Thunderbird 3 "Message Pane" always visible

WFM here on

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.4pre) Gecko/20090923 Lightning/1.0pre Shredder/3.0pre ID:20090923031438

Could you try to see if it still happens with
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/nightly/latest-comm-1.9.1/ ?

Anything in the Error console ?

Do you have the same issue in safe-mode ?

Re comment #1--installing Shredder from link in comment made no difference. Still wouldn't accept option of hiding message pane.

Re comment #2--same error starting is safe mode.

Error console showed the following entries (no idea what they mean)

1. Warning: Unexpected end of file while searching for ';' or '}' to end declaration. Unexpected end of file while searching for closing } of declaration block.
Source File: chrome://messenger/skin/accountCentral.css
Line: 78

2. 2009-09-23 19:31:35 gloda.indexer WARN Problem during [job:folder delta:0 id:1 items:0 offset:1 goal:37], trying to recover. Problem was at undefined:2654: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004003 (NS_ERROR_INVALID_POINTER) [nsIMsgFolder.GetMessageHeader]" nsresult: "0x80004003 (NS_ERROR_INVALID_POINTER)" location: "JS frame :: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Mozilla%20Thunderbird%203.0%20Beta%203/modules/gloda/indexer.js :: gloda_indexMessage :: line 2654" data: no]

Workaround found--the problem occurs only if I customize my mail toolbar by removing the global search box from the toolbar.

Confirmed here on

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.4pre) Gecko/20090923 Lightning/1.0pre Shredder/3.0pre ID:20090923031438

STR:
1. remove global search form main toolbar;
2. goto an account (not in local folders) and show and hide message pane (F8);
3. close thunderbird;
4. start thunderbird: message pane is visible.

I'm having the same problem w/ TB 3b4.

"If hiding the message preview pane is chosen (either via unticking the menu
selection of via pressing the F8 key), the option to keep the pane hidden is
always lost when TB is closed and the restarted.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.untick menu option View--Layout--Message Pane--message pane hidden
2.close TB
3.open TB--message pane no longer hidden
Actual Results:
Message pane shows on restart of TB

Expected Results:
Message pane should stay hidden until menu item reticked or F8 pressed."

Confirmed on TB3 RC1 (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091121 Lightning/1.0b1pre Thunderbird/3.0)

Reproducible: requires reboot

Steps to Reproduce:
1. untick menu option View--Layout--Message Pane--message pane hidden
2. close TB
3. restart computer
3. open TB--message pane no longer hidden

Actual Results:
Message pane shows on restart of TB following reboot

Expected Results:
Message pane should stay hidden until menu item reticked or F8 pressed.

Also noted on home computer, blamed spouse for tinkering...

*** Bug 532432 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 533912 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 534634 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Confirmed on Thunderbird 3.0 Final

I'm having this same problem, but only when OS rebooted. Also, my search box has not been removed from the toolbar.

related to bug 521026?

For me, unchecking the "When Thunderbird launches, show the start page in the message area." under the general preferences tab fixed it. Given this, it does not seem to me like a bug, as that option is saying "Open the pane on startup."

(In reply to comment #14)
> For me, unchecking the "When Thunderbird launches, show the start page in the
> message area." under the general preferences tab fixed it. Given this, it does
> not seem to me like a bug, as that option is saying "Open the pane on startup."

I already have that option unchecked and I am still experiencing this behavior.

(In reply to comment #15)
> I already have that option unchecked and I am still experiencing this behavior.

Actually you're right, I'm sorry. For me it fixes it between Thunderbird launches, but after a restart the panel reappears.

The search bar or any other customisation are irrelevant. This bug occurs on a fresh install without customisation/changes. I haven't changed a single thing on my stock standard install (except for trying to hide message pane). It always comes back after a reboot.

I'm having this same problem, but only when OS rebooted. Also, my search box
has not been removed from the toolbar.

I don't think that is right to show a cursor in the bottom to re-size it if the user choose to do not show the Message Pane.

I hope that this may help.

I have noticed that on my system, Windows XP, when I "empty trash" then close the program the message pane reappears. If I move to another folder after emptying trash and before closing then I am fine. If I close the program while I am in the trash folder but have not emptied it I am fine.

