Closed Bug 346120 Opened 20 years ago Closed 19 years ago

Thunderbird repeatedly cannot read perfectly good address books

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Address Book, defect)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
Address Book
Platform:
x86
All
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
major

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: dthewlis, Assigned: mscott)

Details

Attachments

(1 file)

address book bug in action
133.13 KB, image/png
Details
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060508 Firefox/1.5.0.4 Build Identifier: Thunderbird 1.5.0.4 (20060516) I keep Thunderbird local folders, profiles, etc. on a Snap Server (NAS device) on a LAN so I can run Tbird from either my desktop or laptop (obviously not at the same time). When traveling I copy the Local Folders/Profiles to my Laptop and run Thunderbird from there. After going to the 1.5 level of Thunderbird, it started invalidating address books for no apparent reason. Frequently (often once per day) Thunderbird will suddenly issue the message "One of our address books (abook-x.mab file) could not be read. A new abook-x.mab file will be created and a backup of the old file, called abook-x.mab.mak will be created in the same directory." (where abook-x.mab could be abook.map through abook-8.mab). This may be any of the address books I have. The problem occurs on both the desktop system and the laptop. I now make regular copies of my address books whenever I add anything to them so when this happens I can copy the most recent abook-x.map back over the "new" empty address book and restart Thunderbird, which then works fine until the next time it invalidates an address book. This may be a problem with keeping the Local Folders and Profiles on the server but I'm not convinced ad I believe it has happened more than once when everything is on my laptop for traveling. Reproducible: Sometimes Steps to Reproduce: 1.Not sure what to suggest as it is intermittent. While it happens intermittently I am not sure what to do to force it to happen. 2. 3.
Hi I can confirm this same bug occurs under Linux (*buntu Dapper) with Thunderbird 1.5.0.5. When Thunderbird starts it gives a warning that it couldn't read from address book file and will create new (blank) one. It happened to me twice this week. I think this started happening since 1.5.0.4 or with the latest 1.5.0.5. But never before that.
it happened again and this time a made a snapshot
Confirming per multiple reports. OS -> ALL per comment #1 Version -> 1.5 > After going to the 1.5 level of Thunderbird, it started invalidating address > books for no apparent reason. Dave and Ivan: Can you reproduce this on a fresh profile? (the 1.5 release introduces some changes to the way references to parts of the profile are stored: For instructions on creating a new profile, see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager (In reply to comment #1) > I can confirm this same bug occurs under Linux (*buntu Dapper) with Thunderbird > 1.5.0.5. Are you using an official Thunderbird release from Mozilla or the Ubuntu package? Try to reproduce with the latest official release if you are not using it now.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
Version: unspecified → 1.5
OS: Windows XP → All
I am using the Ubuntu Thunderbird package I installed Ubuntu 6.06 from scratch no updates from previous version. It comes with Thunderbird 1.5.0.2 so the only upldates of Thunderbird were from 1.5.0.2 upwards. I will make fresh profle as you suggest using the offical release (In reply to comment #3) > Are you using an official Thunderbird release from Mozilla or the Ubuntu > package? > Try to reproduce with the latest official release if you are not using it now. >
I had hoped to avoid creating a new profile because of the magnitude of moving everything across from my existing Tbird configuration, and because simply creating a new empty profile without copying everything probably wouldn't have displayed the errant behavior in this case. However the comments about 1.5 having changes in how references are stored suggests it really is necessary, so I will tackle creating a new provile as soon as I can.
(In reply to comment #5) > I had hoped to avoid creating a new profile because of the magnitude of moving > everything across from my existing Tbird configuration, and because simply > creating a new empty profile without copying everything probably wouldn't have > displayed the errant behavior in this case. However the comments about 1.5 > having changes in how references are stored suggests it really is necessary, so > I will tackle creating a new profile as soon as I can. > Since the problem occurs frequently when the profile and folders are on the network drive and very infrequently (if at al) when they are on the laptop it suggests there is a network, device or timing component, which may not be revealed by building a new profile. But we'll see.
Hmm... I always create new profile when installing Thunderbird. I did so a week or two before the first address book erorrs appeared. So i do not transfer any old stuff directly. I configured the mail accounts as usually etc.. I did however import address book(!) .ldif exported by another 1.5.0.x Thunderbird on Winddows. This has never been an issue. Btw in my case everything is stored on local hard drive not remotely over network. Whatever... i installed the official release and i'm now using new profile. Let's wait and see what will happen :)
Flags: blocking-thunderbird2?
ivan/Dave it'd be useful if you could both confirm whether or not when you copy the backup file (xxx.mab.bak) over the newly created file (xxx.mab) that Thunderbird reads the address book again, or if it is still corrupt. If Thunderbird still sees the address book as corrupt, then its most likely that this is actually bug 340314. In Dave's case I'm wondering if its likely to be a mixture of keeping the profiles on the server (David - could we have a problem accessing mork dbs across the network?) and the ab corruption in bug 340314.
