bug report)

Action: Restart TB
Result: Inbox unified folder shows zero sub folders of any description.

Now we are in a loop of showing 4 folders and then showing zero folders. I restarted multiple times and it just kept going in this alternating pattern of showing 4 then zero folders. Actually, this is not true. After a few more restarts, sometimes is shows one or other email account inbox and its trash, then jumps to none by itself. There always seems to be 4 folders selected in the folder properties

Upgraded to v115.3.1

Thunderbird no longer seems to randomly add other sub folder now, however the weird display issue described in comment 4 is still a problem

Are you still seeing comment 4 with 115.5.2 or newer?

Flags: needinfo?(mjurgens)

It has not jumped around much since https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1849270#c4 and mostly I just end up with a single inbox item and cannot expand it. I will add a screenshot. So I upgraded to 155.5.2 The first restart looked promising. But then the 2nd restart not so much. It started perfectly but then very quickly changed to no subfolder and Inbox is not expandable. I will attach a screenshot.

Flags: needinfo?(mjurgens)
Attached image Non-expandable Inbox —

This is mostly what I currently see (13th Dec 2023)

Still an issue in 115.8.0

Still an issue in 128.0esr (64-bit)

Thanks for the update

status-thunderbird_esr128: --- → affected
See Also: → 1907813

I have found out the procedure to reproduce this problem.

I started with a fresh Thunderbird profile and 4 mail accounts.
I selected only 2 Inboxes to be shown in the Unified Inbox.
At this point everything is ok. Everytime I restart TB, the unified inbox has just 2 inboxes under it as expected.
Now, go into the account settings for one of the accounts shown in the unified inbox.
Note the following account setting:
Server Settings --> When I delete a message: Move it to this folder -> Trash on ACCOUNT

I now change this setting to point to some other folder eg Drafts, so that the setting is now
Server Settings --> When I delete a message: Move it to this folder -> Drafts on ACCOUNT

Now close the Account Settings and view the Unified Inbox. It now only has one account shown. The one we just changed the setting for is now gone.
Restart TB. Both inboxes briefly appear but then the one we changed the "when I delete" setting on disappears.

Revert the setting and restart TB to put it back to normal behaviour

You really should not make the Drafts folder (of another account) the Trash folder. That will make things messed up.

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #14)

You really should not make the Drafts folder (of another account) the Trash folder. That will make things messed up.

No kidding. This was just a sample to show, using a folder that will exist in every config, and to show that the bug shows itself when any other folder is selected

(In reply to Matthew Jurgens from comment #13)

I have found out the procedure to reproduce this problem.

After running with this a few days, I have discovered that it is not a fix to leave the "Server Settings --> When I delete a message: Move it to this folder -> Trash on ACCOUNT". Setting to this value does seems to help or impact the issue.

However, with it point back to "Trash", the Unified folders seem to be generally ok upon restart, but some time later they still disappear again (while TB is running).

Should we change this to an account bug, where Trash in Server Settings can't be pointed to an existing trash Drafts folder (or something equally bad), and other existing special folders in Copies and Folders can't be pointed to an existing trash folder?

Edit: I didn't find an existing bug report.

Flags: needinfo?(mkmelin+mozilla)

Let me clarify. I actually set "Server Settings --> When I delete a message: Move it to this folder" to "Deleted Items". I do this because my mail provider automatically permanently deletes mail from anything called "Trash" much faster than I want to. So using "Deleted Items" puts me back in control of when I permanently delete things.

Changing "Server Settings --> When I delete a message: Move it to this folder" to anything other than "Trash" is what seems to cause the issue. Certainly, if I change "Server Settings --> When I delete a message: Move it to this folder" the folders displayed by Unified filtering changes immediately, so that these 2 seem to be linked somehow.

I have moved to the release channel and am currently on v145

I have changed my "Server Settings --> When I delete a message: Move it to this folder" to "Deleted Items" and I will see how it goes now. I have not tried this since switching to the release channel

Wayne: probably better with a new bug for that

Flags: needinfo?(mkmelin+mozilla)
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