When replying to an email, the "original message" is wrong

User Help for Mozilla Thunderbird
User avatar
DanRaisch
Moderator
Posts: 127185
Joined: September 23rd, 2004, 8:57 pm
Location: Somewhere on the right coast

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by DanRaisch »

After the steps you have taken it's hard to see how the issue could be one of Thunderbird bringing in the old data by itself.
Does the same thing occur if you launch the application in Mozilla Safe Mode? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode
Is the option to "Automatically quote the original message when replying" selected, that is, turned on? Check that under menu path Tools->Account Settings->Composition & Addressing? If it is, try turning that off and then testing by replying to a message.
nym9
Posts: 262
Joined: May 26th, 2005, 1:44 am

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by nym9 »

DanRaisch wrote:Does the same thing occur if you launch the application in Mozilla Safe Mode? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode
Yes
DanRaisch wrote: Is the option to "Automatically quote the original message when replying" selected, that is, turned on?
Yes, if I turn it off the wrong info is not quoted, that is the only thing that turns it off so it seems there's a connection.

But I need that on, and it's always there even if I select "select the quote" instead of "start my reply above the quote"
nym9
Posts: 262
Joined: May 26th, 2005, 1:44 am

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by nym9 »

Still unresolved
nym9
Posts: 262
Joined: May 26th, 2005, 1:44 am

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by nym9 »

upgraded to 60.04, still happens
nym9
Posts: 262
Joined: May 26th, 2005, 1:44 am

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by nym9 »

Forwarding puts the correct "Forwarded message", Reply still puts wrong "Original message", need some advanced help if possible
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by tanstaafl »

I'm skeptical you're running into a bug in Thunderbird, so upgrading again is unlikely to help.

1) If you create a new folder, copy a message to it, select the message in the new folder, and reply to it does the problem occur? That should eliminate any question of whether its due to a corrupt folder or how the message is stored. I don't think its due to a corrupted folder since you don't see the problem with Forwarding, but I'd like to be 100% sure.

It sounds like you have two IMAP accounts, one of them Gmail. Does the problem occur with both IMAP accounts or just the non-Gmail one?

2) Does the non-Gmail account have multiple identities defined? Each multiple identity has its own set of account settings, even though you typically only change the email address for the multiple identity.

If what I'm talking about is not clear, do you get messages sent to multiple email addresses in the non-Gmail account?

3) Some of the *.json files can get corrupted. In that case its easiest to delete the file, restart Thunderbird, and let it replace the missing file with one with default values. Try exiting Thunderbird and deleting the xulstore.json (toolbar, window layout and size/position settings) and session.json (snapshot of the windows layout) files in the profile. You will have to customize the toolbars again, if you made any customizations.

I suggest you also delete all the files in your operating systems temporary file directory, using windows explorer. Thunderbird used to create nsmail.eml, nsmail.tmp, and/or nsmail.html temporary files in a MozillaMailnews subdirectory in the directory used for temporary files, when sending a message. I took a quick look with TB 60.4 and don't find that yet, so the filenames or location might have changed. But I suspect they'd still use some temporary files.

Searching the comm-esr60 branch of the sources, Line 83 of https://dxr.mozilla.org/comm-esr60/sour ... ils.cpp#83 shows nsmail.tmp being used when you compose a message. On my PC TEMP=C:\Users\Eric\AppData\Local\Temp , but there are no nstmp*.* files there. I need to do some more research to understand why I can't find those files. I used the "Everything" search program to quickly search my boot drive for those files, that's much quicker than using Windows Explorer.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Toolbar_or_wi ... ot_working
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Files_and_fol ... hunderbird
https://www.howtogeek.com/285710/how-to ... her-drive/ explains how to find your operating systems temporary files directory. Ignore the additional instructions on how to change their location.
nym9
Posts: 262
Joined: May 26th, 2005, 1:44 am

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by nym9 »

tanstaafl wrote:1) If you create a new folder, copy a message to it, select the message in the new folder, and reply to it does the problem occur?
Yes
tanstaafl wrote:It sounds like you have two IMAP accounts, one of them Gmail. Does the problem occur with both IMAP accounts or just the non-Gmail one?
Both, also the Local Folders account.
tanstaafl wrote:2) Does the non-Gmail account have multiple identities defined? Each multiple identity has its own set of account settings, even though you typically only change the email address for the multiple identity.
There are many identities but I've never changed or defined any settings or options for any individual identity.
tanstaafl wrote:If what I'm talking about is not clear, do you get messages sent to multiple email addresses in the non-Gmail account?
Yes
tanstaafl wrote:I suggest you also delete all the files in your operating systems temporary file directory, using windows explorer. Thunderbird used to create nsmail.eml, nsmail.tmp, and/or nsmail.html temporary files in a MozillaMailnews subdirectory in the directory used for temporary files, when sending a message.
Deleted the whole folder.
tanstaafl wrote:3) Some of the *.json files can get corrupted. In that case its easiest to delete the file, restart Thunderbird, and let it replace the missing file with one with default values. Try exiting Thunderbird and deleting the xulstore.json (toolbar, window layout and size/position settings) and session.json (snapshot of the windows layout) files in the profile. You will have to customize the toolbars again, if you made any customizations.
Deleted all, plus sessionstore sessionstate sessioncheckpoint, restarted, still shows the same wrong 'original message' (but correct 'forwarded message')
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by tanstaafl »

Useful. That rules out a lot of suspects.

