Closed Bug 1908872 Opened 1 year ago Closed 3 months ago

Can't move an email into a Gmail folder: it automatically comes back to inbox

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

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

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

People

(Reporter: phil15, Unassigned)

References

Details

(Whiteboard: [needs protocol log])

Steps to reproduce:

I am willing to move an email to a Gmail folder from my inbox.
So basically righ-click on the email, move to, and choose my destination folder.

Actual results:

The email disappears for two seconds, then reappears again in my inbox, as my move to command had not been taken into account.
P.S.: This happen only on my Gmail account, not my other email providers. And it seems to happen mostly with newly created folders (via gmail.com).

Expected results:

The email should have been properly moved to the folder.
P.S.: On Gmail's web app and my mobile app, everything is running well.

Summary: Can't move an emaill into a Gmail folder → Can't move an email into a Gmail folder: it automatically comes back to inbox!
Summary: Can't move an email into a Gmail folder: it automatically comes back to inbox! → Can't move an email into a Gmail folder: it automatically comes back to inbox

Gene, have you ever seen something like this? The only bug that is vaguely related is bug 1368056.

Seems to be working for me. With tb I moved several Inbox messages to an existing folder in gmail account and it worked OK. Then went to gmail.com and added a new label/folder. Went back to TB and collapsed/expanded at the gmail account top level "root" to force a discovery and then saw the new folder, did several moves to it and all the messages moved OK.

Reporter phil15, your description sounds like the problem may be somewhat intermittent. So I'm not clear on how often this occurs. If it is easy to reproduce, maybe a IMAP:4 log would help. See https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging

Can't reproduce with a freshly created folder.

Moving behaves weirdly (bugged?) with Gmail though, that may need to be taken into mind, although I haven't seen mails reappearing in Inbox.
I started using a tedious Copy+Delete combo every time I want to move a mail since figuring that Move seems to result in "archiving" on Gmail which is unexpected, and undesired for me.

See Also: → 1910131

Reporter Phil15,
I asked this at bug 1910131 too: Do you have any non-default imap settings at gmail.com site?

(In reply to gene smith from comment #4)

Reporter Phil15,
I asked this at bug 1910131 too: Do you have any non-default imap settings at gmail.com site?

Not that I know…! I checked them again and they look alright.
What's weird is that I've used Thunderbird for a years without any issue.

The only thing I changed recently was to remove the "Place a copy in" setting in my Thunderbird Sent messages settings.

It seems to bug consistently with newly created folders (that I create on Gmail as a precaution).

I'd love to send you the log file, but the steps mapped out on https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging look a bit complex to me!
I'll see if I can get them out at some point.

I'll also try to delete my Gmail account and sync it again from scratch. I'll let you know!

P.S.: Well, unfortunately, uninstalling and reinstalling my Gmail account didn't help… (For additional context, I don't have this problem with my other email clients. It appears only in Thunderbird.)

(In reply to phil15 from comment #6)

P.S.: Well, unfortunately, uninstalling and reinstalling my Gmail account didn't help… (For additional context, I don't have this problem with my other email clients. It appears only in Thunderbird.)

P.P.S.: I also did a restart with disabled add-ons and default settings, but it didn't help either.

P.P.P.S.: I also created a new profile and configured Gmail from scratch. And… it didn't change anything. 😑

phil15, Is it still only happening on newly created folders/labels at gmail.com. Also, is it intermittent or consistent?

I'd love to send you the log file, but the steps mapped out on https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging look a bit complex to me!
I'll see if I can get them out at some point.

