1857734 - My Unified Folders Inbox and Sent are not fully populating with TB upgrade 115.3.1

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[Alan]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/109.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/109.0.1518.140

Steps to reproduce:

I installed the unified folders add-on and reset unified folders as per instructions.

Actual results:

This add-on resolved my missing Sent folders and some messages, but my unified folders including Inbox and Sent are not fully populating. They are missing messages. This is very frustrating, and we need a simple option to revert to the previous working version. If it aint broke, don't fix it. Allot of users are upset with this upgrade, and rightfully so. The user interface is also very hard on the eyes.

Expected results:

We need a simple tool to revert back to previous version when upgrading. This needs to be a major priority at this point. People are scrambling.

Comment 1

[Alan]

See related posts at: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1426486#answer-1609087

Comment 2

[Alan]

This 115.31 upgrade is totally messed up. Besides the above, it has also seriously screwed up my Google accounts. I am now seeing messages that I have previously deleted in my Unified Inbox as well as my individual account Inboxes. I will now need to go through hundreds of emails and re-delete them, but I will not do that until all of these problems have been addressed and rectified. For now, we need a fool proof, one click option to revert to a working version of Thunderbird. The senior developers need to let us know what they intend to do to resolve this, and when this will be addressed.

Comment 3

[Alan]

I continue to discover more serious problems with this upgrade. Now, I can no longer paste text or items in the message, because it simply doesn't allow it. All of these issues has made TB highly dysfunctional. Obviously this has become a very serious problem that needs immediate attention. Version 115.31 needs to be scrapped.

Comment 4

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Try Help | Troubleshoot mode
Likely that is due to a broken add-on.

Comment 5

[Alan]

I tried it, disabled all add-ons, and there's still allot of missing messages in the Unified Inbox and Sent folders. I need to open the individual folders to access them. More importantly, I still cannot compose messages using paste. If I paste something then press return, then paste something else, nothing shows up. Like I said, this Client it toast at this point. There is now a Yellow Warning symbol above the top right menu stating that Import/Export Tools NG Requires Permissions.

Comment 6

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Copy paste works for me. Please file a separate issue if you can reproduce that in troubleshoot mode.

Which version did you upgrade from?

Comment 7

[Alan]

The copy and paste issue doesn't happen in troubleshoot mode, but it is new with version 115.31. If you paste something once, it works, then if you press the return key and paste it a second time, it doesn't work, then if you press the return key again, it will paste. While doing this, the box next to Paragraph switches to variable width every other time, which is when the paste fails.

This is all the information I can provide you with and it is substantial. I have done my part and lost countless hours trouble shooting. I simply cannot afford to lose any more time. I am trying to take care of my future. This is not what I signed up for. I simply needed a working email client and i was prepared to make donations. I need real solutions at this point and I do appreciate all efforts in resolving this. The big problem as I see things is that this new update was released before the bugs were worked out, which is messing allot of people up from what I can see. Thank you.

Comment 8

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

The copy and paste issue doesn't happen in troubleshoot mode

This confirms it's one of your add-ons that is causing that issue.

We're aware of some issues with the Unified folders view.

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #8)

We're aware of some issues with the Unified folders view.

Indeed, it has been getting attention (at least four fixes since August 1) and is still being worked on. And this bug can only cover unified folder issues We're not going to discuss here other issues or how to go back to a prior version. Focusing on one issue will lead to fast results.

Restating from matrix (@river) that it will help not to panic - while this is clearly an important issue for Alan, there is no dataloss, the messages are available in individual accounts, and this is not a pervasive issue in relative terms when considering there are 4 million users on version 115 and so far no more than roughly 70 reports.

To summarize from here and https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1426486, the reporter:

1. sees unified inbox and sent folders are missing a number of messages
2. but the messages do exist and can be accessed through the individual folders - there is no lost data
3. seeing messages that were previously deleted in my Unified Inbox (gmail accounts)
4. ran the debugging add-on and reset Unified Folders to no avail.

