1970615 - Thunderbird fail to load pdf attachments in a tab on launch

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: General, defect, P2)

Description

[Clément Lefèvre]

Attachment: Screenshot From 2025-06-05 13-50-13.png

On Thunderbird 139.0.1 (and probably previous ones), launching TB with pdfs (from an attachment) among the opened tabs result in a fail to open them.

Reloading it with the button visible in the screenshot load them correctly, so this only happens at launch.

I may have noticed this for only emails in the past but I'm not sure. I'm reproducing it reliably for pdfs however.

EDIT: Note Thunderbird-conversations is used; I just tried to disable it, which I should have done before. as expected it affects the URI, because it tried to open a chrome://conversations/content/stub.html?urls=imap-message[…] which result obviously in a file not found if addon is disabled. It's a redirect as the screenshot was taken from a URI starting with imap:// that looks exactly like the one without addon.
I reproduced it with the addon disabled right now.
It looks like TB tries to load it before the code able to interpret imap:// URIs was loaded.

Comment 1

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] (away, back Aug 4)]

It does work in general.

Comment 2

[Clément Lefèvre]

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #1)

It does work in general.

I was able to reproduce it reliably though, in a context with no addons. I don't known if I can do something to provide more information on the matter?

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Does it happen beta 140.0b3 or newer?

Can you find a regression range with daily builds using https://mozilla.github.io/mozregression/quickstart.html ?

Comment 4

[Clément Lefèvre]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #3)

Does it happen beta 140.0b3 or newer?

Can you find a regression range with daily builds using https://mozilla.github.io/mozregression/quickstart.html ?

Tarball doesn't grab profiles from home, shouldn't it still get them from ~/.config?

Same question as on another issue for regression range: what would be the lower bound of the range to test here? Isn't there risk for existing profile, or if it behaves like the beta will it even use my profile?

EDIT: It also means one tarball was created somewhere, I guess?

Comment 5

[Mike Roberts]

I keep a few tabs open with PDFs and can confirm this is an issue in release 137.0 and higher.

I installed every version from 128.0esr until the bug appeared, 136.0.1 was fine, 137.0 was not.

I rolled back to 136.0.1 and will hold off upgrading further but I suspect more users will come across it as they upgrade to the latest esr as 128esr was not affected but 140.0esr is.

Comment 6

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

I confirm this as a regression.

It worked in in 128.x

Comment 7

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

Vlad, we're looking for the code change in Thunderbird that caused this regression.
The mozregression tool above could be used to help identify it.

Comment 8

[Toby Pilling [:tobyp]]

Geoff, could this be related to removing IMAPJS? mozregression thinks so

Comment 9

[Toby Pilling [:tobyp]]

Attachment: Bug 1970615 - Register IMAP protocol early to avoid session restore issues. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

When we got rid of IMAP JS, that removed a call to the ModuleLoader which that previously checked a pref to either register the JS version or the C++ version. We still need that early registration to avoid session restore situations like a PDF that was previously open in a tab. Maybe we should have kept that...
https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D237996#inline-1318902

Ah well, this should do it.

Comment 10

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

Great job, Toby, fix works for me!

Comment 11

[Toby Pilling [:tobyp]]

Sorry, just want to get Geoff to check it

Comment 12

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/1ce6ab12ad1f
Register IMAP protocol early to avoid session restore issues. r=darktrojan,kaie

Comment 13

[Toby Pilling [:tobyp]]

Release Note Request (optional, but appreciated)
[Why is this notable]: Bug fix - fixes the problem of attachments not loading in tabs on startup.
[Suggested wording]: Allow previously opened attachments to appear correctly in tabs on startup.
[Links (documentation, blog post, etc)]:

Comment 14

[Toby Pilling [:tobyp]]

Comment on attachment 9500125 [details]
Bug 1970615 - Register IMAP protocol early to avoid session restore issues. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

Uplift Approval Request

• Please state case for uplift consideration and ensure bug severity is set: Poor user experience caused by regression, quite visible
• User impact if declined: Users who have attachments open in a tab will see an error when they restart Thunderbird
• Is this code covered by automated tests?: No
• Has the fix been verified in Daily?: Yes
• Has the fix been verified in Beta?: Yes
• Needs manual test from QA?: No
• If yes, steps to reproduce:
• List of other uplifts needed: None
• Risk to taking this patch: Low
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): Just registers the IMAP module early enough to handle restoration of tabs containing attachments
• Does the fix cause any migrations to be skipped?: No
• String changes made/needed: None

Comment 15

[Corey Bryant]

Thanks fore the relnote. I updated a bit to shorten and put in past tense: "Users with attachments open in tabs saw an error on Thunderbird restart"

Comment 16

[Corey Bryant]

Comment on attachment 9500125 [details]
Bug 1970615 - Register IMAP protocol early to avoid session restore issues. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

[Triage Comment]
Rejecting for release and esr140. Sorry.. we're working on being more strict with uplifts to stable releases. Let's let this ride the train to Release in 2 more weeks.

Comment 17

[Clément Lefèvre]

(In reply to Corey Bryant from comment #16)

Comment on attachment 9500125 [details]
Bug 1970615 - Register IMAP protocol early to avoid session restore issues. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

[Triage Comment]
Rejecting for release and esr140. Sorry.. we're working on being more strict with uplifts to stable releases. Let's let this ride the train to Release in 2 more weeks.

That's two weeks for release, but rather a year for ESR though?

Comment 18

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

I would like to suggest to reconsider the decision for esr140, after the fix has gone live in the TB 142 release and nobody reports regressions.

Comment 19

[Corey Bryant]

Comment on attachment 9500125 [details]
Bug 1970615 - Register IMAP protocol early to avoid session restore issues. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

[Triage Comment]
Approved for release
Approved for esr140

Comment 20

[Corey Bryant]

Sorry, my mind is going in 2 directions with recent discussions we've had about uplifts. This falls under criteria for "Fixes for regressions with a broad impact." documented at https://developer.thunderbird.net/releases/uplifting-fixes and the fix is minimal, so accepted.

Comment 21

[Corey Bryant]

Comment on attachment 9500125 [details]
Bug 1970615 - Register IMAP protocol early to avoid session restore issues. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

But we can let it ride the train to release.

Comment 22

[Daniel Darnell [:dandarnell]]

Thunderbird 140.1.1esr:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr140/rev/fc04b98070484373726dcff67ba9cccc79afd797