218105 - Address book entries corrupted (missing first names)

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Address Book, defect)

Description

[Cael]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5b) Gecko/20030820 Mozilla Firebird/0.6.1+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5b) Gecko/20030820 Mozilla Firebird/0.6.1+

First names seem to be randomly disappearing from my Thunderbird Addressbook. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Populate addressbook (import data from comma-delimited file)
2. Wait 5-7 days

This issue has occurred on two machines, both running Windows XP Pro.

Actual Results:  
21 of 52 entries in my Addressbook with populated First Name fields have since
had that field emptied.  Exporting the data from Addressbook to .csv suggests
that the fields are in fact emptied.

Expected Results:  
An unmangled Addressbook.

Experienced issue from v0.1 right through to v0.2a (20030820).  Bug is marked
with severity 'Critical' due to loss of Address data.

Comment 1

[Prognathous]

Isn't this a dupe of Bug 190573?

Prog.

Comment 2

[Cael]

This bug may be related to 190573 (it's likely) -- symptoms are different,
though.  No crashes experienced here.

Additional information:

Although first names are stripped when addressbook entries are exported / from
all addressbook views, they are actually present in the abook.mab file.

    ...(13C=2f)(13D=John)(13E=Doe)(13F
    =[e-mail])(140=30)...

Note that, similar to bug 190573, there are a number of what appear to be
'garbage' characters -- 30526 bytes worth, actually.

Severity should probably be rolled back from Critical to Major -- although
phonebook data disappears from the Addressbook, it is recoverable with a bit of
data wrangling.

cael

Comment 3

[Tina Bolton]

The same issue occurs after you create an address book, if you go back into
it(double-click on it)to modify it. After you add names, close it and reopen it
some of the names will only contain last name and lose all of the rest of the data.

Comment 4

[Misty]

I think this bug is related to or the same bug as #227608.  Below are the 
comments I just posted on that bug:

We recently started using Thunderbird .5 at work. We are having some of these 
same problems.  The trend seems to be that if there is a comma in the name 
section of the card (i.e. Doe, John), the following steps will cause the 
original card to be replaced by a card with only the name before the comma:
1. Must have an existing card in a list, with a comma in the name section (to 
get this, just click on the "from" section of an email from someone who has a 
comma in their name and add to the address book, then move it into a list)
2. Double-click on the list or right-click and click "properties"
3. Click "ok"
4. Click on a different list and then click back on the list you were using 
(to refresh it)
Everything after the comma will be deleted on the card in the list....however, 
if you go back to the address book that the list was in, the original card AND 
the messed up card are both in there.

In testing this just now, I pulled some different results where the card was 
actually deleted out of the list.  Here's what I did:
1. Created a new list.
2. Clicked to add a new card. Typed in a test name and put a comma in the 
display name.
3. After creating the card, clicked on a different list & then came back to 
the one I created (to refresh it)
4.  The card I created was gone, but when I went back into the parent address 
book, it was in there.

To sum it up, from what I can tell, lists do not know how to handle cards with 
commas in the name section.

Comment 5

[Misty]

This seems to be the same bug as #227608, which is now listed as fixed with a 
note that it appears to be working in the .7 release of Thunderbird.  I 
haven't downloaded .7 yet, so I haven't tried it out.

Comment 6

[Misty]

The 1st scenario I wrote in comment #4 seems to be fixed in version .7.3, but 
the 2nd scenario is still bugged (when creating a new card in a list & putting 
a comma in the display name).

Comment 7

[Doug Wright]

Does this still happen when using 1.0? Everything seems fine on my machine.

Comment 8

[Doug Wright]

Over 1 month with no response from reporter -> WFM. Please reopen if bug still
present in a recent build.

Comment 9

[Misty]

I just tested the 2nd scenario I discussed in comment #4 & it's still 
happening in version 1.0 (20041206).  Is this part of this bug or do I need to 
create a new bug?

Comment 10

[Doug Wright]

(In reply to comment #9)
> I just tested the 2nd scenario I discussed in comment #4 & it's still 
> happening in version 1.0 (20041206).  Is this part of this bug or do I need to 
> create a new bug?

Open a new bug for that - its a different issue

Comment 11

[jonathan carver]

i'm using deer park nightly alpha build 2006020505 and this appears related and  is not resolved... after i send multiparty e'mails (all bcc) first names disappear from the addressbook...

Comment 12

[jonathan carver]

sorry... having a brain freeze as i try to figure this bug out... i'm using thunderbird 2006020411

this happens whether i have my extensions installed or disabled... used to only happen when i sent multi email messages as a bcc list... now happens on individual e'mails as well...