610742 - unified inbox skips messages when delete strategy is mixed (delete model)

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[J. David Beutel]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101026 Firefox/3.6.12
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101027 Thunderbird/3.1.6

When I archive or delete messages in my unified inbox (focusing on the message list and pressing the A or Delete keys), Thunderbird sometimes skips the following message and focuses on the message after that.  This happens when the archived/deleted message is from the inbox of an account with a Server Settings > When I delete a message = "Move it to this folder: Trash", but the other account in this unified inbox is set to "Just mark it as deleted".

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. start with an IMAP account with Server Settings > When I delete a message = Move it to this folder: Trash
2. add an IMAP account with Gmail's recommended settings of "Just mark it as deleted"
3. click on Unified Folders > Inbox
4. click on a message from the first account in the middle of the list
5. press the A key
Actual Results:  
As the archived message is removed from the list, the following message is skipped and the focus is on the message after that one in the list.

Expected Results:  
The focus falls to the message following the archived/removed one/s, instead of skipping it.

This problem does not occur in either individual inbox, just the unified one, and does not occur when both accounts are set to "Move it to this folder: Trash".

My add-ons:  Nostalgy & LookOut.

Comment 1

[J. David Beutel]

You may need to restart Thunderbird between steps 2 & 3.  At least, I've had to restart it to get the work-around of setting both delete strategies to "Move it to this folder: Trash" to take effect.

Comment 2

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

This sounds like bug  608789.

Comment 3

[J. David Beutel]

That bug has no description or details, so I don't know, but I couldn't reproduce this bug on the current trunk, Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:2.0b8pre) Gecko/20101110 Thunderbird/3.3a1pre.

Comment 4

[J. David Beutel]

I didn't realize that Gmail had so many IMAP issues:  402793  I didn't try bug with other services, so it could be specific to (or because of) Gmail.

Now I'm concerned that my work-around to move to Trash may have some bad side-effects, such as deleting the message from all folders 30 days after I move (save) it between folders.

Comment 5

[J. David Beutel]

I meant bug 402793

Comment 6

[rjones.zx]

I also encountered this bug. I think it's more of a problem than originally suggested (I doubt many people have two gmail accounts with different delete strategies). 

In my case I have a Google IMAP account and a Yahoo POP account. I use Unified Folders, and find that deleting message other than the most recent one causes the focus to skip a message. It's pretty annoying.

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

bienvenu, is there fairly easy/logical fix to this and Bug 608197?  (erratic delete message function in unified folder versus actual imap folder with mark as deleted model)

Or does someone need to run in debug mode?

Comment 8

[David :Bienvenu]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #7)
> bienvenu, is there fairly easy/logical fix to this and Bug 608197?  (erratic
> delete message function in unified folder versus actual imap folder with
> mark as deleted model)
> 
> Or does someone need to run in debug mode?

It's probably possible to implement this correctly, but it's a relatively small number of users that mix imap delete models in the same profile, so it's never been too high a priority.

Comment 9

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to J. David Beutel from comment #0)
> Steps to Reproduce:
> 1. start with an IMAP account with Server Settings > When I delete a message
> = Move it to this folder: Trash
> 2. add an IMAP account with Gmail's recommended settings of "Just mark it as
> deleted"

Because Gmail IMAP's default of auto-expunging is enabled, "mail stored \Deleted flag" is automaticaly expunged by Gmail, except on [Gmail]/All Mail. Due to the auto-expunging, "Remove immediately" is natural choice if "Move to trash([Gmail]/Trash)" is not appropriate for user, as far as user correctly uderstands auto-expunging and "how to delete mail permanently"(=move/copy to [Gmail]/Trash manually).

If "Just mark it as deleted", next happens if Gmail IMAP;
  1. Delete a mail at Gmail IMAP folder => store flad \Deleted.
     Tb keeps information of the mail held with \Deleted flag,
     to show the mail with strike-thru line.
  2. Gmail IMAP removes corresponding Gmail Label immediately
     == auto-expunging by Gmail IMAP
  3. When next access, such as access via Unified Folder, one of next happens;
     - Tb is not aware of expunging of the mail yet
     - Tb knows that the mail is expunged or doesn't exist at server any more
     - Tb detects "mail doesn't exist at server", then internal error occurs
     (similar to "expunged by other client after step.1")

What is reason why you intentionally use "Just mark it as deleted" even though you use Gmail IMAP with auto-expunging enabled?
Our(community peoples) recommendation to Gmail IMAP user, who doesn't want "Move to trash" model, was "Remove immediately", wasn't it? (because of auto-expunging)

Can you see your problem with "Remove immediately" for Gmail IMAP account?

