573158 - subfolder receives new filtered mail but does not always show bold blue subfolder name (IMAP)

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[melwitt]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.3a6pre) Gecko/20100617 Minefield/3.7a6pre
Build Identifier: Lightning/1.0b1 Thunderbird/3.0.5

First, I use IMAP and I have no special color scheme (default).

I have client side filters that run on Checking or Manually Run. They check for criteria, then move message to subfolders that are not Local Folders.

After the new message goes in the subfolder, the topmost folder shows a bold blue name indicating new messages, but the subfolder containing the new message is not bold blue. My subfolders contain many unread messages and are bold black because of that -- maybe the bold black sometimes gets applied after the bold blue sometimes (race) and they are not mutually exclusive. I am not sure if there is also the same problem for the topmost folder. My folder nesting goes only one level deep past the topmost folder.

This does not seem to ever happen when I open Thunderbird fresh and it gets new messages. This happens when I have left Thunderbird open and new messages arrive while it is open.

It seems the problem happens more if the last folder I had clicked on is the Inbox. When I have clicked on a different folder, then leave my desk for awhile, when I return I tend to see more bold blue subfolders indicating the new messages. That could be my imagination though.

This is a problem because several times I have missed new messages because I didn't know the subfolder had new messages.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Receive new message
2. Message moved from Inbox to subfolder that already has old unread messages in it
3. Subfolder it is in does not have its name in bold blue to indicate new message. It is still bold black from having other old unread messages in it.
Actual Results:  
Subfolder name stays bold black, sometimes. I click on it and there are new messages inside. Other times, subfolder name becomes bold blue.

Expected Results:  
Subfolder name becomes bold blue until I click on it, then it turns back to bold black.

Default theme

Comment 1

[Janos]

I use Win Xp Sp3, have the exact same problem. My PC runs for weeks at a time with Thunderbird, an IMAP account collects messages continuously, then sorts them into a number of sub-folders with filters (family, work, etc). Often, the subfolders only get highlighted with bold font (for me, that is black, but I guess this is the same issue) when I actually CLICK on them, and not straight after a synchronisation which leaves them containing new messages. I have been using Thunderbird for more than 6 years by now, and it did not behave this way previously. Unfortunately, I don't know which version upgrade contained the bug that causes this. In any case, it has been at least 6 months by now (I reckon, would not bet my life on it). On one occasion, I did not see for several weeks that my boss wrote me, because I did not click on his sub-folder. This is a VERY irritating bug, especially that it did not exist before...
As the previous user indicates, it does not ALWAYS happen, some of my subfolders seem to show new messages without a click on them (and I can't see any setting that would cause the difference - then again, maybe this is only because those folders get a lot of mail, so the occasions when it worked imprinted me).

Comment 2

[atremba]

Got almost the same bug, https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=582960 and it seems to be fixed in Thunderbird early beta (with Shredder name).

Comment 4

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

rkent , is this due to filtering not fireing some events ?

Comment 5

[Kent James (:rkent)]

"is this due to filtering not fireing some events"

There are many possible causes, and that is only one. Impossible to tell without analysis.

Bienvenu is working on bug 349714 presently, with me as reviewer. You get get some ideas of the root causes of issues with new decoration from the discussion there.

Comment 6

[:aceman]

Does this still happen?

Comment 7

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

melwitt ?

Comment 8

[melwitt]

Hi, I had given up on this as it persisted through many updates because it's not a huge deal and I know it's a hard problem to track down.

It still happens (I have 9.0.1 now), but my use is different in that I presently use server side exchange rules instead of client side filters. The problem might be fixed for client side filters but I wouldn't know it because I changed them all to server side a long time ago.

My setup is that I have an exchange email account that I'm accessing using IMAP. In Thunderbird, it shows my account alongside things like Inbox, Drafts, and Local Folders at the same level. Under my account, I have > 20 folders that I subscribe to. These contain messages filtered by server side exchange rules. They all have unread messages in them, so they're perpetually bold black. When new mail arrives, sometimes the folder name changes to bold blue indicating new messages, sometimes it doesn't. I'd say that the majority of the time, it does work and turns bold blue. I'm really used to it now so I don't notice it much and it's still better than Entourage. Entourage can't even show new mail in a folder as anything other than an increased unread count, and mine are in the hundreds. I could work around it by marking everything as read but I didn't.

I don't know if this matters but long ago in my searchings online I found some message board thread about this issue and some people thought setting the config mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new;true helped, so I have that set.

