953315 - Attachment icon in message list sometimes not shown until message is selected/displayed [catch-all for cases without known mime structure]

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[David Hicks]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:26.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/26.0 (Beta/Release)
Build ID: 20131205075310

Steps to reproduce:

Receive messages normally. View message list. Attachment icons (paper clip) in Attachments column not displayed beside some (not all) messages that I know contain attachments. Click on message in list to select/focus a message. After clicking once, attachment icon is displayed. This happens to a significant portion (about half?) of all messages I receive that contain attachments. Other messages display the attachment icon normally, automatically upon receiving message without selecting the message. This has been occurring for as long as I can remember, at least in the last several versions of Thunderbird (possibly as far back as TB 17).


Actual results:

Attachment icon not automatically displayed in Attachments column in message list window for some messages that contain attachments, until message is selected. 


Expected results:

Attachment icons should appear automatically in Attachments column upon receipt of incoming messages containing attachments.

Comment 1

[Mauro Cicognini]

I can definitely confirm this behavior, which appears especially with messages moved into another folder.

Even if the message correctly displayed attachments before the move, it never does after the move.

To have the Attachments columns correctly populated it is necessary to load the message (either in the preview pane or in a separate window).

Comment 3

[Daniel]

Also seeing this bug in 38.4.0, for unsigned IMAP messages. One very annoying effect is that searching for messages with attachments will only find messages that have been opened before.

Comment 4

[bugzilla_mozilla]

I saw this behavior in Thunderbird 45.1.0 with DMARC Rua Reports from google (not from yahoo, Microsoft or other senders). The difference I noticed between the messages is that Google does not send any text with their mails. 
The message structure looks like this:

From: [e-mail]
To: [...]
Content-Type: application/zip; 
	name="google.com![...].zip"
Content-Disposition: attachment; 
	filename="google.com![...].zip"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

[base64 encoded attachement follows]

Microsoft and yahoo, for example, use "normal" Content-Type: multipart/mixed; instead with MIME boundaries in their DMARC reports. With their mails, Thunderbird directly notices that the mail contains an attachment. For Content-Type: application/zip; as used by Google, Thunderbird notices the attachment when opening the message.

Comment 5

[brendel oliver]

This is still a problem in 45.5.0. I don't understand why this bug is still classified "unconfirmed" ??

Comment 6

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

This mystery is already known phenomenon and bug for it already exists, as indicated by "dupeme" in Whiteboard field of this bug.
I don't remember bug number.

As stated by [e-mail] in comment #4, following occurs.

When new mail is fetched, if Content-type:multipart/mixed, Thunderbird shows "attachment icon", because sub part called "Attachment"(attached file) can be contained under multipart/mixed only, even though Content-Disposition:attachment can be set in any sub part under multipart/related and multipart/altertnative.
When mail is opened by user, structure/content of mail is analyzed Thunderbird in order to display mail content to user.
So following can occur when not-well-formed mail or malformed mail.
(a) If no attached file in multipart/mixed(mail body part only), attachment icon perhaps disappears.
(b) When non-used part by HTML exists in multipart/related, Thunderbird shows it as-if attachment,
    in order to provide a way to save data of such malformed part as "file on HDD".
    In this case, IIRC, Thunderbird shows "attachment icon" because something is shown in attachment box,
    despite that "real/actual attached file under multipart/mixed" doesn't exist in the mail.

From perspective of "correctness" or "consistency", "attachment icon" shouldn't be shown at Thread pane when (b),
because "real/actual attached file under multipart/mixed" never exists in the mail.
"An element shown in attachment box by (b)" is merely element shown as-if attachment to provide "Save As" interface to user.

Comment 7

[Konstantin Svist]

@WADA: that sounds like the opposite of what's happening (attachment icon displayed when it SHOULDN'T be) -- this bug is about "attachment icon NOT displayed when it should be"

Comment 8

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to Konstantin Svist from comment #7)
> @WADA: that sounds like the opposite of what's happening (attachment icon displayed when it SHOULDN'T be)
> -- this bug is about "attachment icon NOT displayed when it should be"

Have you read my comment on (b)?
(1) Because mail is not multipart/mixed, "attachment icon" is not shown at Thread pane.
(ii) When mail is viewed, if mail is malformed mail and non-used part under multipart/related exists,
     Thunderbird shows the sub part of malformed mail as-if attachment in Attchment box.
     This is never "correct/valid/actual attached file to mail".

