243184 - Draft silently does not get saved if IMAP Drafts folder did not exist

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Robie Basak]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)
Build Identifier: version 0.6 (20040502)

If Drafts are saved to an IMAP Drafts folder that does not exist, Thunderbird 
creates it automatically on trying to save a draft but fails to actually save 
the draft.

The next time saving a draft is tried on the same account it works, presumably 
because the Drafts folder now exists.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Close Thunderbird
2. Delete the Drafts IMAP folder using a different IMAP client (I used mutt)
3. Start Thunderbird
4. Choose "Write" on the toolbar
5. Type some subject text and choose "Save" on the toolbar
6. Close the compose window using the cross on the titlebar (note that this 
would give you a prompt you hadn't saved the draft, which it doesn't)
Actual Results:  
Draft not in IMAP Drafts folder nor found anywhere else I've looked

Expected Results:  
Draft should have been saved in IMAP Drafts folder

Repeating steps 4-6 again does save a draft. Workaround - the admin could 
create all users' Drafts folders in advance.

Comment 1

[lohphat]

This just hit me as well on XP.

Saved as Draft, nothing in Drafts, prefs set corrently pointing to IMAP Drafts.

Comment 2

[David Rolfe]

Wait - does the existence of this bug mean that
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=156347 (bug 15634) is fixed? Does
Thunderbird correctly handle drafts created with other clients that access the
same INBOX?

Comment 3

[Jason Keltz]

I can confirm the same behaviour under the Linux version of Thunderbird using
UofW imap server.  I don't know if I need to open up another bug ID.  The imap
server even comes with a command "mailutil" that allows a user to create
mailboxes from the command prompt.  If I create the mailbox "Drafts" before I
even start Thunderbird for the first time, this doesn't even solve the problem.
 The first time I save a draft, it does not get saved.  Future attempts to save
drafts work.

Comment 4

[Mikael Ståldal]

This bug is particually annoying when using Thunderbird and Pine against the same IMAP account, since Pine use to delete the drafts folder (by default named "postponed-msgs") when it is empty.

Comment 5

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

*** Bug 245896 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[Tony Houghton]

Is this not a duplicate of bug 228160?

Comment 8

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Still happens on tb2.0/linux.

Comment 9

[bernd.kuhls]

Same problem here with TB 2.0.0.6 on Windows, Linux and Solaris with Dovecot IMAP server.

TB should create the Drafts folder when it does not exist before saving the first mail.

Handling a non-existant Sent mbox works well, after sending the first mail Sent
is created, the mail is stored and Sent is also subscribed.

Comment 10

[bernd.kuhls]

Any updates on this old bug? Its still alive;-)

Comment 11

[Nikolay Shopik]

reproducible on trunk 3.0a1pre (2008040204). In my case if folder doesn't exist TB tell me it unable to save message to "Sent folder" Retry or Cancel. If I choice retry it save it on sent folder instead of drafts which doesn't exist anymore.

Comment 12

[Joaquin Ferrero]

Thunderbird 2.0.0.17 (X11/20080922)
Protocol: IMAP
Server: UW-IMAP

1. Create a new Folder
2. Mark this folder like the new Drafts folder
3. Create a new message
4. Save the message or wait for automatic saving or close the message's window

Result: The message is not saved.
Expected: Message saved into new drafts folder.

If you not close the window:

5. Repeat the save command or wait for a new automatic saving or close the window

Result: The message is saved into drafts folder.

The problem is with the very first message into drafts folders.

Diffs of a new empty folder and the Drafts empty old folder:

aproxi:# diff Borrar2 Drafts
1,2c1,2
< From MAILER-DAEMON Sat Nov  1 00:30:55 2008
< Date: 01 Nov 2008 00:30:55 +0100
---
> From MAILER-DAEMON Fri Oct 31 23:09:53 2008
> Date: 31 Oct 2008 23:09:53 +0100
5c5,6
< X-IMAP: 1225495855 0000000000
---
> Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
> X-IMAP: 1225476823 0000000011

Comment 13

[kpts44]

I am using thuderbird 3.1.1 on both linux and windows and this bug still exists. It is quite annoying as I also use alpine on the same IMAP account and alpine automatically deletes an empty Drafts folder...