324381 - Messages sent as attachments are empty.

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 271094

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[HJH]

User-Agent:       Opera/9.0 (Windows NT 5.2; U; en)
Build Identifier: Thunderbird version 1.6a1 (20060119)

When I compose a new email message and then add other messages to it as attachments, the content of the attached messages is blank.

My OS = winxpprox64beta

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Compose new message
2. Drag messages to addressee field so attachment field appears.
3. Release dragged messages onto attachment field.
4. Send message to self.
5. Receive message.
6. View blank attached messages.

Actual Results:  
The attached messages have no content.

Expected Results:  
The attached messages should have contained all header information and their original content.

As it is now, to send messages to others, I have to open them individually and then click 'Forward'.

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #0)
> 6. View blank attached messages.
> 
> Actual Results:  
> The attached messages have no content.
> 
> Expected Results:  
> The attached messages should have contained all header information and their
> original content.

Where are you looking for the content of the attached messages?  In the message pane, or are you double-clicking the attachments to open them into their own window?  If you're expecting to see them in the message pane (while viewing the message containing the attachments), be sure you've turned on
  View | Display Attachment Inline

Comment 2

[HJH]

(In reply to comment #1)

First, I must say that I am very grateful for your attention to this issue.  Thank you.

I've looked in both the message pane and have also double clicked the attached messages shown in the attachment pane.

I realize that the attached message contents will not appear if the messages are not viewed in line.  When they Are viewed in line, sometimes the attached messages show content and sometimes they do not.

I've spent the better part of the day experimenting with this.
Sometimes the problem is reproduced while other times it is not.
The whole inconsistency of it all can be rather frustrating.

I've included my Very Rough notes below.  -My apologies to anyone this offends.

compose new message
add three messages as attachments
double click on one message in the attachment pane to open attached message in own window.
Notice that the message has no content.

Close window.

Send message (include self as recipient).

REceive message.
Open message
Note that attached messages are displayed in line.
Remember that I don't like viewing attachments in line.
Change View setting to not "Display Attachments Inline"
Close message.
reopen message.
Note that attached messages are not show in line but as attachments.
Note that all attached messages in the attachment pane are labled "Attached Message"  A portion of the subject line might be better.
Double click on an attached message in the "Attachments:" pane.

Note that message has content.
Also note that only two attachments are shown in the "Attachments:" pane of this message being viewed.
Open the next attachment from the "Attachment:" pane.
Note that the message has content.
Note that two attachments are still listed in the "Attachment:" pane when only one was expected.
Think to self, Hmmmm... which is the attachment I have not viewed yet...
Check both attachments and see that the two remaining in the pane are the ones not currently being viewed.

Snap back from period of being easily distracted and get back to the main point of content not appearing in attachments.
See if I can put things back the way I like, reselect to not view attachments inline.

Go back to the inbox.
Right click the message and select "Edit As New..."
Note that attachments are still there but with an ".eml" extension.
Think to self... Hmmmmm... This is new.
Double click on first attached message in the "Attachments:" pane (upper right corner of composition window).
Encounter another surprise, a window asking me what application to use to view the attached message.
Note that the first choice is the default web browser.
Select other from the drop down list and browse to "thunderbird.exe".
Double click "thunderbird.exe".
Note that the "Opening nsmail.eml" dialog box is updated with my choice of opening the file with thunderbird.exe in the drop down list.
Select to "Do this automatically for files like this from now on."
Click th "OK" button.
Note that the message is displayed.
Think to self "Whatever".
Close the message and see if it works a second time.
Note to self... "Yes, it does work.  OK, cool."

Snap back from period of being easily distracted and get back to the main point of content not appearing in attachments.

