509042 - Junk, Sent, and Trash Folders Occasionally Lose Sort Order and Retention Policy Settings after auto-compact

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[WT]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.1) Gecko/20090715 Firefox/3.5.1
Build Identifier: 2.0.0.22

The three folders to which I have assigned custom property settings: junk, sent, and trash, periodically lose track of their custom sort order and retention settings. I do have the program set for automatic folder compacting at 100 KB.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
There are no particular steps to take. Periodically, when it happens, if I click on the folder that experiences the problem, the program will hang and have to be 
restarted.
Actual Results:  
The folder in question needs to be reset for custom sort order and retention.

Expected Results:  
It should not lose retention and sort order settings.

Comment 1

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #0)

IMAP folder? Local mail folder(POP3, "Local Folders")? Or both?

> The three folders to which I have assigned custom property settings: junk, sent, and trash,
> periodically lose track of their (a) custom sort order and (b) retention settings.

Phenomenon like (a) after rebuild-index and/or compact-folder is known phenomenon.

Phenomenon like (b) when "outdated .msf condition" is also known phenomenon, but AFAIK, it's only while "outdated .msf condition", and is folder property display only issue. If rebuild-index is successfully executed, folder property display is recovered.

What is displayed in Folder Properties? Displayed tabs/Property settings still be corrupted even after successfull mail viewing(rebuild-index is invoked if "outdated .msf condition" exists.)   

> Steps to Reproduce:
> There are no particular steps to take. Periodically, when it happens, if I
> click on the folder that experiences the problem, the program will hang and
> have to be restarted.

Really hang? It simply phenomenon that internal rebuild-index takes long due to big mail folder or internal compact folder(s) takes long due to big mail box, isn't it?

> I do have the program set for automatic folder compacting at 100 KB.

If big mail folder, interfere of compact folder(s) and/or mail folder update can produce "outdated .msf condition". And, because addition of mail data to Trash, Sent, Junk is executed without explicit open of Mail folder, it'll easily produce worse situation(e.g. Bug 492344). It'll produces frequent internal rebuild-index. And internal rebuild-index can interfere compact folder(s) and/or mail folder update. => Return to first.

What is file size of mail folder file for Inbox, Trash, Sent, Junk.
What is reason why you set threshold of 100KB for your environment?
> mail.purge_threshhold : 100 (in KB, Kilo-Bytes)
What is set in next prefs.js entry. It's false, isn't it?
> mail.purge.ask
If auto compact is executed silently by your request(mail.purge.ask=false, then executed without confirmation dialog), read Bug 498274 Comment #2, and check whether auto-compact is relevant to your problem or not first.

Comment 2

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Similar phenomenon to Bug 509128?

Comment 3

[WT]

> What is displayed in Folder Properties? Displayed tabs/Property settings still
> be corrupted even after successfull mail viewing(rebuild-index is invoked if
> "outdated .msf condition" exists.)  

Default settings are displayed.
 
 
> > Steps to Reproduce:
> > There are no particular steps to take. Periodically, when it happens, if I
> > click on the folder that experiences the problem, the program will hang and
> > have to be restarted.
> 
> Really hang? It simply phenomenon that internal rebuild-index takes long due to
> big mail folder or internal compact folder(s) takes long due to big mail box,
> isn't it?

Oh yes, the program definitely hangs. There is no processor activity associated with Thunderbird...I've learned to check. Also, the usual progress display bar at the bottom of the Thunderbird window has disappeared. There are no indications that an actual compact folder is taking place at the time I click on one of the problem folders.


> What is file size of mail folder file for Inbox, Trash, Sent, Junk.

The Junk folder has 150 KB in it. Trash is 6.5 MB, Sent is 13.5 MB. Inbox is 7.2 MB.

> What is reason why you set threshold of 100KB for your environment?

I chose the default setting. I didn't know of a reason to change it.

> > mail.purge_threshhold : 100 (in KB, Kilo-Bytes)
> What is set in next prefs.js entry. It's false, isn't it?
> > mail.purge.ask

Yes, mail.purge.ask is false

> If auto compact is executed silently by your request(mail.purge.ask=false, then
> executed without confirmation dialog), read Bug 498274 Comment #2, and check
> whether auto-compact is relevant to your problem or not first.

I'll try this for a few days. First few attempts, no problems to report.

> Similar phenomenon to Bug 509128?

