216409 - Error "Unable to create temporary file" when importing large Outlook data file

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(MailNews Core :: Import, defect)

Description

[Eric Scouten]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Build Identifier: Thunderbird 0.2a (20030813)

Importing a large (585MB) Outlook .pst causes repeated error dialogs to appear.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open Thunderbird.
2. Choose Tools > Import.
3. Click Mail radio button & click "Next."
4. Choose Outlook in the list & click "Next."

Actual Results:  
After several minutes with the progress dialog updating (properly), I get an 
error dialog that says "Unable to save your message as draft. Error writing 
temporary file." Click OK on that dialog and I get the same message over and 
over again. I eventually have to use the Task Manager to kill the Thunderbird 
application.

Expected Results:  
(1) Successful completion -or-
(2) The dialog appears once and only once, then the import attempt stops.

Comment 1

[Thomas Schodt]

Maybe it will make a difference if you start by running the
"Inbox Repair Tool" on the .pst file before importing.

Comment 2

[Brian Rogers]

I have run into a very similar problem with 0.9, though it may deserve a bug 
report of its own. I try the same steps as above, but while the import is 
running, my virus scanner finds an email with a virus in it (likely discovered 
as Thunderbird reads the pst file). I immediately get the "Error writing 
temporary file" error from Thunderbird. I can dismiss the virus scanner's 
error, but the Thunderbird error continues to reappear without any progress on 
the import, as described above. 

For reference, this is the item in my virus scanner's error log (McAfee 
VirusScan Enterprise 7.1):
"11/4/2004	1:17:19 PM	Moved (Clean failed) 	TRON\Brian
	C:\Documents and Settings\Brian\Local Settings\Temp\nsmail-
1.eml\NSMAIL-1.EML	W32/Sobig.f@MM"

Comment 3

[Chris Owens]

I just encountered the identical error to the one reported by Brian Rogers in
#2.  When the virus scan software denies access to one of the files being
imported from Outlook, the importer pops a dialog box as described by Brian, and
there's no way to bail short of killing the process.

Comment 4

[ivo zwonarz]

When I import email from outlook, I get the following error with Thunderbird 1.0
(and earlier)
Unable to save your message as draft.
This is not a serious problem if I loose a message. But I have to press
ctr-alt-del on windows to get out of the popup windows that keeps complaining: 
"Unable to open the temporary file %P0%. Check your 'Temporary Directory' settings."

This problem was resloved By stopping my anti-virus software (Etrust from CA)
The inbox repair tool did not discover any errors.

Comment 5

[Christophe Humbert]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.1) Gecko/20090715 Lightning/1.0pre Thunderbird/3.0b3

I have tested with an Outlook (2007) profile of more than 1 GB (company mailbox) and the import was successful

Waht can I do in term of tests in order to have you guys close the bug.

Kind Regards

Comment 6

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to comment #5)

> What can I do in term of tests in order to have you guys close the bug.
> 
> Kind Regards

Thanks for the input Christophe.

Comment #4 is a a virus integration issue - should have been a different bug.

Closing this bug as INVALID based on the fact that it worked for Christophe with a much larger mailbox than in the initial bug repport. Eric if you feel the ug should be kept open please give us a bit more information.