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Gmail + Thunderbird + Focus bug - causes accidental deletion (possibly ever since Supernova was launched)

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  • Viimati vastas AMM

AMM
AMM
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Let me give a minimal example to create a scenario.

Please note that I mostly use Keyboard shortcuts, which play important part in this bug.

So let us say, I have only two messages in Gmail.

  1. Subject: This is new but unimportant message
  2. Subject: This is old and important message

Now thunderbird synced Inbox as well as All Mail folder of Gmail. And both the folders have same mails.

So: Inbox shows 1/2 (one unread, total 2 messages) All mail also shows 1/2 (one unread, total 2 messages)

As I said earlier, I mostly use Keyboard shortcuts.

  1. I open Inbox.
  2. And read first message (with subject: This is new but unimportant message).
  3. I find unimportant. So I press 'Del' key to delete that message
  4. Then I immediately press 'n' to move to next unread message
  5. Now thunderbird takes me to All Mail folder of GMail
  6. Since All Mail still does not know that 1st email was deleted from Inbox folder, it shows me same email again in All Mail folder.
  7. So I press 'Del' key to delete that message (which was already deleted from Inbox but not synced with All mail)
  8. But by the time I press 'Del' key the thunderbird synced the All Mail folder, and on its own deleted the first message and focus was dropped on 2nd email.
  9. Now since focus was dropped on 2nd (important) email while I was pressing the Del key, instead of deleting first unimportant email, I accidentally deleted 2nd important email without realizing what happened. (Important message is gone without me realizing)
  10. This issue was not there earlier (I believe before Supernova). Earlier focus did not fall on 2nd email automatically but thunderbird completely de-focused the pane. So even if I press Del key it would not delete anything.

I have had many instances of important email going to Trash because of this newly introduced bug. Noticing mostly after Supernova was introduced.

In above example there were just 2 emails, so one would immediately notice that How come all emails vanished when I just deleted one email.

But in reality I have hundreds of new messages and would not realize that Del key was pressed on an important email because thunderbird changed the focus.

Please look in to the bug and resolve

Thank you

Let me give a minimal example to create a scenario. Please note that I mostly use Keyboard shortcuts, which play important part in this bug. So let us say, I have only two messages in Gmail. # Subject: This is new but unimportant message # Subject: This is old and important message Now thunderbird synced Inbox as well as All Mail folder of Gmail. And both the folders have same mails. So: Inbox shows 1/2 (one unread, total 2 messages) All mail also shows 1/2 (one unread, total 2 messages) As I said earlier, I mostly use Keyboard shortcuts. # I open Inbox. # And read first message (with subject: This is new but unimportant message). # I find unimportant. So I press 'Del' key to delete that message # Then I immediately press 'n' to move to next unread message # Now thunderbird takes me to All Mail folder of GMail # Since All Mail still does not know that 1st email was deleted from Inbox folder, it shows me same email again in All Mail folder. # So I press 'Del' key to delete that message (which was already deleted from Inbox but not synced with All mail) # But by the time I press 'Del' key the thunderbird synced the All Mail folder, and on its own deleted the first message and focus was dropped on 2nd email. # Now since focus was dropped on 2nd (important) email while I was pressing the Del key, instead of deleting first unimportant email, I accidentally deleted 2nd important email without realizing what happened. (Important message is gone without me realizing) # This issue was not there earlier (I believe before Supernova). Earlier focus did not fall on 2nd email automatically but thunderbird completely de-focused the pane. So even if I press Del key it would not delete anything. I have had many instances of important email going to Trash because of this newly introduced bug. Noticing mostly after Supernova was introduced. In above example there were just 2 emails, so one would immediately notice that How come all emails vanished when I just deleted one email. But in reality I have hundreds of new messages and would not realize that Del key was pressed on an important email because thunderbird changed the focus. Please look in to the bug and resolve Thank you

All Replies (2)

Toad-Hall
Toad-Hall
  • Top 10 Contributor
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When you delete emails in an imap gmail account you need to make sure they go into the imap gmail account Trash folder, this then synchronises with server to update server. Gmail will auto delete any emails that have been in the gmail Trash after 30 days, thus allowing you time to retrieve an email deleted in error. Gmail will auto remove any deleted emails from the 'All Mail' folder if those emails have been put into the gmail Trash folder.

Note: If you by pass the gmail Trash folder then gmail reads this as remove only a label which means the email is archived meaning email is still in All Mail but all labels are removed so you do not see it anywhere else.

So everything works perfectly ok until you decide to delete an email from an 'All Mail' folder which you know has already been deleted. Why are deleting emails from 'All Mail'? It does take a little while for Thunderbird to jibber jabber with server about what has been deleted and then server gets up dated and then the imap 'All Mail' folder gets synchronised again to reflect changes.

Bottom line is this if you have set everything up correctly and it sounds like you have everything set up correctly....then Do not delete anything from the 'All Mail' folder. I would go as far to say do not do anything with an 'All Mail' folder and the best solution is unsubscribe from seeing it.

If you delete an email from 'All Mail' then it will automatically get deleted from whatever folder it was displaying in eg: Inbox. Strongly advise you do not do anything in a gmail 'All Mail' folder. It is the one and only copy that truelly exists as far as gmail is concerned and nothing in an imap account can be truelly regarded as a separate independent copy because all folders synchronise with server.

As far as gmail is concerned there is only one copy of an email and it is in 'All Mail' folder. The only reason you see it in Inbox is because gmail applied a kind of filter tag which they call a label. This means a virtual email is shown in the server Inbox. Thunderbird downloads the virtual copy and stores it as an email in imap folder. When you delete it and email goes to Trash, gmail sees this as delete the email which is in 'All Mail'.

Why have you subscribed to see the 'All Mail' folder ? It's just a duplicate of everything. You can't use it for anything useful because it just full of everything - there is no organisation or reasoning to it and you should never move delete etc etc anything in 'All Mail' as it may effect emails you want to keep. It's really just too risky to contemplate.

AMM
AMM Küsimuse esitaja
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Thank you for your reply but I am sorry, you possibly have not understood the bug.

My issue is not at all about Deleting and what happens to email when you delete it.

My issue is about focus (UI - user interface) bug which I believe is introduced after Supernova version.

Also I gave a minimal example. So one can easily replicate at their end.

All Mail and Inbox is just an example. The bug happens when same email is in Inbox as well as a certain Folder (called Label in Gmail)

You delete an email from Inbox (email goes to trash). Assume that email also has Gmail label. Then you go to that Folder (Label) but since folder is not yet synced by thunderbird, same email is still shown in that folder. Now thunderbird focus is on that email.

Now here is a race condition that occurs within mili-seconds or in a second.

You are about press Del key to delete that email from that Folder. But in the mean time (just before you pressed Del key) thunderbird synced that folder and on its own deleted your email. (because it realized that this message was deleted from Gmail server and no more exists in the folder) Now after deleting the email on its own, thunderbird moves focus to next email that is important email. Now your Del key gets hit by your fingers. But since focus has moved to next important email, you end up accidentally deleting an important email.

This did not happen before Supernova. When thunderbird synced a folder and focus was on email which was deleted, then focus is released completely instead of putting focus on next email. So even if you press Del key, nothing happens and nothing is deleted accidentally.

I re-read my bug report, I do believe that I have explained the issue properly.

Requesting you to please re-read the bug report.

Thank you

Muudetud AMM poolt