561165 - Archive folders by year do not work on imap when server reports \NoInferior for archives - only for local folders

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[braunt]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/3.6.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100317 Thunderbird/3.0.4

If I configure Archive to use the local drive on my computer, the messages are archived into a folder for the year when the message was sent - as advertised. However, if I configure Archive to use a network drive (IMAP mail server) then the folders by year do not appear and everything gets archived into one large folder.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Configure Archive to use "Archives" folder on corporate mail server.
2. Archive a message
3.
Actual Results:  
It archives the message to the Archives folder, but doesn't create a 2009 folder.

Expected Results:  
It should have created a subfolder called 2009 within the Archives folder.  It does this correctly if I configure Archives to use the "Archives" folder on Local Folders. But I don't want to archive messages on the local drive.  I want them on the network so they are backed up daily.

Likely related to the problem described in log item 541103.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

to clarify ... imap from a recovery standpoint is like a network drive.  But imap is not equivalent to "network drive".

Comment 2

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Any error in Tools -> Error console when this happened ?

Comment 3

[braunt]

I just Archived a couple messages and found the following in the Error console:

Warning: Unknown descriptor 'panose-1' in @font-face rule.  Skipped to next declaration.
Source File: imap://braunt@198.169.180.121:143/fetch%3EUID%3E/Sent%3E18974
Line: 77

Warning: Unknown property 'mso-style-type'.  Declaration dropped.
Source File: imap://braunt@198.169.180.121:143/fetch%3EUID%3E/Sent%3E18974
Line: 91

Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004001 (NS_ERROR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED) [nsIRequest.name]"  nsresult: "0x80004001 (NS_ERROR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED)"  location: "JS frame :: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Mozilla%20Thunderbird/components/nsLoginManager.js :: anonymous :: line 328"  data: no]
Source File: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Mozilla%20Thunderbird/components/nsLoginManager.js
Line: 328

Comment 4

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Thanks but theses messages are irrelevant :-(

So we are failing at creating the folders on your imap server.
Can you try again and log the imap protocol please (see https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging) ?

Comment 5

[braunt]

Attachment: imap log file to catch problem with failure to create year folders

The attached imap log file was create on May 10, 2010 as requested.

Comment 6

[braunt]

See attached log file.

Comment 7

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

I don't see anything wrong in this log.

Comment 8

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #5)
> imap log file to catch problem with failure to create year folders

Log:
> 16 create "Mail/Archives/2009"
> 16 NO CREATE failed: Can't create mailbox node /users/braunt/Mail/Archives/: File exists
> 17 list "" "Mail/Archives"
> * LIST (\NoInferiors \UnMarked) "/" Mail/Archives
> 17 OK LIST completed

RFC 3501 section 7.2.2. LIST Response.
> http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3501#section-7.2.2
>      \Noinferiors
>         It is not possible for any child levels of hierarchy to exist
>         under this name; no child levels exist now and none can be
>         created in the future.

Apparently INVALID.

Ludovic, this kind of invalid bug were/are frequently and repetedly opened at B.M.O. One of reasons is no dynamic logging functionality, but I think lack of account/folder properties for such as CAPABILITY reponse, LIST responde, is main cause of repeated invalid bug open.
What do you think?

Comment 9

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to comment #8)
> (In reply to comment #5)
> > imap log file to catch problem with failure to create year folders
> 
> Log:
> > 16 create "Mail/Archives/2009"
> > 16 NO CREATE failed: Can't create mailbox node /users/braunt/Mail/Archives/: File exists
> > 17 list "" "Mail/Archives"
> > * LIST (\NoInferiors \UnMarked) "/" Mail/Archives
> > 17 OK LIST completed
> 
> RFC 3501 section 7.2.2. LIST Response.
> > http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3501#section-7.2.2
> >      \Noinferiors
> >         It is not possible for any child levels of hierarchy to exist
> >         under this name; no child levels exist now and none can be
> >         created in the future.

Thanks for the analysis WADA. I missed that apparently

> Ludovic, this kind of invalid bug were/are frequently and repetedly opened at
> B.M.O. One of reasons is no dynamic logging functionality, but I think lack of
> account/folder properties for such as CAPABILITY reponse, LIST responde, is
> main cause of repeated invalid bug open.
> What do you think?

I think it's a bug. If we want to create subfolders under Archive and can't then we should do something about :
 1) letting the user know that.
 2) Switch Archiving to another folder which does support Inferior.
 3) if 3 isn't possible then I think we should move archiving on local folders.


So globally I think the UI code should check a few of those edge cases that are found on a very small subset of servers.

Comment 10

[Tim Wilde]

Adding a "me too" with some additional information as well...

I'm using mbox on my IMAP server, which means I can only have folders with other folders, or messages, but not both.  I have this option correctly selected in the settings for the account.  What appears to be happening here (and seems likely what the original reporter was seeing as well) is that Thunderbird doesn't realize this when trying to create an archives folder when the sub-folders option is selected, so it creates the top level Archives folder as a message-containing folder, not a folder-containing folder, and boom, problems ensue.

The same thing happens if you manually create Archives as a folder-containing folder, but selected the monthly archive option - pressing "Archive" on a message will create a yearly folder, but it gets created as a message-containing folder, so the sub-folder can't be created, and the message in this case doesn't actually even get archived.  Nothing is logged in the Error Console, but it's pretty clear what's happening from the way the folders are created.

Creating the Archives (and if appropriate, year) folders manually as folder-containing folders is a workaround, but not ideal, would love to see Thunderbird able to understand this based on the setting of the folders/messages only preference!

Comment 12

[Calum Mackay]

Just spent some time tracking down why yearly Archives weren't working with my IMAP server (dovecot):

2021-07-28 20:00:35.559897 UTC - [Parent 7185: IMAP]: I/IMAP 15c77e800:cdmnet.org:S-000_INBOX-old/2006/000_INBOX-0-200612:CreateNewLineFromSocket: * LIST (\NoInferiors) "/" Archives

Since TB knew this, it would have been nice had it told me it wasn't supported with my IMAP server (unless I've misunderstood?)

Comment 13

[Calum Mackay]

It might also be worth a mention here, perhaps?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/archived-messages