Closed Bug 524053 Opened 16 years ago Closed 16 years ago

Moving mail messages to local folders can result in lost mail

Categories

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
General
Platform:
x86
Windows XP
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
critical

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 462156

People

(Reporter: bernd, Unassigned)

Details

(Keywords: dataloss, perf)

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729) Build Identifier: version 2.0.0.23 (20090812) This is scary. I should have backed up first alas. Scenario: 1) I have: IMAP mailbox accessed on remote server 2) I also have: Local folders on my hard drive 3) I right-click on ALL Messages in my IMAP inbox and then Move To > Local Folders > inbox UI basically freezes. Link is slow, only modem speed currently due to shaping in place. But I leave it till it's done of its own accord. A long time. A hour maybe. I come back, it's done and looks happy. I check Local Folders inbox and I get an hourglass. UI is still responsive I can look at IMAP folders, other local folders, all good, but if I look at local inbox, just the hourglass. I give it time, as I'm nervous. Eventually I decide it's worth restating so I close thunderbird, politely, I just ask it to close and it does. And I restart it. Now I can see the local Inbox. Loads and loads of messages listed that have no subject or sender ... I find the file on my local drive for the Inbox and it contains lines like this those that follow. This is grievous and move is clearly not to be trusted. The mails are gone form the IMAP server, not in the trash, not marked for deletion, just gone, all of them. And they ar enot in the target folder. Somehow, somewhere in the thunderbird code a move is possible which deletes the source BEFORE it confirms that target is written. This is very frightening and I shan't be trusting move again without backups. Ouch. Here is an extract from my local folders Inbox: From - Fri Oct 23 15:23:56 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:24:09 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:24:12 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:24:13 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:24:18 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:24:18 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:24:22 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0013 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:24:26 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:24:54 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0003 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:24:55 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:24:55 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:24:57 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:01 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0003 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:03 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:04 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0003 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:06 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:12 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:12 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:13 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:16 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0003 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:17 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:17 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:19 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:23 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0013 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:27 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0013 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:29 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 From - Fri Oct 23 15:25:31 2009 X-Mozilla-Status: 0003 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 Reproducible: Didn't try Steps to Reproduce: 1. Move lots of mail from IMAP folder to local folder over slow link 2. Wait Actual Results: Mails disappear. Expected Results: Mails turn up in target folder. The Inbox is full of ud line headers which have the datestamp and to status lines which have varying status, but generally 0001
Keywords: dataloss, perf
Version: unspecified → 2.0
can you try to rebuild your index on the local folder ?
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 16 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
Well spotted Aureliano! I searched extensively on move, lost and other keywords before filing, but missed that one (filed as: "loses" email messages when downloading). Thanks. It is indeed identical (and I'm a bit surprised there's been no action on it for a year ... it's a data loss critical issue ... but that's the way it goes I guess).
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