714267 - Tb stops responding for 5 minute when File/Attach even after reset of mail.compose.attach.dir (Tb falls back to LastVisitedMRU if mail.compose.attach.dir is not available, and if the MRU dir is non-existent server, it takes long to show dialog)

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[u290583]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1
Build ID: 20111220165912

Steps to reproduce:

1. create a new email and attach a file from a local folder
2. send this email
3. delete the previous local folder
4. create new email and click the attach button


Actual results:

Thunderbird 9 and 10 beta stop responding for 4-5 minutes


Expected results:

messagebox within 30 seconds that tell me "Folder not exist" or simply switch to desktop folder instead of the last user folder.

I have lost some hours before understanding the problem and find the workaround "mail.compose.attach.dir" ...

Comment 1

[u290583]

Attachment: Program that "wait" for local non existent folder

Comment 2

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to Stefano Fraccaro from comment #0)
> Actual results:
> Thunderbird 9 and 10 beta stop responding for 4-5 minutes

Unable to reproduce your problem with Tb 9.0.1 on Win-XP SP3.

When local directory in mail.compose.attach.dir doesn't exist any more,
(A) If local directory in messenger.save.dir doesn't exist, Tb 9.0.1 on Win-XP SP3 showed Tb's Working Directory(current directory. usually Tb's program directory is set in Short Cut on Win).
(B) If local directory in messenger.save.dir exists, Tb 9.0.1 on Win-XP SP3 showed the messenger.save.dir.
Because browser.download.lastDir was C:\Documents and Settings\<userid>\Local Settings\Temp in my case and this directory always exists in my environment, browser.download.lastDir is apparently not used by Tb when File/Attach.

What directory is set in your prefs.js?
Check it via Config Editor, with "dir" in Filter: field.

Comment 3

[u290583]

mail.compose.attach.dir = C:\Documents and Settings\stefano.fraccaro\Desktop\DeletedFolder
messenger.save.dir = C:\Documents and Settings\stefano.fraccaro\Desktop\DeletedFolder
browser.download.lastDir = C:\Documents and Settings\stefano.fraccaro\Desktop (OK)

Comment 4

[u290583]

I have changed manually the previous values but, when I click "Attach", TB open a network path "\\ipaddress\shared". There is not key-value pair with this path!
I have searched manually also in file pref.js without success... Where is stored this path?

Comment 5

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to Stefano Fraccaro from comment #4)
> I have changed manually the previous values but, when I click "Attach", TB
> open a network path "\\ipaddress\shared". There is not key-value pair with
> this path!
> I have searched manually also in file pref.js without success... Where is
> stored this path?

"Per site download directory" of Firefox was enabled by recent Tb too?

"Per Site DownloadLastDir" from Fx 3(perhaps) utilizes "Site Specific Preference".
"Site Specific Preference" is base of "Private Browsing".
"Private Browsing" looks enabled from Tb 9.
> https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Using_content_preferences
> https://developer.mozilla.org/en/XPCOM_Interface_Reference/nsIContentPrefService
> https://wiki.mozilla.org/Site-Specific_Preferences
According to Bug 702748, "per-site download directory" can be disable from Fx 11 by new pref of browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite.
However, this prefs is not shown by Config Editor of Tb trunk Tb12.0a1(2012/01/03 build).
It's "Not by default, users will need to add it" in bug 702748 comment #12?

Tb may see "Recently used files" saved in Windows registory. Is "\\ipaddress\shared" seen in file path of entries in Start/Recently used files? 

Do you enable "Private Browsing" like one in Tb?

"Site Specific Preference" saves data in content-prefs.sqlite. 
Do you see "\\ipaddress\shared" in file(data base) named content-prefs.sqlite?
  Install add-on of SQLite Manager to Fx, copy Tb's content-prefs.sqlite to
  <any_name>.sqlite, view it by SQLite Manager(Database/Connect Database),
  check content of table of groups, prefs, settings, by Browse&Search tab.
Note:
content-prefs.sqlite exists in my profile which was used by Tb 9.0.1 and Tb12.0a1, but no entry is seen in these SQLite tables, although entries for "Per Site DownloadLastDir" is seen in Fx's content-prefs.sqlite.

What happens in Tb 11.0 alpha or beta(if exists) or Tb12.0a1(trunk nightly), with browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite=false?

