599387 - IMAP Draft folder loading never ends, saved messages missing

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Cristian Bogdan]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_8; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.3 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/6.0.472.62 Safari/534.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.2.9) Gecko/20100915 Thunderbird/3.1.4

The draft folder keeps loading (shows a circular loading icon near the tab title). This only happens for drafts, all other IMAP folders are read correctly. A small hourglass is shown near the mouse cursor as long as the Drafts folder is current folder.

Probably once that started to happen, the recently saved messages are missing from the folder. I open a draft, press apple-S and the draft disappears from the folder.

The drafts are saved correctly in the folder (I can see them on webmail)

To see the messages again, I have to chose Offline/Download-Sync, and chose the drafts folder.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
I have no idea how to get Thunderbird to do this. It just started to behave this way and no restart could address this behavior. Probably some cache cleanup would address this.

Comment 1

[Cristian Bogdan]

Attachment: screenshot of the drafts folder UI state

Comment 2

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(Q1) What is file size of files for the Drafts folder at your PC?
     Get directory path for IMAP mail folder files.
       Account Settings, Server Settings, Local Directory: <dir_path>
     Check file size of <dir_path>/Inbox.sbd/Drafts and Drafts.msf.
     Keep back up of files of the "Drafts" and "Drafts.msf".

(Q2) What occurs if you execute "Repair Folders" at Folder Properties
     of the Drafts folder under Inbox of an IMAP account?
     After it, check file size of Drafts and Drafts.msf.

Comment 3

[Cristian Bogdan]

(In reply to comment #2)
> (Q1) What is file size of files for the Drafts folder at your PC?
>      Get directory path for IMAP mail folder files.
>        Account Settings, Server Settings, Local Directory: <dir_path>
>      Check file size of <dir_path>/Inbox.sbd/Drafts and Drafts.msf.
>      Keep back up of files of the "Drafts" and "Drafts.msf".

-rw-r--r--@ 1 cristi  staff  33272 24 Sep 18:03 Drafts
-rw-r--r--  1 cristi  staff  11960 24 Sep 19:50 Drafts.msf

I noticed that in Drafts.mozmsgs there are _many_ more messages than in the IMAP flder

> (Q2) What occurs if you execute "Repair Folders" at Folder Properties
>      of the Drafts folder under Inbox of an IMAP account?
>      After it, check file size of Drafts and Drafts.msf.

-rw-r--r--@ 1 cristi  staff  9634 24 Sep 19:56 Drafts.msf

Drafts vanished 

the same amount of files in Drafts.mozmsgs

---

Before submitting the bug I had turned synchrnonization off  in an effort to solve the problem.  I turned it back on but the Drafts file did not re-appear.

I copied it manually from the backup and the file changes only if I save a message while in offline mode.

Comment 4

[Cristian Bogdan]

And of course, the "never-ending loading" ended when i repaired the folder so my problem is solved for now i guess. still the behavior is strange.

The Drafts file disappears every time I press Repair. 

-------

Some times after going offline, some or all Drafts messages are not available. I double-click on them and nothing happens, even after coming back online. 

In such cases I tried restarting TB, but the Quit operation did not work, TB went to 100% CPU and i had to kill it. I could repeat this several times.

-----

I managed to make Drafts re-appear through going offline and editing a draft. This doesn't work always. after coming back online, the draft message is properly saved to IMAP but it is marked as "not read". Then the Drafts folder is again loaded forever. Trying to quit TB again leads to 100% CPU

-------

At some point during these operations i tried repairing the Drafts folder, which lead to TB showing no messages in it!

After re-start (again kill due to 100%CPU) the Draft folder was listed in alphabetical order, rather than in its special position under Sent. It had all messages, and next restart showed Drafts in the correct position.

Comment 5

[Cristian Bogdan]

It looks like all the strange behavior reported at comment 4 is due to having repaired the Drafts folder and not restoring the Drafts file.

If I repair and restore Drafts and Drafts.msf from the backup, I got back to the original behavior.

If I repair and only restore Drafts, things seem to work OK.

----

Conclusion: Drafts.msf repair works, but Drafts has to be backed up and restored manually.

Comment 6

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #5)

When "Repair Folders" is executed for IMAP folder, Tb roughly does do next:
(1) Discard currently used files of F1(==delete file of F1) anf F1.msf
(2) Re-fetch mail headers of all mails from IMAP server,
    and saves header inforation in F1.msf
(3) If auto-sych of IMAP folder is enabled(enabled on by default),
    and if an IMAP folder's offline-use option is set On for folder of F1,
    Tb downloads whole mail data of mails, and appends the downloaded whole
    mail data to file of F1.

"Adding data manually to file of F1 between (1) and (3)" is merely adding garbages to file of F1, and it merely increases file size of F1.
What is your purpose to copy data to file of F1, even though Tb cleared file of F1 at step (1) and Tb is ready to add newly downloaded mail data to clared file of F1 by auto-sync?
Are you intentionally testing Tb's behaviour when too many garbages are writtn in file of F1?

Comment 7

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Closing as INVALID, because you are intentionally added garbages to file used by Tb for IMAP mail folder. Problem due to "manual corruption of file Tb uses, or manual adding of garbage data to file used by Tb" can't be valud bug. If you believe "Tb's behaviour when user's wrong action" is flaw of T's code, re-open this ug, please.

