Message Database "Corruption" with TB 1.5.0.8

Discussion of bugs in Mozilla Thunderbird
dcnicholls
Posts: 35
Joined: April 27th, 2005, 9:58 pm
Location: Canberra, Oz

Post by dcnicholls »

I reinstalled 1.5.0.7: result: immediate problem fixed.

After the the reinstall, when I delete the appropriate .msf files(s) and Thunderbird reindexes (rebuilds the .msf file), everrything gets back to normal, and all the "missing" messages reappear. This has worked with my main folder and several of my "test" folders, so it seems to be a general fix for the immediate problem of reading the mails. 1.5.0.8 must remain under deep suspicion. I have turned off autoupdate for the present.

DN
dr_zeus
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Joined: November 9th, 2006, 9:20 pm

Post by dr_zeus »

I was able to use the same solution. Install 1.5.0.7. Delete the MSF files and start TB. However, I lost most of the messages that TB had filtered into the folder after the last upgrade. I think they never got written to the file.
zeus
dcnicholls
Posts: 35
Joined: April 27th, 2005, 9:58 pm
Location: Canberra, Oz

Post by dcnicholls »

I think there's something fishy about the filter mechanism. I set up the double filter for 1.5.0.7 (ie Copy to "fourms" and Move to "forums2") and I only get one action performed (the Move). So 1.5.0.7 may not be without fault, but at least I'm now seeing the new messages.

DN
soulek
Posts: 75
Joined: November 7th, 2005, 4:18 am

Post by soulek »

dcnicholls wrote:I think there's something fishy about the filter mechanism. I set up the double filter for 1.5.0.7 (ie Copy to "fourms" and Move to "forums2") and I only get one action performed (the Move).

You have probably been through this, but filters run in the order specified. It is important that the Copy filter run before the Move filter ... if the order is reversed, there won't be anything left to copy.
dcnicholls
Posts: 35
Joined: April 27th, 2005, 9:58 pm
Location: Canberra, Oz

Post by dcnicholls »

soulek wrote:You have probably been through this, but filters run in the order specified. It is important that the Copy filter run before the Move filter ... if the order is reversed, there won't be anything left to copy.


Yes, I made sure the order was correct :)

The peculiar effects of using multiple actions in the filter I outlined earlier makes me think this is the area of 1.5.0.8 that's gone wrong. Just how this interacts with the Chilkat X-mailer headers is unclear, but in my case, it was the Chilkat messages that were disappearing through not being indexed, nothing else.

DN
beeep
Posts: 2
Joined: November 11th, 2006, 1:37 pm

Same problem...so, now what?

Post by beeep »

I experienced basically the exact same problem after updating to 1.5.0.8

I would get the new mail notification in my system tray but Thunderbird would not show that I had any new mail.
Once it actually was even more odd, after the new mail notification one of my mail folders appeared bold however there was no number listed next to the folder name that would indicate the number of new emails in that folder. I was also unable to get the folder to update to 'all messages in this folder have been read status' (it was stuck bold).

I uninstalled, removed my .msf files and reinstalled 1.5.0.7
This resulted in 12 new and unread emails suddenly appearing (I can only assume that these are the only ones I was missing).
All of these newly appeared emails were in my inbox despite the fact that they would normally have been filtered into folders.

I am not sure what caused these particular ones to go missing on 1.5.0.8, there seems to be nothing common between them other than their being filtered into folders. I was able to receive some email while 1.5.0.8 was installed in fact I received mail from the same sender as one of the ones that got lost (ebay daily status).

So... the point of my post... if this is a problem on my end as the posts above seem to insist, then are there any suggestions as to what I should do to 'fix' or 'de-corrupt' my email so that I can update to 1.5.0.8 properly (and future builds)? I don't use nightly builds and other such things because I really don't have the time to deal with this kind of stuff and just want my email to work.
dcnicholls
Posts: 35
Joined: April 27th, 2005, 9:58 pm
Location: Canberra, Oz

Post by dcnicholls »

dcnicholls wrote:The peculiar effects of using multiple actions in the filter I outlined earlier makes me think this is the area of 1.5.0.8 that's gone wrong. Just how this interacts with the Chilkat X-mailer headers is unclear, but in my case, it was the Chilkat messages that were disappearing through not being indexed, nothing else.


I should also add that there is a 100% correlation between the Chilkat X-mailer messages and the filters. ie all the messages from that mailer, and only the messages from that mailer, get filtered. So it might have nothing to with the mail header, it might be the filter. Which would make it consistent with beeep's observations .

BTW, I too saw the exact same behaviour with the new mail indicator, the bold numbers etc.

Another observation might be worth adding here. On one occasion several weeks ago - before 1.5.0.8, but I forget which version - I tried to sort the messages by thread using the appropriate icon in the message list window. Everything except for four messages disappeared. I could only get the other messages back by deleting the .msf file. The worrying thing is that the four messages were the same four that 1.5.0.8 could see.