No, I am not experiencing the problem described in 509128,

Comment 4

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Default settings are displayed.

Default of which folder type is displayed? Local mail folder? IMAP folder?
(Offline/Quota/Sharing tab appears only when IMAP folder)
Did Offline/Quota/Sharing tab appear for local mail folder?

Question again.
IMAP folder? Local mail folder(POP3, "Local Folders")? Or both?

Comment 5

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In addition to comment #4)
You can see Offline/Quota/Sharing tab for local mail folder with Tb 2 by next.

(1) Create a local mail folder (say TEST), copy some mails to it, view them.
(2) Terminate Tb.
(3) Edit file of TEST (not TEST.msf) by text, and delete mail data for a mail,
    or copy mail data for a mail at bottom of the file.
    ("From - ..." line to line before next "From - ..." line)
(3) Restart Tb, open Error Console. Never touch TEST.
(4) Move mouse on TEST flder => Exception is reported
(5) Right click and view folder properties => Offline/Quota/Sharing tab appears  
(6) Left click TEST(open folder) => internal rebuild-index is invoked.
(7) Right click and view folder properties => No Offline/Quota/Sharing tab

Above issue is already resolved by Tb trunk(next Tb 3).

Comment 6

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #3)
> The Junk folder has 150 KB in it. Trash is 6.5 MB, Sent is 13.5 MB.

Not big mail folder.
Do you enable automatic Message Purge/Junk Purge by Retention Policy setting of these folders or Junk Purge setting?

Comment 7

[WT]

> IMAP folder? Local mail folder(POP3, "Local Folders")? Or both?

I don't use IMAP. These are a local folders (POP3).

> Did Offline/Quota/Sharing tab appear for local mail folder?

No

> You can see Offline/Quota/Sharing tab for local mail folder with Tb 2 by next.

I'm not sure what you want here. I reproduced the steps you listed, and the results as you described them did occur. The only thing I can find to report from this test is that when I had the Properties dialogue open (Step 5), I couldn't hit the OK button...nothing appeared to happen. I had to hit Cancel in order to close the dialogue.

> Do you enable automatic Message Purge/Junk Purge by Retention Policy setting of
these folders or Junk Purge setting?

I'm not sure what you mean by "Junk Purge setting." I have Retention Policy custom-set for Junk, Trash, and Sent on the properties of each folder. Also, under Account Settings I have "Move new junk messages to Junk folder on Local Folders" set along with "Automatically delete junk mail older than 5 days."

Comment 8

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #7)
> > You can see Offline/Quota/Sharing tab for local mail folder with Tb 2 by next.
> I'm not sure what you want here.

I want you to know the phenomenon, in order to ask you next question.
  Your "loss of Retention Settings" is problem after problem of "Offline / Quota
  / Sharing tab for local mail folder when outdated .msf condition"?
AFAIR, in my tests, retention policy was not changed/corrupted after internal rebuild-index, even if Offline / Quota / Sharing tab for local mail folder was initially displayed(retention policy setting display is also corrupted at this stage.)
I'm suspecting that "use of the corrupted retention policy before internal rebuild-index"(by Message purge, Junk purge, ...) saves the corrupted retention policy value.

> I'm not sure what you mean by "Junk Purge setting."

I meant next setting.
  "Automatically delete junk mail older than 5 days."
I don't know whether this setting is interlocked with per folder Retention Policy or not.

Comment 9

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

FYI. Possibly Bug 499306 is relevant.

Comment 10

[WT]

As a followup, for the past two days I have been running TB2 without auto compact based on advice received here. During this time, I have refused all program requests to compact. As a result, the original issue has not recurred, so I'm convinced that the issue is related to the auto-compact function in some way. I am reverting to original auto-compact settings, because I don't want to run into other problems resulting from failure to compact regularly.

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

wada, I don't recall the bug#, but there was one which talked about losing retention settings.

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

WT, are you still convinced your issue is/was strictly on auto-compact?  And manual compact does not trigger?

Comment 13

[WT]

I can't say for sure, because the issue went away once Thunderbird 3.0 was released in late 2009 and I upgraded, thus removing the symptom. So I can't test it to give you an accurate answer. But from what I remember, the problem didn't occur with manual compacting.

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

closing per WT's comment 13 (WT, please comment if this is no longer true).  but similar bug 540857 is still open.

FWIW, the hang issue, for people who still see it, might be resolved in TB7 via Bug 605511