1852814 - Since upgrading to 115, all imap emails disappear on each startup

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect, P1)

Description

[retroscopic-cp6]

Attachment: THUNDERBIRD.jpg

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/117.0

Steps to reproduce:

Fresh install of 115 on new computer. Profile is imported from old computer (running 102.)

Actual results:

On first run, everything is fine. However, when Thunderbird next starts up, imap folders are missing. Accounts are still intact and new emails are downloaded but nothing can be read because there are no folders displayed in the folder pane. The only way to restore them is to delete the "folderCache.json", "session.json" and "xulstore.json" files from my profile directory. However, each time I shut down Thunderbird and restart it, the same issue occurs again.

Expected results:

Imap folders should be displayed. I should be able to view my emails.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Can you test please - must all three files be deleted, or can just one of them?
Does it happen after Help > Troubleshoot mode with the files not deleted?

Comment 2

[retroscopic-cp6]

Test results seem inconsistent (perhaps because I am closing and restarting Thunderbird too quickly) and I have yet to observe a clear pattern, however "folderCache.json" appears to be the most significant file.
Occasionally, only this file needs to be deleted. However, after deleting it a few times, it is necessary to delete all three - but this also eventually stops having an effect.
The only sure way to restore the imap folders is by replacing those three files with the ones originally imported from my old computer. This has worked every time so far.

The problem remains unaffected by Troubleshoot mode.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

OTOH, Brian reports deleting xulstore.json is the workaround in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1423621

We've also had users report issues for older versions like 102 when updating:

• Bug 1789326 - All folders missing from all accounts after upgrade from 91.13 to 102.2.1, caused by dead symlinked calendar-data
• Bug 1777606 - Unified Folders Inbox only reflects one account.
• Bug 1778380 - Unified folders parent "Inbox" excludes some acccounts for total number of unread messages

So the question for 115 is, is this specific to 115, and can this be reproduced.

Comment 4

[retroscopic-cp6]

I should have pointed out that I have been "testing" without allowing Thunderbird internet access. Brian's workaround would need me to allow internet access - and doesn't provide enough of a solution for me to justify that. I don't want to risk Thunderbird making any unwanted changes to my imap account until I understand what is causing this issue.

Comment 5

[Anje]

You mention this is an IMAP mail account, so everything is on server.
Profile was imported - so this account has not been created as new.
Have you tried removing and reinstalling the account.?

• Access Account Settings
• select outlook account name
• click on 'Account Actions'
• select 'REmove account'
• Exit Thunderbird
• Wait a few moments for backfround processes to complete.
• Start thunderbird.
• Create New > Existing mail account.

Comment 6

[Brian Barrett]

(In reply to Anje from comment #5)

You mention this is an IMAP mail account, so everything is on server.
Profile was imported - so this account has not been created as new.
Have you tried removing and reinstalling the account.?

• Access Account Settings
• select outlook account name
• click on 'Account Actions'
• select 'REmove account'
• Exit Thunderbird
• Wait a few moments for backfround processes to complete.
• Start thunderbird.
• Create New > Existing mail account.

Hi Anje - Wayne, I posted about this over at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1423621

This is happening consistently for me on two separate workstations right now. One (my older system) I upgraded from 102.15 using the normal process of Help --> About --> Update method and the other, my new workstation is a profile import from the old system.

Both are experiencing the exact same issue as outlined in my community post and retroscopic's summary here. And for me, the most important file to remove to get my folders/emails back is xulstore.json as described in my most recent post.

I'm happy to test further by completely removing accounts and adding them back. I have the bandwidth to re-download all message headers etc and because all my accounts are IMAP, it's not messing with local folders at all (have them hidden).

Would you like me to do this on the computer I upgraded from 102.15 (old system) or the one I imported the profile onto (new system)?

Also, should I only delete a single account (say my primary work Gmail) or all 6 IMAP accounts? I currently have 4 Gmail IMAP accounts and 2 IMAP accounts hosted from Kattare.com on both systems.

Let me know and I'll start right away. Thank you for your attention to this issue and the work you do on Thunderbird... been a user since the very beginning and support the product whenever I can.

And thank you retroscopic-cp6 for getting this into Bugzilla... you beat me to it but I was coming here to do the very same thing. :)

Comment 7

[Brian Barrett]

Attachment: How Thunderbird appears restarting after upgrade or profile import...

Comment 8

[retroscopic-cp6]

I started afresh without importing my old profile. I manually added my account and then just copied over my old local folders.
Everything seems to be working as it should now - but it was far from an ideal solution.
As a long time user of Thunderbird, one of the features I have always appreciated is the ease at which I could import my profile from an old computer - so I hope this bug (if that's what it is) has been fixed when I next need to do so.

