282165 - Folder created by mail import disappears after being moved

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Stephanie Warrick]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0 StumbleUpon/1.999
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0 StumbleUpon/1.999

I experienced a problem today which I haven't been able to replicate, with a
specific mail folder becoming invisible and unsearchable. When I try to create
another folder with the same name in the same place, Thunderbird says that it
already exists - so I assume that the folder is still there. I will describe all
the steps that led to the problem, just in case any of them are relevant.

1. I imported all my mail from Outlook Express into Thunderbird. This created a
folder called Outlook Express Folders inside Local Folders.
2. I set up all my e-mail accounts to be associated with their own individual
folders.
3. Inside one of these individual folders, I created a mail filter to filter
certain incoming messages into a sub-sub-sub-sub-folder of Outlook Express
Folders. Let's call it FolderX.
4. I ran the message filter using the Run Now button, then confirmed that some
messages had been moved into FolderX.
5. I dragged FolderX's grandparent out of Outlook Express Folders into Local
Folders. I received a warning that the message filter had been updated.
6. In the same way, I moved all the folders in Outlook Express Folders up into
Local Folders, then deleted the empty Outlook Express Folders.
7. I went to look at FolderX in its new location, and found that it had disappeared!
8. I went to look at my message filter, and found that the destination folder
had been reset to the default.

The rest of the surrounding folder structure (FolderX's parent and siblings) is
intact. The messages inside FolderX cannot be found using a search. But as I
mentioned above, when I try to create a new folder called FolderX under
FolderX's parent, Thunderbird says that FolderX already exists. 

Reproducible: Couldn't Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce:
Please refer to the eight steps detailed above - I do not know which subset of
those steps caused the problem. 



When I tried unsuccessfully to reproduce the problem, I simply tried creating a
new folder and an associated message filter, then moving the folder's
grandparent up one level. I did not experiment with other folders created by the
Mail import.

I have marked this bug as Major rather than Critical because although it caused
me to lose data, I cannot replicate the bug, and since Thunderbird reports that
the invisible folder still exists, it is still possible that the data is
recoverable.

Comment 1

[Stephanie Warrick]

Several hours later, the disappeared mail folder has reappeared in the expected
position, with all of its messages intact. I have exited and restarted
Thunderbird at least once since the folder disappeared. It is possible that the
folder became visible again after the first exit-and-restart.

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.