613991 - Can not enter text in reply to message composer

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 525359

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Hunter Cressall]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101026 Firefox/3.6.12 ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Thunderbird/3.1.6

Any time. Any time I select compose new message either through icon on tool bar at top or through menu selection, the new message composer appears with a blinking courser at the top of the window yet text cannot be entered. Cut and paste function work perfectly but text cannot be entered using the keyboard. The system otherwise functions as normal. A workaround is to steal focus away from the composition window after it opens either by pressing the Windows button or selecting another program from the taskbar. Upon returning to the new message composition window text may be entered as normal.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Open new message composer
2.Type
3.
Actual Results:  
A new message opened and I was unable to enter text using the keyboard until focus was taken a way from Thunderbird and then returned to Thunderbird.

Expected Results:  
Allowed me to enter text where the courser rests.

This issue has been a constant problem since the last release. It is persistent and permanent.

Comment 1

[Hunter Cressall]

The actual bug only involves hitting "reply". Otherwise everything is correct. Permanent, persistent and repeatable bug.

Comment 2

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

does it work better if Thunderbird is started in safe mode ? (ses http://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/Safe+Mode) 

Do you see anything in Tools -> Error console when this happens ?

Comment 3

[Hunter Cressall]

The only warning in the error console is the following:

Warning: Error in parsing value for '-moz-appearance'.  Declaration dropped.
Source File: chrome://os/skin/global.css
Line: 12

But that is entered at program start up. When I hit reply and reproduce the error, nothing additional is added to the error console.

Comment 4

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Hunter did you try in -safe-mode too as explained in comment 1 ?

Comment 5

[Hunter Cressall]

Yes. Same results.

That is: hit reply (to any email), a new document appears, the new document will not accept keyboard input but will accept cut and paste. Switching the focus of Windows to any other application and returning it to the REPLY window will allow text to be entered as normal. Problem is persistent and repeatable.

Comment 6

[Jim Porter (:squib)]

Does this happen on every message you reply to? (You may need to restart Thunderbird in between testing messages.) There was a bug where replying to certain messages broke the composer until you quit Thunderbird: bug 525359. I think it will be fixed in 3.3, but I'm not sure. That bug has some workarounds too.

Comment 7

[Hunter Cressall]

(In reply to comment #6)
> Does this happen on every message you reply to? (You may need to restart
> Thunderbird in between testing messages.) There was a bug where replying to
> certain messages broke the composer until you quit Thunderbird: bug 525359. I
> think it will be fixed in 3.3, but I'm not sure. That bug has some workarounds
> too.

Yes, every one. The issue is resolved simply be switching focus from the compose window to any other application then back. IN FACT, hitting the Start (Windows) key twice is enough to "wake up" the composer. Restarting Thunderbird is not necessary.

Comment 8

[DL]

When replying to a message, no text is displayed in the text box when typing the reply message. The text is actual there but is not displayed. I tested this by creating a reply to own message and then looking a incoming response. This also effects future future first time messages. No text is displayed after any reply. It does work before replying.

Comment 9

[Hunter Cressall]

(In reply to comment #8)
> When replying to a message, no text is displayed in the text box when typing
> the reply message. The text is actual there but is not displayed. I tested this
> by creating a reply to own message and then looking a incoming response. This
> also effects future future first time messages. No text is displayed after any
> reply. It does work before replying.

In my case, I tested this too. There is no text. There is a blinking cursor but it does not respond to input. If you take focus away from the composition window and then return to the composition window, the cursor is there again but this time responds to input.

Comment 10

[Wayne]

I have experienced the problem of blank text area when replying to a message.  On a number of occasions when I click "Reply" the reply window comes up but there is no blinking cursor and no text appears when I type.  The "To" and "Subject" fields do appear and are editable.  I have found (by including myself as bcc) that the text is actually there when the reply is received but does not appear when composing the reply. It seems that this problem appears when the address of the message to which I am replying is of the form:  Name <Address>.  As an example:  John Doe <[e-mail]>.  Replies to addresses not containing the angle brackets seem to work correctly.  I am using Windows XP and the following version of Thunderbird:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.15) Gecko/20110303 Thunderbird/3.1.9

Comment 11

[Shari Smith]

I have had this happen in Windows Vista running 3.1.10
I did try in Safe mode and the error repeated.
Received the following in the error console

Warning: Expected ',' or '{' but found '*'.  Ruleset ignored due to bad selector.
Source File: about:blank
Line: 2

When I sent the file, the original message wasn't quoted but the text I typed was there, even though I couldn't see it.

The email was an IncrediMail! mail with background and gif. Once this happens I have to close Thunderbird and restart. If I try to reply to the same message the cycle repeats.

Comment 12

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Shari did you search for IncrediMail in bugzilla ?