Comment 9

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

From the symptoms and error messages I've seen in similar reports, it's likely one of the mail files somewhere in your profile is/was corrupt. I'm not yet sure why Thunderbird 102 handled that okay without breaking but 115 doesn't.

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Check the error console

Comment 11

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

Attachment: Bug 1852814 - Catch errors from broken folders when filling the folder tree. r=aleca

This will result in broken folders not appearing in the folder tree, and attempts to access them
in other ways will probably still fail, but it's better than displaying nothing at all.

Comment 12

[Brian Barrett]

Attachment: Error Console 2023-09-18 171610.png

Comment 13

[Brian Barrett]

Attachment: Error Console 2023-09-18 171626.png

Comment 14

[Brian Barrett]

I've tried marking the xulstore.json as readonly in Windows after it's freshly created but this doesn't seem to make any difference. On subsequent restart, the folders pane is empty again and Thunderbird seems to just use a xulstore.tmp.json (or xulstore.json.tmp, can't remember) in that situation.

Interestingly, the folders pane displays properly when starting Thunderbird in Troubleshoot Mode consistently (defaults to All Folders).

Above you can see the output of the error console when restarting and the folder pane doesn't load properly...

Comment 15

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Brian, retroscopic,

Are there no lines in the error console like

• NS_ERROR_FILE_NAME_TOO_LONG 0x80520011 nsIMsgFolder.subfolders
• gloda.index_msg Problem entering folder xxxx undefined:629 0x80070057 illegal value nsIMsgLocalMailFolder.getDatabaseWithReparse

Comment 16

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

I'm going to move my patch to another bug since I've decided it doesn't really fit this one. Sorry about the noise.

Comment 17

[Phabricator Automation]

Comment on attachment 9353814 [details]
Bug 1852814 - Catch errors from broken folders when filling the folder tree. r=aleca

Revision D188543 was moved to bug 1853824. Setting attachment 9353814 [details] to obsolete.

Comment 18

[Brian Barrett]

Attachment: Screenshot 2023-09-18 181832.png

Comment 19

[Brian Barrett]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #15)

Brian, retroscopic,

Are there no lines in the error console like

• NS_ERROR_FILE_NAME_TOO_LONG 0x80520011 nsIMsgFolder.subfolders
• gloda.index_msg Problem entering folder xxxx undefined:629 0x80070057 illegal value nsIMsgLocalMailFolder.getDatabaseWithReparse

No, I'm sorry... when I restart and quickly load the error console, I first see the uncaught promise with parentRow undefined in about3Pane.js (line 919) followed immediately by the undefined win.messageBrowser in mailTabs.js (line 100).

Uploaded new screenshot of my error log and debug.

Comment 20

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

Brian, I think your issue is a different one from the original report here. If the suggestion I'm about to make doesn't solve your issue, please open a new bug with the information you've already provided, and we'll deal with it there.

It looks to me like you've got a unified folder that's set up in an unusual way. Thunderbird should be able to handle that (obviously it isn't) but to get you going again, these steps should help:

• Close Thunderbird.
• From the profile folder, delete (or move, or rename) the file virtualFolders.dat and the folder Mail/smart mailboxes.
• Start Thunderbird.

I'm not sure why deleting xulstore.json seemed to help, or why there was an error message from the calendar in one of your earlier posts, but you should at least be able to see and access your mail again.

Comment 21

[Brian Barrett]

(In reply to Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan) from comment #20)

Brian, I think your issue is a different one from the original report here. If the suggestion I'm about to make doesn't solve your issue, please open a new bug with the information you've already provided, and we'll deal with it there.

It looks to me like you've got a unified folder that's set up in an unusual way. Thunderbird should be able to handle that (obviously it isn't) but to get you going again, these steps should help:

• Close Thunderbird.
• From the profile folder, delete (or move, or rename) the file virtualFolders.dat and the folder Mail/smart mailboxes.
• Start Thunderbird.

I'm not sure why deleting xulstore.json seemed to help, or why there was an error message from the calendar in one of your earlier posts, but you should at least be able to see and access your mail again.

Okay, I did as you instructed and on restart there's no difference. Looks like the same errors showing up in the log too.

Will start a new bug entry as you suggested.

Comment 22

[Brian Barrett]

New bug created here: bug 1853961

Comment 23

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

No need to needinfo a developer, we get the notifications for every message, thanks

Comment 24

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to retroscopic-cp6 from comment #8)

I started afresh without importing my old profile. I manually added my account and then just copied over my old local folders.
Everything seems to be working as it should now - but it was far from an ideal solution.
As a long time user of Thunderbird, one of the features I have always appreciated is the ease at which I could import my profile from an old computer - so I hope this bug (if that's what it is) has been fixed when I next need to do so.

If you see this again, please reopen the bug