410525 - Thunderbird randomly switches display format for email timestamps

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Jon Roma]

User-Agent:       Opera/9.24 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X; U; en)
Build Identifier: version 2.0.0.9 (20071031)

My Mac OS X Tiger installation is configured to use custom date/time formats via the Preferences -> International -> Formats preference setting. One of the particular things I want is 24-hour time rather than a.m. and p.m.

The date format settings in effect are:

Full:   Saturday, January 5, 2008
Long:   January 5, 2008
Medium: Jan 5, 2008
Short:  1/5/2008

The time format settings are:

Full:   19:08:09 CST
Long:   19:08:09 CST
Medium: 19:08:09 
Short:  19:08

Normally, Thunderbird shows mail with my desired 24-hour time, but occasionally it starts up and reverts to some 12-hour time format of its own choosing!

For example, right now, mail received today shows up with a timestamp of

   1:10 PM

and mail received yesterday shows with a timestamp of

   1/1/08 10:10 PM

which is not even a format I've specified in the system preferences! (Note that my preferred short date format uses the four-digit year.)

Sometimes after shutting down and restarting Thunderbird, the product reverts to the correct time formats, but this sometimes takes several tries. I can't predictably trigger the failure scenario; it just happens!

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.



I have NOT applied any of the customizations shown at

   http://kb.mozillazine.org/Date_display_format

Comment 1

[rsx11m]

Very similar to bug 360018, with the difference though that reports there don't see any change when modifying system settings or the LC_* environment variables, whereas here the behavior appears to be random. Thus, not duping.

Comment 2

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #0)
> For example, right now, mail received today shows up with a timestamp of
>    1:10 PM
> and mail received yesterday shows with a timestamp of
>    1/1/08 10:10 PM
> I have NOT applied any of the customizations shown at
>    http://kb.mozillazine.org/Date_display_format

To Jon Roma(bug opener):

"1:10" vs. "1/1/08 10:10" part only (not for "1:10 PM" vs. "10:10 PM" part).
(Q1) No "1/1/08" part for *Today's* mail is merely a result of default date display format of Tb, isn't it?

> Normally, Thunderbird shows mail with my desired 24-hour time,
> but occasionally it starts up and reverts to some 12-hour time format of its own choosing!

(Q2) When the problem started to occur?
After upgrade of Mac OS X? After upgrade of Tb? After install of add-on?

(Q3) Can you see phenomenon with new profile/new account?
 - create new profile, define dummy POP3 account, with no-Global-Inbox-use,
   then copy file named Inbox(not Inbox.msf) under current profile
   to Inbox under directory for the dummy account in newly created profie.

(Q4) Which do you mean?
(A) "Timestamp related column display" of "*all* mails in mail list pane"
    is displayed in "24-hour time" during a start/end of Thunderbird,
    But it is displayed in "12-hour time" during other start/end of Thunderbird.
(B) "Timestamp related column display" of "*some* mails in mail list pane"
    is displayed in "24-hour time", but for "*other* mails in mail list pane",
    it is displayed in "12-hour time", during same start/end of Thunderbird.
(C) "Timestamp related column display" of "*a* mail in mail list pane"
    is displayed in "24-hour time" at a point,
    but is displayed in "12-hour time" at other point,
    during same start/end of Thunderbird.

(Q5) Phenomenon on some specific mails? Or on all mails?

(Q6) Can you provide screen shot of both "24-hour time" display and "12-hour time" display?

Comment 3

[Jon Roma]

(Q1) Sorry if I confused; Tb correctly discerns between today's mail and
     previous days' mail with respect to showing the day portion. But when
     the bad behavior takes place, it mishandles the time portion of both.

(Q2) Uncertain. It is not tied to an OS upgrade or Tb upgrade. Have
     not installed any add-ons other than foreign language spell-check, and
     pretty much leave Tb alone other than installing upgrades when released.

     At one time, I had the impression that the problem occurred after
     returning from working offline or after restarting Tb after having 
     quit while in offline mode, but I am not so certain there is a definite
     pattern.

     Of the three Macs involved (running Leopard now, formerly running Tiger),
     one has never exhibited the problem, and two (a laptop and desktop) do
     show the sporadic problem. The laptop does work in offline mode from
     time to time and the desktop never.

     One thing I can say is that the problem, when active, affects all mail
     messages in all folders for the duration of the session. Sometimes
     restarting Tb makes the problem go away, and sometimes it does not.
     Not very helpful, I imagine.

(Q3) To do this, I would have to create a new user with the same time settings
     and then do the steps mentioned. Since I can't seem to force the
     misbehavior to occur on my own account, these steps may not be helpful.
     For whatever it's worth, all of my Tb instances use a single IMAP
     connection; I do not use POP3 at all.

(Q4) Answer A. When the sporadic misbehavior takes, place, it affects all
     mails in mail list pane for any folder that is displayed.

(Q5) All mails when behavior is occurring (as stated in answer to Q4).

(Q6) Can provide screen shot of correctly behaving "24-hour time" display,
     but will not be able to display "12-hour time" misbehavior until it
     again occurs.

I'm really sorry I can't support this report with better data. It's really
an odd problem, but it seems so random that it's not easy to pin down. I'll
do the best I can next time I see the behavior.

Comment 4

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Thanks for answers. No need to test with new profile, no need of screen shot.

Some other questions.
(Q7) After "12-hours display" occurs, when problem disappears?
     After restart of Tb? Or after logoff/re-login of user? Or after re-boot?
(Q8) When "12-hours display" occurs on Tb, is there any other application
     whose date display format is affected too? 
(Q9) Is there any specific condition?
     e.g. problem occurs after specific application is used.
          problem occurs after spell-check for specific language is used.

As written in Bug 360018, Tb currently uses "strftime" in time display internally, so affected by "locale" setting. Keep data of (A), and check (B) when problem occurs, please. (see Bug 360018 Comment #5)
(A) "local" / "local -k LC_TIME" when usual "24-hours" display
(B) "local" / "local -k LC_TIME" when "12-hours" display occurred

Comment 5

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Check "LANG" setting too, please.

Comment 6

[rsx11m]

Jon, could you please get back to this thread and answer WADA's questions in comment #4? No need to check for LC_TIME and LANG settings, per code review it was determined that those are not used by Mac OSX.

Please respond within two weeks, or this bug report will be resolved as
incomplete as there is insufficient information whether this is a duplicate
of bug 360018 or something possibly related but different.

Comment 7

[rsx11m]

No feedback from reporter for almost four months, thus closing.
Feel free to reopen this if you have further information to add.

-> INCOMPLETE