*** Bug 544411 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I can approve that!

(In reply to comment #20)
> I hope that this may help.
>
> I have noticed that on my system, Windows XP, when I "empty trash" then close
> the program the message pane reappears. If I move to another folder after
> emptying trash and before closing then I am fine. If I close the program while
> I am in the trash folder but have not emptied it I am fine.

bug 541085 is a probable duplicate. If I understand this bug correctly, this issue is avoidable, or in the case of a crash easily resolved by doing F8. Therefore changing severity to minor.

Marc, this is a 3.0 regression, so I think you made a mistake in requesting blocking/wanted 1.8.1.x - that stable branch isn't affected. And even if it was, it wouldn't be approved without a patch, nor for a bug of this severity.

Also, please be aware that flags are used to indicate which bugs must get fixed in a release based on some set of criteria. If it were used to push for solutions for every personal bug report then every bug might get flagged, which would be unmanageable.

t-wayne Thanks for the steps in comment 20. I can reproduce as follows:

1. click *trash* folder
2. f8
3. empty trash
4. file|exit
5. startup

preview pane returns.

If I recall correctly, there is a bug that describes that preview pane returns if the last folder selected (of any name) is empty, or if the account is selected. If so, perhaps this can be duped to an older bug

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20100204 Shredder/3.0.2pre

(In reply to comment #24)
> If I recall correctly, there is a bug that describes that preview pane returns
> if the last folder selected (of any name) is empty, or if the account is
> selected. If so, perhaps this can be duped to an older bug

urk. I may have been thinking of FIXED bug 521026

(In reply to comment #24)
> t-wayne Thanks for the steps in comment 20. I can reproduce as follows:
>
> 1. click *trash* folder
> 2. f8
> 3. empty trash
> 4. file|exit
> 5. startup
>
> preview pane returns.

I can definitely confirm these STR. Though for me, when I startup, I also notice that no folder is selected and I have to select a folder (at which point the preview pane is shown). So this is a definite bug.

> If I recall correctly, there is a bug that describes that preview pane returns
> if the last folder selected (of any name) is empty, or if the account is
> selected. If so, perhaps this can be duped to an older bug

A quick look I couldn't see anything.

If anyone can consistently reproduce anything different from the above steps to repeat, it'd be interesting to know about those cases as well.

@Wayne
I do not think that this is a minor bug. Because it is getting on my nervs to do at least tree clicks after starting Thunderbird to see, whether I have new Mail.

Andrew, David, I've just taken a look at this (STR in comment 24) and it seems to stem from the fact that when we throw round a deleted folder notification for "empty trash". The dbViewWrapper then assumes we've killed the folder sets the displayedFolder to null and nothing gets persisted for that tab.

For a 3.1 fix I'd possibly propose that we have a new notification "emptyFolder" or maybe change it to a "allMessagesDeleted" special case.

For a 3.0 fix, could we just get DBViewWrapper__folderDeleted to special case on trash folders?

(In reply to comment #27)
> @Wayne
> I do not think that this is a minor bug. Because it is getting on my nervs to
> do at least tree clicks after starting Thunderbird to see, whether I have new
> Mail.

Marc, Minor does not mean that there is no pain. What it means is that there is a workaround such that the condition is avoidable. Please see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=fields.html#importance

In this case, click in some other folder after empty and before shutdown. Or perhaps, shut down thunderbird less frequently.

I only shutdown thunderbird when rebooting or in the evening. The problem only ocours when the OS is rebooted. The workaround is not a good option, because I won't think of this possibility when I shutdown the OS.

not blocking, but definitely wanted. We really want to fix as many of the cases of this bug as possible. Marc, if you always want to empty trash on exit, you could set TB to do that automatically for you in account settings, server settings, empty trash on exit.

*** Bug 546410 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 550906 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

This is also happening on i386 Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04) with Thunderbird 3.0.1.

*** Bug 552416 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 541085 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I want to add that I can reproduce this bug consistently on Thunderbird 3.0.3 on Windows XP Pro by doing the following:

* Make sure preview pane is disabled (F8)
* Move a selected email to the Trash bin from Local Folders, either by dragging it or by selecting it and hitting the Delete key
* Right click on Trash > select "Empty Trash"
* Exit Thunderbird by clicking on Close window button (X in upper right corner)
* Restart Thunderbird
* Message pane reactivates

This does not happen if I do the following:

* Make sure preview pane is disabled (F8)
* Move a selected email to the Trash bin from Local Folders by right clicking on the email and selecting "Move to 'Trash' Again"
* Right click on Trash > select "Empty Trash"
* Exit Thunderbird by clicking on Close window button (X in upper right corner)
* Restart Thunderbird
* Message pane reactivates

However, the behavior is not consistent with the second method. Sometimes the preview pane will reactivate, sometimes it won't.

