Character encoding in Drafts and Templates won't "stick"
I've been using T'bird for many years, am using now Version 30.0 with Windows 8. Over the years I have wrestled extensively with character encodings, because I do a lot of messages in mixed English and Cyrillic. I have things set now so that my default encoding is Cyrillic (Windows 1251) and this works pretty well, EXCEPT!! that when I save a message in my Drafts folder (or any of its subfolders), or my Templates folder, two things happen: 1. the Cyrillic goes to garbage (I can sometimes recover this by physically moving the message to the Inbox) 2. I get a series of  and/or à characters, with and without spaces between.
This is a major pain in the butt! If I catch it the first time around, and move the offending message to the Inbox and "Edit as new", I can usually rescue the cyrillic - but if I (for example) make some changes elsewhere in the message in English portions and save it again (without noticing the mess-up of the cyrillic), it's all lost and I've found no way to recover it.
I've been reading this forum and I suspect that my problem lies in the "folder properties", and/or maybe that I have not set up a User-defined set of display properties. However, I'm afraid to just mess around with things (as I've done so much in the past) for fear of messing up messages that I've been keeping for a long time in the OTHER folders.
Help please? I use Windows 7.
Modified by martamima
All Replies (12)
I notice you are using version 30. please let the developers know about the issue.
The current version for release is 24.5.0 suggest you uninstall version 30 via Control Panel > Programs and Features, select Mozilla thunderbird and click on uninstall.
Then download a fresh version from here:
Modified by Toad-Hall
Thanks - but this does not solve my problem: I have been having this problem for YEARS! It's more global than that, and I fear it's some choice I made long ago that it might be too late to undo, without ruining many stored messages.
I have no idea what I am talking about. Character sets are mostly theoretical in my world.... so correct what it rubbish.
The UTF-8 character set is supposed to support the 256 cyrillic character set. I suggest you try using that instead of the old ISO character sets which are now becoming niche as i understand this stuff.
Firefox and Thunderbird share a rendering engine, and this page appears to render well in Firefox http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/block/cyrillic/utf8test.htm
Right click on eg: 'Drafts' Folder and select 'Properties'
check the 'Default Character Encoding'.
You say this fixes when you move it to the Inbox, so check the Inbox (right click and select 'Properites') . Is there a difference in the 'Default Character Encoding' between the Draft and the Inbox folders?
@Toad-Hall - They are identical. I did a LOT of pfutzing around many years ago, and probably introduced some corruption then. What I want is to recover WITHOUT losing things that already work OK.
Do you know anything about what might happen if I try the "Repair this folder" button?
re: 'what might happen if I try the "Repair this folder" button?'
this will reindex the folder.
I.e., it might solve different problems, but not MINE?
Do you write/compose messages using HTML or Plain Text?
Do you have this setting? View > Message Body as > Original HTML
re: Drafts' Folder and select 'Properties' Is this checkbox selected or not:
'apply default to all messages in the folder (individual message character encoding settings and auto detection wil be ignored'
if you select an email in the Drafts folder, then 'view' > 'character encoding' what does it say is being used for that email?
If you move that email into Inbox , then 'view' > 'character encoding' what does it say is being used for that email?
I use both plain text and HTML - seems to come out plain text unless I've applied any formatting, in which case it comes out HTML.
View > Message Body as > Original HTML - YES, for individual messages in any folder, far as I can see.
'apply default to all messages in the folder (individual message character encoding settings and auto detection wil be ignored' - no, that is NOT checked - because I receive messages in a variety of character encodings, so I want the original one to show. [Sub-point: I have even edited the character encoding in an individual received message that was not displaying correctly, using Notepad++), put that back in the folder and deleted the original - this works unless I've screwed something else up - this is for RECEIVED messages only.]
Your third point is the interesting one and may reveal the solution. I found a message in the Drafts folder that I'd saved recently, that should be in Cyrillic (Windows 1251). Open it in the Draft folder - garbage. Options > character encoding shows .... OK, Gremlins at work - but GOOD ones! Can I describe this? I'll try:
Draft folder's fallback encoding is 1251, "Apply to all messages..." is NOT checked. I found two old but not yet corrupted (by multiple saves) Cyrillic messages - one was (can verify this by Crtl-U) 1251, the other was UTF-8. BOTH initially opened in Drafts as garbage if the respective types.
Copy both messages into Inbox - they display fine. [However....attempting to change/repair the encoding when it was open as a draft did NOT help - I did not save that experiment.] Now, here's the Gremlin's contribution: AFTER HAVING COPIED the messages into the Inbox and merely opened it and looked around.....NOW they open JUST FINE in Drafts!!! Both of them! Finally.....remove the copies from the Inbox - the UTF-8 one "holds" find in Drafts, but the 1251 one reverts to Garbage. While in Inbox, "copy" the 1251 one to Inbox - try again to open it from Drafts - it has become fine; open it in Inbox, it's fine. Delete from Inbox - Drafts copy stays the same (OK, by accident I had saved it anew in Drafts).
Can you follow this? Can you suggest an explanation?!
I have a "test message" or two, that I've saved as pdf files for safe-keeping - will fiddle with them next.
Oops - a little while later, with the copies deleted from the Inbox, these messages have each reverted to their particular strain of garbage.
BUT - I think this may point us in the right direction, no? I hope you can help, I'm tired of years of this!
updated: Sorry to confuse you. Select the mail account name, so no email is selected. close and reopen thunderbird.
A couple of tests: Select Drafts folder and an email
1. Double click on draft email in list to open in a new message. Result: Confirm this is garbage.
2. Right click on draft email in list and choose 'Open in a new tab', Result: Is this still garbage?
then click on 'Edit' button:
Result: Is this still garbage?
3. Right click on draft email in list and choose 'Open in a new window', Result: Is this still garbage?
then click on 'Edit' button:
Result: Is this still garbage?
Then select an email from the Inbox which is using Cyrillic (Windows 1251) to read in message pane.
then select a draft using Cyrillic (Windows 1251) and repeat the three tests above reporting on the Result each time.
Modified by Toad-Hall
Didn't understand from what starting point you want me to "select the mail account name", but closed and re-opened T'bird.
Then I started to run your tests. To my HUGE AMAZEMENT!!! - everything seems to be working today!!
This leaves me with a couple of old files that seem to have gotten trashed a long time ago and won't simply "revover" - but I did keep back-up copies of them elsewhere, and can now go about rebuilding them if necessary.
Thank you for your help - whatever it is that I did, seems to have worked. After how many years?! If I have trouble in the future, I'll be back - but for right now, what a RELIEF!
Best, Martha