Comment 8

[Cristian Bogdan]

OK now I realize that the problem described at comment 0 appeared when turning off message synchronization. I was unsatisfied with the TB performance and tried to do something about it.

(In reply to comment #6)
> (3) If auto-sych of IMAP folder is enabled(enabled on by default),
>     and if an IMAP folder's offline-use option is set On for folder of F1,
>     Tb downloads whole mail data of mails, and appends the downloaded whole
>     mail data to file of F1.

I have auto-synch on and offline use on, but F1 is not created on Repair Folder, only F1.msf. I don't know if it's meant to be created immediately.

Also this does not seem to be a problem for the user when synchronization is on. The trouble seems to be associated with synchronization being off (whether the folder is selected for offline use or not)

> What is your purpose to copy data to file of F1, even though Tb cleared file of
> F1 at step (1) and Tb is ready to add newly downloaded mail data to clared file
> of F1 by auto-sync?
> Are you intentionally testing Tb's behaviour when too many garbages are writtn
> in file of F1?

well in comment 1 i was told to back up my F1 (Drafts) so I restored the file to try to get TB back to decent behavior. 

I  can reproduce the following behavior (different from comment 0 though, which seems to be hard to reproduce). Note that _no_ file operations are involved!

- turn synchronization off
- restart TB
- repair the Drafts folder

case (1)  all messages disappear from the folder (in the UI, they are still present in IMAP)
- stop TB
- TB goes to 100 % CPU
- kill TB
- at next TB start, the Drafts folder will be listed alphabetically (rather than above "Sent")

case (2) after repair, the drafts folder still shows the messages from IMAP
- restart TB
- turn off network connection
- try to access a message from Drafts. some will fail, as they are not available
- stop TB
- TB goes to 100 % CPU

Comment 9

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #8)
> well in comment 1 i was told to back up my F1 (Drafts) so I restored the file
> to try to get TB back to decent behavior. 

I never said you to restore backup files. It's to avoid loss of data required for future diagnosis(file of Drafts and Drafts.msf) by "Repair Folder", if file of Drafts and Drafts.msf will be required. 

"one problem per a bug" is rule of B.M.O. case-1 and case-2 are absolutely different issue from your original oroblem of comment #0. Keep "one problem per a bug" at B.M.O, please. Here is B.M.O, never support forum.

For case-1.
Open separate bug, with reliable "Steps to reproduce problem", after searching B.M.O well via "Advanced Search" for already opened bugs, please.

For case-2.
Similar phenomenon is already reported to some bugs. Search B.M.O. well by yourself for already opened bugs via "Advanced Search", please.
AFAIK, "Disable IDLE command use"(Server Settings/Advanced) is a workaround in some cases which produce such phenomenon. Try it, please.

Anyway, original problem of your comment #0 doesn't sound to be reproduce any more, so it's usless to keep this bug open. Please close this bug as INVALID or INCOMPLETE.

Comment 10

[Cristian Bogdan]

(In reply to comment #9)
> I never said you to restore backup files. It's to avoid loss of data required
> for future diagnosis(file of Drafts and Drafts.msf) by "Repair Folder", if file
> of Drafts and Drafts.msf will be required. 

yes but how about my email?  i had to fix TB somehow, otherwise i had no way to decently use it.

> "one problem per a bug" is rule of B.M.O. case-1 and case-2 are absolutely
> different issue from your original oroblem of comment #0. Keep "one problem per
> a bug" at B.M.O, please. Here is B.M.O, never support forum.

yes but first it has to be clear what the issue is, and that you do by troubleshooting.

the single issue is that i went from sync to non-sync, which sometimes leads to problem "case 1" and the rest of the times (more often) to problem "case 2". if this is known, i'm ok. 

in my place somebody else would have simply switched to another mailer. i took the effort to report the issue, and you were much more responsive than i expected.

but sorry i do not have more time to invest in this. so filing new bugs, etc, it's simply beyond my time horizon. if anybody from mozilla needs more info i will happily provide it.

thanks, and good luck!

Comment 11

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #10)
> yes but how about my email?  i had to fix TB somehow, otherwise i had no way to decently use it.

Your draft mails are kept in Drafts folder at IMAP server. Start from clean status of Draft folder at Tb. 1. Terminate Tb, 2. Delete file of Drafts and Drafts.msf, 3. Restart Tb. If icon of Drafts is not for draft folder, is one for ordinal folder, or if folder name is not localized, restart Tb again.

If you have still poblem with Draft, change "folder to save draft mail" to other newly created folder.
- Create a folder DraftX. Probably created under Inbox in your environment.
- At Copies&Folders, choose the DraftX as "folder to save draft mail"
  via "other:". Via. other you can choose local mail folder.
After it, you can do trouble shooting of folder of Drafts.  

How to look content of backup of Drafts file;
Create a folder Test at "Local Folders", create a folder X under Test, Terminate Tb. Copy backup of Drafts file under directory of ...\Test.sbd. Restart Tb. Folder of Drafts under Test appears. Content is draft mails you created in the past, if backup of Drafts file is not corrupted data.

Comment 12

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

For case-1.
You corrupted local Drafts and Drafts.msf files manually. It might have invoked internal unsubscribe/subscribe. It may produce problem of bug 520437. If bug 520437 occurs, wrong/unwanted association of IMAP folder to local .msf file may be generated in folder cache(panacea.dat file).
Delete panacea.dat in Tb's profile directory before restart of Tb. It's another "clean status of Drafts".