I suspect the cause of #3 will be the gmail "All Mail" folder is attached to the unified Inbox, or something similar. My advice is the same as before, you will be wasting your time if you attempt to correct this before we know the cause.

We have debugging information from several users, but it would still help to have yours if you are able.

• Install https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/unified-folders-debugging/
• on the Unified Folders heading click on ⋮ three vertical dots
• click Debugging Info
• scroll to bottom
• click Copy to Clipboard and save the clipboard somewhere
• click Close.
• in the Unified Folders heading ⋮ do "Reset Unified Folders"
• send us the clipboard data

Comment 10

[Alan]

Attachment: Unified Debugging INFO

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Thanks for the debug info

Comment 12

[Alan]

Reminder that I am now seeing a Yellow Warning symbol above the top right menu stating that Import/Export Tools NG Requires Permissions. I've mentioned this in another comment.

Comment 13

[Alan]

Update: I have noticed that the number of messages in my Unified fluctuates, when I open TB. Ten minutes ago, it only had 85 messages with the oldest being August 2022. Now it has 210 including more recent messages, but it is still missing messages and most new messages do not show up. The total messages in the individual accounts amounts to around 147, which includes a number of messages that have previously been deleted. These messages do not appear in the unified inbox.

All of this is very troubling, and now I have to figure out which ones I have previously deleted. I see no activity on this problem, and so I feel as though my efforts to provide information have been in vain. When will this be addressed. A very fair question, all things considered.

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #11)

Thanks for the debug info in attachment 9357490 [details]

From a developer ...

No idea what's going on here. The data from the add-on all looks like it should so that's something.

Reporter says he's missing messages from the Unified Inbox. Resetting removed the Unified Folders and rebuilt them with the default settings so I don't see how they could be the problem. Something to do with the awful way Gmail does folders? Could some folder repairs help?

Alan, if you have not already, please do right+click > properties > repair on each individual account's Inbox.

Comment 15

[Alan]

We are finally making progress. But first, to give you an idea of one part of the problem, I just received 3 emails, one from Wayne and two from Bugzilla. The one from Wayne showed up in both my individual account inbox and the unified inbox. The two from bugzilla only showed up in the individual accounts. As for the progress, I followed Waye's advice to do a repair to each individual account's inbox, and this cleaned things up considerably, not everything, so the numbers of messages in the unified inbox and the totals of all individual inboxes is not a perfect match (off by a couple of dozen) but all those previously deleted messages that showed up in my inboxes are now gone. The two buzilla messages for example are now in the unified inbox as well, as they should be. I will have to spend allot more time sorting through all this stuff to see what is missing or not, etc. I will be much more careful about upgrading from here on in. As I see things, most software developer release a Beta version to test out on those who may have the time to thoroughly try it out before releasing it as an upgrade. This seems to be the way to go for the future. If you are looking to attract more users and more donations, this is crucial. If I were a new user experience this nightmare of the past week, I would have given up by now and moved on to alternative solutions. The question of why this happened, and why I needed to repair all the folders needs to be resolved. Also, the number of messages in Unified folders should match the sum of the individual folders, so the problem is not yet completely resolved.

Comment 16

[Alan]

We are finally making progress. But first, to give you an idea of one part of the problem, I just received 3 emails, one from Wayne and two from Bugzilla. The one from Wayne showed up in both my individual account inbox and the unified inbox. The two from bugzilla only showed up in the individual accounts.

As for the progress, I followed Waye's advice to do a repair to each individual account's inbox, and this cleaned things up considerably.

But not everything, so the numbers of messages in the unified inbox and the totals of all individual inboxes is not a perfect match (off by a couple of dozen) but all those previously deleted messages that showed up in my inboxes are now gone. The two buzilla messages for example are now in the unified inbox as well, as they should be.

