529788 - can't delete the archives folder using context menu

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[Eric Moore]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091102 Firefox/3.5.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091117 Thunderbird/3.0

I'm using build 2 of Thunderbird 3.0RC1. I archived a message causing it to create a Archives folder in my IMAP account. I could delete its 2009 child folder using Delete in the context menu, but that option is not available for the Archives folder. It does not have Delete or Rename in the context menu.

I was able to delete it by selecting it and pressing the Delete key. Easy workaround but since you get asked to confirm the deletion either way I can't see any reason for this inconsistency.


Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

It is deliberate!

If you see on your profile folder you have a archives.sbd folder because "Thunderbird uses *.sbd subdirectories to create a folder hierarchy"
( see here http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders ).

Archives is a "deafault" folder and for this reason you can't delete it when is created (you can delete manually the archives.sbd if you don't tolerate the view of this folder on folders pane :-) ... )

Close as Invalid, feel free to reopen it if I'm wrong.

Comment 2

[Eric Moore]

I currently have seven accounts (6 IMAP, 1 POP) in my profile. None of them have a "archives" folder in the folder pane, a "archives" folder on the mail server or a archives.sbd or archives.msf file. I've started and exited Thunderbird several times without that changing.

Some default folders are typically created when you add a account such as inbox, trash, drafts and templates folders. This build has a setting for archives in tools -> account settings -> copies & folders but Thunderbird does not create the folder unless you actually archive something. I only archived a message in one account which is why I only had one archives folder. 

I have 3 IMAP Gmail accounts. I noticed that it set the archive folder to the remote "All Mail" folder. That is a folder Gmail created when you signed up for a webmail account that keeps a copy of all messages. It existed before I ever added a Gmail account to Thunderbird. I don't have any "All Mail.msf" files or "All Mail.sbd directories.

Typically you can delete a default folder if you redefine the accounts (or identities) setting for what folder to use beforehand. IMAP lets you redefine what folder to use for drafts, templates, trash and archives.

I was able to delete the archives folder in my Fastmail IMAP account using the delete key. It did not re-create the folder since I haven't archived any more messages. All this bug report is reporting is that I don't see any reason why if you can permanently delete it with the delete key you shouldn't be able to do the same thing using the content menu.

Re-opened.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Eric, do you still see this when using a curent version?

Comment 4

[Eric Moore]

I retested using 12.0.1 and a fastmail.fm account that uses a Cyrus IMAP server (same account as before).

I enabled tools -> account settings -> [e-mail] -> copies & folders -> "keep message archives in" "Archives folder on " "[e-mail]" and restarted. The context menu doesn't have a Archive option . Message -> Archive is greyed out. Pressing 'A' has no effect.

My impression was that the archive option was supposed to create the folder as needed, especially since it supported yearly folders. I created a Archives folder and tried again using 'A'. No effect. Bug #1. Message -> Archive however was enabled and did work as expected. I was able to delete the Archives folder using either the context menu or pressing the delete key.

I also tried archiving a message in "Local Folders" by selecting it, tagging it to make it easier to spot, and then using Message -> Archive (which was not greyed out). I have no idea where it went. Tools -> Account Settings -> Local Folders has no menu option to specify a archive folder. I tried using view -> folders -> recent and it does not list any new folders or anything that seems like a likely destination. I browsed the folder pane looking at each accounts folders and didn't spot either the message or any sign of a new folder.

I tried again with a different message in Local Folders, after restarting in safe mode. Same results. I was able to restore the message using edit -> redo moved message. Looking in the activity manager it stated "moved 1 message from inbox to All Mail" from local folders to erm4gh. "erm4gh" is a gmail account that did not have a All Mail folder - I had unsubscribed it. Archiving apparently re-subscribed it. Bug #2 and 3.

I repeated again (still in safe mode) and found the message in erm4gh's All Mail folder. Who knows why it chose that one. Its not clear to me whether it should have been able to archive a message in Local Folders since I have no way (that I can find) to specify the archive folder for that pseudo account, and a Archive folder doesn't exist in Local Folders. 
 
I'll set this bug report to resolved/fixed as the original problem seems fixed. Archive seems buggy though . I'll try to remember to test it during the 13.0 beta testing.