Preference not preserved

Discussion of bugs in Mozilla Thunderbird
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Vrish25
Posts: 6
Joined: February 25th, 2021, 1:00 am

Preference not preserved

Post by Vrish25 »

When i unselect the "Use paragraph format instead of body text by default" preference, then when i close thunderbird and reopen it this preference is selected again.
So my preference has not been saved.

However when i change the "Auto Save" preference then that's properly saved.

What's wrong? Is this a bug?

I'm using the very latest TB 78.8.0 32 bit on an up to date Windows 10.

I must add that i'm using a custom profile folder on a separate drive, but that's a supported case, and it works all fine for many years already.
Except that this one preference about the paragraph format is not preserved and unfortunately this auto paragraph thing is a really annoying UX. (meant as constructive feedback)
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DanRaisch
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Re: Preference not preserved

Post by DanRaisch »

Moving to Thunderbird Support as no identified bug has been reported here.

Are you running any clean up utility, such as Ccleaner, on that computer?
If you use menu path Tools->Options->Advanced->General->click on the "Config Editor" button->and enter "mail.compose.default_to_paragraph" in the filter field, what is the value of that setting?
Vrish25
Posts: 6
Joined: February 25th, 2021, 1:00 am

Re: Preference not preserved

Post by Vrish25 »

DanRaisch wrote:Moving to Thunderbird Support as no identified bug has been reported here.
Are you running any clean up utility, such as Ccleaner, on that computer?
No, not at all.
Also note that when i change the "Auto Save" preference, then that's properly preserved.
So that excludes interference of an external app, no?
If you use menu path Tools->Options->Advanced->General->click on the "Config Editor" button->and enter "mail.compose.default_to_paragraph" in the filter field, what is the value of that setting?
mail.compose.default_to_paragraph has value "true".
So i changed it to false (which makes it also say "status = modified", which is logical) and when i close the config editor and immediately reopen the config editor it still has the modified value (false) but when i quit TB and restart TB the "mail.compose.default_to_paragraph" has been reverted to status default + value true without any reason.

If i would know In which file in the profile these settings are stored, i could verify that TB has properly saved that preference after quit.
Do you know which file that is?
Last edited by Vrish25 on February 25th, 2021, 8:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
morat
Posts: 6405
Joined: February 3rd, 2009, 6:29 pm

Re: Preference not preserved

Post by morat »

About prefs.js file
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Prefs.js_file

I noticed that pref (1) is set using pref (2) in the migration code.

1. mail.compose.default_to_paragraph pref (default true)
2. editor.CR_creates_new_p pref (default true)

Reference
http://searchfox.org/comm-esr78/source/ ... grator.jsm
Vrish25
Posts: 6
Joined: February 25th, 2021, 1:00 am

Re: Preference not preserved

Post by Vrish25 »

I checked the prefs.js file with a plain text editor and after i've set that paragraph preference to false and quit TB, then the prefs.js contains

user_pref("mail.compose.default_to_paragraph", false);

which looks correct.

But when i restart TB then that paragraph pref has been reverted to the default value "true", which is incorrect, so it seems that the issue is on the loading side, not on the saving side.
morat
Posts: 6405
Joined: February 3rd, 2009, 6:29 pm

Re: Preference not preserved

Post by morat »

Try disabling all addons, then set pref (1) to false, then restart, then check pref (1) in config editor.

Try disabling all addons, then set pref (1) to false and pref (2) to false, then restart, then check pref (1) in config editor.

1. mail.compose.default_to_paragraph pref (default true)
2. editor.CR_creates_new_p pref (default true)
Vrish25
Posts: 6
Joined: February 25th, 2021, 1:00 am

Re: Preference not preserved

Post by Vrish25 »

I don't use any addons nor extensions in TB.

Now i tested this:

* I've set both editor.CR_creates_new_p and mail.compose.default_to_paragraph to false
* Quit TB
* Restart TB
* Now editor.CR_creates_new_p has been reverted to true but mail.compose.default_to_paragraph still is false
* Quit TB
* Restart TB
* Now also mail.compose.default_to_paragraph has been reverted to true

It really feels like a bug somewhere.

Can't you repeat this issue with your TB install ?
morat
Posts: 6405
Joined: February 3rd, 2009, 6:29 pm

Re: Preference not preserved

Post by morat »

I don't see the bug here.

pref (1) is true and pref (2) is false, no change after 1st and 2nd restart
pref (1) is false and pref (2) is true, no change after 1st and 2nd restart
pref (1) is false and pref (2) is false, no change after 1st and 2nd restart

1. mail.compose.default_to_paragraph pref (default true)
2. editor.CR_creates_new_p pref (default true)

What is the value of the mail.ui-rdf.version pref?

It's 23 here. A value of 0 means a new profile.

And don't change the value. I don't know what happens if you mess with it.

Reference
http://searchfox.org/comm-esr78/search? ... df.version

Thunderbird 78.8.0
Windows 7 SP1 32-bit
morat
Posts: 6405
Joined: February 3rd, 2009, 6:29 pm

Re: Preference not preserved

Post by morat »

Similar thread (see chosen solution)
http://support.mozilla.org/questions/1276948

Use paragraph format instead of body text pref reverts
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1489976

For reading only as Bugzilla is not a forum.
Vrish25
Posts: 6
Joined: February 25th, 2021, 1:00 am

Re: Preference not preserved

Post by Vrish25 »

morat wrote: What is the value of the mail.ui-rdf.version pref?
It's 11 here.
Similar thread (see chosen solution)
http://support.mozilla.org/questions/1276948
Use paragraph format instead of body text pref reverts
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1489976
For reading only as Bugzilla is not a forum.
Thanks for the links!
Well it turned out that deleting permissions.sqlite was sufficient to make the paragaph pref keep its value now.
So from practical pov it seems the issue is bypassed :)

So the issue clearly is a bug.
I'm amazed that it's still not fixed as the above links show messages of a year and more old.

Where do i have to report this bug so it can be fixed?
morat
Posts: 6405
Joined: February 3rd, 2009, 6:29 pm

Re: Preference not preserved

Post by morat »

The status of bug 1489976 was resolved as invalid so I don't think reporting the issue again would help.

And there are many duplicates of bug 1489976 already. (search for "Duplicate of this bug" on the following page)

Use paragraph format instead of body text pref reverts
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1489976
Vrish25
Posts: 6
Joined: February 25th, 2021, 1:00 am

Re: Preference not preserved

Post by Vrish25 »

morat wrote:The status of bug 1489976 was resolved as invalid so I don't think reporting the issue again would help.
And there are many duplicates of bug 1489976 already. (search for "Duplicate of this bug" on the following page)
Use paragraph format instead of body text pref reverts
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1489976
Ok i've read all the dups of this bug report.
A little bit disappointed that this bug can't be fixed but at the same time i respect this answer: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1654529#c7

Thanks a lot morat for your help !!

Happy the problem could be bypassed :)

And a happy TB user, thank you TB team !

NB:

I noticed that after i deleted permissions.sqlite and restarted TB the paragraph pref was preserved.
But then after quitting TB and reverting to the original permissions.sqlite and restarting TB the paragraph pref was still preserved !
So it seems that just temporarily deleting permissions.sqlite also fixes the migration issue.
Maybe this feedback can help others who have a giant set of permission exceptions so they don't have to re-input them all.
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