528009 - Message Synchronization: "main" checkbox and folder selection inconsistent

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Account Manager, defect)

Description

[Daniel Kabs, reporting bugs since 2002]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091102 Firefox/3.5.5 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.6pre) Gecko/20091110 Shredder/3.0pre

With "Performance improvements" of the upcoming release

http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/3.0b2/releasenotes/#whatsnew

a lot of users will want to fiddle with the synchronization settings.

They will probably notice an inconsistency between multiple means to configure folders for offline use:

- the per-account synchronization main switch in Account Manager (Synchronization > Message Synchronization > Keep messages for this account on this computer checkbox)

- the cross-account folder selection dialog in Account Manager (Synchronization > Message Synchronization > Advanced button > Items for offline use dialog)

- the per folder offline switch in Folder Pane > Properties > Synchronization > Select this folder for offline use



Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Disable per-account synchronization in Account Manager
2. Advanced button is disabled
3. In folder pane, select folder for offline use

Actual Results:  
In Account Manager per-account synchronization checkbox is unchecked and Advanced button is disabled (although synchronization has been enabled for a folder).

Expected Results:  
In Account Manager per-account synchronization checkbox should be checked and Advanced button should be enabled to
- show that at least one folder for this account is selected for synchronization
- to allow for further configuration of folders for synchronization

You can play with the three means to select folders for offline use (aka. synchronization) and create a lot of inconsistent UI states.

Comment 1

[Daniel Kabs, reporting bugs since 2002]

Need more examples?

* Using two accounts:
- Do not synchronize account A
- Enable synchronize for account B, Advanced button will be enabled
- Press Advanced button
- In "Items for offline use" dialog select folders of account A and deselect folders for account B

Result: Although per-account synchronization checkbox is enabled for account B, this account has no folders selected for synchronization (and vice versa for account A).

Comment 2

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

by defaults account are synchronized. That said I don't see how users would get confused ...

Comment 3

[Daniel Kabs, reporting bugs since 2002]

I am not complaining about the defaults.

I argue that users will be confused by the UI not reflecting the current synchronization state consistently. I am referring to the "Keep messages for this account on this computer" checkbox in Account Manager > Synchronization.

I claim that this checkbox should be checked if *any* of the folders (belonging to this account) is selected for offline use.

Is this not correct?

Comment 4

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

at least in ref to comment 1 we could change the advanced dialog to only show the current account which would likely remove the confusion and ability to get into an odd state.

Comment 5

[Eric Moore]

The offline folder settings in the folder pane and the folders listed for "keep messages for this account on this computer" operate independently, which is confusing. They should be two different GUIs (one account-centric, the other folder properties-centric) that effect the same settings. 

As an interim solution it would help if the advanced button was not disabled when "keep messages for this account on this computer" is unchecked. This would make it harder for somebody to shoot themselves in the foot.

The reason I suggest this is that if you want to see what folders are configured for syncing you have to enable syncing in order to look at the list. Unfortunately its very easy to forget that you enabled syncing when you close the list box until you notice that Thunderbird is downloading all of your folders. 

A clear all button in the folder list for "keep messages for this account on this computer" would also help. Some users have thousands of folders in an account. The effort to uncheck them all is significant.

Comment 6

[Charles]

(In reply to comment #4)
> at least in ref to comment 1 we could change the advanced dialog to only show
> the current account which would likely remove the confusion and ability to get
> into an odd state.

Or, you could do it like the Message Filters does it - have an Account Select Box, and only show the folders for the selected account.

Comment 7

[:aceman]

I like comment 4, to restrict the dialog to current account, if opened from the Account manager. If opened from the menu, e.f. File->Offline->Download and sync->Select, all accounts would be shown.

Depends on if the dialog when closed can update only the offline state of folders of the one account, or it replaces the whole offline array for all accounts.