My mistake. The final step in the second method should read "Message pane does not reactivate."

I'm going to try and schedule this into 3.0.5. I think there's a potential fix for the known cases so will try and sort one out.

(In reply to comment #26)
> I can definitely confirm these STR. Though for me, when I startup, I also
> notice that no folder is selected and I have to select a folder (at which point
> the preview pane is shown). So this is a definite bug.

Sorry, I missed this one. I also get the same behavior which I failed to mention in my previous posts. Once Thunderbird starts back up no folder is selected (regardless of which folder was selected on exit) and once one is selected the preview pane opens up, although it is blank.

After messing with this further the bug doesn't seem to happen if a folder other than Trash is selected when exiting Thunderbird. Again, this is Thunderbird 3.0.3 running on Windows XP Pro.

Steps to recreate the bug:

* Make sure preview pane is disabled (F8)
* Move a selected email to the Trash bin from Local Folders, either by dragging
it or by selecting it and hitting the Delete key
* Right click on Trash > select "Empty Trash"
* Exit Thunderbird by clicking on Close window button (X in upper right corner)
* Restart Thunderbird (note that no folder is selected on open)
* Click on any folder
* Message pane reactivates

Same steps as above but with the additional step that prevents the bug from appearing:

* Make sure preview pane is disabled (F8)
* Move a selected email to the Trash bin from Local Folders, either by dragging
it or by selecting it and hitting the Delete key
* Right click on Trash > select "Empty Trash"
* Click on any folder other than Trash
* Exit Thunderbird by clicking on Close window button (X in upper right corner)
* Restart Thunderbird
* Click on any folder
* Message pane does not reactivate

Hopefully that helps further.

Maybe there is a relation to a possible Bug:

Thunderbird also forgets all open Tabs (Calendar and Tasks with Lightning) and the properties (Position of Cols like Priority or Date of Appointments/Tasks)

Also it forgets these Cols in the SideWindow of Lightning in the Mail Tab

Here are two pictures:

Before:
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6362/beforeje.jpg

After Restart:
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/9446/afterjh.jpg

*** Bug 562002 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

(In reply to comment #43)
> Here are two pictures:
>
> Before:
> http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6362/beforeje.jpg
>
> After Restart:
> http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/9446/afterjh.jpg

Sorry, that was my fault. Forget it.

Since we're seeing this on Linux too, I'm changing Platform to ALL.

Created an attachment (id=443009)
Possible fix

This is a possible fix/workaround to the issue. The fundamental issue is that for IMAP folders we're sending round a deleted notification, when we're not really deleting the folder.

The patch avoids us closing the folder, which means we keep a valid URI for the folder, which means that the session store data gets correctly saved.

I think a mozmill tests isn't possible at the moment as we don't have IMAP fake server hooked up.

Also we should probably have a follow-up bug to change the folder deleted notification to take account of the empty trash situation. I suspect that change couldn't be applied to 3.0 or 3.1 hence the change I'm suggesting here.

Requesting two reviews as I want more eyes on it, especially with no tests.

Is it possible to post a "How To apply the Fix"

(In reply to comment #47)
>
> I think a mozmill tests isn't possible at the moment as we don't have IMAP fake
> server hooked up.

Does this problem happen with local trash as well? I believe empty trash for local trash works similarly.

In any case, the patch seems fine. Yeah, it would be nicer to send an emptyTrash notification for the top level trash, and we could change the folder notification service to use the itemEvent method to send such a notification.

(In reply to comment #49)
> (In reply to comment #47)
> >
> > I think a mozmill tests isn't possible at the moment as we don't have IMAP fake
> > server hooked up.
>
> Does this problem happen with local trash as well? I believe empty trash for
> local trash works similarly.

I couldn't reproduce it with local trash.

> In any case, the patch seems fine. Yeah, it would be nicer to send an
> emptyTrash notification for the top level trash, and we could change the folder
> notification service to use the itemEvent method to send such a notification.

Yeah, that sounds reasonable.

(From update of attachment 443009)
seems reasonable - we don't allow you to actually delete the trash anyway.

(In reply to comment #47)
> I think a mozmill tests isn't possible at the moment as we don't have IMAP fake
> server hooked up.

You are making a change in DBViewWrapper which is xpcshell tested and we do have IMAP support for that test layer.

