662257 - Save attachment folder defaults to Thunderbird installation folder if last folder used is disconnected network directory / share

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, defect)

Description

[Thomas Wolff]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.20) Gecko/20081217 Firefox/2.0.0.20
Build Identifier: 

If the folder I normally save attachments to is missing (e.g. not mounted),
Thunderbird offers a fallback. Some "home directory" (in Windows user profile) might be expected, but the proposed directory is actually the Thunderbird installation directory which is grossly inappropriate.
Also it's a privacy/security gap because if you don't notice and happen to actually save something there other users may see your saved files. Thus I consider it critical.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Save attachments to a network directory, have Thunderbird remember this preference
2. Unmount directory
3. Save another attachment

Actual Results:  
Code directory of Thunderbird installation is suggested for saving of attachment.

Expected Results:  
Some reasonable "home directory", e.g. "My Documents" should be suggested.

If you don't notice the directory, you may lose your file because you won't find it later...
Also, others may spy on your saved attachments.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

an obvious failure if true. however, the UI is explicit to the user about where the file is being placed.

Comment 2

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

pretty sure this is a duplicate of a core issue.
although I don't remember it defaulting to the program folder.

Comment 3

[ISHIKAWA, Chiaki]

This bug is all too true in TB (TB3 and current).

Please note the following:

Bug 549719 - Unify/Merge two code paths for saving an attachment in a message (different save directory in "double click/save file" vs "context menu/save as")

Problem is that if you invoke "saving of attachment" by left-clicking, and
the directory where you were going to save the attachment is somehow unusable
(write-directory, somehow disappeared, ...) then you will be
directed on the next try to save the attachment (LEFT-CLICKING)
to "BROWSER saving DEAFULT" although you are using TB, a MAILER.

A "DEFAULT" is something that a user expects to be a constant (doesn't change
from what he/she has set). Usually, people don't bother to check the pathname
of DEFAULT directory when they expect that string to be DEFAULT.
Here, sometimes, a user gets a directory which may NOT be what they thought they
have set (for MAILER default location.).

This is a problem.

Comment 4

[Thomas Wolff]

Today it happened again, Thunderbird 8.0, on a different machine, no network drive involved this time (should a file a new bug, then?).

Comment 5

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Does this also happens with firefox if you know how to reproduce ?

Comment 6

[Thomas Wolff]

Update and proposal:
(not sure about firefox, for that matter);

Occurred again on new installation; checking how thunderbird is started, I see the desktop shortcut specifies its installation folder as working directory, which is quite a bad idea in the first place.
As a simple remedy, the working directory of desktop and start menu shortcuts being created could simply be changed to %USERPROFILE% or maybe %Desktop% (unfortunately, the "My Documents" folder is not available as an environment variable).
Please fix this embarrassing bug!

Comment 7

[Thomas Wolff]

Reconfirming once more (after another fresh installation on Windows 7) that this MOSTLY EMBARASSING BUG persists.
What are Mozilla people doing? Ignoring most elementary bugs even though there would be a trivial solution? (See my previous suggestion how to solve it which I've verified, using %USERPROFILE% in the Windows shortcut.)