I will have to spend allot more time sorting through all this stuff to see what is missing or not, etc. I will be much more careful about upgrading from here on in. As I see things, most software developer release a Beta version to test out on those who may have the time to thoroughly try it out before releasing it as an upgrade. This seems to be the way to go for the future. If you are looking to attract more users and more donations, this is crucial. If I were a new user experience this nightmare of the past week, I would have given up by now and moved on to alternative solutions. The question of why this happened, and why I needed to repair all the folders needs to be resolved. Also, the number of messages in Unified folders should match the sum of the individual folders, so the problem is not yet completely resolved.

Comment 17

[Alan]

I just received notice that two messages have been received. Both my unified and individual account are showing 2 for number of new messages, but there is only one message, so I continue to experience problems.

Comment 18

[Alan]

This upgrade continues to be problematic. Rather than the Unified folder not showing newly received messages, it is the individual account that is missing new messages despite it showing that the same number of new messages having been received.

Comment 19

[Alan]

This bug was reported 28 days ago and has yet to be resolved. The temporary fix for the unpopulated unified folders including the Sent folder, and the issues with missing messages, some showing up in individual folder and not the unified folder and vice versa were just that, temporary fixes.

Yesterday, the Sent folder was back to being unpopulated, and the individual folders containing my important and starred messages were all open for some mysterious reason.

How this happened out of the blue is also a mystery, because I was not notified of an upgrade. If upgrades are installing on my computer without my permission, this is completely unacceptable. This is a subject that needs to be taken seriously at this point.

Comment 20

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Alan from comment #19)

This bug was reported 28 days ago and has yet to be resolved. The temporary fix for the unpopulated unified folders including the Sent folder, and the issues with missing messages, some showing up in individual folder and not the unified folder and vice versa were just that, temporary fixes.

Yesterday, the Sent folder was back to being unpopulated, and the individual folders containing my important and starred messages were all open for some mysterious reason.

Do you have other computers or a phone accessing these accounts?

How this happened out of the blue is also a mystery, because I was not notified of an upgrade. If upgrades are installing on my computer without my permission, this is completely unacceptable. This is a subject that needs to be taken seriously at this point.

You are simply seeing the effects of a bug that hasn't been completely fixed. If you don't want to receive fixes, you can turn them off updates with a policy.

Comment 22

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Do you have other computers or a phone accessing these accounts?

Comment 23

[Alan]

I have a laptop that I haven't used in a couple of months to access my email. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to do any troubleshooting at this time. My plate is overflowing with very important personal responsibilities.

Comment 24

[Alan]

Wayne, I see that you closed my bug report titled "Update Version 115.3.1 Continues to Plague Users with Bugs" claiming that it is related to this bug. I don't necessarily agree with you because I reported new issues including missing emails. I am therefore reposting the content here: Reported November 15 2023:

Yesterday, I was seeing sent messages in my Inbox folder, and other important sent messages simply missing. This is very alarming. There could also be other messages missing,

but I don't have time to deal with this anymore. This version is filled with terrible bugs and needs to be addressed. We have been waiting 1 1/2 months for fixes and it's time this is finally dealt with. It may have helped. Still getting things in my drafts folder that have long since been sent. Sometimes when I open TB this folder is empty other times there are 3 or 4 messages in it that I know were sent. Also, I get an error when saving partly composed messages in the draft folder. Then it saves when I try again. Always fails first try. We had a good working email client, and not it is filled with very serious bugs. When we lose messages, this becomes a serious issue.

Comment 25

[Alan]

My draft folder continues to show messages previously sent successfully. Has this issue even been acknowledged?

Comment 26

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

If version 115 was better before 115.3.1, you can find an older version 115 at https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/

I don't see a common factor in your issues that makes sense to me that would lead to a solution. You might see if https://mzl.la/47QVtGm matches to one or more of your issues.

(In reply to Alan from comment #23)

I have a laptop that I haven't used in a couple of months to access my email. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to do any troubleshooting at this time. My plate is overflowing with very important personal responsibilities.

I wasn't asking to have you do troubleshooting as such. What I am interested in whether you have another computer where Thunderbird is installed, or could be installed, where it might work better.