Comment 9

[melwitt]

I just noticed something else that happens, when new mail arrives, Thunderbird sometimes highlights the name of my exchange email account in bold blue, but the folders underneath the account remain completely unchanged. Unread counts on folders don't increase, no folder gets highlighted blue. When I click on the folder the message should be in, it loads the new message. It's like it gets stuck and doesn't know that new mail is in the folder. It knows there's new mail for the account in general, but it doesn't filter down to a folder. Which might be because I'm using folder subscriptions now that exist on the server. And maybe exchange is a problem in itself.

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

the scenario I see, when a folder gets new mail it will briefly go bold but then quickly go unbold.

it comes and goes - seem to be triggered by some startups (not all) and then  that behavior pretty much sticks for the entire instance

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

/me wonders if that only happens when I do an explicit "get new mail"

Comment 12

[:aceman]

That happens for me only when a filter moves a message to a different folder. The original folder goes unbold and then the final folder gets bold.
But I am on POP3.

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

described in https://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/topics/new_message_in_subfolder-pmmmj ?

see alslo Bug 804214 - unseen message indicators (blue folder highlight) lost after clicking on different folder, or mousing over folder with unseen message

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

melwitt, Ralph, Janos, do you still see this problem when using a newer version?

And melwitt, do you still see the following ... ?

(In reply to melwitt from comment #9)
> I just noticed something else that happens, when new mail arrives,
> Thunderbird sometimes highlights the name of my exchange email account in
> bold blue, but the folders underneath the account remain completely
> unchanged. Unread counts on folders don't increase, no folder gets
> highlighted blue. When I click on the folder the message should be in, it
> loads the new message. It's like it gets stuck and doesn't know that new
> mail is in the folder. It knows there's new mail for the account in general,
> but it doesn't filter down to a folder. Which might be because I'm using
> folder subscriptions now that exist on the server. And maybe exchange is a
> problem in itself.

Comment 15

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Ralph wrote he has no problems. Janos' address is dead

Copying info Nomis made in bug 594757 comment 19

The blue is set in the OS specific CSS file at:
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(folderNameCol, isServer-true, biffState-NewMail),
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(folderNameCol, newMessages-true),
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(folderNameCol, specialFolder-Inbox, newMessages-true) {

So, the folder name becomes blue if biffState-NewMail and newMessages-true is set, which is the responsibility of folderUtils.jsm. For the biffState there is also a biffState-NoMail, which is completely unused (?).

http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/search?string=biffState-NoMail&find=&findi=&filter=%5E%5B%5E%5C0%5D*%24&hitlimit=&tree=comm-central

Comment 16

[atremba]

I had the very similar bug 582960 in RSS feeds (bold blue highlighting in RSS). The bug is fixed now (WORKSFORME), but periodically I meet the topic bug as well.

Top folder (account folder) becames bold blue (with meaning of fresh arriving messages, under presence of other unread messages), while there is no bold blue subfolders, neither new messages in the folder/subfolders.

I figured out that the most probable reason is ... spam filtering!
The new message go into Inbox folder and/or filtered to a subfolder (the folders become bold blue), then Thunderbird spam-filter is applied, moving the message to Spam folder (which is a special child folder of the top account folder).

The spam messages are automatically are marked as read, OR the spam folder never get "bold blue" status (that's OK - nobody is interested in new spam arrival). However the top folder(s) still remain "bold blue".

The Thunderbird is on 'release' update channel and is updating automatically.
The bug is rare indeed, but somewhat frustating.

Comment 17

[JHack]

Same issue using 78.3.0. Moreover, the number of new messages is not updated.

Comment 19

[kidservice]

This is still a problem in Thunderbird 91.1.2.
See bug 1732451

In my case it depends on both using filter / manually moving folders and having the target folder collapsed and hidden inside another folder

Comment 20

[torsten.zachert]

In my case this problem is new since I made an upgrade from 7x to 9x series. Top folder inbox and subfolders on one level below are bold, but no folder on deeper level.

Comment 21

[Zathras]

Seeing same here with Thunderbird 91.1.2
Also affects 3rd party themes.

Comment 22

[hanswurst57]

Is there any solution. Got the same problem with Thunderbird 91.9.0
Thanks in advance

Comment 23

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Everyone,

Does this still reproduce in version 115?

Comment 24

[kidservice]

It happened to me when I first installed v 115.
After that I don't remember seeing this problem (maybe it got fixed with a minor update?)
I will write here if I see it again