259963 - On upgrade to 0.8 from 0.7.3 hangs with "Building summary file for inbox..." on load

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Mike C. Fletcher]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040905 Firefox/0.9.3
Build Identifier: StumbleUpon/1.994 (20040916)

I've just updated to Thunderbird 0.8.0 from 0.7.3 using the Gentoo ebuild on an
Athlon64 (amd64) 2.6.7 kernel xorg-x11 system.  My Thunderbird profile is stored
on a VFat drive, shared between Win2K and Linux.  There are two "accounts" in
the profile, one just a pop download (inbox) and the other the primary storage
account (imported from MSOutlook by way of Mozilla many months ago).  The Win2K
0.8.0, and 0.7.3 can both access, edit, and use the profile without problem
(even after 0.8.0 fails).

After installation of Thunderbird 0.8.0 (on Gentoo), I attempt to run
Thunderbird.  It starts, but displays nothing in the right-most two panes
(message-list and message).  The status message declares that it is "Building
summary file for inbox...".  Menus are active, and it is possible to select
other folders in the tree control, though they do not display (save for the
"account root" folders, which display their summary HTML pages).

Restarting Thunderbird does not alter the situation.  Neither does compact
folders.  Neither deleting the index files in the profile directory and
rebuilding them with Windows 0.8.0 or Linux 0.7.3.

Messages can be sent, but nothing is downloaded (i.e. it doesn't seem to get to
the point of running the pop3 download, but smtp uploads seem to work).  The
messages *are* added to the sent-mail folder specified in the profile (which is
in a different "account" from the inbox).

When run from the command line, this warning is printed to the console:

fgrep: /usr/lib/MozillaThunderbird/defaults/pref/thunderbird.js: No such file or
directory

And, indeed, there is no such file, though there's an all-thunderbird.js file in
that directory.  Copying all-thunderbird.js to thunderbird.js stops the error
from appearing, but doesn't affect the problem.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. emerge mozilla-thunderbird
    Replaces 0.7.3 with 0.8.0
2. start thunderbird

Actual Results:  
Thunderbird hangs with "Building summary file for inbox..." message on status bar.

Expected Results:  
Should have loaded inbox summary and continued with startup operations.

Active USE flags:
crypt gtk2 -debug java -gnome gtk2 ldap -debug -xinerama xprint -moznoxft

Running KDE 3.2.2, Kernel 2.6.7-r14, xorg-x11-6.7.0r1

Profile is on a VFat partition, all account mailboxes are on the same partition.

Comment 1

[Matthew Darwin]

I upgraded from 0.7.3 to 8.0 on debian:

mozilla-thunderbird-enigmail_0.86.1-1_i386.deb
mozilla-thunderbird-offline_0.8-1_i386.deb
mozilla-thunderbird-typeaheadfind_0.8-1_i386.deb
mozilla-thunderbird_0.8-1_i386.deb

And I have the same behaviour that the left folder pane displays, but the
messages do not.

If I remove my .mozilla-thunderbird directory and re-add the sources everything
shows ok.

I did not get the error message about the missing .js file.

I'm using Linux 2.4.26-1-686

Comment 2

[Matthew Darwin]

Removing compatibility.ini fixes the issue.  The file had the following contents:


[Compatibility]
Build ID=0000000000
Components List Changed=0

Comment 3

[Mike C. Fletcher]

Here also (original poster), deleting compatibility.ini from the thunderbird
profile directory allowed the application to load.  Thanks for the solution,
Matthew.

Comment 4

[John R. Moser]

Yes this definitely occurs for me on gentoo.  Removing compatibility.ini did the
trick.

I had to page through a good 2454 bugs to find it; and I resorted to looking for
RED LINES only, as I figured this is pretty much BROKE and critical.  Please
make it easier to locate this information.

I'll vouch for CONFIRMING this bug as valid; It survived everything I did,
including a full OS reinstall (I keep my /home).  The owner should mark this bug
as NEW.

Comment 5

[Andrew Ziegwied]

I am now using version 1.0.6 and have found that the Building Summary file for
sent appears after each startup.  I send my first mail of the day and it stals
on saveing sent mail withouut sending.  I save the e-mail exit Thunderbird
restart and select the sent mail folder, it hangs while building and after a few
minutes the e-mail appear.  Should I try the fix outlined here: Removing
compatibility.ini not sure where this file lives... Please advise...

Comment 6

[marisa]

Yesterday my inbox began suddenly "building summary reports" for inbox.  This bug is dumping 2, 3, 4000 deleted emails into my inbox every time I send, receive or close down and re-open thunderbird.  I can still access all my archive files, where the bulk of my emails are stored.  When this problem started I had 1 email in my inbox.  I am unable to use thunderbird because of this problem and I cannot find any reference to this  problem on the web.  I hvae had 2 x IT guys looking for a solution but we have not found one.  We have upgraded my thunderbird package this morning and also uninstalled and re-installed.  Please can someone help with a solution? If not, can anyone tell me how to export my emails to another email package as I am running a large exhibition in London this week and this is crippling my business. Many thanks in advance form someones help.

Comment 7

[Stephanie Daugherty [:sdaugherty]]

These steps should help:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_(Thunderbird)

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

WFM version 3.0a1pre (2008032302)
Please comment if you still see this problem in a current release.