Upgraded to 38.1: stuck in looking for folders....

[michabbb]

hi,

since the last update, TB stucks in "looking for folders"... all folders of the imap account get read, but no email gets fetched ;-((
version 31.7 is working - 38.1 NOT - thats fact and its a bug ! ;-(
whats the correct place to report this ??

thanks

[DanRaisch]

You're probably jumping to unwarranted conclusions. Many users have updated to version 38.1.0 but not many are reporting any problems similar to what you describe.

Does the same thing occur if you launch the application in Mozilla Safe Mode? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode

[michabbb]

i did try everything !

- safe mode
- delete profile folder
- delete mail folder (local)
- complete fresh reinstall

same problem !

version 38.1 : stuck on "looking folders..."
version 31.7 : no problems !

its a bug.... and if you google for it, you see, that this isn´t the first time, so its not that usual, that this is a real problem.

https://www.google.de/webhp?sourceid=ch ... rs&es_th=1

[DanRaisch]

Did you note the dates on those entries? 2006, 2011... You can search these forums if you like., You'll find few if any other reports of this issue.

[michabbb]

so because i am (right now) the only one, i am stupid and everything i say and have tested AND PROOFED is total nonesense ? are you going to tell me this ? or what is your point ?

[DanRaisch]

Don't look for an insult when none was intended. My point is simply that it may not be a bug if no one else has experienced the same problem.

What security software are you running on that machine?
Is that Windows 10 system a desktop or laptop or table?

[michabbb]

your questions are useless, because i have changed nothing !
so why ask for other software ? the only thing that has changed was TB itself !

AND YES: it´s a bug !

so how do you explain that a "complete fresh install" of both versions, behave different ? it´s NO coincidence.

btw.... i am using windows 10 desktop (no tablet)

and because a bug in the past got fixed, its absolutly impossible, that the same or similar bug will ever come back ? that´s not the world, where i live in...

i will do a test on my laptop (windows 7), where still the old version of TB is running. if i get the same problem there (after upgrade), i really think, we shouldn´t find other excuses for this problem.

[DanRaisch]

I'm asking about other software, specifically security software, because it is frequently found that such software does not properly recognize an updated version of Thunderbird (or other software) as a previously authorized program. That can cause the symptom that you describe with Thunderbird unable to access the Internet but acting as though it is frozen and not reporting the problem in a clear way. In such cases, the change in Thunderbird may trigger the problem but the problem is not in Thunderbird.

[tanstaafl]

Most bug reports get ignored because they don't provide enough information for somebody to reproduce or understand the problem. The system works best if the person asks for help in a support forum and they eliminate other possibilities before submitting a bug report, and figure out what additional information might be useful to submit in the bug report.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=859269 is an example of a (fixed) regression bug where "Thunderbird keeps "looking for folders" and nothing happens". In that case it was due to a incompatibility for a specific type/version of IMAP server (uw-imap-2007f) due to a small change in how Thunderbird tried to get a folder listing (lsub vs list command). They fixed it by making certain to "pass the folder prefix to the list command" to prevent this bug in cases where the user has set the "IMAP Server Directory" in Advanced Server Settings. Most people never ran into that bug and the bug report probably would have been ignored if the person hadn't mentioned the server was running UW IMAP software.

1. I suggest you start by deleting the saved password for the account (tools -> options -> security -> passwords) and restart (since the deleted password is still in memory). See if you get prompted for a password and can log in. That will help narrow down where the problem is. If you never get prompted for a password some other software is probably blocking the connection to the mail server.

2. Who is your email provider?

3. Does this problem occur for multiple accounts?

4. Have you changed anything in the advanced section of IMAP account's server settings? For example I set the IMAP server directory to [Gmail] in my Gmail IMAP account (rather than leaving it blank) to make the folder hierarchy more usable.

5. What exactly do you mean by "all folders of the imap account get read, but no email gets fetched"? Do you mean that the folder listings are updated correctly (if you get new mail or delete a message using webmail) but that you can not read a message? Please be as specific as possible.

[michabbb]

what really happens direct after the upgrade is:

- looking for all folders....
- nothing

i am not able to open existing emails, because everytime i switch a folder, i see the notice at the statusbar "looking for folders...."

i am already in contact with my provider to let him check his imap settings, like you explained about the bug.
in my case, its "spamarrest.com". i don´t really know theri specific types of imap servers.