You seem to be always fetching the strings from the wrong message, and always the same wrong message. The basic problem is I don't know how that information is passed. I suspected that it was eventually stored in a nsmail.* file since those headers aren't displayed in the compose message window. Forwarding includes the headers in the message body (or in an attachment) so it probably does things differently. That's consistent with you not seeing this problem when forwarding.

Please temporarily change mailnews.reply_header_type to 2 (the normal default value for Thunderbird) using the config editor at tools -> options -> advanced -> general, restart Thunderbird, and see if that uses information from the right message. It will change the format of the reply headers.

I ran version 52.9.1 using the same profile and it had the temporary files in the location I expected, so it looks version 60.* has changed a number of things. I've been assuming that it correctly fetched the right information from the message it was replying to but some sort of resource got corrupted, making it always pass the same strings whenever you replied. Its possible a different version of that resource was used in 52.9.1.

Would you mind installing 52.9.1. in a different directory using custom setup, and see if it has the same problem? You don't need to uninstall 60.4 and it will automatically use the same profile (which is where your mail, settings, add-ons, address books etc. are stored).

My impression was that you updated 60.* to 60.4 after this problem occurred. 52.9.1 will probably disable some of your add-ons , and each time you switch from it to 60.* extensions.strictCompatibility will be reset to the default value. You might have changed it to false to let you install add-ons that don't formally support 60.*. I haven't run into any other problems switching back and forth between 52.9.1. and 60.4 several times.

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/ ... n32/en-US/ is the setup program for version 52.9.1. under windows, for english USA. If you want to use a different 52.9.1. setup program see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Go_back_to_an ... hunderbird
nym9
Posts: 262
Joined: May 26th, 2005, 1:44 am

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by nym9 »

tanstaafl wrote:Please temporarily change mailnews.reply_header_type to 2 (the normal default value for Thunderbird) using the config editor at tools -> options -> advanced -> general, restart Thunderbird, and see if that uses information from the right message. It will change the format of the reply headers.
That actually solved the problem, though ideally I prefer type 1 format.

More importantly, that helped find the cause of the problem, which you can see in this screencap:

removed

The second line, which is bolded, and ends with "awesome", that is the wrong Original Message.

edit: Tried to delete that line but there is no 'delete' option, not sure how to proceed with that line or any other lines that may need editing.
Last edited by nym9 on January 16th, 2019, 1:09 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by tanstaafl »

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Reply_header_settings

Rather than delete, right click on mailnews.reply_header_authorwrotesingle and chose Reset at the bottom of the context menu. That will reset it to the default value. The rest look okay and aren't modified, so you can leave them alone.

I'd then set mailnews.reply_header_type to whatever format you prefer, exit Thunderbird, restart Thunderbird, and see if its working okay.
nym9
Posts: 262
Joined: May 26th, 2005, 1:44 am

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by nym9 »

tanstaafl wrote:http://kb.mozillazine.org/Reply_header_settings

Rather than delete, right click on mailnews.reply_header_authorwrotesingle and chose Reset at the bottom of the context menu. That will reset it to the default value. The rest look okay and aren't modified, so you can leave them alone.

I'd then set mailnews.reply_header_type to whatever format you prefer, exit Thunderbird, restart Thunderbird, and see if its working okay.
I tried all the preferences 0,1,2,3 but I can't seem to find the one I had before, which was

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: _
From:
To:
Date:

Current settings:

Image
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by tanstaafl »

Hmmm. Setting mailnews.reply_header_type to 0 adds the -------- Original Message -------- in a reply, but I don't think its supposed to add the subject/from/to/date from the quoted message below it. I suspect that might require additional settings or an add-on. What you want seems like what the "Change quote and reply format" extension used to configure if you selected "extended reply header".

I can install that add-on from https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/changequote-en.html (by disabling strict compatibility) but its options don't work. http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3041270 claims its broken, and suggests
https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/th ... ithheader/ . Another possibility is
https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/th ... template4/ . Both support version 60.*.

I'll try them later on, its getting really late :)
nym9
Posts: 262
Joined: May 26th, 2005, 1:44 am

Re: When replying to an email, the "original message" is wro

Post by nym9 »

tanstaafl wrote:What you want seems like what the "Change quote and reply format" extension
Yep, I just didn't realize it was incompatible with 60.4 because I updated after this issue started. No idea how it started though, I certainly didn't knowingly modify anything.
That worked, thanks, you rule, Dan rules, this support forum rules, and I still believe Mozilla has the best browser. email client, and calendar.
Post Reply