If ordinal IMAP server, or Gmail IMAP with auto-expunging disabled, you can consistently see Bug 608197 with "Just mark it as deleted" model(i.e. you can see bug 635869)
Can you see your problem with next?
  - disable auto-expunge of Gmail IMAP
  - "Just Mark it as deleted" of the Gmail IMAP account
Is skipped mail "mail flagged as \Deleted, but not shown with strike-thru line at Unified folder"?

Is skipped mail in your original problem "mail flagged as \Deleted, then expunged by auto-expunge, but Tb doesn't know expunge at server yet"?
Or is skipped mail in your original problem "mail flagged as \Deleted, then expunged by auto-expunge, and Tb is aware of expunge of the mail"?

Comment 10

[J. David Beutel]

(In reply to WADA from comment #9)
> What is reason why you intentionally use "Just mark it as deleted" even
> though you use Gmail IMAP with auto-expunging enabled?

I was following the recommendations of Google[1] and Mozilla[2], because when I save or delete a message, I just want it out of the current folder; I still want a copy in the new folder or Trash (or All Mail) permanently.  (I'm not sure exactly what expunge or auto-expunge means.)

> Our(community peoples) recommendation to Gmail IMAP user, who doesn't want
> "Move to trash" model, was "Remove immediately", wasn't it? (because of
> auto-expunging)

I haven't seen this recommendation.  What's the URL?

> Can you see your problem with "Remove immediately" for Gmail IMAP account?

I haven't been using the unified inbox since I posted this bug, so I don't know what it's doing now.    Would "Remove immediately" keep a copy permamently in Trash?

[1] http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78892#
[2] http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_Gmail_with_Thunderbird_and_Mozilla_Suite#Add_an_IMAP_account

Comment 11

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to J. David Beutel from comment #10)
> > Our(community peoples) recommendation to Gmail IMAP user, who doesn't want
> > "Move to trash" model, was "Remove immediately", wasn't it? (because of
> > auto-expunging)
> I haven't seen this recommendation.  What's the URL?

> [2] http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_Gmail_with_Thunderbird_and_Mozilla_Suite#Add_an_IMAP_account
>  Add an IMAP account
>    In "When I delete a message", choose "Just mark it as deleted" to avoid
>    problems with the way Gmail handles possible multiple copies of the same
>    message in different folders.

As "Remove it immediately" was defauled for Gmail IMAP account by Tb developer during Tb 3.0 beta era, before auto-config became available, I thought MozillaZine KB article is written based on the default by Tb instead of Gmail's unplesant recommendation.
Sorry for my misunderstanding.
See bug 533140 comment #31 for our current recomendation at bugzilla.mozilla.org on delete model other than "Move to trash", please.

> Would "Remove immediately" keep a copy permamently in Trash?

No. When "Remove immediately", Delete of Tb is same as Shift+Delete of "Move to trash". Because any mail is always kept in [Gmail]/All Mail by Gmail until the mail is copied to [Gmail]/Trash or [Gmail]/Spam, there is no need to copy mail into trash folder upon delete in order to keep backup of deleted mail.

Gmail expunges mail flagged \Deleted sooner or later by default, mail shown with strike-thru line at Tb will automatically disappears sooner or later, thus "Just mark it as deleted" will easily produces user's confusions including this bug.
Have you read bugs listed in dependency tree for bug 402793 which you referred i comment #5?
See bug 533140 comment #30 thru bug 533140 comment #32 please, if you have usability issue in "Move to trash" model with trash folder=[Gmail]/Trash(mail is permanetly removed after 30 days).

> (I'm not sure exactly what expunge or auto-expunge means.)

Expunge: I use it based on EXPUNGE command of IMAP, and meant "Server side purge, remove, erase, ... operation of mail which is flagged as \Deleted".
Auto-expunge: Gmail's mail settings, Forwarding and POP/IMAP
  IMAP Access:
    When I mark a message in IMAP as deleted:
       	Auto-Expunge on  - Immediately update the server. (default)
	Auto-Expunge off - Wait for the client to update the server.

Because "Just mark it as deleted" is already recommended at Gmail and MozillaZine, our new recommendation may be better "choose Auto-Expunge off".
By it, Gmail IMAP user can always see mail of "deleted but not expunged yet" as "mail with strike-thru line" on Tb, and is same behavior as ordinal IMAP server.