Some result... First of have both the Unubtu Thunderbird and Official one installed. Each works in a different directory so no mixing of profiles etc. The Official one is working OK so far, after just one day ;) With regard to bug 340314 I'm using "system mail sound" option of Tbird, the default one. And i hear system beep from the box on new mail. Now, when i put back the corrupt abook.mab Ubuntu Tbird complains again and replaces it. I chekced with hexdump and found this inside two of the three corrupt adrress books: 00000d00 5e 42 41 3d 29 28 5e 42 42 5e 39 31 29 28 5e 42 |^BA=)(^BB^91)(^B| 00000d10 43 3d 32 29 5d 0a 40 24 24 7d 35 7d 40 0a 52 49 |C=2)].@$$}5}@.RI| 00000d20 46 46 58 61 01 00 57 41 56 45 66 6d 74 20 10 00 |FFXa..WAVEfmt ..| 00000d30 00 00 01 00 02 00 22 56 00 00 88 58 01 00 04 00 |......"V...X....| 00000d40 10 00 64 61 74 61 fc 60 01 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 |..data.`........| "...WAVEfmt..." Suggesting connection with bug 340314 The third one however did not have any of these and was much smaller in size.. perhaps due the the sound file not being attached to it. But it was still rejected by Tbird. I could send you the third address book for you to inspect
I'm fairly certain that bug 340314 is the culprit - the fix for that is going to be checked in soon, if it hasn't. You could try 2.0 alpha to get around this. I think we'll want the fix for bug 340314 in the next 1.5.0.x build as well.
With respect to: "ivan/Dave it'd be useful if you could both confirm whether or not when you copy the backup file (xxx.mab.bak) over the newly created file (xxx.mab) that Thunderbird reads the address book again, or if it is still corrupt." That's correct - if I try to copy the backp file back over the newly created file, Thunderbird says that it is still corrupt. Of course if I copy a previously-saved good copy of the file back over the newly created file, it works (until Tbird decides it is corrupt again). With respect to "In Dave's case I'm wondering if its likely to be a mixture of keeping the profiles on the server (David - could we have a problem accessing mork dbs across the network?) and the ab corruption in bug 340314." Don't know about bug 340314 -- does it happen if you don't have "Play a sound when new messages arrive" turned on? Because I don't. As far as accessing mork dbs I suppose that is possible. Also, the NAS device is a Snap Server. When I originally put it up, WordPerfect suddenly had a problem with writing to the device correctly (when updating directories in storing a replacement) and required a patch to function. I've never seen that before or since but it did make me wonder if the Snap Servers report status slightly differently than anything else.
(In reply to comment #11) > "In Dave's case I'm wondering if its likely to be a mixture of keeping the > profiles on the server (David - could we have a problem accessing mork dbs > across the network?) and the ab corruption in bug 340314." > > Don't know about bug 340314 -- does it happen if you don't have "Play a sound > when new messages arrive" turned on? Because I don't. It isn't necessarily play a sound when new messages arrive, its whenever Thunderbird plays a sound, though admittedly I'm not sure if there are other cases where it can do.
Dave, do you still see this problem with thunderbird2 nightlies[1] (or 1.5.0.x nightlies[2]), now that bug 340314 has landed? [1] http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/nightly/latest-mozilla1.8/ [2] http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/nightly/latest-mozilla1.8.0/
(In reply to comment #13) > Dave, do you still see this problem with thunderbird2 nightlies[1] (or 1.5.0.x > nightlies[2]), now that bug 340314 has landed? > > [1] > http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/nightly/latest-mozilla1.8/ > [2] > http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/nightly/latest-mozilla1.8.0/ > Apologies for not jumping to the nightly feed yet, Have just gone to 1.5.0.5 (20060819). Was getting the problem daily for the last few days so I have *not* changed profiles etc. Only change is the level of Thunderbird. I'll report back.
Alas, after upgrading to Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 the problem appeared to go away -- but has reappeared in the last few days. This morning I lost two address books at the same time. So it would appear that this problem is NOT fixed by the resolution to bug 340314.
(In reply to comment #15) > Alas, after upgrading to Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 the problem appeared to go away -- > but has reappeared in the last few days. This morning I lost two address books > at the same time. So it would appear that this problem is NOT fixed by the > resolution to bug 340314. > The bug fix for bug 340314 wasn't checked in in time for Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 - that was released on the 26th of July, the bug fix was checked in on the 16th of August. The fix should be in the next Thunderbird 1.5.0.6 release, or one of the nightly builds as linked to by comment 13.
it's actually 1.5.0.7 that will contain the fix - 1.5.0.6 was a quick turn-around release with just one fix in it, iirc.
I misunderstood and confused the current 1.5.0.x with the nightlies when I read comment #13. I will try the current nightly and see what happens. Apologies all arond.
(In reply to comment #18) > I misunderstood and confused the current 1.5.0.x with the nightlies when I read > comment #13. I will try the current nightly and see what happens. Apologies > all arond. > Hold the horses -- going back to my log I did download the nightly on August 19th. It calls itself 1.5.0.5. (20060819) and that is what I installed. So that should be a nightly containing the bug fix for 340314, shouldn't it?
I now have an address book which fails as soon as I try to write a message. It was perfectly good until I changed the e-mail addresses (the domain part) of three addresses. If looking at this would help shoot this problem I'd be delighted to provide it; it is rather large (130K) so I don't want to attach it unless directed to. My workaround is to use an older copy of the address book which unfortunately is a bit backdated.
I have just updated to Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 (20060901). The address book corruption problem has already happened. So whatever is wrong this level of Thunderbird has NOT corrected this problem. What next?
The problem seems to be with the file server. I moved my Tbird data to a newly-acquired TeraStation from a Snap Server 1100 and the problem has not happened since (in about 10 days). It's possible that the right combination of circumstances just hasn't occurred - but right now it seems very much as though the Snap Server 1100 is the culprit. Apologies to everyone who has tried to help figure this one out from inside Thunderbird. Dave Thewlis
-> WFM per reporter comment 22
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 19 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
clearing blocking flag on bug resolved as WFM.
Flags: blocking-thunderbird2?
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