663069 - Imap folders just disappear and TB resync / redownloads

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[Ulf]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; de; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110414 Lightning/1.0b2 Thunderbird/3.1.10

If I navigate in the frontend to a imap-account (in the left pane listed as an extra acount e.g. clicking the arrow to unfold the folders) the complete folders inclusive all emails just disappear.
Then I have only the envelope-icon and the account name (no arrow).

Sometimes TB starts to resync the imap-account automatically so it starts downloading. Then I have to wait until all mails were downloaded.
TB lost the sortings (order), too.

Reproducible: Couldn't Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Clicking the arrow nearby the enevelope (account entry in the left pane) to unfold the folders of an imap-aaccount or just click on the inbox.

Have tried to reproduce it, but can´t find a general "action" which cause the problem.

Actual Results:  
All folders disappear.
TB starts sometimes to resync IMAP folders, sometimes not (-> have to restart TB!)

Expected Results:  
Just list the content of the imap-folder instead of disappear from already downloaded content.

This happened with Gmail Account as well as with a own imap-account from my own domain.

It is very annoying. It happens sometimes (once a week or 2, 3 times a month) and every time I have to wait minutes until all is downloaded again, means I can´t use TB with this account in this time -> that´s why it is major!

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

usul, aureliano, this sounds familiar, no?

Comment 2

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

yep .msf being corrupted or local store being corrupted. This is definitively a dup.

Comment 3

[Ulf]

When a file is defect. Maybe it is a effect of a not proper closed TB when I closed it the last time?
I sometimes have a problem when I compressed the folders that TB lost some properties. Maybe that I don´t want a preview of emails (email content view-windows in the middle).
Maybe there is a defect after compressing or closing TB (maybe shutdown windows when TB is not closed yet) ... and this cause the problem when TB is started next time?

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #3)
> I sometimes have a problem when I compressed the folders that TB lost some
> properties. Maybe that I don´t want a preview of emails (email content
> view-windows in the middle).

yes. this could be related.  
And you've only ever seen this once?
Do you have automatic compact enabled?


from bug 475257 ...

There are a few possibilities (and it's possible different people are experiencing different things):

1. The server is rolling UID validity - this means we have to throw away all our cached information per the IMAP RFC. So we throw away the .msf file, and redownload all the headers over again, and then autosync will eventually redownload the messages bodies. If that happens, you would see us redownloading all the message headers in the log, followed by the bodies. There's some hope that Kent James' work to use backup .msf files might be extended to help in this situation.

2. Folder discovery gets interrupted in such a way that we think all imap folders have been removed from the server, and we remove the .msf files and offline stores for everything but the inbox. We had this problem before if the first url we ran was interrupted (the first url does folder discovery), but it was fixed. In fact, I think the problem was limited to the url we run when the user collapses and expands the server to rediscover folders.

3. We somehow decide that the threading information in the folder is horked and we throw away the .msf file. We try hard not to do this and it doesn't sound like what's going on. Do you often work with your All Mail folder, or do you mainly stay in the INBOX?

Given the intermittent nature of Gary's connection, it sounds like something like #2 is happening, but I've gone over the code and I don't see anything obviously wrong. As a user, you would actually see the folders disappear and then re-appear - have you seen that?

Comment 5

[Ulf]

Hi.

I not only see this once. I see it some times. For example today, it just happened with the new TB 5 Version just a few minutes ago (with a gmail account).

I have automatic compact enabled, but TB asked me if it should compress the TB folders. I compressed yesterday, before instlaling TB 5 and backup my emails.

To your suggestions:

1) maybe, could be possible and sounds not bad.
But at the moment (this was, what happened mostly the last times) TB does not resync/redownload by itself. Mostly I have to restart TB.

2) no, I think this is not my problem, because mostly (as a few minutes ago) all folders dropped away. So at the moment I have only the name of the gmail account configured in TB, but no folders to see in it. No arrow to open the folders.

3) Normally I stay in the inbox. But before this dropping away a few minutes ago happened, I was in the "all mails" folder. Maybe I can check if this is a problem?


As described above, I have seen this disappearing and re-appearing, but this happened some times ago (I think with my private imap account, not with gmail). 
The last times it happenes it was with gmail account and there it does not re-download automaticcaly.

Comment 6

[David :Bienvenu]

It's also possible that the imap server failed to list the folders when you expanded the account, which made us think the folders had gone away. An imap protocol log of a session where this happened would be useful. Are you using imap subscription (show only subscribed folders vs. show all folders, in advanced imap server settings).

https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging

Comment 7

[Ulf]

Yes, I have a tick at "show only subscribed folders". It seems that this is the standard configuration.

I will try this logging thing. Would be nice to have this as a option in TB (soething "turn logging on"). I´ll see how I do it, maybe a batch-file is a good way.

I keep you informed if something happened.

Comment 8

[Ulf]

I start TB with logging and a few minutes ago the problem occurs again. But not as before. It was a bit different ... all folders were shown and there were the arrow at the account-name but all emails disappeared. Thunderbird directly reloaded all mails.

But the log file is 500 MB big ... that´s really huge for running TB about 2, 3 hours. So I can´t even open it.

Comment 9

[aidanhs]

I just encountered this today. More than just 'very annoying' this is terrifying in combination with the lack of a solution for bug 689067.

Similar to the person in the bug linked above, I too have an IMAP account which is now expired and cannot log in. I was willing to ignore the vaguely irritating messages that it was unable to login. But I was not expecting TB to silently wipe the offline cache for that account completely. 1GB of e-mails in 5 different folders gone.

By some miracle I had a backup of that account. But silent deletion of everything from an account TB has been unable to log into for a month is...a little worrying.

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

aidanhs, please see comment 6

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

ulf, aidanhs,...

(In reply to David :Bienvenu from comment #6)
> It's also possible that the imap server failed to list the folders when you
> expanded the account, which made us think the folders had gone away. An imap
> protocol log of a session where this happened would be useful. Are you using
> imap subscription (show only subscribed folders vs. show all folders, in
> advanced imap server settings).
> 
> https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging

Comment 12

[aidanhs]

I now have another account I am unable to log into, so I'll keep running Thunderbird with this logging enabled in the hope that it'll delete all my messages again. I'll also see if I can restore the other account so I can have two that are looking to be deleted.
I don't know about the subscribed folders vs show all folders because I removed that account some time ago. Again, I'll see if I can restore it and read the preferences.