At this step (ii), what is "Should be"?
Current Thunderbird behavior: When (ii) occurred on malformed mail, show "attachment icon" of Thrread pane.

You say : If (ii) happens on malformed mail, "attachment icon" of Thread pane should be shown at step (i).
I say   : When (ii) happened on malformed mail, "attachment icon" of Thread pane shouldn't be shown at step (ii),
          because it's never "correct/valid/actual attached file to mail".

Comment 9

[Konstantin Svist]

My bug 1166067 was merged into this one; please take a look at attachment 8607220 [details] -- there are 2 REAL attachments in the message but no attachment icon displayed

Comment 10

[Konstantin Svist]

Note: currently on Tb 45.4.0 and that same message is still displayed the same way (without an icon) and does not show up when filtered by Custom Views -> Has Attachments

The message source structure:
From - Sun May  3 12:28:24 2015
...
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1085)
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=Apple-Mail-8--745298500
...
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1085)


--Apple-Mail-8--745298500
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset=windows-1252
...
<<<MESSAGE BODY>>>
...
--Apple-Mail-8--745298500
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
	boundary=Apple-Mail-9--745298500


--Apple-Mail-9--745298500
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/html;
	charset=us-ascii

<html><head></head><body[...]
--Apple-Mail-9--745298500
Content-Disposition: inline;
	filename="2015-02-01 [***] Minutes.pdf"
Content-Type: application/pdf;
	x-mac-type=50444620;
	x-mac-creator=4D535744;
	x-unix-mode=0644;
	name="2015-02-01 [***] Minutes.pdf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

<<<BASE-64 CONTENT>>>

...
<<<2nd pdf attachent>>>
...
--Apple-Mail-9--745298500
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/html;
	charset=windows-1252

<html><head></head><body [...]
...
<<<more content (quoted replies?)>>>

Comment 11

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=Apple-Mail-8--745298500
>    --Apple-Mail-8--745298500
>    Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>    --Apple-Mail-8--745298500
>    Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=Apple-Mail-9--745298500
>       --Apple-Mail-9--745298500
>       Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
>       --Apple-Mail-9--745298500
>       Content-Disposition: inline; filename="2015-02-01 [***] Minutes.pdf"
>       Content-Type: application/pdf;
>       --Apple-Mail-9--745298500
>       Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>       Content-Type: text/html; charset=windows-1252

It looks for me following.
1. multipart/alternative => text/plain is used as "message body part under multipart/alternative".
   And, multipart/mixed under multipart/alternative != usable part such as text/plain, text/html under multipart/alternative.
   So, it should be completely ignored, because text/plain part is already chosen in multipart/alternative.
2. However, it's multipart/mixed, then "application/pdf part under multipart/mixed under multipart/alternative"
   is shown as-if attachment at attachment box, because it's non-used/non-displayable sub part.
   If such PDF part is shown as-if attachment, I believe text/html part also should be shown as-if attachment.

Or, "text/html part under the multipart/mixed under multipart/alternative" was used by Thunderbird as "message body" when "View/Message As/Original HTML"?

Anyway, it's never real attachment because mail is multipart/alternative mail.

Comment 12

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to Konstantin Svist from comment #9)
> My bug 1166067 was merged into this one; 

I think duping was bad and wrong, because your case was:
  (a) subpart of malformed mail is shown as-if attachment in Attachment box when mail is viewed.
  (b) "attaxchment icon" is not shown at Thread pane when the mailformed mail is viewed.
(b) is apparently different from this bug.

Comment 13

[Konstantin Svist]

thanks for un-merging

Comment 16

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

I have created META bug 1691191 to link related issues in a central place.

This bug 953315 seems to be the oldest open unqualified case (without deeper analysis of mime structure). Afasics,
this bug isn't filed against a specific MIME structure. So I think we can dupe other general/unqualified bug reports about this issue here.