1888070 - Archive folder settings problem on IMAP server directory change

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Thunderbird :: Preferences, defect)

Description

Steps to reproduce:

See bug 1880014 for discussions.

Step 1:

• Setup one IMAP account on a dovecot server (or any other server providing the mailboxes as subfolder of "INBOX")
• Setup a second identity on that account
• Set "Archives" or any other folder as the target for archiving
• Restart TB
• Set Edit -> Account Settings -> Server Settings -> Advanced -> IMAP Server Directory to "INBOX"
• Restart TB
• Now all mailboxes are correctly shown at the same level as INBOX
• Mark messages sent to the main or additional identities in Inbox and hit "Archive" button

Step 2:

• Go to Edit -> Account Settings -> <your_account> -> Copies and Folders
• Correctly set the archive folder
• Restart TB
• Mark messages sent to the main and additional identities in Inbox and hit "Archive" button

Actual results:

After step 1:

• Archiving a message to any identity makes TB go into a loop of discovering folders and trying to move the message to a non-existent archive folder (only a restart helps)

After step 2:

• Messages sent to the main identity are correctly being archived
• Messages sent to the second identity send TB into the loop of death

Problems:

1. Archive folders are not set correctly when changing the IMAP server directory while other folders are set correctly (sent, templates, etc.)
2. When correcting the archive folder location in the general function for the whole account, only the archive folder for the main identity is being set correctly

Check mail.identity.id[X].archive_folder in the Config Editor.

Expected results:

1. When using "Edit -> Account Settings -> Server Settings -> Advanced -> IMAP Server Directory", TB should set all archive folders correctly for all identities of the account.

2. When changing the archive folder location in the main function for the account, the folder should then be set for all identities of that account.

Comment 1

[gene smith]

A workaround for this, when setting up a new account as in Step 1 above, is to ONLY use the default "Archives folder on" on this account for account setup and for any alternate identity setup. Never use the 2nd archive folder option (Other:) when IMAP Server Directory is to be set in advanced setting:

(x) Keep message archives in:
  (*) "Archives folder on:   [Choose an account (default to this account)]     <---- ONLY use this
  ( ) Other:                 [Choose an existing folder anywhere on any account]

So this forces your archive folder to be called "Archives" or whatever this defaults to with other not en-US localization. The folder will be created if it doesn't already exist, unlike for the "Other:" setting.

If an "Other:" name than "Archives" is really needed there is a way to fix that too and avoid the "loop of death".

1. Don't choose the "Other:" folder until the "Imap server directory" is set and folders are displayed at same level as Inbox.
2. If "Other:" was already set before "Imap server directory" was set and the "loop of death" is observed:
   a. Restart TB.
   b. Choose another folder for the archive "Other:" then re-select back to the original desired folder.
   c. Do the same thing (item b.) for any archive setups for alternate identities.
   d. Restart TB.

Archiving to the "Other:" folder should now work OK for all identities.

Note: When archives causes the "loop of death" when "Imap server directory" is set to INBOX, you should see this example in config editor for your archive folder for your identities with "Other:" set to select "my-archive-folder":

mail.identity.id2.archive_folder	imap://[e-mail]/INBOX/my-archive-folder

When steps a to d are taken above, the setting should look like this example (i.e., there is now no INBOX in path):

mail.identity.id2.archive_folder	imap://[e-mail]/my-archive-folder