Comment 27

[Alan]

I have no idea what version I was using before 115.3.1. At this point I am leery to try anything that could potentially result in more problems, such as installing an older version.

Comment 28

[Richard Leger]

Hi Alan,

I don't know if the following will help but worth a try...

• In Unified Folders > Inbox (Right click) > Properties > Choose, make sure the account mailboxes or sub-folders are selected, and therefore included in the Unified view. Selecting an account does not automatically select any of the sub-folder of the account in that UI. If you select an account Inbox, it then appear under the Unified View Inbox but still nothing no msg appear in the Unified View Inbox.

• In Unified Folders > Inbox > Properties make sure the Match all messages radio box option is ticked instead of the Match all the following (you may have no rule defined by default).

See if that help you, like it helped me (Bug 1858723), after using the unified folders add-on and reset unified folders as per instructions.

Regards,

Comment 29

[Richard Leger]

(In reply to Richard Leger from comment #28)

• In Unified Folders > Inbox > Properties make sure the Match all messages radio box option is ticked instead of the Match all the following (you may have no rule defined by default).

You also need to select the Search Online option

Comment 30

[Alan]

Yes Richard, All of these items are selected, but thank you for offering the suggestion. For now, things seem relatively stable, but obviously nothing has been rectified in terms of previously sent messages turning up in my draft folder out of the blue, great delays in retrieving new messages etc. I don't know if all messages from all accounts are turning up in my unified inbox because I don't have time to do the math. Last time I checked the math didn't add up. In other words, in previous versions, the total messages in unified Inbox was indeed the sum of all individual accounts. That got messed up with 115.3.1 and presumably there has not been a fix. Frankly the list of problems are too many to remember with this version.

Comment 31

[Richard Leger]

Alan,

You could also wait further upgrade of TB and see how the situation improve or not in TB 120 or later.

(In reply to Alan from comment #30)

previously sent messages turning up in my draft folder out of the blue,
I suspect this might be separate issue that would need to be dealt with separately.
Is this happening every time you send a message? Or was it just a one off following TB upgrade?

great delays in retrieving new messages etc.
Same here. Is the delay appearing only in the Unified View Inbox folder? or also in account Inbox?
Might be linked to Bug 1854586 or related... possible improvement to be seen in 120+ version of TB.

I don't know if all messages from all accounts are turning up in my unified inbox because I don't have time to do the math. Last time I checked the math didn't add up. In other words, in previous versions, the total messages in unified Inbox was indeed the sum of all individual accounts.
That got messed up with 115.3.1 and presumably there has not been a fix.

If the numbers do no add up, it may mean that one of the sub-folders in each account may not be selected in the Unified View Properties settings. The number indicated next to each folder in unified view are only the unread messages not the total number of messages. Is that the number you are referring to?

From my experience it would not fix by itself unless you do the steps described above:
Install add-on, reset unified folder view, and check/set settings as indicated in Comment 28 and Comment 29.

As last resort option to fix Unified View, you may be able to apply another possible fix found in Bug 1856997 :

• Thunderbird Menu > Exit
• Rename (or Delete) all the smart mailboxes-n folder(s)
  -- on PC via File Explorer: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<profilename>\Mail\smart mailboxes (eg: C:\Users\richard\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\cnant748.default\Mail\smart mailboxes)
  -- on Mac via Finder: Users/<username>/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<profilename>/Mail/smart mailboxes-n
• Start Thunderbird (which would recreate/re-generate those folders)

I have not had to try myself, but I thought to record it here as it may help you or others.

Thunderbird is a bird that do sometime requires much patience :-)
Thank you anyway for having taking the time reporting your issues.

Cheers,

Comment 32

[Alan]

All accounts are selected in response to (messages not adding up) and yes, the delay is with the Unified Folder. No time to respond any further but would like to hear when a fully working release is available. No use trying 115.5 from what I am hearing. It will only result in more headaches and time loss.

