726377 - Lost sent item after failure saving to Sent folder after SMTP delivery

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 28211

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Jonathan Kamens]

If the SMTP server is accessible but the IMAP server isn't, then the SMTP send of a message will succeed but the save to Sent Items will fail. It offers to retry repeatedly. But what if the retry is never going to work for whatever reason? For example, I've encountered an issue several times where my VPN is down when it tries to save the sent item, but even if I bring the VPN back up before clicking the Retry button, TB must have something cached, because it continues to fail to save to my IMAP Sent Items folder (which is accessed through the VPN) no matter how many times I click Retry. This means that my copy of my sent message is lost forever. This is LOST DATA, and lost data is VERY BAD.

I propose to change the logic so that the dialog asking about retrying offers a third button to allow the message to be saved in the default FCC folder (probably Local Folders/Sent), which is pretty much guaranteed to be accessible, instead of in the sent folder configured for the account sending the message. Then the user can fix whatever problem is preventing the save to the configured folder and move the message from the local folder into it.

I find lost data sufficiently abhorrent, and this particular problem has bitten me a sufficient number of times, that I am willing to work on coding this change if the owner of this component of TB confirms that the approach I am proposing is reasonable.

Comment 1

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

same as bug 28211? see also bug 354064.

Comment 2

[Jonathan Kamens]

Similar to bug 28211, though when 28211 was first filed the problem was different, so 28211 actually conflates two different issues. I.e., the original behavior described in bug 28211 has actually changed, which is why I didn't find 28211 when I searched to see if this bug was already reported before reporting it.

Comment 3

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Setting dependency for ease of search and tracking.

Comment 4

[Sean M. Pappalardo]

I am seeing this issue in TB 45.8.0 when the IMAP server is across an ocean, so the connection could conceivably be flaky. While TB is stuck at "Copying to sent folder" with a full progress bar (in multiple message windows even) I can telnet to the IMAP server just fine and indeed, canceling the copies and restarting Thunderbird has it accessing the IMAP server just fine.
It almost seems like it gets confused when the connection burps (maybe trying to talk on a dead socket and never timing out?) and it never recovers.

Comment 5

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Should be fixed by bug 28211/bug 1366591. If not, please reopen.