Sending Failure

User Help for Mozilla Thunderbird
Post Reply
John Liebson
Posts: 6920
Joined: July 29th, 2003, 1:09 pm

Sending Failure

Post by John Liebson »

Windows 11 21H2; Fx 93.0; TB "latest version", as it was installed just a few minutes ago so I can call it that, but shall share that it is 91.2.1; error was present in Tb release just before the update.

This is the subject of a mail link that creates an error message to check the SMTP:

In Defense of King George | History | Smithsonian Magazine

Editing the subject to this allows sending the message with the link :

In Defense of King George History Smithsonian Magazine

Bug, dislike of | ("Vertical bar" or "pipe" in ASCII), or silliness?
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Sending Failure

Post by tanstaafl »

I had no problem sending a message using version 91.2.1 under Windows 10 Home 64-bit with the following header:

Subject: |@!?|>><<||%$|NIL||
John Liebson
Posts: 6920
Joined: July 29th, 2003, 1:09 pm

Re: Sending Failure

Post by John Liebson »

I created a test message with the subject This | Is | A Test, which was sent. There must be something rather odd with the way that the Mail Link was created in Fx, but what could that be?
John Liebson
Posts: 6920
Joined: July 29th, 2003, 1:09 pm

Re: Sending Failure

Post by John Liebson »

I just sent another mail link from a Smithsonian Magazine to Tb, and could not send the resulting message due to the SMTP error. I then sent a link from a Politico article, which i was able to send to myself.

Something astray in the Smithsonian links, apparently, but I have no idea as to how to even look at the |s in the message title to see if I can find out why these don't work.
John Liebson
Posts: 6920
Joined: July 29th, 2003, 1:09 pm

Re: Sending Failure

Post by John Liebson »

I just used a Mail Link from a Smithsonian Daily Newsletter, which worked. I then brought up a series of articles, created a link, it failed. There must be something in the latter type of article that is causing the problem, as it does not appear to apply to everything from Smithsonian Magazine.

In the wonderful words of The King of Siam, "Is puzzlement".
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Sending Failure

Post by tanstaafl »

I didn't use a mail link, I created a message manually in Thunderbird with the potentially troublesome subject.

Perhaps your problem is with how Firefox handles file -> email link. See if you can duplicate the problem if you don't use file -> email link and compose the same message manually in Thunderbird.
John Liebson
Posts: 6920
Joined: July 29th, 2003, 1:09 pm

Re: Sending Failure

Post by John Liebson »

tanstaafl wrote:I didn't use a mail link, I created a message manually in Thunderbird with the potentially troublesome subject.

Perhaps your problem is with how Firefox handles file -> email link. See if you can duplicate the problem if you don't use file -> email link and compose the same message manually in Thunderbird.
I have used Mail Link frequently for quite a long time; this is the first problem I've encountered.

I did some experimenting, and now I'm perplexed: I copied the mail link into Word Perfect, had both WP and Tb on screen so that I could copy from the first into the subject line in a new Tb message. I did this in steps; the last one failed. That is, it failed until I tried again using the entire copied text from the mail link, which worked. I then tried once more to create and send the mail link, which failed.
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Sending Failure

Post by tanstaafl »

In my mind, a mail link is referring to a browser either processing a HTML mailto: link in a web page or doing the equivalent for the currently selected web page, calling the default email client to send a message with the message body set to the URL. In the case of a real mailto: link that frequently also sets the destination email address.

See https://www.rapidtables.com/web/html/mailto.html and https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ch ... mail-links

What I did in Thunderbird was just copy and paste the URL into the message body, enter a destination and the supposedly problem some subject, and send it. No actual "mail link" involved.

When I read your last paragraph its not clear what you did manually in Thunderbird because you keep talking about a mail link. I expected you to talk about a URL instead.
John Liebson
Posts: 6920
Joined: July 29th, 2003, 1:09 pm

Re: Sending Failure

Post by John Liebson »

tanstaafl wrote:In my mind, a mail link is referring to a browser either processing a HTML mailto: link in a web page or doing the equivalent for the currently selected web page, calling the default email client to send a message with the message body set to the URL. In the case of a real mailto: link that frequently also sets the destination email address.

See https://www.rapidtables.com/web/html/mailto.html and https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ch ... mail-links

What I did in Thunderbird was just copy and paste the URL into the message body, enter a destination and the supposedly problem some subject, and send it. No actual "mail link" involved.

When I read your last paragraph its not clear what you did manually in Thunderbird because you keep talking about a mail link. I expected you to talk about a URL instead.
Simple terminology problem: I consider what I am doing to create a "mail link', albeit Fx uses Email link. I pay much more attention to the action than to the correct terminology, as I am interested in forwarding a link from Fx through Tb than I am in what the process may be called. That is due to my not being at all interested in coding, etc. until/unless I am forced to get involved to solve a problem, and even then, as I have extremely limited knowledge of such matters, if I need to express something I find to someone offering assistance, my reply may not be overly helpful.

I have the same sort of problem explaining something from a medieval manuscript or similar source to a non-medieval scholar, or to explain to a civilian something we did at the scene of a fire or other emergency. In those situations, I know the correct terminology but may have a hard time translating that into non-specialist terms.

In Firefox, click on File/Email link, and you will see what I am talking about. To get a link of the type that until recently worked well:

In Fx, enter "Smithsonian Articles", select an article, create an email link, go to Tb, enter a recipient, and see if the url which is in your new Tb outgoing email will transmit or create a SMTP error message.
John Liebson
Posts: 6920
Joined: July 29th, 2003, 1:09 pm

Re: Sending Failure

Post by John Liebson »

This is getting tiresome, or more accurately, it is tiresome:

1. This failed: New Research Dispels Theory That First Americans Came From Japan | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine

2. This worked: New Research Dispels Theory That First Americans Came From Japan Smart News Smithsonian Magazine

3. This then worked: New Research Dispels Theory That First Americans Came From Japan | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine

4. Which then failed again.

Surely there is something wrong with the SMTP server, something that, as I have repeated, worked repeatedly for many years. Interaction with Windows 11, change in the coding of the SMTP server recently. Should I take the time to file a bug?

A search of Bugzilla for 2021 in the list of SMTP bug reports did not turn up anything that seemed to be about the weirdness that is causing me problems.
John Liebson
Posts: 6920
Joined: July 29th, 2003, 1:09 pm

Re: Sending Failure

Post by John Liebson »

Air & Space Magazine is published by the Smithsonian. I just tested an article using the same method as I have been using for articles from Smithsonian Magazine. The email link from the Air & Space article had the same format as those from Smithsonian Magazine, xxxx | yyyyy | zzzzz, but there is some difference between the two sources, as the A&S article link was sent from Tb; those from SMag engender the SMTP.

I am going to file a Bugzilla report; the A&S information should help them find out what is causing the SMTP failure-to-send problem.
Post Reply