Here's how to record and attach the log (assumes you are using windows):

  • Shutdown your running thunderbird.
  • On desktop, right click and create a new text file. You can call it anything, say run-tb.bat
  • Now edit the run-tb.bat file, say with notepad, and put this in it:
set MOZ_LOG=IMAP:4,timestamp
set MOZ_LOG_FILE=%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\tblog
"%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe"

This assumes TB is installed in Program Files folder. If this doesn't work make the last line:
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe"

  • Save the file run-tb.bat to desktop.
  • Click (or maybe double click) the run-tb.bat file on desktop. TB should run.
  • Do some activities in TB and with notepad or other editor, see that data is present in desktop file tblog.moz_log.
  • If TB doesn't run or nothing appear in desktop file tblog.moz_log, something is wrong with the tb-run.bat file.
  • If all OK, try to duplicate the problem while the log file is recording.
  • Once duplicated, shutdown TB and attach the desktop file tblog.moz_log using the Attach new file button above.

Each time you start TB using the run-tb.bat file, it will erase and overwrite the tblog.moz_log file on desktop.
You might also see more info here (for windows): https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging#Windows
Also, there might be personal info in the log file. So you can edit out anything you need to as long as the essential IMAP protocol info remains.
Good luck!

(In reply to Pedro [:pedrov] from comment #3)

Can't reproduce with a freshly created folder.

Moving behaves weirdly (bugged?) with Gmail though, that may need to be taken into mind, although I haven't seen mails reappearing in Inbox.
I started using a tedious Copy+Delete combo every time I want to move a mail since figuring that Move seems to result in "archiving" on Gmail which is unexpected, and undesired for me

Not really seeing problems with gmail "move". Maybe I'm not sure what you mean by "archiving". What should happen when a message is moved, it will be expunged from the source folder and copied to the destination folder. The message should remain in "All Mail" (the archive folder). It is only removed from "All Mail" after all copies have been moved to Trash and then deleted from Trash (or if Trash is emptied). Of course, this assumes default TB server settings and default gmail.com imap settings.

(In reply to gene smith from comment #10)

Not really seeing problems with gmail "move". Maybe I'm not sure what you mean by "archiving". What should happen when a message is moved, it will be expunged from the source folder and copied to the destination folder. The message should remain in "All Mail" (the archive folder). It is only removed from "All Mail" after all copies have been moved to Trash and then deleted from Trash (or if Trash is emptied). Of course, this assumes default TB server settings and default gmail.com imap settings.

The observation is right, but mentioned the behavior as it may be relevant and a Move != Copy+Delete situation is definitely a surprise to anyone not aware of magical side effects.

The Gmail web interface has an "archiving" feature which essentially removes the email from its folder, but keeps the "All Mail" copy (or reference?). Problem is that Move in Thunderbird essentially results in the same, so at least on Gmail moving behaves in quite magical ways.

Some tests:

  • Moving a mail to a local folder keeps an "All Mail" copy, Copy+Delete actually moves it as expected
  • Moving a mail from "All Mail" to a local folder makes the mail magically reappear on refresh
  • Moving a mail from "Inbox" to "Trash" makes the "All Mail" copy disappear just like Delete

Looking further into the problem, it generally looks like that Gmail doesn't obey delete requests, but reinterprets them as archiving. Now the problem looks more clear, it's just a mix-up of trashing and deleting hiding what's the problem:

  • By default the Delete keyboard/UI command actually means moving to "Trash"
  • The Delete filter command likely uses the same logic as the UI, so it also moves to "Trash" by default
  • The Move command does an actual delete instead of moving to "Trash", which is reinterpreted as archiving by Gmail

I'm not confident that these issues are relevant to OP, but noted my findings as Move is acting so weird with Gmail, I just started using Copy+Delete at one point in not just filters, but worse, even when manually cleaning emails which is surely tiresome.

(In reply to gene smith from comment #9)

phil15, Is it still only happening on newly created folders/labels at gmail.com. Also, is it intermittent or consistent?

I'd love to send you the log file, but the steps mapped out on https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging look a bit complex to me!
I'll see if I can get them out at some point.

