546430 - Message filter "Delete From POP Server" deletes the message only after fully downloading it first.

Status: REOPENED

(MailNews Core :: Filters, enhancement)

Description

[Valentin Voev]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2) Gecko/20100115 Firefox/3.6 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20100111 Thunderbird/3.0.1

This filter doesn't work since Mozilla Suite (or even Netscape) era. :)
No way to delete a message from server using Message Filter criterion.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Tools / Message Filters / New filter
2. <Subject> <contains> <VIAGRA>  --> <Delete From POP Server>
3. get mail --> scores of VIAGRA spam


Expected Results:  
Please someone to fix this!

Comment 1

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

voev do you have option "Allow antivirus clients to quarantine individual incoming messages" enabled?

Comment 2

[Valentin Voev]

Hi Aureliano,

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=315791 concern this topic, but no result if this thunderbird's option is checked or unchecked.

Comment 3

[Nathan Tuggy (:tuggyne)]

To the best of my knowledge, it's always worked for me, and it does now too (using Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20100111 Lightning/1.0b2pre Thunderbird/3.0.1 ID:20100111101938).

Do you only use this filter option for spam? If so, you might do better to make use of Thunderbird's spam filtering, especially if you install e.g. the JunQuilla extension (which improves training speed and accuracy) at http://mesquilla.com/extensions/junquilla/.

Also, try enabling the filter log (Tools -> Message Filters -> Filter Log -> Enable the Filter Log checkbox) and examining it after a few spam messages have gotten past. If it doesn't have any actions recorded, then the problem may be in your filter conditions, not in the action itself.

Comment 4

[Valentin Voev]

hi Nathan,

Filter log says: Applied filter "Subject contains: VIAGRA" to message from "<[e-mail]> - VIAGRA at 18.02.2010 18:35:17 deleted from POP3 server

But in fact, the message was downloaded however.

Comment 5

[Nathan Tuggy (:tuggyne)]

Can you verify that the message "deleted" was in fact exactly identical to the message you see? (Use the subject lines and exact timestamps [from View -> Message Source] to compare them; if they're not exactly identical, you may have in fact deleted one but missed another, similar, one.)

Also, a good way to check this is to send yourself a message that should hit the filter and be deleted (ideally, make another and very simple filter for the purpose); if you get it, you can be certain that filters are not working properly, but if it is instead deleted, you know that the filter you have is not properly configured.

Comment 6

[Valentin Voev]

Sure, I'm sending from myself mails with specific subject and no doubt that is the same message logged from the filter, but didn't deleted from POP server.

Comment 7

[Valentin Voev]

To clear misunderstanding...

In fact, the messages are always deleted from POP server, but after downloading. 

I wish to delete them from server without receiving it. Especially when using GPRS connection to reduce the net traffic.

Comment 8

[Nathan Tuggy (:tuggyne)]

Aha! What happens if you set the account to download headers only (Tools -> Account Settings -> {account-name} -> Server Settings -> Fetch headers only) and change the filter to Fetch from POP server only when the subject does *not* contain those words?

Comment 9

[Mike Riley]

Using the 2.0.0.19 version on Solaris X86 (snv_111 SXCE release)I see this same behavior if I have enabled anti-virus software in Preferences.  Since I have no anti-virus software for Solaris disabling it is not an issue, but I sure hope this gets fixed in a future Thunderbird release, because I also had the issue on my Windows XP systems where I do have Symantec anti-virus software.

Comment 10

[Hans]

..same here with avast Antivirus which also proxies Mails to Thunderbird. If ".. let Antivirus quarantine.." is enabled strange things are happening:
-automatically applied filters won't work at all on incoming messages
 (but filter log says they have been applied)
-if filter is applied manually messages are moved to specified folders but 
 if "download headers only.." is activated never downloaded as specified in filter
-in the end I managed to move headers to specified folders and delete whole message from server by manually applying the filter so I couldn't read them anymore :( and had to go to mailing's list archive

As one may see "Antivirus-Software ermöglichen, eingehende Nachrichten unter Quarantäne zu stellen" is a dangerous setting also for me. If it is deactivated everything works as expected.

Comment 11

[Hans]

Upgraded to Thunderbird 5. Everything works now.

Comment 12

[:aceman]

I think filters are always applied only after the messages are downloaded (at least the headers). How can they work without it (on POP3)?

Comment 8 is a partial workaround, to only download the headers for the spam messages.

Valentin, does your filter have "delete from server" AND also "move to trash"?

Comment 13

[:aceman]

With "move to trash" action I mean "delete message".
Valentin?

Comment 14

[Phoenix]

Resolved per whiteboard

Comment 15

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Valentin, can you reply in bug 315791 for aceman's question in comment 12?

Comment 16

[Valentin]

To: Comment 12

Filter has these Actions:
1. Delete From POP3 Server
2. Delete Message

Result of this filter is: Downloading the message; Moving in TB Trash folder; Deleting it from Server.

But my expectation is: just delete the message from server without downloading it. Like Outlook do

Comment 17

[:aceman]

Then this is not a duplicate of 315791.

Valentin, have you tried the hint from comment 8?

Comment 18

[Valentin]

To: Comment 8

As workaround that suggestion works. 

However, the inconvenient is that is needed to make second filter for deleting from server the "subject does contain these words"

Comment 19

[:aceman]

Yes, there is a bit of duplication in the filters in that solution.

So what you wish would be an enhancement but I think it would be quite difficult to do in the current TB architecture (first download the message, then decide what to do on it). Maybe on an IMAP server it would work better (without downloading full message).

Comment 20

[Valentin]

If impossible to start filter before download, than should to get used with IMAP. :)
Thank you for the cooperation!