Closed Bug 402418 Opened 17 years ago Closed 16 years ago

Deleted contact address remains in autocomplete pop-up list

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Address Book, defect)

x86
Windows XP
defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: peter.ashford, Unassigned)

Details

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071025 Firefox/2.0.0.9
Build Identifier: version 2.0.0.6 (20070728)

Auto complete in the To: box works well just by typing in a few characters.

The problem is that one recipient has changed his email address, his former address no longer being usable.  I deleted this old address from the address book and replaced it with the new one.  Calling up the address book shows one address  only the one correct new address - OK.

The problem is: when typing in the first few (unchanged) characters in the To: box  a set of  4  possible autocompleted addresses pops up INCLUDING the unusable address I have deleted.  If I scroll down to the rest of the possible autocomplete addresses the correct new address has been added OK but hidden as the last entry.  There are now TWO autocorrect addresses for my contact including the one that has been deleted from the address book.  Deleting the obsolete address from the address book has not deleted it from the autocomplete list.

I find on rebooting Thunderbird the two addresses remain but are now sorted to follow in sequence

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Actual contact address (no longer usable) is Peter Hampton <pete.hampton@fsbdial.co.uk>.  It has been erased from the Address Book  
but still appears in autocomplete together with the new correct address for Peter Hampton
2. Delete the correct new and only remaining address for Peter Hampton from the address book

Actual Results:  
1. Re-open Address Book - No address for Peter Hampton (OK)
2. Open Contacts List - No entry for Peter Hampton (OK)
3. Write new email.  At To: type in 'pet' Autocomplete correctly does not show the new address just erased from the Address Book but DOES still show Peter Hampton <pete.hampton@fsbdial.co.uk>.
   

Expected Results:  
Should not autocomplete what is not in the address book

May be relevant:  My Drafts folder shows 1 entry when there is none!  If there are two entries it will show 3 etc.

I recently reinstalled Thunderbird to cure that but it still exists.
I believe the root cause is that deleted contacts are not completely removed from the .mab files.  For example (using 2.0.0.6 & 2.0.0.9):

1) Create a new address book (for me this creates the file abook-3.mab).
2) Add two contacts: friend1 (friend1@host1.com) & friend2 (friend2@host2.com)
3) Delete one (or both) of the contacts, but do not delete the address book.
4) 'grep friend abook-3.mab' returns this:

<(86=2)(81=friend1)(82=)(83=friend1@host1.com)(80=0)(84=1)(87=friend2)
  (85=friend2@host2.com)(88=47865cab)>

Over time many deleted contacts can thus remain in an address book.
(In reply to comment #0)
> The problem is that one recipient has changed his email address, his former
> address no longer being usable.  I deleted this old address from the address
> book and replaced it with the new one.  Calling up the address book shows one
> address  only the one correct new address - OK.
> 
> The problem is: when typing in the first few (unchanged) characters in the To:
> box  a set of  4  possible autocompleted addresses pops up INCLUDING the
> unusable address I have deleted.  If I scroll down to the rest of the possible
> autocomplete addresses the correct new address has been added OK but hidden as
> the last entry.  There are now TWO autocorrect addresses for my contact
> including the one that has been deleted from the address book.  Deleting the
> obsolete address from the address book has not deleted it from the autocomplete
> list.

Are you sure you have checked all address books for this invalid address? By default there are two, and one of those will collect email addresses from emails you send out. I've just tried this, and it works for me.

(In reply to comment #1)
> I believe the root cause is that deleted contacts are not completely removed
> from the .mab files.  For example (using 2.0.0.6 & 2.0.0.9):

This is unlikely to be the case. The address book keeps deleted cards in its tables, and that is most likely what you are seeing. I have checked the code and it is treating the two tables separately.
Problem solved!  Thank you for your guidance.
I have two address books with entries (nothing in Collected Addresses)- they are Personal Address Book and Outlook Express Address Book. When I stopped using OE a long time ago I imported the address book to get started. I found the old recipient address in the OE book.  I have now deleted it from there.

However, I found that the old address deleted from Personal A B had been automatically re-loaded into it automatically afterwards (which I hadn't re-checked after deleting it).  Old address now deleted from both ABs and all OK.

TBird update some time perhaps? - Deleting from the Personal AB to show up the NEED to delete from the OE (or other book) - or similar action.

Thanks again   
(In reply to comment #3)
> Problem solved!  Thank you for your guidance.
> I have two address books with entries (nothing in Collected Addresses)- they
> are Personal Address Book and Outlook Express Address Book. When I stopped
> using OE a long time ago I imported the address book to get started. I found
> the old recipient address in the OE book.  I have now deleted it from there.
> However, I found that the old address deleted from Personal A B had been
> automatically re-loaded into it automatically afterwards (which I hadn't
> re-checked after deleting it).  Old address now deleted from both ABs and all
> OK.

That's good, resolving bug as Works for Me.

> TBird update some time perhaps? - Deleting from the Personal AB to show up the
> NEED to delete from the OE (or other book) - or similar action.

We could do this, but I'd rather just enable search across multiple address books at the same time (which is the subject of another bug).
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 16 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
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