Close all open messages.
Compose a new message with "View|Display Attachments Inline" deselected.
Compose new message by clicking the "Write" button.
Just for kicks, add the previously received message with the attachments.
Add to other messages as attachments.
Double click the attachments in the "Attachments:" pane.
Note that all messages show no contents. (Think to self... Golly gee, I wish they would.)
Send message to self.
Wait for a time and attempt to download messages.
Note that the message seems to have been lost in cyber space.
Go to "Sent" folder.
Right click on the message and choose to "Edit As New..."
Send message again.
Note that message shows up in "Inbox".
View the message.
Note that the attached messages are not show in line as expected.
Note that the attached messages are shown in the "Attachments:" pane -all with the .eml extension.
Think to self about the extension, "Whatever... As long as it works like it's supposed to I guess."
Double click first attachment.
Message shows up with five attachments showing in the "Attachments:" pane, all labled as "Attached Message.eml"
Think to self, "Wow!  This could get really confusing."
Get anxious wondering if I'll be able to duplicate the bug.
Close all open messages.
Go to "Tools|Options|Composition|General"
Change "Forward messages:" option from "Inline" to "As Attachment".
Click the "OK" button.

Compose new message by clicking the "Write" button.
Add three messages as attachments excluding messages which already have attachments as that made my brain hurt the last time.
Double click on each attachment from the "Attachments:" pane of the composition window.
Note that none of the messages show contents and that all are labled as "Attached Message" with no ".eml" extension.
Send message to self.

Receive the message in the "Inbox".
Open the message.
Note that attached messages are correctly not displayed in line as was selected from Thunderbird options.
Note that attached messages are displayed as "Attached Message" in the "Attachments:" pane.
Double click on the first attachment.
ARRRRGHHHH!!!
The message has contents.
All the messages reveal contents.

Realize why I left the computer industry back in 2001 and contemplate if I really want to go to my computer technician interview on Friday or continue working as a tour guide taking people four wheeling in Jeeps.

Close the message.
Go to the "Junk" folder and copy all junk/spam to a local folder called "spam".
Select all junk messages and click on the bluesecurity.com Blue Frog tool bar button to report spam.
Note that the body of the message is updated to include the text, "29 message(s) that were marked junk are attached to this message."
Note that there are a lot of attachments in the "Attachments:" pane.
Double click on the attached messages in the composition window "Attachments:" pane.
Note that the messages have no contents.
Send the message anyway, CC'ing myself.
Receive the message.
Open the message, noting that attached messages are correctly not displayed in line as was selected from Thunderbird options.
Note that attached messages are displayed as "Attached Message" in the "Attachments:" pane and that there are gobs of them.
Double click on an attached message.
Note that I couldn't tell if the attachment had contents anyhow since the message body pane is about half the hight of this line of plain text and the "Attachments:" pane is a zillion times larger than it needs to be.

Close the messages.
Choose to "Display Attachments Inline".
Open the message again.
Note that the messages are displayed inline.
Note that the messages have NO content.

Close all messages.
Copy contents of the local folder "spam" to pop3 account folder "Junk".
Select "View|Display Attachments Inline".
Select ""Tools|Options|Composition|General"
Change "Forward messages:" option from "As Attachment" to "Inline".
Click the "OK" button.
Go to "Junk" folder of pop3 account.

Select all junk messages and click on the bluesecurity.com Blue Frog tool bar button to report spam.
Note that the body of the message is updated to include the text, "29 message(s) that were marked junk are attached to this message."
Note that there are a lot of attachments in the "Attachments:" pane.
Double click on the attached messages in the composition window "Attachments:" pane.
Note that the messages have no contents.
Send the message anyway, CC'ing myself.

Receive the message.

View the message noting that none of the attached inline messages have content.

Close all open messages.
Compose new message by clicking on the "Write" button.
Address the message to self.
Go to local "spam" folder and note that it is empty.
Copy contents of "Junk" pop3 account folder to the local folder "spam".
Select all messages in this folder and drag them to the address field to make the "Attachments:" pane appear.
Drop selected messages into the "Attachments:" pane.

Send message.
Note that "The message could not be sent because connectiong to SMTP server smtp.blah.blah. failed." (twice.)
Try to send the message a third time.
Use back up modem and try again.
Hmmmm.... still not working.
Go to off line mode and opt to send message later.
Go to unsent folder and view the message noting that messages are shown in line with individual attachments (i.e. not just messages but individual files such as jpeg and gif) are shown.

