589731 - IMAP IDLE only working on currently selected folder

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(MailNews Core :: Networking: IMAP, defect)

Description

[Arnaud Lesauvage]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; fr; rv:1.9.2.7) Gecko/20100713 Firefox/3.6.7
Build Identifier: 3.1.2

I think this behaviour changed at some point, I can't really say when but I am quite sure that it worked differently at some point in time.

I have two IMAP accounts. One is a Zimbra account (server version 6.0.4 if that matters), the other is a Google Apps account.
Both are configured not to poll for new emails but to use IDLE (both servers support it).

The problem is that all my emails are received in the INBOX, and then moved to subfolders by Thunderbird (using filters).
It seems that Thunderbird only keeps an idling connection on the last selected IMAP folder. If this folder is not the one where new messages arrive, no notification is triggered.
So whenever an email arrives and is moved to a subfolder, if I read it and forget to reselect the INBOX, I won't get notified again.

I don't know whether this is the expected behaviour, but I really find this annoying. That's not how I would like the IDLE command to work. 
I think there should be at least some setting somewhere to tell TB on which inbox it should be idling.

I believe this does not always happen.
Maybe this has something to do with max number of connections to keep open ?

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Configure account to only get new mail notifications via IDLE (not polling)
2. Select a subfolder not receiving new emails 
3. Send yourself and email (from another account / computer)
4. The new email notification will usually not be triggered
Actual Results:  
No mail notification for messages arriving into root INBOX.

Expected Results:  
Notify of incoming email.

Comment 1

[Adrian]

IMHO TB should create an IDLE connection for *all* folders and if there are too many always keep one open for INBOX.

Comment 2

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Arnaud, do you see this problem when using a more recent version, like version 13?
Please update the bug for us. Thanks.

Comment 3

[Arnaud Lesauvage]

Wayne, thanks for following this bug.
Yes, we still have this problem and are running the latest build (13.0.1).

I updated "platform" to all, since we also have this bug on Win7 64bits.

Comment 4

[Mike Cloaked]

I had not seen your report before submitting mine at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=817008

It is likely related.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

By "notification" you mean the system tray alert?
perhaps this is the same issue as bug 885220?

Comment 6

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

> Bug summary :  IMAP IDLE only working on currently selected folder 

This is design of "IDLE command of protocol named IMAP", isn't it?
   At an IMAP connection, only one Mbox can be selected.
   "Unsolicit response via IDLE" is for selected Mbox at the connection only.

What is your request?
Infinite number of cached connections in Tb?
   Default of max cached connection is currently 5.
   Tb reserves one cached connection for Inbox,
   and if "max cached connections" is larger than 2, Tb reserves second connection for Trash,and uses third to N for other Mboxes.
   So, if default is used, 3 Mboxes other  than Inbox/Trash can be selected at same time.
Or enhaancement of protocol named IMAP?
  select of multiple Mboxes at an IMAP connection with multiple Mboxes support by IDLE command?
What is your actual problem?

For automatic new mail check and new mail notification of other than Inbox.
   Do you correctly set "when getting new messages for this account, always check this folder"?

For new mail notification of Inbox or other than Inbox when new mail is detected via IDLE.
   Are you seeing problem of Bug 885220?
   Current CONDSTORE support of Tb may cause problem other than Bug 885220 too.
   Do you disable CONDSTORE support of Tb, if your IMAP server supports CONDSTORE?

Comment 7

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

FYI.
Already available IMAP extention for improvement :
   LIST-STATUS extension, RFC 5819 ( http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5819 ), Bug 928654

Comment 8

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

FYI.
Another IMAP extension : RFC 5465 = IMAP NOTIFY extension = Bug 479133

Comment 9

[Phoenix]

Resolved per whiteboard