292211 - Message download fails when non existent image path encountered in html

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Mike Truss]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050226 Firefox/1.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050226 Firefox/1.0.1

E-mails arriving on the server that contain a path to a local image on the
senders PC causes Thunderbird to abort download of this and all following
e-mails. presumably because the image does not exist on the recipients PC.

Thunderbird download can only be made functional again by accessing the server
using some other means ( e.g. Outlook) and deleting or moving the offending e-mail.

Example: An e-mail is sent containing an embedded link to an image on the
senders PC, The example I have used to reproduce the problem is logged as
follows in the plain text part of the e-mail by Thunderbird:

0[274748]: RECV:
<file:///D:%5CProfiles%5CQSWI3169%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C02%5C
0[274748]: RECV: clip_image001.gif>

When moving to the html part of the message Thunderbird logs:

0[274748]: RECV: 
0[274748]: RECV: ------_=_NextPart_001_01C54BE0.2F083D16
0[274748]: RECV: Content-Type: text/html
0[274748]: RECV: Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
0[274748]: RECV: 
0[274748]: RECV:
PCFET0NUWVBFIEhUTUwgUFVCTElDICItLy9XM0MvL0RURCBIVE1MIDQuMCBUcmFuc2l0aW9uYWwv
0[274748]: RECV:
L0VOIj4NCjxIVE1MPjxIRUFEPg0KPE1FVEEgSFRUUC1FUVVJVj0iQ29udGVudC1UeXBlIiBDT05U
0[274748]: RECV:
RU5UPSJ0ZXh0L2h0bWw7IGNoYXJzZXQ9VVMtQVNDSUkiPg0KPFRJVExFPk1lc3NhZ2U8L1RJVExF
0[274748]: RECV:
Pg0KDQo8TUVUQSBjb250ZW50PSJNU0hUTUwgNi4wMC4yODAwLjE0OTgiIG5hbWU9R0VORVJBVE9S
0[274748]: RECV:
PjwvSEVBRD4NCjxCT0RZPg0KPERJVj48U1BBTiBjbGFzcz00Nzk1NTMwMTAtMjgwNDIwMDU+PEZP
0[274748]: RECV:
TlQgZmFjZT1BcmlhbCBjb2xvcj0jMDAwMGZmIHNpemU9Mj4xPFNQQU4gDQpzdHlsZT0iRk9OVC1G
0[274748]: RECV:
QU1JTFk6IFN5bWJvbCI+PFNQQU4+PEZPTlQgc2l6ZT0zPjxJTUcgaGVpZ2h0PTEzIGFsdD0qIA0K
0[274748]: RECV: (null)
0[274748]: mail.pop3_response_timeout=45


i.e. gives up when encountering (null), assume caused by the invalid image path.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. locate and e-mail with a non existent image path ( Outlook displays such
e-mails with an image border with no content.
2. Send it to the inbox on the server
3. Try to download the e-mail (POP3) using T-Bird
4. T-Bird trys and gives up after pop3 timeout has passed.

Actual Results:  
T-Bird unable to download the e-mail or any following e-mails from the server,
If the e-mail was large, T-Bird may partially download.

If any e-mail was downloaded (in the same POP3 download session) prior to the
offending message theese e-mails will not be deleted from the server

Expected Results:  
Downloaded the e-mail , any following e-mails and removed the downloaded e-mails
from the server.

T Bird version 1.0 (20041206)
POP3, Exchange Server, No problems with 99% of downloads just fails when
encountering the occasional e-mail with an invalid embedded image path in html
formatted e-mail

Comment 1

[Mike Truss]

Some additional analysis reveals the file path does not have to be non-existent,
just inseting a file:// link in the e-mail is enough to cause download to fail, e.g.

1) Compose a html format e-mail using Outlook.
2) Choose insert->hyperlink
3) Chose type file
4) Enter in URL file://D:/test.txt
5) Send the e-mail
6) Attempt to download using Thunderbird POP3
7) Download will fail and timeout

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.

Comment 4

[MC]

This bug is not even remotely resolved.  I'm still getting it with version 2.0.0.18, basically as described above.  I'm also getting a page fault error when I try to restart my system immediately after exiting Thunderbird when this happens.  

Before I found this bug report, I had independently come to the conclusion that it was a problem in handling the content of certain messages.  The problem has persisted through a full change of motherboard/processor/memory.  I'm using Earthlink DSL, with Webmail on the Earthlink end.  On my end, I have XP Home, a Pentium Dual Core and 2 GB of RAM.  I had the same problem with my old Celeron and 512 MB.

I don't want to stop using Thunderbird (although I rarely do use it these days, because of the bug), and I loathe Outlook, but i will need to find some e-mail client that doesn't hang when it hits a bad message.

Is there one that Mozilla would recommend, if the Thunderbird bug is not going to be Resolved (Fixed) in the near future?

Comment 5

[David :Bienvenu]

I'm curious if you have any virus checkers installed. Broken urls don't usually break message download because we don't look at the contents of a message when we download it, but a virus checker that intercepts the pop3 protocol does.

Comment 6

[MC]

I have PC-cillin 2007, and I just checked  --  it is set to check attachments/clean or delete.
I've been testing with other clients (s.mail, olivia, eM client), and they all seem to hang at some point, which suggests either a system-level problem at my end (like virus checking), or something on Earthlink's end.

I'll shuet PC-cillin's e-mail checking off, run a quick test, and report the results.

Comment 7

[MC]

OK  --  that worked.  I turned off PC-cillin's e-mail checking, and Thunderbird downloaded everything without a problem.  

If there isn't already a support KB article or FAQ item that specifically covers this (I didn't see one when I looked, but I could have missed it), then it might be a good idea to add one.

Thanks for the help!