topic Re: Thunderbird 128.8.* status line bug respectively confusing behaviour in Discussions

Thunderbird 128.8.* status line bug respectively confusing behaviour

benjaminhauser — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 04:22:04 GMT

Hello everybody,

since one the last major Thunderbird updates, the status line (on the window bottom, right beside the online/offline indicator button) seems to show status messages coming from some kind of queue with a fixed display duration for each entry.

IE when I click on an IMAP folder 'xxx', it shows (each for maybe half a second, list not 100% accurate):

user@mymailhost.com: Looking up mymailhost.com...
user@mymailhost.com: Looked up mymailhost.com...
user@mymailhost.com: Connecting to mymailhost.com...
user@mymailhost.com: Connected to mymailhost.com...
user@mymailhost.com: Sending login information...
user@mymailhost.com: Checking mail server capabilities...
user@mymailhost.com: Looking for folders...
user@mymailhost.com: Opening folder xxx...
user@mymailhost.com: No new messages

This takes about 4 to 5 seconds, independent from the mail host. It seems, Thunderbird is showing the entire IMAP handshake process in the status line, but not in real time, but at a fixed queue interval.

So IE I can see new messages long before

user@mymailhost.com: Opening folder xxx...
user@mymailhost.com: Loading messages...

status messages are being displayed.

In my opinion this is very irritating, because most of my IMAP accounts show new mails (or an empty folder) within half a second most of the time, but the status line is still showing "activity" and kind of forces me to wait until all displayed "activity" stops, just to be sure there are no mails in the selected folder or to successfully see it's content.

I remember earlier versions of TB just showing the status in real time, giving the user a real feedback on how long the request took and if it already finished.

I don't know if this counts as a bug or just a badly implemented feature, so I'm opening this discussion.

Best regards,
Benjamin

Re: Thunderbird 128.8.* status line bug respectively confusing behaviour

siffemcon — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 06:44:03 GMT

You could report it as a possible bug at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi/. If you do, please post the link to it here.

Re: Thunderbird 128.8.* status line bug respectively confusing behaviour

Agentvirtuel — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 07:20:22 GMT

Hello

Additional information

Try MailNews:Logging https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging Module Name IMAP

Illustration and for my part Windows

set MOZ_LOG=IMAP:5,timestamp set MOZ_LOG_FILE=%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\log_file "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird 128 Esr\thunderbird.exe"

Save your file
Type : All files
illustration.bat

Then, click on illustration.bat, it will launch Thunderbird
.bat will open a command prompt window, this is normal
Shutting down Thunderbird will stop .bat and close the command prompt window

And keep an eye on log_file.moz_log from time to time, in real time, because, i noticed, stopping Thunderbird will stop .bat, close the command prompt window and empty log_file.moz_log

Re: Thunderbird 128.8.* status line bug respectively confusing behaviour

Agentvirtuel — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 11:59:01 GMT

This parenthesis clarification :
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/unable-launch-older-version-profile

Some users have multiple installations of Thunderbird, each in a separate program folder. These multiple Thunderbird installations previously shared a single profile by default. Beginning with Thunderbird version 68, Thunderbird by default will use a dedicated profile for each installation of Thunderbird (including Beta and Nightly installations). This will make Thunderbird more stable when switching between installations on the same computer and will also allow you to run different Thunderbird installations at the same time.

You just create a separate program installation folder and then install Thunderbird into the separate program installation folder.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/custom-installation-thunderbird-windows

A Custom setup lets you choose the folder where Thunderbird program files will be installed

By way of illustration as far as i am concerned
I've created separate program installation folders
Thunderbird 91 (32 bits) installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird 2
Thunderbird 102 (32 bits) installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird
Thunderbird 115 (64 bits) installed in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird Release
Thunderbird 128 (64 bits) installed in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird 128 Esr
Thunderbird Bêta (64 bits) installed in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird Beta

Since the release of Thunderbird 68 https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/68.0/releasenotes

Added a policy engine that allows customized Thunderbird deployments in enterprise environments, using Windows Group Policy or a cross-platform JSON file.

DisableAppUpdate https://github.com/thunderbird/policy-templates/tree/master/templates/central#disableappupdate

policies.json DisableAppUpdate underway for, Thunderbird 91, Thunderbird 102, Thunderbird 115

{ "policies": { "DisableAppUpdate": true } }

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/option-to-disable-update-reminders/idc-p/46382/highlight/true#M26845

Re: Thunderbird 128.8.* status line bug respectively confusing behaviour

benjaminhauser — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 14:04:30 GMT

Thanks for your reply, I might open a bug report.

I just wanted to check here first if the current behavior only annoys me or also others...