279139 - Actual IMAP folder names differ from names shown in language-adjusted account interface

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Martin]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

Using the German version of Thunderbird 1.0. In Account-Settings - "Copies &
Folders": If the first (default) button is chosen for saving sent mail and
drafts on the IMAP server, on the user interface the German description is shown
(eg 'Entwürfe') while the name of the folder acutally created on the server is
in English (eg 'drafts'). This leads to confusing results. Of course the falsely
created English folders can be removed again manually from the server and the
correct folder can be chosen via checking the second button in the account
manager window under copies&folders for user-definable directory on the IMAP
server. 

This is confusing still & should be corrected with language-version-sensitive
folder names. 

Worse is the handling of the trash folder. In this case, there is no
user-definable folder, so the English folder 'TRASH' is created on the IMAP
server and used by Thunderbird, while the German IMAP server itself uses a
folder by the German name of 'Papierkorb'. So there are two trash folders now on
my server. This problem could be solved by (a) setting the default folder name
for the trash language-sensitively - equivalent to the other folders like draft
as explained above - and (b) opening the possibility for a user-defined choice
of the trash folder on the IMAP server. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. configure German Thunderbird version with German IMAP server
2. download folder names
3. send email
4. restart Thunderbird
5. watch additional 'Gesendet' (=sent) folder in folder list. 

Actual Results:  
Two folders by the same name result from Thunderbird creating a folder by the
name 'Sent' on the server and then interpreting this English name back into
German in the folder list view. 

Expected Results:  
Used the Folder name 'Gesendet' as shown in the account settings user interface.
It could have used the existing folder on the IMAP server in this case. If there
was no existing folder it should have at least created a folder by the same name
as shown in the user interface (which was in German). 

It seems to be common to translate English names of IMAP server names into
German names in the folder list shown beneath the corresponding account in the
default view of Thunderbird. E.g. the 'INBOX' it translated into the German
'Posteingang`. This feature leads to confusion and it might be helpful to be
able to configure it or at least turn it off.

Comment 1

[Ivan Shatsky]

(In reply to comment #0)
In fact there IS the way to specify alternative name for the TRASH folder:
insert the following line in "prefs.js" file

user_pref("mail.server.server<server#>.trash_folder_name", "<correct Trash name>");

with the correct <server#>, to find it look at following "prefs.js" lines:

user_pref("mail.account.account<account#>.identities", "id<id#>");
user_pref("mail.account.account<account#>.server", "server<server#>");

and find user_pref("mail.identity.id<id#>... lines to identify needed mail account.

There is no GUI for doing this (AFAIK).

For more information, see
http://kb.mozillazine.org/IMAP_Trash_folder

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
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you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
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If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
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Thank you for your help in this matter.

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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.