(From update of attachment 443009)
I presume the db view is doing the right thing here since it can survive db closings and reopenings and the trash folder is very special so this seems reasonable enough.

Created an attachment (id=444403)
Possible unit test

Possible test case for this bug. This is based around the other tests that we've got. There is one existing case where we check for displayedFolder being null after deleting a folder, so this just looks at the trash folder.

I was also trying to add more messages to the trash folder after emptying it (and thus verifying the view was correct), however, for some reason it kept saying "fakeFolder" wasn't defined. As I've already spent a couple of hours on this, I think that I either need help fixing it or we should just skip that bit for now.

Checked into trunk without the unit test for now (as this needs to get testing asap):

http://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/325dfd58d719

(From update of attachment 443009)
a=Standard8 for 3.0.5 and 3.1rc1.

Checked in on branches:
http://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-1.9.1/rev/521f105fa72a
http://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-1.9.2/rev/da5a9514bcb8

The fix we've done here will be fixed in tomorrow's nightly builds (all branches). It will be included in 3.0.5 and 3.1 release candidate, when they are released.

If you are still seeing an issue with those builds or later, please file separate bugs to this one where we can try and narrow down any more specific cases if there are any.

Created an attachment (id=444762)
v2 revised unit test

I made the parts that didn't work work. I also normalized the trash stuff a bit more. Doesn't break the other tests in dir or the gloda tests.

Verified fixed on Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.10) Gecko/20100510 Thunderbird/3.0.5

(From update of attachment 444762)
Thanks, that's much better :-)

Do you want the test on 3.1 too or just trunk?

(In reply to comment #62)
> Do you want the test on 3.1 too or just trunk?

All 3 if possible...

pushed to everywhere:
http://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-1.9.1/rev/a03d7d488f89
http://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-1.9.2/rev/937d0f27e6ea
http://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/6ca2a077b671

*** Bug 570331 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Still having the occurrence in Gecko/20100512 Thunderbird/3.0.5
Verified over several days, but I can't narrow down the case. The only manipulation of message is deletion.
The pane only re-appears after a full reboot, no extension is activated (I deactivate them for testing purpose).
I have two hypothesis but need time to check them (rebooting take quiet a long time)
Leaving Thunderbird being closed by the windows shutdown rather than closing manually first
And having the application in windowed (look like having it maximized remove the problem)

(In reply to comment #66)
> Still having the occurrence in Gecko/20100512 Thunderbird/3.0.5

As requested in comment 58 please file any remaining issues in new bugs.

Here is a later bug with the same symptoms but a different cause;

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=575864

Contrary to this being marked as FIXED - I doubt that.

now it is 2012 and I am using TB version 14.0 on win7 and ubuntu 12.04

I am experiencing same problem:

Hiding message preview pane (pain) does not stick between sessions or system restarts.

I can live with it, but it is a nuisance.

(In reply to amba46 from comment #69)
> Contrary to this being marked as FIXED - I doubt that.
>
> now it is 2012 and I am using TB version 14.0 on win7 and ubuntu 12.04
>
> I am experiencing same problem:
>
> Hiding message preview pane (pain) does not stick between sessions or system
> restarts.
>
> I can live with it, but it is a nuisance.

amba46, (as implied in whiteboard) Posting here in this closed bug isn't the path to getting your issue resolved. If what you are seeing is not bug 760384, then please file a new bug.

(In reply to amba46 from comment #69)
> Contrary to this being marked as FIXED - I doubt that.
>
> now it is 2012 and I am using TB version 14.0 on win7 and ubuntu 12.04
>
> I am experiencing same problem:
>
> Hiding message preview pane (pain) does not stick between sessions or system
> restarts.
>
> I can live with it, but it is a nuisance.

CCleaner in use by any chance? http://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/thunderbird-and-ccleaner-or-my-settings.html

(In reply to Matt from comment #71)
> (In reply to amba46 from comment #69)
> > Contrary to this being marked as FIXED - I doubt that.
> >
> > now it is 2012 and I am using TB version 14.0 on win7 and ubuntu 12.04
> >
> > I am experiencing same problem:
> >
> > Hiding message preview pane (pain) does not stick between sessions or system
> > restarts.
> >
> > I can live with it, but it is a nuisance.
>
> CCleaner in use by any chance?
> http://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/thunderbird-and-ccleaner-or-
> my-settings.html

Yes, CCleaner is in use and the change suggested by the link seems to have done the trick.

Thanks