Closed Bug 650627 Opened 13 years ago Closed 13 years ago

In message list, display names in From and Recipient columns not sorted correctly alphabetically

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

x86_64
Windows 7
defect
Not set
major

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 672022

People

(Reporter: aegasch, Unassigned)

Details

Attachments

(1 file)

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0
Build Identifier: 3.1.9

The sort on FROM column is wrong. I have a .bmp I can send you that shows this happening, but there is no place to attach it in this report form, and I can't paste either. See results below taken from a FROM sort in increasing alpha order. How is this alphabetical by any stretch of the imagination?

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Sort on column
2. Look at the results
3.
Actual Results:  
Bill Andrew
custserv@...
2019932757@mms.att.net
2insured4less.com
3D Logo VFX
7 Medical Systems.LLC
AACN E-Newsletter

Expected Results:  
#s, 
then A...
B...
C...
Alphabetical

The Message Filtering doesn't work either.
Perhaps the two problems are related?
This works for me with Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; rv:5.0a2) Gecko/20110420 Thunderbird/3.3a4pre.

You can add the image on clicking on the add an attachment link above (but jpeg or png preferred - you can use mspaint to convert). Note that for now we don't need it.

Do you have the issue when you start Thunderbird in -safe-mode (see http://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/Safe+Mode) ?

Any errors on Tools -> Error console when you click on the column to make the sort ?
I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM.
I just moved to Thunderbird 5.0 from an earlier version.
Now, when I click on the header of a folder (to sort the list of emails in that folder), I get mixed results.
Sorting by Date or Subject work fine, but sorting by "Recipient" (in SENT items folder), or by "From" in INBOX, TRASH, or ARCHIVE seems to sort alphabetically by email address, even though the display name is used in the list. So you have to be able to translate, mentally, between the email address and the display name, to figure out where you are in the list. So, this is really not a sort feature at all.
Is there a way to change the sort order to go by Display Name, as the older versions of Thunderbird and any other mail client do? I have not found a way.
Windows XP, and Thunderbird 5.0.  I get no error messages from Thunderbird.
I think this may be what the original poster was experiencing.
Thomas, can you reproduce?
I cant'
(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #3)
> Thomas, can you reproduce?

1st pass, no, but I'm sure there's a lot of tricky details which may influence this.
- the (perceived and real) interaction between display names from address book (AB) and from the mail's original header, controlled by the respective option in Tools > Options > Advanced > Reading and Display >
[ ] Show only display name for people in my address book
- handling of single/double quotes around display names, from source, and from AB
- utf8, etc...
- which message list?
- how to reproduce, exactly?

aegasch, kweller, could you pls provide more details:

1) STR: please provide a step-by-step instruction to reproduce the bug, including the following information:
- Which message list?
- What was the sorting criterion before you sorted by from or recipient?
- Which direction of sorting, a-z (small triangle) or z-a (triangle upside down, as in dropdown)?
- which of the wrongly sorted entries were in your address book (or not)?
kweller, can you reproduce and provide a precise list of the wrongly sorted entries (please do not publish private email addresses etc., but keep exact initials when you change them)?

2) what is your setting for Tools > Options > Advanced > Reading and Display >
[ ] Show only display name for people in my address book?

@everybody:
3) How do we handle quotes: single, double, double-double, combinations thereof? Probably need to check them in message source Ctrl+U, and in the address book?

What I do see is the following small flaw, which only occurs once directly after toggling "Show only display name for people in my address book", as we don't update the list sorting in that case:

STR
1 From main 3pane's message list,
2 with the following 2 mails
   - mail's original From (coded in utf8, probably with quotes): "(:Dedalus)" <abc@asdf.com>;
     AB-display: Aureliano (*) <-yellow star
   - mail's original From:  Andrew S <abcd@asdf.com>
     not in AB
3 with [x] Show only display name for people in my address book (checked)
4 sort by "From" ascending
5 un-check [ ] Show only display name for people in my address book

Actual result

after 4: correctly sorts
(:Dedalus) 
Andrew S

after 5: display names updated, but not re-sorted, wrongly shows:
Aureliano 
Andrew S

Expected result

after 5: display names updated, and re-sorted (while keeping focus, and keep focus in sight)
Andrew S
Aureliano
Note that comment 0 reports against 3.1.9, where I think the behaviour in the message list was still different for [ ] Show only display name for people in my address book.
Looking at a screenshot of the problem received via PM, the sort order is really weird. Note that kweller's comment 2 reports against TB 5, which is no longer current release version.

Perhaps a corrupt index file? Can somebody file an instruction how to delete them to force TB to re-create the index?
And for which version did we change the display in the msg list from showing mail source data to showing AB-data?
In reply:
Which message list?  Inbox, Trash, and what I call my various Archives (like trash but which don't get deleted) should sort by "From" (i.e. Sender) but don't.
Sent Items should sort by "To" (i.e. recipient), but don'e.

What was the sorting criterion before you sorted by from or recipient? By date (arrow pointing up)

Which direction of sorting, a-z (small triangle) or z-a (triangle upside down, as in dropdown)? Arrow pointing up, although experimenting now, I see that the arrow pointing down leaves the list in similar disarray.

Which of the wrongly sorted entries were in your address book (or not)?  Most are in my address book, so the display name shown in the list appears to be picked up from the address book rather than from the email.
Biggest connundrum is that I have one entry that is not even sorted with the other emails received from the same address (that one is in my address book)

kweller, can you reproduce and provide a precise list of the wrongly sorted entries (please do not publish private email addresses etc., but keep exact initials when you change them)?  I will try to attach a screen shot.
This is a screen shot of what my "sorted by From name) inbox looks like.
Also, noted that I have updated to TB 6.0.2 since my original report of this bug, but the problem persisted.
Also, in tools > advanced... I have the check box ticked re "display names from my address book.
Thanks,
Component: General → Folder and Message Lists
QA Contact: general → folders-message-lists
Summary: Does not sort correctly alphabetically on messages → In message list, display names in From and Recipient columns not sorted correctly alphabetically
Also, noted that I have updated to TB 6.0.2 since my original report of this bug, but the problem persisted.
Also, in tools > advanced... I have the check box ticked re "display names from my address book.
Thanks,
Probably a duplicate of bug 672022. Try upgrading to 7.0.1, and if that doesn't work, feel free to reopen this.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 13 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
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