503043 - Messages in sent folder are blank and attachments disappear.

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(MailNews Core :: Backend, defect)

Description

[Karl]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.0.4) Gecko/2008102920 Firefox/3.0.4
Build Identifier: 2.0.0.22

All messages in the Sent folder within the past 3 or 4 weeks are listed, but when I click on them they appear blank in the lower message window, and the attachment logo disappears. In some cases the attachment will show listed in the lower message window as code without the original message. This has been happening for a couple of months now. Strangly, older send messages aren't effected. I've updated Thunderbird to the latest version and have compacted the folders. This has made no difference. I hope I haven't lost important business information in my sent emails!

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Send an email
2. View email in Sent folder
3.
Actual Results:  
As described in the Details box above.

Expected Results:  
Display the message in the lower message window, and show any attached files.

I'm using the following theme - Modern Modoki 2.03

Comment 1

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

You can try with default theme?

WFM here on 

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.1pre) Gecko/20090707 Lightning/1.0pre Shredder/3.0b3pre ID:20090707032716

Comment 2

[Karl]

Opening Thunderbird in safe mode with default theme. Problem is still there.
I think the messages file may be corrupt.

Comment 3

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

Karl, you can attach a screenshot of situation please?

You use always TB 2.x or in the past you downgrade from TB 3.x?

Comment 4

[Karl]

Attachment: Screenshot of corrupt message (with attachment) in Sent folder.

Screen shot shows a corrupt message in my Sent folder. The attached file is show in code in the lower window. This lower window is usually showing nothing and the message info and attachment are lost.

Comment 5

[Karl]

I've always used TB 2.x
I've never seen TB 3.x available

Comment 6

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

In menu-->Tools-->Options, tab General, button "Config Editor", the item

mail.file_attach_binary =true/false?

Comment 7

[Karl]

Attachment: screenshot of General tab

I've gone to the General tab, but there is no "config editor" button.

Comment 8

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

In version 2 is "custumize"

Comment 9

[Karl]

Customise New Mail Alert.
All 3 items are selected:
- Message preview text
- Subject
- Sender

Comment 10

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

Sorry Karl, I'm wrong in TB 2.x the "Config Editor" is in tab "Advanced"

see mail.file_attach_binary =true/false?

Comment 11

[Karl]

Value = False

Comment 12

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

Can you attach a mail sample that is not dangerous for your privacy?

Comment 13

[Karl]

Attachment: Blank email

Here is a sent email that appears blank.

Comment 14

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to comment #13)
> Created an attachment (id=387605) [details]
> Blank email
> 
> Here is a sent email that appears blank.

It seems the only thing left in your saved message is the encoded attachment. I wonder how this has happened.

Comment 15

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

If file size of mail folder file for "Sent folder" exceeds file size limit(4GB if MS Win), phenomenon you described in your some comments can occur.
Check file size of all files for Tb's mail folder.
(At Command prompt)
1. C:
2. MD C:\WORK
3. CD %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles
4. DIR /S > C:\WORK\DIR-LIST.TXT
5. notepad.exe C:\WORK\DIR-LIST.TXT

If no file which exceeds 4GB, try next again.
1) Folder Properties of "Sent folder", Rebuild-Index.
2) If 1) is OK, Compact of context menu of "Sent folder".

Comment 16

[Karl]

There are no files larger than 4GB. The sent folder was about 2.7GB

I've rebuilt the index and now I've lost all my sent emails for the past 6 weeks! Can I retreive them? Even though the content was not there. I had a record of when the emails were sent.

Comment 17

[David :Bienvenu]

It sounds like appending to the sent folder is failing if the folder is > 2 GB - we have a 4GB limit, but you seem to be running into a 2 GB limit. So you should archive the messages in your sent folder to one or more sub-folders of the sent folder, compact your sent folder, and then you should stop losing newly sent mail. Unless you've done backups, I don't believe you can recover the e-mails from the last six weeks.

Comment 18

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Karl, any updates?

Comment 19

[rob]

My gf had a similar problem with Thunderbird3 on WinXP, NTFS filesystem. She sends a lot of attachments for her job, so eventually her Sent folder hit 4GB and everything started melting down. I'm at a loss for how to prevent this from inevitably happening again in time -- everyone points me at the Attachments Extractor add-on, but it only does automatic extractions for incoming messages, not sent. And there's no way she's gonna manually extract attachments every week or whatever.

I fins myself wishing there was an option, where you designate the usage and location of the "Sent" folder, to NOT include attachments in the saved copies. She would be fine with that option, since she's obviously already got a copy of the attachments she's sending to other people. And then it would take several years, instead of a few months, for her Sent mbox to hit the roof.

Comment 20

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

no response from PM to Karl two weeks ago, and v2 is no longer supported.  Please reopen the bug if you can reproduce on version 3.1 with folder <4GB is size.

rob, your issue is about 4GB, so you would want to be looking at a different bug, in addition to reducing the number of messages in the sent folder - using Archive might be a good way to go.

xref bug 546361