364647 - Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 freezes with hourglass causing all summary files to be rebuilt upon next startup

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Andy Fox]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.8.0.9) Gecko/20061206 Firefox/1.5.0.9
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.8.0.9) Gecko/20061206 Firefox/1.5.0.9

When switching from one local mail folder to another which requires its summary file to be rebuilt (happens irratically), Thunderbird will, occasionally become unresponsive and turn the cursor into an hourglass when it rolls over the mail folder tree. There is no HD activity. The program must be abnormally terminated and upon next startup ALL summary files for ALL folders require re-building, sometimes with the JUNK indicator being lost on messages. This bug was not present until upgrading from 1.5.0.7 to 1.5.0.9.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Happens sporratically when switching from one local folder to another when the folder being switched to requires its summary file to be rebuilt.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Glenn]

I've also experienced this problem.

Comment 2

[Glenn]

I've also only noticed it since the upgrade to 1.5.0.9

I'm using Windows XP.

Comment 3

[Andy Fox]

I have noticed this bug seems to consistantly happen when new messages are downloaded automatically placed into various local folders via my pre-defined filters. If new mail has been downloaded and placed into a local folder and I try to switch to that folder from my inbox, there is a 50/50 chance Thunderbird will lock up and that folder's summary file will need to be rebuilt. I also have automatic junk mail filtering on if they is at all useful in diagnosing this bug.

Comment 4

[David :Bienvenu]

These are messages download from a pop3 server into a local folder? How long do you keep TB running? On what criteria are these filters sort messages? By subject, sender, etc? Do they just move messages, i.e., not mark them read or anything? What kind of CPU do you have? dual cpu or 64 bit cpu or standard 32 bit pentium?

Comment 5

[Glenn]

For me specifically

a. my Junk folder on one of my email pop3 accounts that, when I click on it, the hourglass comes up, there's no HDD activity, no "summary file rebuild" message in the status bar. I eventually just close TB and start it again. When I then click on that Junk folder, it does the summary file rebuild and brings up the expected email list ok. This has only happened since upgrading to 1.5.0.9

b. Summary file rebuilds on any folder of my email pop3 account seems to happen a lot more often (since upgrading to 1.5.0.9).

The other symptom I've noticed, it that after any folder's summary file rebuild, it loses it's message list sort order, and retention policy settings - eg on my junk folder I usually set it to "Delete all but the last 200 messages" but after the summary file rebuild it resets back to "Use server defaults"

Comment 6

[Glenn]

I run Win XP (all latest updates) on a Dell XPS R400, Intel Pentium II 400 , 384MB memory

Comment 7

[Glenn]

Attachment: filter criteria to move specific files into junk folder.

I also have a mail filter automatically placing certain email into my Junk folder in addition to allowing TB to determine which messages are junk.

I've attached a screen shot of this filter's criteria.

Comment 8

[David :Bienvenu]

Has anyone noticed a large amount of memory use by the TB process? I'm wondering if that could be related...

Comment 9

[Glenn]

and .... after the Junk folder summary file is rebuilt, all the messages in the Junk folder have had their junk status turned off.

Comment 10

[Andy Fox]

(In reply to comment #4)

I open TB upon Windows startup and try to keep it always running. It is set to download messages every 10 minutes. Every few hours I check for new messages by switching to these local folders. When I do there is a 50/50 chance TB will lock up. Filters are based on subject line and the action is just to move them to their appropriate local folders. I also have junk mail filtering on and the junk mail folder gets affected by this issue as well. I run a standard Pentium III 1.0 Ghz. CPU under Windows 98 SE. I use AntiVir virus checking software. Everything was fine before TB version 1.5.0.9.

Comment 11

[David :Bienvenu]

Has anyone tried 2.0 beta 1 to see if it has the same issue? The one issue with using 2.0 beta 1 is that filters and saved searches that involve labels will get converted to use tags, but if you're not doing anything like that, you can go back and forth w/o a problem.

Comment 12

[Lorenz Froihofer]

Same behaviour for me after upgrading to TB1.5.0.9. I can also reproduce this behaviour on TB2.0b1 on Win XP SP2.

In my case, the "Sent" folder seems to be the original cause of the problem, the "Inbox" keeps working. However, after I get the hourglass caused by clicking on the Sent folder the Inbox of the same mail (call it "A") account is inaccessible (sometimes this is only produced by switching two times between Inbox and Sent). However, clicking on the Inbox of another mail account "B" correctly displays the content of B's Inbox. After that, I can again access the Inbox of "A" and see its content. The Sent folder of "A" again produces the hourglass.

