533760 - Messages from Trash folder not showing up in search results

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 545469

(Thunderbird :: Search, defect)

Description

[Steve McMillen]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; 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 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091204 Thunderbird/3.0

When I perform a global search, messages from trash do not appear.  Also, when choosing "Show in conversation" (an amazingly cool feature btw) I also do not see any items from the trash folder.

I've dug for quite a while not trying to find a preference suggesting not to show hits from the Trash.  I could understand why some may prefer not to see these but due to the way I use Mail, this is DEFINITELY not desired.  I have three folders for the most part: Inbox, Sent and Trash).  I want to be able to search all of them and see threads from all (I use trash more as an archive)

I guess I could start using the archive feature (which I plan to) but it seems odd that messages from the trash do not show up, at least optionally.

But I'm even more surprised that I can't find any preference or config property or even forum discussion that talks about this.

What am I missing here?

p.s. I've posted to Thunderbird Builds but not getting responses there. My guess is at the first cut this is a question.  If indeed Trash is intentionally (or accidentally) omitted from search results w/o a mechanism to enable it, then, IMO this is a bug. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
My Config: IMAP account with default Trash folder called 'Trash'.  I've also repro'ed this with a google account using IMAP using the same default Trash folder

1. Look in the Trash folder and find a message.  Get some text from one of the subject lines
2. Run a search.  
3. Click on Show Search results in list and add "Location" to the columns
4. Look for the message you identified in the trash


Actual Results:  
At least for me, the message is not showing up in the search results

Note: If I move the message out of the trash, then it shows up.

Expected Results:  
Items in Trash can optionally be shown in search results.
It should be obvious.  I would recommend that the search results page has the Trash folder appearing on the left but it is by default set as "don't show items'

Note: There was one bug that suggested they be grey.  That's fine with me but 


Note: If you create a new folder (not called 'Trash') and configure the account to move deleted items to that folder, then messages in the new trash folder do show up in the search results.  SO the issue appears to be ONLY imacting folders that are literally called 'Trash'.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

trash and junk are currently excluded by design, per popular demand from testers.
install glodaquilla extension and you can click folder properties to enable/disable indexing on this and other folders.

Comment 2

[Steve McMillen]

I get excluding junk.  But I think its a mistake to exclude trash w/o some obvious preference.  

Also, it would appear the exclusion may not be that robust if I can define a new trash folder and have messages from that show up.

I can understand if its a bit late for this release but I suggest you reopen the bug and target it for next release for a resolution where the user is given some mechanism to show messages from trash.   Best option IMO is to put it in the exclusion list on the filters.  Preferences are not as good an option since many users won't know to look there.

Scenario: User remembers getting a message from Joe about a costume party on Saturday night.  She searches "costume party" and nothing shows up.  That's because she deleted it thinking it would be easy to find it later.  User is baffled as to why the message that she knows she received 3 days ago does not show up in search.  User might end up looking in preferences but more than likely will give up on search at least for this scenario and her impression of search will be that it is not reliable.

Again, I request you re-open this.

Comment 3

[Steve]

Isn't the whole point of the Trash folder to be a backup in case I accidentally delete something?  It absolutely needs to be searchable.  Otherwise, why send it to the Trash at all?

It does appear I can right click Trash (not the smart folder Trash, but the trash for the account) and select Search.  But it is not nearly as easy to use.

I agree with the original poster, it either needs to be a preference or somehow enabled in the search results.  An experimental developer plugin (glodaquilla) is not a good alternative.

Comment 4

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Bryan - thoughts ?