I suspect that my ISP doesn't like this message and that they think I'm sending spam.
Go to "Unsent" folder and open the message.
Attempt to delete attachment other tha "Attached Message.eml".

Note that "Delete" doesn't seem to have any effect from the right click pop up menu.
Try detaching instead.
Respond to zillions of confirmation dialog boxes asking where to detach each selected attachment and asking if I really wish to do the irreversible bad thing.
Watch numerous detachment progress windows come and go.
Note that after all of the Delete attachments and Detach attachment efforts, the attachments are still shown in the "Attachment:" pane of the unsent message.
Also note that the headers of each inline message where "Normal" rather than "All".
Select "View|Headers|All".
Attempt to send message.
ISP apparently still balks at this idea and has a gag reflex before the message can be shoved down its throat.

Hmmmmmm.... Contemplate getting a different email account.  Since Earthlink forces advertising on me anyway when accessing web mail.

Deselect "View|Attachments Inline".
Note that all attachments disappear other than "Attached Message".
Attempt to send message again.
ISP pukes again generating an error, "An error occurred sending mail: The mail server sent an incorrect greeting" Cannot connect to SMTP server blah.blah.blah.blah (blah.blah.blah.blah:blah) , connect error 10055."

Since I'm running an MS OS... I guess I should reboot.
Reboot.
Attempt to send message and encounter another failure.
Give up on that message and compose another, adding around 30 messages as attachments.
Message send failed.

Compose a new message to self with no attachments.
Message delivery is successful.

Address message to self and send.

Create new message to self with eight non spam messages attached.
Mail send is successful but appears to have been lost in cyber space.

Create new message to self with eight non spam messages attached.
Mail send is successful but appears to have been lost in cyber space.

Think to self, "Earthlink sucks."

Go to webmail and do not see the message I just sent.  View advertising courtesy of Earthlink which they shamelessly make me pay for.

Go back to Thunderbird.
Compose new message to self with eight non spam messages attached.
Send message.
Receive message on local client.
Attachments have contents when not viewed inline but rather as attachments.
Now, what were my settings again???? Answer: Deselected "View|Attachmnets Inline" and Tools|Options|Composition|General|Forward messages:Inline".

Compose new message to self with 33 spam messages attached as attachments.
Mail send fails.
Earthlink apparently doesn't want me to send spam.
Choose to send message later.
View message from "Unsent" folder and note that only "Attached Message" attachments appear.

Note that the 33 spam messages disappeared from the local "spam" folder.
Think to self, "That 's no good.  I never chose to delete those only to add them as attachments."

Copy "junk" folder contents back to local "spam" folder noting that three of 23 messages have an attachment indicator.
View each message to make the attachment indicator appear like it's supposed to.
Note that, after viewing each message, ten of the 23 messages now indicate having attachments.

Snap back from period of being easily distracted and get back to the main point of content not appearing in attachments -remembering to save the attachment indicator issue for my other bug report.

Look in local "spam" folder to see if attachment indicators show up.
Note that attachment indicator is inconsistent.
Since I don't want to view all those spam emails again... delete the contents of this folder.
Copy contents of "Junk" folder to local "spam" folder.
Open each spam message containing an attachment(s) and delete the attachment(s), accidently deleting two of the messages rather than just their attachment(s).

Select to "Send Message Later".
View message from "Unsent" folder noting that the only attachments appearing are "Attached Message".
Send message.

While wainting for message send to err out... think to self, "Why does my ISP allow others to send spam to me but not allow me to send spam to others.
Pout about this.

Note that the message send was successful.
Wonder if deleteing the graphic file attachments from each individually attached message had something to do with the success.

Note that the message apparently disappeared in cyber space.
Go to "sent" folder and double click on the sent message which mysteriously dissappeared in Earthlink La La Fairyland.
Note that the attached messages correctly do not appear as in line.
Note also that attachments included in the "Attachment:" pane include only "Attached Message".
Double click on the first attachment and note that in the "Attachment:" pane of this message are displayed numerous "Attached Message" items but Also numerous "Deleted:blah.blah" for all the individual message attachments which I deleted.try sending again.
Think to self, "This is weird.  Shouldn't I have seen these in the main message's "Attachment:" pane?"

