219268 - folders can get renamed to strange things when importing from outlook

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 275770

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[aaron]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Q312461; (R1 1.1); .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Build Identifier: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.2 (20030901)

For example, a folder named "Computability and Logic [Paperback]  by Boolos, 
George S.; Jeffrey, Richard D..." in Outlook became "Computability and Logic 
[Paperback]  by Boolos,bdb423ed" in Thunderbird.  Some folders even got 
totally renamed with apparently random (though probably not actually random)
character strings.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Special string(such as "bdb423ed") in file name of a mail foder itself is not a
bug if special characters which could not be used in file_path_name are used in
mail folde name.

You can observe Thundebird action in case of special character in folder name.
 (1) Create a mail folder named "TEST"
 (2) Create two folders named "\" and "\\" under "TEST" folder
 (3) Terminate Thundebird
 (4) See TEST.sbd directry.(Win/Me,FAT32 case. Maybe different in other OS)
   (4-1) Files named 00000072 and 00000072.msf for folder name of \
         Next record in ".msf" file is probably the real mail folder name.
         <(83=4)(84=\\)(85=12)>.....
   (4-2) Files named 0a80dc3b and 0a80dc3b.msf for folder name of \\
         Next record in ".msf" file is probably the real mail folder name.
         <(83=4)(84=\\\\)(85=12)>.....

This is current design/spec of Mozilla Mail&News and Thunderbird.
See Bug 117385 Can't delete/rename a folder with name containing 0x5b/0x5d/0x7c

But your folder name lasts with "..." and this maybe is related to other bug 117840.
See meta bug 124287 for many many special character cases.

In adddtion to above special character cases, Mozilla/Thunderbird maybe shorten
name if mail folder name is too long.
Special string maybe appears in filename in this case.

What is your file system? NTFS or FAT32?
What is your exact folder/file name?
(a) Folder name in Outlook
(b) File name used by Thunderbird
(c) Folder name record in your ".msf" file

Comment 2

[Christopher Cook]

I've had this problem too - any folder from outlook express with a slash in it
i.e 'Discussions/Promotions' or '01/2004' becomes a hex code instead. Although
this is considered minor, it's not in the least bit minor if your trying to
migrate hundreds of folders from outlook express. This and the fact that
imported mail is put inside a folder instead of going straight into the inbox is
preventing me from migrating to thunderbird. 

Comment 3

[rob cherny]

I importend several years of Eudora mail and had a folder called "gary / rtw"
renamed 36b860b8 ... also, the root folder got renamed Eudora Mail0 (not sure
what I called it prior), and I can't rename it. Not a big deal, but just
confirming as something that JUST OUTLOOK imports.

Comment 4

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

To Aaron Stephanic(bug opener), Christopher Cook, rob cherny :
Do you think DUPing of this bug to Bug 275770 adequate?