305930 - Program accidentally closed while compacting resulting in lost 3000 email inbox

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Ed Iglehart]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4

While the program was compacting folders, i accidentally closed the program, and
when I next started it there was an empty inbox.  All subfolders seem OK, but I
would dearly love to get my inbox back....

Reproducible: Didn't try

Comment 1

[David :Bienvenu]

is there a file called nstmp in your mailbox listing now? Usually, closing while
compacting just leaves an extra file with that name; it doesn't crunch the inbox
because we don't copy the nstmp file over the inbox until we're done...

Comment 2

[Ed Iglehart]

(In reply to comment #1)
> is there a file called nstmp in your mailbox listing now? Usually, closing while
> compacting just leaves an extra file with that name; it doesn't crunch the inbox
> because we don't copy the nstmp file over the inbox until we're done...

There are several such files, representing other folders from earlier times, but
none for the main inbox .  At first,when I re-opened the prog, it seemed to be
in an infinite wait as it tried to load the inbox.  Now it just loads up a new,
virtually empty inbox...3000 or so messages are lost somewhere on my disc.  Any
ideas of where/how I might look for them?  no sign in recycle bin, nor in list
of recently modified files, etc.  

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> (In reply to comment #1)
> > is there a file called nstmp in your mailbox listing now? Usually, closing while
> > compacting just leaves an extra file with that name; it doesn't crunch the inbox
> > because we don't copy the nstmp file over the inbox until we're done...
> 
> There are several such files, representing other folders from earlier times, but
> none for the main inbox .  At first,when I re-opened the prog, it seemed to be
> in an infinite wait as it tried to load the inbox.  Now it just loads up a new,
> virtually empty inbox...3000 or so messages are lost somewhere on my disc.  Any
> ideas of where/how I might look for them?  no sign in recycle bin, nor in list
> of recently modified files, etc.  

also
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Nstmp_folders
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

Comment 4

[Gary Kwong [:gkw] [:nth10sd] (NOT official MoCo now)]

Ed, could you please check the issue still occurs in the latest supported Thunderbird 2.0.0.x or trunk nightlies?

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

whether Ed responds or not, this should be tested given severity and clear STR.

(Ed wrote me last may that it had happened with 1.0 or earlier version, and not see again. However "I've adopted to always go offline before compacting")

Comment 6

[Ed Iglehart]

Ed here.  I haven't tried to reproduce it, and simply ALWAYS go "offline" before compacting.  I also don't shut the programme down without making sure compacting is finished. The NSTMP files do seem to serve a good purpose when needing to recover a message folder.

I think a useful add-on would be a utility to archive an entire inbox with subfolders.  Of course, this can be achieved by simply making a copy of the "mail" folder in your working "profile" or by simply copying the entire profile.  If this were done regularly, one need never "lose" five years of archived messages.  It would be easier to recover and simpler for those not familiar with delving deeply into file systems if one could log into the backup profile.  My Mail folder is around 2 Gigs, and thus goes a fair way back.  It's backed up occasionally to DVD, but I would welcome an automatic daily backup to HDD.

It is very distressing to apparently lose several years worth of messages, even though the bulk of them are trivial.

Regards, and thanks to all those in the open-source community.

Salaam/Shalom/Shanthi/Dorood/Peace
   Namaste  -ed

Comment 7

[Gary Kwong [:gkw] [:nth10sd] (NOT official MoCo now)]

This clearly needs more STR, and more QA first before resolving.

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Ed, could you please check the issue still occurs in the latest supported
> Thunderbird 2.0.0.x or trunk nightlies?

Ed, can you try beta and report results?
 http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/early_releases/

Comment 9

[Ed Iglehart]

Hi Wayne,

I'm currently using tbird version 2.0.0.22 (20090608)
I'll backup my profile and try a compact (I haven't compacted in years!)
and I'll shutdown partway through, and get back to you
Ok?

Comment 10

[Ed Iglehart]

I interrupted a compact operation by shutting down (via the normal route from ubuntu)

my folders and files all seem to be intact, I also do have a new nstmp folder  which seems to contain a part of my original main inbox, but none of them appear to be missing from the original.

Hope that helps.

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

reproducible in version 3?

Comment 12

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

RESOLVED INCOMPLETE due to lack of response to last question. If you feel this change was made in error, please respond with your reasons why.