- i don´t get asked for passwords, the authentification is working, if not, i would never see my imap folders
- after wating a long long time for "looking for folders...." i happens that i get a "timeout message" from TB, yes this may look like a 3rd party app is blocking something.
i am only using windows defender and the windows internal firewall, i even put TB into allowed apps, to be sure, nothing is blocked here, but as TB gets the folders, i assume, that a communication with the Imap server is working, in general.
but at some point, TB gets a timout and never finishes "getting folders"
- i don´t have changed anything in the imap advanced settings, after the upgrade, i didn´t change ANYTHING
- there are no multiple account, its only this specific
- i have imap folders, with a "@" in the name, can this be a problem ? (i cannot delete them, to verify this)

whats frustrating:

even a full clean install (deleted profiles, folders, settings, everything) gets the same problem, but the older version work correct.

are there any others infos i can provide that might help ?

[tanstaafl]

"i don´t get asked for passwords, the authentification is working, if not, i would never see my imap folders"

Nope. What you see could be due to the existing out of date *.msf files, which basically cache the folder listing. That's why I talked about sending yourself a new message and seeing if its shown in the folder listing, even though you can't read the message. If the folder listings are updated, that means you've managed to make a connection to the mail server, log in, and request a updated folder listing. If they aren't updated you don't know how far Thunderbird got as long as you rely upon the password wizard. Thats why I suggested you delete the saved password and restart, so that you can verify if you did manage to successfully connect to the mail server and log in.

FYI if you are "working offline" (using file -> offline -> work offline) you will see the contents of the offline folders (created by synchronization & storage being set to "keep messages for this account on the computer") instead of the contents of the remote folders on your mail server.

[sman12345]

You are not alone. I suspect the internet will be flooded with complaints over the next few hours.

My Tbird was working fine before the update. After the update all my hotmail accounts are hosed. Gmail accounts are apparently fine though.

[michabbb]

hi all,

here is a statement from spamarrest.com:

======================================
Hi Michael.

Thanks for writing.

We've receive a lot of emails from our customers who are using Thunderbird as a mail client. Recently, Thunderbird had an update (V 38.0.1) and this update created problems for all IMAP users. As of now, the fix we find is to have users use the older version of Thunderbird. We've passed this over to our developers so that they can check what's with the update that made errors for all Spam Arrest Thunderbird users who uses IMAP for their account. What you will need to do is to uninstall the current version of Thunderbird and download the installer from the older version (version 37). Below is the link for Mozilla Thunderbird's different versions:

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/ ... /releases/

Once you install the older version of Thunderbird, simply create the Spam Arrest account again using IMAP.


Let me know if you need more help and we will assist you.

Best regards,
Technical Support Specialist
======================================

@sman12345 i know i am not the only one... not everybody speaks english, not everybody is able to write something into a forum...
there are many poeple out there with problems.. !

i hope, spamarrest will find a solution for this current problem !

[steve newman]

Hello-
I and my wife are a spam arrest customers. We both use Thunderbird for email each on our own computer.
(both win 7). Tbird updated us to 38.1. I have had no problem, but my wife has the "looking for folders"
bug, and can't use thunderbird.
I would like to take her tbird back to 31.7 (the last one before 38.1) where there was no problem.
I have disabled the automatic updates so Tbird won't be able to reinstall the buggy new version.

I downloaded 31.7 but am not sure if i can just run it, or if i first need to uninstall 38.1.
If i uninstall 38.1 and run 31.7, will her address books, folders, past emails, etc be intact or will they
be gone? How should i procede to make the switch. Any info would be appreciated.

[DanRaisch]

First backup the Thunderbird profile, just to be "extra cautious." http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup

Clear the browser cache and the Windows Temp directory.
Shutdown any anti-virus software you are running.
Download a new copy of the full installer from http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/
Delete the directory C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird
Run the installer.
Restart the anti-virus program.

Note that your saved messages, address books, settings, passwords, etc (if any) are stored in a different directory from the program files and will not be removed by deleting the directory identified above.

This thread viewtopic.php?f=39&t=996475&p=5239885#p5239885 has a more detailed version of the above instructions if needed.