This bug seems to be related to/the same as:
*) Bug 364936: same issue for news folders
*) Bug 364758: same issue but the cause is guessed to be message filtering
*) Bug 364795: same issue(?) but observed after message "Unable to load [...] history.mab [...]" or caused by memory leakage (fostered by RSS feeds) -- I do not remember exactly but I guess that I also got this message directly after upgrading to 1.5.0.9 in December. However, since then it did not appear again.

As the discussion in bug 364795 tends to accuse memory leakage for the problem -- TB2.0b1 uses about 30MB after startup and about 85MB at the time I observe this strange behaviour.

I do not (currently) use news or RSS feeds.

Comment 13

[Lorenz Froihofer]

Now I found the cause of this bug. At some point in time the format of the address book must have changed. After renaming the Thunderbird profile, Thunderbird created a new one at the next time it was started. Comparing my old "abook.mab" with the new "abook.mab" shows that the index numbers have changed.

To fix this issue, the following worked for me

1) Export the address book as well as the collected addresses to an LDIF file. (I was using TB-1.5.0.8 for that).
2) Exit Thunderbird and move "abook.mab" as well as "history.mab" out of the Thunderbird profile directory.
3) Installed TB-1.5.0.9 and imported the personal address book and the collected addresses from the files created by the previous export.

May be you can also use TB-1.5.0.9 for export, but I did not try that. However, TB-1.5.0.9 works now fine for me.

For those interested in the details, I will provide the start of the different address book formats.

My previous (not working) "abook.mab" started with:

// <!-- <mdb:mork:z v="1.4"/> -->
< <(a=c)> // (f=iso-8859-1)
  (B8=Custom4)(B9=Notes)(BA=LastModifiedDate)(BB=RecordKey)
  (BC=AddrCharSet)(BD=LastRecordKey)(BE=ns:addrbk:db:table:kind:pab)
  (BF=ListName)(C0=ListNickName)(C1=ListDescription)
  (C2=ListTotalAddresses)(C3=LowercaseListName)
  (C4=ns:addrbk:db:table:kind:deleted)(C5=Address1)(C6=Address2)
  (C7=Address3)(C8=Address4)(C9=Address5)(CA=Address6)(CB=Address7)
  (CC=Address8)(CD=Address9)(CE=Address10)(CF=Address11)(D0=Address12)
  (D1=Address13)(D2=Address14)(D3=Address15)(D4=PalmRecId)
  (D5=PopularityIndex)(D6=AllowRemoteContent)
  (80=ns:addrbk:db:row:scope:card:all)
  (81=ns:addrbk:db:row:scope:list:all)
  (82=ns:addrbk:db:row:scope:data:all)(83=FirstName)(84=LastName)
  (85=PhoneticFirstName)(86=PhoneticLastName)(87=DisplayName)
  (88=NickName)(89=PrimaryEmail)(8A=LowercasePrimaryEmail)
  (8B=SecondEmail)(8C=DefaultEmail)(8D=CardType)(8E=PreferMailFormat)
  (8F=WorkPhone)(90=HomePhone)(91=FaxNumber)(92=PagerNumber)
  (93=CellularNumber)(94=WorkPhoneType)(95=HomePhoneType)
  (96=FaxNumberType)(97=PagerNumberType)(98=CellularNumberType)
  (99=HomeAddress)(9A=HomeAddress2)(9B=HomeCity)(9C=HomeState)
  (9D=HomeZipCode)(9E=HomeCountry)(9F=WorkAddress)(A0=WorkAddress2)
  (A1=WorkCity)(A2=WorkState)(A3=WorkZipCode)(A4=WorkCountry)
  (A5=JobTitle)(A6=Department)(A7=Company)(A8=_AimScreenName)
  (A9=AnniversaryYear)(AA=AnniversaryMonth)(AB=AnniversaryDay)
  (AC=SpouseName)(AD=FamilyName)(AE=DefaultAddress)(AF=Category)
  (B0=WebPage1)(B1=WebPage2)(B2=BirthYear)(B3=BirthMonth)(B4=BirthDay)
  (B5=Custom1)(B6=Custom2)(B7=Custom3)>


The new abook.mab starts with:

// <!-- <mdb:mork:z v="1.4"/> -->
< <(a=c)> // (f=iso-8859-1)
  (B8=Custom3)(B9=Custom4)(BA=Notes)(BB=LastModifiedDate)(BC=RecordKey)
  (BD=AddrCharSet)(BE=LastRecordKey)(BF=ns:addrbk:db:table:kind:pab)
  (C0=ListName)(C1=ListNickName)(C2=ListDescription)
  (C3=ListTotalAddresses)(C4=LowercaseListName)
  (C5=ns:addrbk:db:table:kind:deleted)
  (80=ns:addrbk:db:row:scope:card:all)
  (81=ns:addrbk:db:row:scope:list:all)
  (82=ns:addrbk:db:row:scope:data:all)(83=FirstName)(84=LastName)
  (85=PhoneticFirstName)(86=PhoneticLastName)(87=DisplayName)
  (88=NickName)(89=PrimaryEmail)(8A=LowercasePrimaryEmail)
  (8B=SecondEmail)(8C=DefaultEmail)(8D=CardType)(8E=PreferMailFormat)
  (8F=PopularityIndex)(90=WorkPhone)(91=HomePhone)(92=FaxNumber)
  (93=PagerNumber)(94=CellularNumber)(95=WorkPhoneType)(96=HomePhoneType)
  (97=FaxNumberType)(98=PagerNumberType)(99=CellularNumberType)
  (9A=HomeAddress)(9B=HomeAddress2)(9C=HomeCity)(9D=HomeState)
  (9E=HomeZipCode)(9F=HomeCountry)(A0=WorkAddress)(A1=WorkAddress2)
  (A2=WorkCity)(A3=WorkState)(A4=WorkZipCode)(A5=WorkCountry)
  (A6=JobTitle)(A7=Department)(A8=Company)(A9=_AimScreenName)
  (AA=AnniversaryYear)(AB=AnniversaryMonth)(AC=AnniversaryDay)
  (AD=SpouseName)(AE=FamilyName)(AF=DefaultAddress)(B0=Category)
  (B1=WebPage1)(B2=WebPage2)(B3=BirthYear)(B4=BirthMonth)(B5=BirthDay)
  (B6=Custom1)(B7=Custom2)>

Just comparing the first two lines already reveals the problem:

Not working:  (B8=Custom4)(B9=Notes)(BA=LastModifiedDate)(BB=RecordKey)
Working:  (B8=Custom3)(B9=Custom4)(BA=Notes)(BB=LastModifiedDate)(BC=RecordKey)

Comment 14

[David :Bienvenu]

Lorenz, is it possible that it was simply the creation of a new profile that fixed the problem, and not really the difference in address books? If you simply copied the abook.mab from the old profile into the new profile, did you still have the bug? I'm not sure, but I think Custom4 might just be a property that gets created when you export to an ldif file, and import that ldif file - it's not really a sign of anything being wrong with the AB.

Comment 15

[David :Bienvenu]

See this comment for a test you could perform to help diagnose the problem:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=364795#c66

Comment 16

[Lorenz Froihofer]

(In reply to comment #14)

Copying old abook.mab and history.mab to a newly created profile does not show the bug. However, I am using the old profile (to not have to manually restore all my settings) with new abook.mab/history.mab as described in comment #13. It seems that some combination of profile (settings?) and abook.mab/history.mab leads to the problem.

Comment 17

[Andy Fox]

(In reply to comment #15)
> See this comment for a test you could perform to help diagnose the problem:
> 
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=364795#c66
> 

I've tried this operation for a few days now and it appears to keep the bug from manifesting. You basically change how frequently Thunderbird checks for old junk mail needing deletion from every 5 minutes (the default) to something much larger (I used 5000). My Thunderbird Junkmail settings are set to auto-delete any junk mail over 5 days old but now it will only do the check every 5000 minutes, and since I turn my computer off every night it never occurs. The only disadvantage to this workaround is now I have to manually go in and delete old junk mail. So, it does appear this "memory leak" issue is also the cause of our hourglass/lockup problem.

Comment 18

[Andy Fox]

FYI, folks, The new Thunderbord 1.5.0.10 does NOT address this issue. I switched the mail purge setting back to 5 minutes and used it for a couple days, and within that time Thunderbird locked up twice and each time I had to rebuild some of my folders. I switched it back to 5000 and will continue to wait for the Thunderbird coders to fix this.

Comment 20

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

do you see this problem with version 2?

Comment 21

[Andy Fox]

(In reply to comment #20)
> do you see this problem with version 2?

No. This bug went away by version 2.0.0.something... sometime last year. Anyhow I haven't had the problem for a long time. Currently using version 2.0.0.14.

Comment 22

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

->WFM (FIXED is only used when known code changes resolved the issue)
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=fields.html#resolution