Deleting attachment to forwarded message deletes the forwarded message

[Benjamin Redling]

Binary package hint: thunderbird

When I want to forward an e-mail and click on the attached original e-mail (which itself has an attachement) and I delete a file attached to it, the whole original message gets deleted instead of the attachement of the forwarded message. Another message will be displayed in the window which I suspect to show the message to forward. (It seems to show the next message in the mailheader overview.)

What I wanted to do in the first place, was to forward a message without an unnecessary attachement -- does't seem to be possible with this behaviour (bug?)

I'm willing to give further feedback in any form -- verbose describtion, screenshots, desktop vid session.
Regards,
Benjamin

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Jun 6 15:37:41 2008
Dependencies:

DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
Package: mozilla-thunderbird None [modified: /var/lib/dpkg/info/mozilla-thunderbird.list]
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:
SourcePackage: thunderbird
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-17-generic i686

[Parthan SR (parth-technofreak)]

I can not reproduce the bug. When I selected a mail with 4 attachments, clicked on forward button and the mail opens in a new window with the original mail contents pasted into the new mail's contents. There is a frame within the mail window that shows me a list of 4 attachments found in the original mail which are also attached to the new mail. When I select one of them and delete, only that selected file gets deleted but not the mail. I could delete all of the 4 attachment files and still the mail content remained same.

[Parthan SR (parth-technofreak)]

Thanks for filing the bug. Can you specify the version of thunderbird you are using? Thanks in advance.

[Benjamin Redling (benjamin-rampe-deactivatedaccount)]

2.0.0.14 (20080505) -- A few minutes ago I deactivated all add-ons, even the language pack: still the same behaviour.

* It definitly jumps to the next message: if it is the last one, the message window will be closed.
* My home directory with the thunderbird settings and accounts is mountet via NFS.
* It might be important that I use IMAP accounts. Maybe you should try that too.

Installed thunderbird related packages on the local machine are:
thunderbird, thunderbird-gnome-support, thunderbird-locale-de

[Jayson Rowe (jayson.rowe)]

Since it's been a very long time since any additional info was added to this bug, I'm just checking to see if this is still an issue, and find out what additional work should be done on this bug.

[Benjamin Redling (benjamin-rampe-deactivatedaccount)]

It is still an issue.
I tested it with Version 2.0.0.17 (20080925) in hardy. Actually there is a difference between deleting via key and deleting via the context menu after right clicking on the attachement.

Btw. nice to see somebody cares.
(It started thinking to switch back to Debian on the Desktop because nobody here seems to care for bugs.)

[Jayson Rowe (jayson.rowe)]

Hi Benjamin - I use IMAP as well. I'm on Intrepid, but I'm going to set up a Hardy install in VirtualBox to see if I can reproduce this. Perhaps we could also forward upstream as well (if I can reproduce).

You said there was a difference between deleting via the delete key vs. the contextual menu - which scenario produces your result?
Thanks for helping make Ubuntu better!
Jayson

[Jayson Rowe (jayson.rowe)]

Ok - I loaded up a Hardy VM to test this - I set up my GMAIL account (via IMAP) in Thunderbird (which is now 2.0.0.18 in Hardy). I opened up a message with a file attached too it. There are two possibilities here:

I select the attachment with my mouse and click "Delete" on the tool bar (Red X with the word Delete under it). This deletes the message, not the attachment (I'm thinking by design - I don't think that "Delete" button was ever intended to delete attachments).

If I right-click on the attachment and choose delete, it will delete the attachment.

Is this similar to what you were experiencing? If so, I believe that is simply the way Thunderbird is designed and not a bug at all.

If I'm way off track, please let me know.
Jayson

[Benjamin Redling (benjamin-rampe-deactivatedaccount)]

Your right click experience seems to be the same than mine -- fine.
Regarding the deleting via the button:
if you open a new message and add a few attachments, close and save it to your drafts, select it in your drafts, click on "forward" and decide to delete one of the formally attached files with the left mouse button and then delete this focused one via the button it does so very well.
If you try to mark this attachment and delete it by marking it with the left mouse button and then press "delete" it doesn't work -- this is a totally different experience compared to doing it with a newly opened message.

If not a bug, it is inconsistent usability.
(Why can I delete a message attachment in a normal message and not delete a message attachment in a message I want to forward via the same ways...)

Overall I would say you're on the right track.

Regards,
Benjamin

P.S. I'll try to make a screencast if we continue to have different experiences.

[Jayson Rowe (jayson.rowe)]

Thanks Benjamin - let me try your "drafts" experiment you outline.

Also, do you have an aversion to updating your Thunderbird in Hardy to 2.0.0.18 (it's in Hardy-Updates) just to see if that corrects your issue?

[Benjamin Redling (benjamin-rampe-deactivatedaccount)]

(In Thunderbird 8 the handling of forwarded messages is totally different -- so are attachments. The bug doesn't exist there. So one way to avoid the bug is to use ppa:mozillateam/thunderbird-stable)