352999 - CRITICAL Basic functionality issue ! POlEasePRioritize. Others please vote this to top ! problem with "leave messages on server for x days" Stealth but happens to EVERYBODY CRITICAL! mail never deleted from server! eventually Server fills after months ...

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 352998

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[geopilot]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041217
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041217

CRITICAL problem with "leave messages on server for x days"
using the following option
under menu Tools: Account settings
check box for
Account settings
in "server settings"
check "leave messages on server" and "for at most x days" substituting say 30 days for x

1. When using thunderbird on mindspring or earthlink (which are standard pop3 servers) thunderbird never keeps track of how long the emails it has read have been on the server and it never deletes them. This means your email quota eventually fills and you stop getting email.

At some point your email box fills and you must manually delete all emails (which for most people is technically impossible without tech support so they will just switch away from thunderbird) and results in loss of emails not yet downloaded between last thunderbird use, deletion trama, and next thunderbird use (often requires you to log in to webmail).

People must be allowed to leave messages on their server for several days so they can synchronize all received emails betwen several computers or phones etc which may not log on to the owners pop server everyday . (at least that is the main reason I use it and for short term backup in case of email loss on home computers between backup schedules).

This has been an ongoing issue through the past several versions and maybe for ever. I have seen many posts about it on the internet but never the bug boards becuase like me I guess a lot of people don't want to have to register just to report a bug.

This is a major problem in core general email client functionality. It's a deal killer for an other wise incredible product.
It is a critical core funtion of any email program and is pretty much a deal killer for email powerusers.

You only notice this problem after your emailquota fills and your box begins to reject emails so many people may not notice it for months. It's the AIDS bug for email clients. Infected now - only learn later.

2. different problem same cause?
Additionally sometimes thunderbird redownloads all emails that have already previously downloaded.
This seems to happen if I am running thunderbird on two computers with leve email on server set and both access the server.

possible cause?

I beleive Thunderbird is not correctly and independently of the server keeping track of emails it has already downloaded from a server and is not tracking how long they have been left on the server. Each manifestation of thunderbird on each computer must keep track independently of the emails it has downloaded.

Most email programs have the option to have your email client download either the last message you have read from the server regardless of whether thyou did it on the computer you are using at the moment (which I presume is indicated by the server itself somehow)
or the other option is downloading starting formt he last email you have read on the current computer (which the currect computer email client must be tracking) The latter choice insures that you will have all emails on each computer you operate from which is essential for business when you need access to all previous emails someone has written you no matter which computer you are on.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.under menu Tools: Account settings
check box for
Account settings
in "server settings"
check "leave messages on server" and "for at most x days" substituting say 30 days for x
check your email.
after months your email server will fill or you can see via webmail that your emails are never getting deleted from the server after the specificed days you set for them to be deleted.
This eventually happens to EVERYBODY who uses leave messages on server for x days. I tmay take months for peopels boxes to fill especially gmail but it is a critical certain problem!

3.

Actual Results:  
email server fills. emails begin to be rejected. people dont know it and they lose critical emails!
messing with the leave messages on server settings in thunderbird may cause thunderbird to Retreive duplicates of ALL emails still on server AGAIn leaving you with thousands of duplicates as well.

SO obviusly thunderbird is 
1. not keeping track by itslef of which messages it downloaded and how long ago and then telling the server to delete the ones past keep time.
also obviously when you chenge thuderbird leav emessages on erver settings thunderbird is redownloading everything on the server not recognizing it already downloaded thiose that were left on the server.

HUGE MASSIVE MESS!

Expected Results:  
messages should be deleted froms erver after the speicfied days

this is huge.
it should be ina  category of "primary basic functionaltiy" but you don't have one. however this means Thunderbird can't do one of the most basic email retrieval functions. I can't reccomend it to my company clients if it can't.

I love thunderbird but had i known it had this hidden problem that only appears after a long period I problaby wouldn't have swicthed to it.

The bug reporting process is so onerous that i have had to wait to report this but it is reported all over newsgorups on the internet and thunderbird is getting a bad rep from it.

Please fix!!


PLEASE

Comment 1

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

not security sensitive

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 352998 ***

Comment 2

[geopilot]

The original summary for this bug was longer than 255 characters, and so it was truncated when Bugzilla was upgraded. The original summary was:

CRITICAL Basic functionality issue ! POlEasePRioritize. Others please vote this to top ! problem with "leave messages on server for x days" Stealth but happens to EVERYBODY CRITICAL! mail never deleted from server! eventually Server fills after months and email rejected!