412690 - Drafts/Templates/Outbox should be excluded from the retention policy

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(MailNews Core :: Backend, defect, P2)

Description

[Saïvann Carignan]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; fr; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071204 Ubuntu/7.10 (gutsy) Firefox/2.0.0.11
Build Identifier: 2.0.0.6 and 3.0a1pre.en-US.linux-i686

when using the "delete message more than * days old" in the preference of an account through the account manager, all messages that are older than the used value are automatically deleted, including templates and drafts which should NEVER be deleted automatically since they are drafts and templates, not emails.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create a new profile in Thunderbird and configure a fictive email account
2. Go to Edit / Account Settings
3. Select the Disk Space left tab.
4. Check the "delete messages more than * days old" option and set it for 5 days.
5. Write a new message and save it to templates
6. Close Thunderbird and change the date of your computer to be 6 days in the future
7. Re-Open Thunderbird.
Actual Results:  
Templates were deleted.

Expected Results:  
Templates should not have been deleted.

I would say that it's a critical bug since it can leads to lose data, it's what happened to me but since it doesn't look that this bug has been filed in the past, perhaps it didn't affect a lot of people and that the severity can be lower.

Comment 1

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

What option do you choose in Properties/Retention Policy of Drafts/Templates folder? "Use server defaults"=ON, isn't it?

When new profile/new account by Tb 2.0, default of "Retention Policy" of  Drafts/Templates looks to be "Use server defaults"=OFF & "Don't delete any message"=ON.
And, when folder of POP3 account created by "New Folder" of Tb2, default looks to be "Use server defaults"=ON & "Don't delete any message"=ON(grayed out, because "Use server defaults" is enabled). This seems to be applied to Inbox too.

Did you set "Use server defaults" for Drafts/Templates in the past by yourself?

Upgrade to Tb which started to support "Retention Policy" possibly set "Use server defaults"=ON for existing folders, including Drafts/Templates.
When(by which version of Tb) were mail folders created?
Check "Retention Policy" of all mail folders.
Is "Retention Policy" set appropriately?

Comment 2

[Saïvann Carignan]

Here's exactly what happens with Tb 2.0.0.6 :

After creating a new account, there's no templates folder, until I create a new message and save it as a template. 

Once the templates folder has been created, retention policy is "Use server defaults"=ON and "Don't delete any message" is grayed. 

After closing Thunderbird and opening it again, it changed. Templates folder retention policy is now : "Use server defaults"=OFF and "Don't delete any message"=ON.

After changing local folder account settings in edit / account settings / disk space left tab to "Delete message more than 5 days old", Templates folder retention policy is still "Use server defaults"=OFF and "Don't delete any message"=ON.

After closing and re-opening Thunderbird, Templates folder retention policy is now : "Use server defaults"=OFF and "Delete messages more than 5 days old"=ON

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

edge case?  if not, blocking v3 might be wanted

Comment 4

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Will take this myself.

Comment 5

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: proposed fix

This makes the backend ignore retention settings for drafts/templates/outbox and their descendants. 

Adding a isSpecialFolder method to nsIMsgFolder - the implementation matches the current IsSpecialFolder method we have in js. (Moving over callers in a followup bug.)

Comment 6

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Ignore the "Templatest" comment type.

Comment 7

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: proposed fix, v2

Unbitrot.

Comment 8

[David :Bienvenu]

Comment on attachment 367859 [details] [diff] [review]
proposed fix, v2

thx, Magnus

Comment 9

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

changeset:   2244:6709fd4601d4
http://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/6709fd4601d4

->FIXED

Comment 10

[Alex Ihrig [:Thunderbird_Mail_DE]]

Is the retention policy affecting the new Archive folders?

Comment 11

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Yes, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't (assuming you set it to do so, of course). 

For the fixed cases, it's simply not useful, and might give quite un
expected results if you set the account wide policy.