275226 - Multiple copies appear in message listing when message grouping is turned on

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Erich Musick]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

Message grouping (threading) is turned on and messages are sorted by date (also
tried with order received). 

When I first start up TB, I can expand and collapse any or all message groups
without having any problems. But, after a few minutes, when I expand a group,
two additional messages are displayed in the group. Each message subject,
sender, time is the same as the top-most message. Any additional messages in the
group do not show up. If I collapse the group, the illegitimate duplicate
messages do not disappear. Then, expanding the group again causes another two to
show up in the list.

In addition to the duplicate messages, the count for the number of new messages
in the inbox also increases. I currently have only 11 new messages, but it shows
that I have 1284. Earlier today (before modifying the Inbox.msf file), the count
was several thousand.

The problem occurs not only when using the expand/collapse function on
individual groups, but also when using expand/collapse all, via the * and \
keyboard commands. It is important to note that when using expand/collapse all,
it is not just those messages that have more than one in their group that gain
additional messages. Rather, all messages, even just individual messages, become
part of a group.

It is also important to note that duplicate messages are not actually created.
If I turn off grouping after the problem has already occurred, duplicates still
show up. But, after restarting TB, ONLY the original, existent messages show up.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start TB
2. Let TB run for about a minute or two in the background - walk away from the
computer, get a snack...whatever.
3. Turn on Message Grouping if it is not already on.
4. Expand and collapse any message group a couple of times.
5. Also try doing expand/collapse all.

Actual Results:  
Multiple copies of the first message in the listing show up.

Expected Results:  
Only one copy of the top-level message should appear. There shouldn't be duplicates.

Comment 1

[Erich Musick]

Attachment: Screen shot of expected behavior

Comment 2

[Erich Musick]

Attachment: Screen shot of actual behavior

Comment 3

[Erich Musick]

It seems that the problem was with my Index.msf file. I deleted the file and TB
recreated it. I have not had a problem since.

If you would like to see my before and after msf files, I can provide them for you.

Another thing to note is that the original problem happened right after I
upgraded from .9 to 1.0. Perhaps there was some difference in the msf file format?

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

I had seen similar behavior in 0.9, and deleting the .MSF file fixed it as well.
For now, marking this WFM.  If you see the problem recurring, it would be nice 
to nail down the cause of the MSF corruption; please reopen this bug if you 
notice any kind of pattern to it, and provide details.