Snap back from period of being easily distracted and get back to the main point of content not appearing in attachments -remembering to save this new attachment list issue for my other bug report.

Note that when viewing the individual attached messages, they do have contents.
Right click on the message from the "Sent" folder and choose "Edit As New...".

Note that in the composition window, the attachments now have the extension, ".eml".
Note that double clicking on one of these attachments shows an attached message with content.

Send the message to myself.
Note that message send was successful.
Retrieve messages and open this test message.
Turn off full headers so that the body of the message is larger than this line of text.

Think to self, "It sure would be nice to see the far right edge of the header information  (a la horizontal scroll bar). and to be able to resize the header field and to scroll the header field vertically."

Snap back from period of being easily distracted and get back to the main point of content not appearing in attachments -remembering to save this new header field issue for my other DUPE bug report.

Note that attachments included in the "Attachment:" pane include only "Attached Message".
Double click on the first attachment and note that in the "Attachment:" pane of this message are displayed numerous "Attached Message" items but Also numerous "Deleted:blah.blah" for all the individual message attachments which I deleted.  Think again to self, "This is weird.  Shouldn't I have seen these in the main message's "Attachment:" pane?"

OK.  So I've experience a dirty type of success here.
What were my settings again?  Answer: "View|Display Attachments Inline" deselected and "Tools|Options|Composition|General|Forward messages:Inline".
Note also that to get the message past the Earthlink cop bot, image files may need to be deleted from the individual messages being sent.

So, let's see if I can get this to work the way I don't like (i.e. "View|Display Attachments Inline" selected
 and "Tools|Options|Composition|General|Forward messages:As Attachment".

Change settings.
Go to "Sent" folder.
Right click the last sent message and choose "Edit As New...".
Note that the attachments are now listed as "Attached Messaged.eml.eml".
Double clicking on the attachments reveals that they have content and that some display a deleted attachment indicator.

Also not that when viewing an attached message, only the attachments for that message appear or at least the deleted attachment indicator.
Think to self, "Well, this I like much better.  It doesn't make my brain hurt as much.  But why the inconsistency.  Earlier, the individual messages would show not just their own attachments but also all of the other attachments in the main or host message."

Snap back from period of being easily distracted and get back to the main point of content not appearing in attachments -remembering to save this attachments displayed list issue for another bug report.

Send message to self.
Note that message disappeared in Earthlink La La Fairyland.

Resend the message by editing as new noting that now the attached messages are labled as "Attached Message.eml.eml.eml".

Note that email client reports the message as having been sent.
Note that message disappeared in Earthlink La La Fairyland.

Edit the message as new, changing the subject line.
Expand the attached message pane so that the full attachment names are visible.
Note that the attached messages are labled as "Attached Message.eml.eml.eml.eml".
Send the message.

Message send and retrieval were successful.
Think to self, "Wow!  Wonders never cease."
View the message.
Note that the messages are displayed in line with "normal" headers.
Select "View|Headers|All".
Note that the main message body is no longer visible as neither the attachment pane or header pane can be resized.

Select "View|Headers|Normal".

Note that when viewing an attached message, togling back and forth between "View|Headers|All" and "View|Headers|Normal" there is no effect.  Once the toggle has occurred though and another attached message is opened, the header information is displayed correctly.

Snap back from period of being easily distracted and get back to the main point of content not appearing in attachments -remembering to save this All/Normal header displaye issue for another bug report.

Wow!  So it worked.

The main point here is the inconsistency/inconsistencies and what causes it.  Perhaps it has something to do with image attachments or the ISP.
Well, it's 3:28pm.  Perhaps I should have breakfast now.  Besides, my coffee is cold.

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #2)
> compose new message
> add three messages as attachments
> double click on one message in the attachment pane to open attached message in
> own window.
> Notice that the message has no content.

I'm not sure since I don't have the patience to wade thru your egocentric narrative, but this part quoted here is bug 271094.  Duping.

If there is some other bug buried in the crap, please open a new one, and keep the report terse.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 271094 ***