482869 - Remember collapsed/expanded state of subfolders after collapse parent

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[Pete Riley]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.7) Gecko/2009021910 Firefox/3.0.7 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Thunderbird 3.0b2

Please restore the behavior in the folder pane that remembers the collapsed/expanded state of subfolders after I collapse their parent folder and restart Thunderbird.  Currently, *every* such subfolder becomes collapsed after the restart.

I have several levels of subfolders in Local Folders and my RSS accounts, and it's really painful to have to re-expand them every day.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

I see this. Fallout from bug 414038 no doubt.

Comment 3

[Joe Pollock]

This problem persists in Thunderbird 6.0.  Fixing it would be a major usability improvement for me.

I currently leave all my accounts fully expanded all the time and it's a long, distracting list.  If I don't and they get collapsed (and I miss expanding even one folder), then any new mail I get in a collapsed folder (put there by message filters) is invisible to me and I may miss something important.

This used to work fine before the conversion to the new code system.  It has been broken for around two years now.

At least (as a palliative), there ought to be some indicator in the gui that new mail has arrived anywhere within a folder that is collapsed.

Comment 5

[Ulf Zibis]

(In reply to Joe Pollock from comment #3)
> At least (as a palliative), there ought to be some indicator in the gui that
> new mail has arrived anywhere within a folder that is collapsed.

See bug 885344 and maybe vote ;-)

Comment 6

[Ulf Zibis]

@ Pete Riley, Joe Pollock:
Do you also observe bug 958815?

Comment 7

[Joe Pollock]

@Ulf Zibis - For the last few releases of Thunderbird (I'm currently on 24.2.0 on kubuntu precise Linux) this entire bug seems resolved (including 958815).

It took a bunch of years, but they finally got it right.

When I collapse or expand a folder, it stays that way when I start Thunderbird again.

When a subfolder of a collapsed folder gets unopened mail, the collapsed folder title goes bold to indicate that. This was what I suggested in comment #3. (and you formalized with bug 885344).

Since "it works for me", what version of Thunderbird are you using now (on what OS/desktop manager)?

Comment 8

[Ulf Zibis]

(In reply to Joe Pollock from comment #7)
Much thanks for your feedback.

> When a subfolder of a collapsed folder gets unopened mail, the collapsed
> folder title goes bold to indicate that.
The collapsed parent folder doesn't indicate new mail (small star + on Windows blue colour) in subfolder, it only gets bold because of unread mail, but not upon new mail. Set one mail in subfolder to unread, collapse parent folder and see bold parent folder, isn't it?

> Since "it works for me", what version of Thunderbird are you using now (on what OS/desktop manager)?
TB 24.2.0 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Unity

Maybe I should try Pete Riley's tips at bug 958815 about deleting some files.

Comment 9

[Ulf Zibis]

The above is not said about the accounts root node as parent, it's about any parent folder 1 or more levels deeper.

Maybe you also like bug 839333.

Comment 10

[Joe Pollock]

@Ulf Zibis - I'm not clear on what the behavior should be. The parent folder can have mail in it as well as subfolders. If the parent folder itself doesn't have any new mail in it, then maybe it shouldn't be blue with a star (A folder with new mail in it is red on my system with a star.) It does get bold when collapsed - which is fine for me.

When I have a filter that puts mail in a folder and marks it as read, that's because I just want to file it for later and I don't want it brought to my attention now. If I file it but leave it unread, then I do want to notice it - which is how it works now.

What I'm saying is that all my new mail (that I care about) is marked as unread. And, if there was already unread mail in the folder, it turns from bold black to red - but this is only for the folder itself, not for anything that happens in its subfolders - which appears to be the thing you want fixed.

I guess I'm not quite seeing the use case for what you want (beyond what the new changes have recently given us). If you could explain why you want this, it would help. I guess you leave a bunch of mail unread in subfolders, but still need to know if even more has arrived.

I currently have around 67 additional folders/subfolders in my main mail account, but I keep almost all of the active folders expanded, so I don't have an issue with new unread mail added to old unread mail in a subfolder very often.

I don't pay any attention to the stars and icons on the folders because they're too small for me to see - even with my reading glasses on - unless I stick my nose in the screen. That's why I particularly appreciate the font color changes (red/blue/black/bold) which are much easier for me to see.

Comment 11

[Ulf Zibis]

(In reply to Joe Pollock from comment #10)
> And, if there was already unread mail in the folder, it turns from
> bold black to red - but this is only for the folder itself, not for anything
> that happens in its subfolders - which appears to be the thing you want
> fixed.
> I guess you leave a bunch of mail unread in subfolders, but
> still need to know if even more has arrived.

Yep, correctly. The "unread mails"-status is propagated the parent folder, if collapsed. This currently does not happen for the "new mails"-status. IMO this is at least inconsistent.

> I don't pay any attention to the stars and icons on the folders because
> they're too small for me to see - even with my reading glasses on - unless I
> stick my nose in the screen. That's why I particularly appreciate the font
> color changes (red/blue/black/bold) which are much easier for me to see.

I agree with you.
On Ubuntu by default only the small star indicates new mails in a folder. It's easy to oversee this. On Windows the folder name text is additionally highlighted in blue and on Kubuntu this seems red.

At my TB on Ubuntu I have customised the appearance with following css-code in userChrome.css:
/* --- Folder name coloured when selected --- */
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(folderNameCol, selected) {
    color: orange !important;
    /*background: orange !important;*/
}
/* --- Folder name coloured when focused --- */
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(folderNameCol, selected, focus) {
    color: white !important;
}
/* --- Folder name coloured upon new messages --- */
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(folderNameCol, newMessages-true) {
    color: blue !important;
}
/* --- Super folder name coloured upon unread messages --- */
/*treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(folderNameCol, closed, subfoldersHaveUnreadMessages-true) {
    background: red !important;
}*/
/* --- Mail account name coloured upon new messages --- */
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(folderNameCol, biffState-NewMail, isServer-true),
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(folderNameCol, specialFolder-Inbox, newMessages-true) {
    font-weight: bold !important;
    color: blue !important;
}

Comment 12

[Joe Pollock]

For at least the last few releases of Thunderbird, this bug has resurfaced and is currently (31.6.0 Linux) a problem.