Comment 6

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

FYI.
"Private browsing" of Tb looks enabled around Tb 3, because "Detecting whether private browsing mode is permanent" looks available from Tb 3.3.
> https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Supporting_private_browsing_mode#Detecting_whether_private_browsing_mode_is_permanent

Comment 7

[u290583]

There is no \\ipaddress\shared in Recent Files

There are 4 items in content-prefs.sqlite table prefs and the last two record point to \\ipaddress\shared. I have deleted the last 2 records but TB always start with \\ipaddress\shared

How to check private browsing on TB?
Private browsing in Firefox is disabled

Comment 8

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to Stefano Fraccaro from comment #7)
> There are 4 items in content-prefs.sqlite table prefs and the last two
> record point to \\ipaddress\shared. 

I could see following by "Save Image As" with Tb 9.
> table=settings, id=1, name=download.lastDir

> table=groups,   id=1, name=xxx.yyy.com (Web site's URL of remote image in RSS eed) 
> table=prefs,    id=1,settingID=1, groupID=1, value=C:\savedir\remote-image

> table=groups,   id=2, name=mailbox:///C:/wada/@@@/Mail-X/Inbox (local mail folder where mail with attached image file is held)
> table=prefs,    id=2,settingID=1, groupID=2, value=C:\savedir\attached-image
"Save Image As" looks to use download.lastDir instead of messenger.save.dir.

After it, I deleted mail.compose.attach.dir, messenger.save.dir, browser.download.lastDir in prefs.js, and restarted Tb.
When file/attach at compose window and "save as" of mail, Tb showed C:\savedir\attached-image(table=prefs,id=2. recently added entory).
=> Confirmed

When "save image as" of Inbox of Mail-X or "save image as" of remote image of same Web site, directory in content-prefs.sqlite was shown according to location of image.
When "save image as" of other than Inbox of Mail-X or the Web site, directory specified in browser.download.dir was shown.
This is "per site download.lastDir".

Tb looks to fallback to download.lastDir too, and Tb looks to request download.lastDir without site url(Tb perhaps tries to use browser.download.lastDir in pres.js), and "per site pref for download.lastDir" looks to return newest entory if site url is not passed.

What is set in your content-prefs.sqlite?
  table=prefs,    id=n,settingID=X, groupID=Y, value=\\ipaddress\shared
  table=settings, id=X, name=????
  table=groups,   id=Y, name=????

> I have deleted the last 2 records but TB always start with \\ipaddress\shared

How? Updated Tb's content-prefs.sqlite after termination of Tb? Or updated while Tb is running?
Even when updated after termination of Tb, inconsistent manual modification may cause "corrupted db" condition and it may force recovery from journal.
Try "delete content-prefs.sqlite", please.

Comment 9

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

When browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite=false is set in Tb 12.0a1(2012/01/03 build, create is needed), "save image as" worked as expected because "save image as" is ordinal user of "site specific prefs". So, new entry of download.lastDir will not be generated any more.
However, because "per site prefs" itself still works and access to content-prefs.sqlite is executed normally if requestd, download.lastDir is still used by fallback to download.lastDir from mail.compose.attach.dir/messenger.save.dir. So, even after setting browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite=false, "delete of content-prefs.sqlite" is needed once "table=prefs row with non-existent directory" was generated in content-prefs.sqlite.

Comment 10

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Sorry, I misunderstood test results.

Even after delete of content-prefs.sqlite, most recently used directory(C:\savedir\attached-image in my test) was still shown.
When I deleted next Windows registry key content(delete this key, then re-define this key), Tb 9 showed Tb's program directory(current directory, Working Folder of Tb's shortcut in my case) was shown.
> 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\LastVisitedMRU

Comment 11

[u290583]

I confirm, deleting the registry key [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\LastVisitedMRU] TB show the program directory

Comment 12

[josh.helzer]

I didn't wait five minutes for the dialog to appear, but resetting mail.compose.attach.dir to e.g. C:\ (from a disconnected/unavailable UNC path) "fixed" the problem me.

This is incredibly obnoxious - made more so because whatever part of the Windows subsystem that is (I guess) timing out leads to a type of hung app that can't be immediately killed via the task manager - I kill it in task manager repeatedly and Thunderbird only eventually gets around to terminating.

This occurred for me with Thunderbird 12.0 (with all extensions/plugins disabled) on WinXP SP3.

I "vote" this needs to be fixed VERY soon - if I hadn't stumbled on this bug and the config "fix" mentioned by the OP, Thunderbird would have been rendered unusable.

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I can't reproduce this with current nightly build on windows 7.
I get a dialog with an "OK" button.
 Location is not available
 c:\... refers to a location that is unavailable. ...