208526 - Mails in Inbox multiply, cannot get new mail

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 90422

(MailNews Core :: Backend, defect)

Description

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030514

Sorry reporting with that old version, but I cannot find sources in latest-1.4

This bug is not intentionally reproducible, it just happens. It happened several
times now, even today.

I have some mails in my Inbox. I just do nothing (surf the web or don't even
touch Mozilla at all). When I come back several copies of the same message are
displayed in the thread pane. Compressing does remove this problem.

Marking as blocker since Mozilla-1.4 must not have such a problem.

pi

Comment 1

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

Attachment: Screenshot of the problem, see comment

Note that there are many copies of the same messages, the ones with identical
times are really the same message.

I also -- you can see it -- cannot collapse some threads anymore (SWIFT in the
shot). That is even true after compacting, when I open and close the thread.

pi

Comment 2

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

Attachment: Inbox.msf

The attached Inbox.msf does not change on disc when collapsing (diff says, the
copies I produced before and after are identical!).

pi

Comment 3

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

When this happens, I also can no longer get new mail.

Asking for blocking1.4.

pi

Comment 4

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

doesn't block development...

Comment 5

[Jim Booth]

Boris,
Do you have "Leave Messages on Server" checked in mail server settings?

I've seen this happen occasionally, I think it's a mail server problem that it
loses the pointer to which message you last downloaded.  Can you check with your
ISP to see if they've had a problem with mail?

You mentioned the extra copies just show up.  Do you have "Automatically
download new messages" checked also?  That would explain it if same messages are
being retrieved each time Mozilla checks for new mail.

Can you access mail account from another client (like webmail) and delete all
the messages.  Then see if it keeps happening.

I'm sure this is a dupe.  I'll research it. 

Comment 6

[Jim Booth]

Possible dupe of bug 90422.  

Boris, 
1. Do you have "Check for new messages at startup" checked in server settings?
2. Do you have more than 1 mail account being checked?  

Try removing the "Check for new messages at startup".  That was reported to fix
the problem (not a permanent fix, I agree) in bug 90422

Comment 7

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

>Do you have "Leave Messages on Server" checked in mail server settings?

Yes, I do.

>I've seen this happen occasionally, I think it's a mail server problem that it
>loses the pointer to which message you last downloaded.  Can you check with your
>ISP to see if they've had a problem with mail?

This is not the problem. Also messages which are no longer on the server double.

>You mentioned the extra copies just show up.  Do you have "Automatically
>download new messages" checked also?  

Yes. But by the above reason this cannot be it. Also, compacting would not
remove those messages.

>Can you access mail account from another client (like webmail) and delete all
>the messages.  

I do regularly with fetchmail.

>Possible dupe of bug 90422.  

Might be, not sure though. I think it has to do with the msf file, but wondering
why it is not changed by compacting (see comment above). When I delete the msf
file after closing Mozilla, the problem is gone for a while, though. But while
running it happens repeatedly after the first incident.

Since I see it for the first time with this version (20030514), I am not really
sure it is that bug.

>1. Do you have "Check for new messages at startup" checked in server settings?

Yes, but it happens later.

>2. Do you have more than 1 mail account being checked?  

No.

>Try removing the "Check for new messages at startup".  That was reported to fix
>the problem (not a permanent fix, I agree) in bug 90422

Since it happens repeatedly in one session this cannot be it.

pi

Comment 8

[Jim Booth]

Boris, 
Do the dupes still show up if you switch out of thread mode?  Try sorting on
date.  (Sorry, I hadn't checked your screenshot to see you were in thread mode)

If you uncheck "Check for new messages every x minutes" and just get msgs
manually, does it still happen?  If so, does it happen when you get msgs or
still at random?

>When this happens, I also can no longer get new mail.
What happens when you try?  Any messages in status bar?  Does restarting Mozilla
fix it, or just compacting?

Can you try updating to a later version of Mozilla?

Comment 9

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

>Do the dupes still show up if you switch out of thread mode?  Try sorting on
>date.  (Sorry, I hadn't checked your screenshot to see you were in thread mode)

Do you mean after it happened of before? Anyhow, I'll have to wait for the
problem to show up again, before I can answer.

>If you uncheck "Check for new messages every x minutes" and just get msgs
>manually, does it still happen?  If so, does it happen when you get msgs or
>still at random?

Same here.

>>When this happens, I also can no longer get new mail.
>
>What happens when you try?  

The server is not accessed (checked the server logs).

>Any messages in status bar?  

Nothing.

>Does restarting Mozilla fix it, or just compacting?

I haven't tried just restarting. I'll tell you next time I see it.

>Can you try updating to a later version of Mozilla?

I'd like to with sources tar ball available for the 1.4branch.

pi

Comment 10

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

Attachment: Inbox.msf after exiting with the problem

It happened again. Restarting cleared the problem, obviously by rebuilding the
.msf file (the threading status was lost), also diff is quite different.

I cannot try a new version. CVS did not compile for RedHat7-PRM.

pi

Comment 11

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030618

Still happening. And worse. I have a thread in my Inbox. Only one message shows
up (even after compacting), but multiple times. So I cannot acces the rest which
is a dataloss (at least temporarily). Adding keyword and rising severity.

When a new mail to that thread arrives, the others are back, duplicates remain.
Very strange. Compacting again hides the new messages.

pi

Comment 12

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

mozilla1.4 shipped. unsetting blocking1.4 request.

Comment 13

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

It happens most of the time when the machine has a high load.

pi

Comment 14

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

no patch in site, doesn't appear to be a widespread problem. I don't think we'd
hold the release for this. mscott and bienvenu, can you guys take a look at this
and see if it's a serious problem?

Comment 15

[David :Bienvenu]

I don't know what's going on here - if you switch to a different folder and back
to the inbox, does the problem go away? I can't tell if this is a view problem,
or a db problem. Have you tried a recent trunk build?

Comment 16

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

David, I had no chance to test your question yet.

This might really be a dupe of bug 90422. What makes me hesitating is that I
haven't seen it at that time, only much later when I reported it. It is also
true, that not every rebuilding of the index causes the problem. Please let me
know if there is something I can do to test the situation.

pi

Comment 17

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

David,

it happened again. If I change the folder and come back, it is still broken. Let
me describe in detail what happened.

1) I had two mails in my inbox (both not related in any way).

2) I was reading news.

3) A new mail came in (delivered to inbox) -- I think this step is not needed,
though.

4) I went to inbox, read and then delete the new message.

5) Then I noted that the second of the two messages was four-fold. It may have
been so when entering inbox, I don't know.

6) I went to another folder, came back and still found the broken situation.

Really looks like bug 90422. But I have seen this problem much later. Dupe it?

pi

Comment 18

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

I now see that an answer was received to the second message. So it was not
four-fold, but two-fold.

pi

Comment 19

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

While writing here news unfold. When I came back to MailNews (focus was still
sitting in inbox) a third copy of the second message and the answer showed up.
Now also the first message tripled.

Please let me know, what I can do to help you find the problem.

pi

Comment 20

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

OK, to get ahead, I'll dupe it to that other bug.

pi

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 90422 ***

Comment 21

[Daniel Wang]

v