So there may be more than one bug, and part of it may predate 1.5.0.8

'Occam's Razor' says there's one principal cause, Murphy's Law says there are at least two. When in doubt, trust Murphy.
dcnicholls
Posts: 35
Joined: April 27th, 2005, 9:58 pm
Location: Canberra, Oz

Post by dcnicholls »

OK, I just tried the "sort by thread" command again (icon and menu versions) in a test folder which contains only Chilkat X-mailer messages, using *1.5.0.7*

All the messages except one disappear, and I cannot re-expand the list, until I go and delete the .msf file.

Smoking gun?

DN
soulek
Posts: 75
Joined: November 7th, 2005, 4:18 am

Post by soulek »

OK, enough data to move the discussion to a new forum. I have filed a Bugzilla report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=360409

p.s. I don't ever use the "sort by thread" command, so I have no comment on that ... though if the crux of the bug is an inability to handle/process the Chilkat headers, then it is logical that sorting and all other header-related functions would be impacted. It is interesting that dcnicholls can isolate a problem in 1.5.0.7. To me that says, "TB had problems with Chilkat headers in 1.5.0.7 ... and everything really hit the fan in 1.5.0.8." (... not a particularly technical explanation, but I'm sure everyone understands).
niekvs
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Joined: November 13th, 2006, 1:18 pm
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Post by niekvs »

I had the same problem.. i could still see the affected messages when viewing the Inbox file using a text editor, but not in TB. Tried compacting, and that didn't help, neither did deleting the msf file. Below you can see the header for one of the affected messages, directly copied from the 'Inbox' file. I'm afraid compacting actually deleted the messages, because after downgrading to TB .7, i only got back a few of them that were dated today, i think from after my last 'compact'.

In other words: this makes TB completely useless, and i can't believe that they're still distributing this version today, because it must be hurting many people. I had messages disappear almost every time i got new messages, probably at least 30% of them. Not sure if they were all spam, because i only started really investigating after compacting to see if this would fix it.

I just hope it has something to do with spam filtering, because in that case at least i know that i probably didn't lose any important messages. Can anyone confirm this?

Anyway, when i get Vista, i'll be sure not to use TB again - and i'm sure many others will feel the same way. I've been using it for years, but it's unacceptable to lose mail, and i completely lost my confidence with TB, especially since they're still distributing it: apparently they don't even care/realize what's going on. The bug report (360409) also makes it look like this is some isolated issue having to do with a few obscure mail agents, which obviously isn't the case (look below, X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2869 - which may not be the real mailer, since it's a spam mail.. but it does make it clear it's not only related to some specific mailers.)

Good luck everyone, and at least downgrade for now, as a quick fix! (and switch off Automatic updates)

-- Niek


From - Mon Nov 13 17:35:55 2006
X-Account-Key: account2
X-UIDL: UID15741-1103787658
X-Mozilla-Status: 0000
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
Return-Path: <ljveeflbi>
Delivered-To: 3-niek@xxxmydomainxxx.com
Received: (qmail 24804 invoked from network); 13 Nov 2006 16:27:05 -0000
Received: from dsl-189-166-104-20.prod-infinitum.com.mx (189.166.104.20)
by u15175353.onlinehome-server.com with SMTP; 13 Nov 2006 16:27:05 -0000
Message-ID: <000601c7073f>
From: "Were" <ljveeflbi>
To: niek@xxxmydomainxxx.com
References: <000601c7073f>
Subject: Re: glory World Service
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 10:16:14 -0600
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/related;
type="multipart/alternative";
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0004_01C7070C.BFB6D1E0"
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2869
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2962
soulek
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Joined: November 7th, 2005, 4:18 am

Post by soulek »

Niek ... you should add your data to the formal bug report, as your experience is different from mine.
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tanstaafl
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Post by tanstaafl »

Niek:

Did all of the messages that disappeared have an attachment?
niekvs
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Post by niekvs »

tanstaafl: I'm not actually sure, because they disappeared and i didn't see most of them. Only 3, which arrived after my last "compact" and i was able to view after downgrading to 1.5.0.7. Those were all spam, of the "stock-pusher" type, where you get a bit of 'positive' information about a small company in the hope that you purchase the stock. I believe the images in there are attached (in-line). I still have them in my Yahoo trash box, where i also downloaded these mails. It could be that they all had attachments, but i'm really not sure since i could only inspect the last 3.
soulek
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Joined: November 7th, 2005, 4:18 am

Post by soulek »

None of mine had attachments.
Lost User 52455
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Joined: December 31st, 1969, 5:00 pm

Post by Lost User 52455 »

soulek wrote:
dcnicholls wrote:I think there's something fishy about the filter mechanism. I set up the double filter for 1.5.0.7 (ie Copy to "fourms" and Move to "forums2") and I only get one action performed (the Move).

You have probably been through this, but filters run in the order specified. It is important that the Copy filter run before the Move filter ... if the order is reversed, there won't be anything left to copy.

A little note about the filters: they seem to be really buggy!
I made some tests and they do not work. I know for sure that they work in my system if I have only 1 rule. Very limiting...
See my posts here (sadly, I never had a reply):
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=2465175
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