Here's how to record and attach the log (assumes you are using windows):

  • Shutdown your running thunderbird.
  • On desktop, right click and create a new text file. You can call it anything, say run-tb.bat
  • Now edit the run-tb.bat file, say with notepad, and put this in it:
set MOZ_LOG=IMAP:4,timestamp
set MOZ_LOG_FILE=%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\tblog
"%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe"

This assumes TB is installed in Program Files folder. If this doesn't work make the last line:
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe"

  • Save the file run-tb.bat to desktop.
  • Click (or maybe double click) the run-tb.bat file on desktop. TB should run.
  • Do some activities in TB and with notepad or other editor, see that data is present in desktop file tblog.moz_log.
  • If TB doesn't run or nothing appear in desktop file tblog.moz_log, something is wrong with the tb-run.bat file.
  • If all OK, try to duplicate the problem while the log file is recording.
  • Once duplicated, shutdown TB and attach the desktop file tblog.moz_log using the Attach new file button above.

Each time you start TB using the run-tb.bat file, it will erase and overwrite the tblog.moz_log file on desktop.
You might also see more info here (for windows): https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging#Windows
Also, there might be personal info in the log file. So you can edit out anything you need to as long as the essential IMAP protocol info remains.
Good luck!

Hi @gene smith!
Thank you for your detailed answer. I'm using Linux with Fedora 40 × GNOME, so your instructions don't apply unfortunately. I've tried to follow the Linux instructions on the link you provided, but it didn't help… I couldn't find the Log file in order to update the access path. Do you know where it could be?

It's quite an upsetting issue, but I'm going back to gmail.com when I need to move folders that don't want to move via the app.
Thanks for everyone else's help and contributions too!
Kind regards,
— Phil

(In reply to phil15 from comment #12)

Thank you for your detailed answer. I'm using Linux with Fedora 40 × GNOME, so your instructions don't apply unfortunately. I've tried to follow the Linux instructions on the link you provided, but it didn't help… I couldn't find the Log file in order to update the access path. Do you know where it could be?

https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging#Missing_Log_File lists several possible reasons for missing log file - worth rechecking.

(In reply to phil15 from comment #12)

Hi @gene smith!
Thank you for your detailed answer. I'm using Linux with Fedora 40 × GNOME, so your instructions don't apply unfortunately. I've tried to follow the Linux instructions on the link you provided, but it didn't help… I couldn't find the Log file in order to update the access path. Do you know where it could be?

It's quite an upsetting issue, but I'm going back to gmail.com when I need to move folders that don't want to move via the app.
Thanks for everyone else's help and contributions too!
Kind regards,
— Phil

Start with the recommended "Shutdown your running thunderbird." step, but then some of the other steps may not be relevant here, at least I won't advise making a new file just for debugging.

Running the following in a terminal should do the trick to get logging going:
MOZ_LOG=IMAP:4,timestamp MOZ_LOG_FILE=$HOME/tblog /usr/bin/thunderbird

The specified path should be the right one according to https://packages.fedoraproject.org/pkgs/thunderbird/thunderbird/fedora-40-updates.html#files , but in case it isn't, and thunderbird happens to be in the executable search path (it should be), then the following should work (too):
MOZ_LOG=IMAP:4,timestamp MOZ_LOG_FILE=$HOME/tblog thunderbird

This seems to create ~/tblog.moz_log , specifically tblog.moz_log, a text file in your home directory.

The terminal will be busy with waiting for Thunderbird, and closing it will propagate the termination signal, so don't be too eager to close it while reproducing the issue.

Flags: needinfo?(phil15)

Here's what I do in kde "konsole" to run TB
MOZ_LOG=IMAP:4,IMAP_CS:5,timestamp,sync MOZ_LOG_FILE=~/tblog <optional/path/to/>thunderbird --allow-downgrade -p

I usually include "condstore" logging, "IMAP_CS:5", for more info.
Only need the path if TB not installed on your $PATH already. If command "which thunderbird" works, probably don't need the path.
Also, option --allow-downgrade in case I need to run an older version and optional -p to select a non-default profile (I have lots of profiles for testing/debugging).

still needs protocol log

Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 3 months ago
Flags: needinfo?(phil15)
Resolution: --- → INCOMPLETE
Whiteboard: [needs protocol log]
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