323518 - e-mail address that are in address book are sometimes red (PRIOR to version 31)

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Florian Effenberger]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
Build Identifier: Thunderbird 1.5

When the focus gets from the address field to the message body or subject too fast, the e-mail address is red.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Type e-mail address.
2. Instantly (!) hit enter or Tab to go to the next field.

Actual Results:  
E-mail address is red.

Expected Results:  
E-mail address should be black.

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

I was able to reproduce this with an address that included the '@' and so 
wasn't autocompleted with my default domain name.  
TB 1.5, TB 1.6a1-0105, Win2K.

Comment 2

[Florian Effenberger]

This also occurs when pasting a large list of recipients via cut and paste. Even if the recipients are 1:1 in the addressbook.

It also happens when doing autocompletion and not waiting long enough: Typing the first three letters, hitting Enter -> autocompletion, hitting Enter -> next To: field or hitting Tab -> subject field => turns red

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

florian can you cause this in V2?

Comment 4

[Florian Effenberger]

I can. I just have to enter the mail address manually and then press Tab very  fast. It turns red.

Comment 5

[Vincent (caméléon)]

> Steps to Reproduce:
> 1. Type e-mail address.
> 2. Instantly (!) hit enter or Tab to go to the next field.
> 
> Actual Results:  E-mail address is red.

I do not reproduce this behaviour with Thunderbird 3.1.6. Can you confirm if this bug is still there?

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

this behavior will occur if the address being entered is not in your address book. Are there examples where this happens and the address IS in your address book?

Comment 7

[Vincent (caméléon)]

(In reply to comment #6)
> Are there examples where this happens and the address IS in your address
> book?

Yes, but not in the way described in this bug:
- start to type an address an select one among the auto-complete proposals => the color is black
- delete one character of the address => the color is red because the address does not match anymore the correct one store in address book
- correct the address to match the one existing in the address book => the color doesn't change and stay red, whereas the address is now correct.

Another way is described in this bug report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=593794

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(brain fried)
can someone else confirm this?

Comment 9

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to comment #8)
> (brain fried)
> can someone else confirm this?

I can.

Comment 10

[Nomis101]

Oh, I also see this everytime I type in a email address which is not in my addressbook (TB 3.3). Or if I copy&paste it. I didn't know that this is a bug, I thought this is a new feature to show me that this address is new and unknown. Because it also gets red if I delete something from a black (known) address.

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I found no duplicates.
gsfn topic http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/topics/red_colored_to_address_i_want_black_back_solution_please

xref:
Bug 593794 - address dragged from adressbook turns red, clicked is black
bug 363094 comment 11 description of autocomplete

query: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&short_desc=address%20auto%20complet&longdesc=red&short_desc_type=anywordssubstr&type0-0-0=nowords&value0-0-0=count%20counts&resolution=---&resolution=INCOMPLETE&resolution=EXPIRED&product=MailNews%20Core&product=Thunderbird&longdesc_type=allwords

Comment 12

[Petr Vones]

I have another steps to reproduce it in TB 8.0 (Windows XP):

1. Create New Message
2. Type a valid email address you do NOT have in address book and move to Subject field. It turns red -> ok
3. Close the New Message window
4. Select a received email from Inbox where the sender IS already in your address book
5. Click Reply

Expected: The sender's email address is black
Actual: The sender's email address is red

Comment 13

[Petr Vones]

Still not fixed. I can reproduce it by the same steps in my almost two years old comment in TB 24.0.1

Comment 14

[Ian Jeffray]

This has just started happening for me with Thunderbird 31.   Red lines in "To" fields for addresses that are most certainly in my address book.  Very odd.

Comment 15

[km]

Same for me, the issue just suddenly appeared with the Thunderbird 31 update on Ubuntu 14.04.

Comment 16

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Ian, km, Your issue is likely a different problem, new to version 31.  Hopefully these will resolve in the next update of 31.

Comment 17

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Petr Vones from comment #13)
> Still not fixed. I can reproduce it by the same steps in my almost two years
> old comment in TB 24.0.1

Petr, thanks for the update.  Please retest when version 31.1 comes out - would be very helpful. Thanks.

Comment 18

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Yes, for tb 31 this is bug 1042561
(Usually we don't have different bugs for versions, but tb31 switched the code that does autocomplete from xpfe to toolikt autocomplete so the code is different.

Comment 19

[Vic Court]

I think I have worked out a logic to the RED address entries when writing an email. My difficulty will be explaining it. 

As you start to type into the address line, Thunderbird Address Book displays all address entries containing the group of characters that you have so far typed, whether they are in the name or address. If there are more than one of these address entries then they will be in RED.

If you reach a point where what you have typed is only contained in one address then that address will be presented in BLACK.

But if the first word is in several addresses (name or address) then all of those will show in RED. 

Now as you type a second word all addresses containing the first word and the second word will be displayed in RED if there are more than one. These words (groups of letters) don't have to be separate discrete names, they can be part of a longer name. As long as what you typed is contained within more than one Address Book entry then all of those entries will be displayed in RED. 

It is only when what you have typed is exclusive to only one name/address entry that it will turn BLACK.

I apologise for not being able to explain myself very well but I have thoroughly tried it out and it works. And so I suggest that there is not a bug at all once you understand the logic of what is happeining.

Please reply if you either can't understand me or think I am wrong.

Comment 20

[Dan]

I'm using version 31.1.2 for x86 WinXP.

I just forwarded an email to a list of friends as BCCs.  I highlighted the list of names, all of which are of course in my address book, right-clicked and clicked on Add To BCC field.  All of the names are listed in the To: field in RED.  RED on a GREY background is very difficult to read.

Manually typing a name into the field also creates it in RED as I am typing it.  TB shows me a list of names that match the letters I have typed up to that point.  If I select one of the names TB gives me, it enters the name into the field in BLACK.

Thanks,
Dan...

Comment 21

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

I'm using Thunderbird 31.4.0 32-bit (on a Win7 64-bit system). get the red TO or CC addresses all the time and I can confirm that those addresses are definitely in my Address Book.

Comment 22

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

As this bug is about versions prior to 31, let's close this. We have bug 1042561 for 31 and beyond.

Comment 23

[David]

(In reply to Magnus Melin from comment #22)
> As this bug is about versions prior to 31, let's close this. We have bug
> 1042561 for 31 and beyond.


So the solution to months long, version long, years long, unfixed Thunderbird bugs is to not fix them but to pass them on to a newer released version?

Sad.

Comment 24

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

To restate Magnus' excellent comment 22, unless I am mistaken the point to be made here is this bug report is against the old autocomplete, which is no longer in use, i.e. the code for all intents and purposes no longer exists in current versions of Thunderbird. And for older versions where the code does exist, we aren't going to fix it. I apologize if my comment 16 or comment 17 led anyone astray - but it was made quite clear in the new bug summary and whiteboard that this bug is NOT for version 31 and newer.

For Thunderbird 31 and newer the way forward is bug 1042561. If you are able to contribute to fixing it, that's where you want to be.