Comment 33

[Richard Leger]

Hi,

@Alan,

If you wish to, after startup, try to disable the Unified Folder view Menu > View > Folders > Unified Folders unticked (be patient I know it is hard to do so) and re-enable it (ticked). See if that help keep TB running at a more normal pace for you... as a possible workaround for now. After that keep TB opened if you can to avoid the issue at startup again :-)

@Wayne,

After upgrading from TB 115.3.2 (64-bit) to TB 115.5.1 (64-bit) with Unified Folders view enabled, I can confirm that TB become unusable after startup. With the Unified Folder view Inbox selected, the interface keeps Not Responding on regular interval for a certain period of time... with status bar showing Looking for folders, Searching for folders, opening folder XXX... in rotation... the computer fan is also running like crazy so likely a lot of processing going on...

If you manage to disable Unified Folders view (which is not easy), then TB is responsive again...
As soon as you re-enable Unified Folders view again, the computer fan goes bunker again for a while and then back t normal as TB re-populate the Unified Folders view but remain usable after that it seems...

Maybe TB is doing too much at startup and something that conflict (Looking for IMAP folders vs Searching for folders in Unified View?) with each other or pile up of (parallel?) tasks that interfere with each other?

If you click on an account Inbox folder (not in the Unified Folders view) and click again on the Inbox of the Unified Folders view the Searching for folders and Open folder XXX keeps appearing again in the status bar...

All I see in error console are errors like the below:

uncaught exception: ParserError: invalid line (no token ";" or ":") "\n" CalIcsParser.jsm:152:39 <-- dealt with in Bug 1776462 
(...)
1702032625320	Toolkit.Telemetry	ERROR	TelemetrySend::_doPing - error making request to https://incoming-telemetry.thunderbird.net/submit/telemetry/94be3e92-a3b7-43b8-8a26-5602dc851ac1/health/Thunderbird/115.5.1/release/20231122164546?v=4: eUnreachable Log.sys.mjs:722
NS_ERROR_FAILURE: CalDAV: Error: got status undefined fetching calendar data for Marco, null CalDavCalendar.jsm:1115
1702032625385	Toolkit.Telemetry	ERROR	TelemetrySend::_doPing - error making request to https://incoming-telemetry.thunderbird.net/submit/telemetry/43bd6ac7-e64f-4079-b03d-76c0e7ef0ec4/first-shutdown/Thunderbird/115.5.1/release/20231122164546?v=4: eUnreachable Log.sys.mjs:722
1702032625385	Toolkit.Telemetry	ERROR	TelemetrySend::sendPersistedPings - failed to send ping 43bd6ac7-e64f-4079-b03d-76c0e7ef0ec4: {"isTrusted":true} Log.sys.mjs:722
1702032625386	Toolkit.Telemetry	ERROR	TelemetrySend::_doPing - error making request to https://incoming-telemetry.thunderbird.net/submit/telemetry/aed107d8-5e3c-4893-b8cd-5928286c2efc/main/Thunderbird/115.5.1/release/20231122164546?v=4: eUnreachable Log.sys.mjs:722
1702032625386	Toolkit.Telemetry	ERROR	TelemetrySend::sendPersistedPings - failed to send ping aed107d8-5e3c-4893-b8cd-5928286c2efc: {"isTrusted":true} Log.sys.mjs:722

My Internet connection remain available at all time so maybe the network connection in TB is saturated or disappearing between two tasks? It keeps also trying to login at regular interval but that could be just when you change folder... not sure...

​Regards,
Richard

Comment 34

[Alan]

Wayne, I appreciate the suggestion, and will keep it in mind if I run into further problems. As it stands, the client is working without any major problems so I prefer not to tamper with it. When do you anticipate a release that resolves all of the issues people have been reporting with all 115 builds. I am willing to make another contribution to the development team once we are back on track with a stable client and a promise to not prematurely release new versions without proper testing. thank you

Comment 35

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I know that's not what anyone wants to hear, but without data on whether newer versions have the same issue I don't see a path forward at the present time. So calling this stalled for now.