276784 - Local folder management totally erratic

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(MailNews Core :: Import, defect)

Description

[jedi75t]

I downloaded Thunderbird 1.0 from the Mozilla.org website yesterday to assess
migrating over to it from Outlook.  However, in the process of moving over and
trying it out I had massive problems importing and moving my existing mail
folders into Thunderbird.  I should note that I use Outlook 2003 with a single
PST of around 450mb.  This is the file I imported into Thunderbird.

BUG SUMMARY: Folder management, movement, and deletion within local folders in
Thunderbird 1.0 is plagued with issues and prone to errors and problems.  In
addition, the file system appears totally incapable of managing folders with
messages in excess of 100mb+.

Problem 1: Folders Unmoveable
By default all my imported folders were placed in a secondary folder.  I wanted
them at the top level so that they would be the single "archives" for all my
email transfered from the IMAP server.

When I tried to move my imported folders some of them moved successfully, others
did not.  Sometimes they moved piece-meal, while other times I would only get
theprincipal folder and nothing else.  In general when I was successful
Thunderbird would pause as it pulled over all the mail, while when I wasn't it
would do nothing after I moved it.

The greatest difficulty occurred with the largest folders; those with multiple
levels and perhaps 150mb+ of archived data.  Moving smaller folders inside those
primary folders independantly would often help, but at the same time I would
have the same problem with small folders from time to time.

In short, Thunderbird seems incapable of managing/moving local folders of
considerable size with any consistency.

Problem 2: Folder/file deletion totally erratic
In the process of hacking through problem 1 I often had to delete or kill
partially moved folders in my Local Folders.  However, this too proved horribly
difficult.

Sometimes when I deleted a folder nothing would visibly happen.  I would then
try to delete the same folder again only to get a message stating that "a copy
of that folder already exists in that location" (paraphrasing).  However, when I
emptied the trash folder, closed and restarted Thunderbird the folder would
STILL be in the original location.

Emptying the trash and redeleting the folder numerous times did nothing... the
folder would often persist until it finally deleted without rhyme or reason on a
later effort.

In short, along with managing and moving folders the deletion utility or
function seems to be horribly problematic.

Comment 1

[David :Bienvenu]

the problem is that outlook folder import does not set up the files and
directories correctly, and this causes all sorts of problems later on...

Comment 2

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 3

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.