movemail account does not work with global inbox

[Biörn]

Binary package hint: thunderbird

When setting up a movemail account in Thunderbird, the wizard provides the option to use the Global Inbox with the account. However, this type of account seems not to support the global inbox.

To reproduce:
- Create a new account of type 'Unix Mailspool (Movemail)'. In the wizard choose 'Use Global Inbox' (it is checked by default).
- Send mail to yourself (verify that it arrived with ls -l /var/mail/<username>)
- Get mail for the movemail account

Expected behaviour:
- new messages from the /var/mail/username mailbox are moved to the global inbox under the Local Folders account.

Observed behaviour:
- Nothing happens, the Local Folders account does not even have an 'Inbox' folder.
- Instead, messages are copied to the account-local inbox (.mozilla-thunderbird/.../Mail/localhost/Inbox).
- In the movemail account settings, there is no option to control the use of the global inbox (as with POP accounts).

Without the global inbox option reading mail works.
Note: I have no other account configured which could make use of the global inbox (only IMAP accounts) -- in case this matters.

thunderbird 2.0.0.17+nobinonly-0ubuntu1
Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Dependencies:

DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
Package: mozilla-thunderbird None [modified: /var/lib/dpkg/info/mozilla-thunderbird.list]
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LC_TIME=en_DK.utf8
 PATH=/home/username/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/tcsh
SourcePackage: thunderbird
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-7-generic i686

[Volkmar (volkmar)]

Created attachment 161160
Setting up movemail account does not offer "Global Inbox".

[SteBo (stebo)]

"Option "Global Inbox" is no longer available for setting up movemail account."

was the goal of bug 253519. David's plan was to disable Global Inbox for
Movemail, but he forgot this one spot. So it is not a bug that the checkbox is
no longer there.

When I said "Yes, this would make sense", I meant filing a bug that wants Global
Inbox support for Movemail makes sense. But there is more to do than just adding
back the checkbox to the Account Wizard.

I'm moving this bug from Thunderbird to MailNews because the Global Inbox code
is shared.

[Marcia-mozilla (marcia-mozilla)]

*** Bug 270183 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Philip K. Warren (pkwarren)]

Scott or David:

What are the steps necessary to get global inbox support working for Movemail
accounts? I don't mind working on this but I'm not very familiar with the
implementation of the global inbox.

[Bienvenu (bienvenu)]

Phillip, please see bug 253519 - it's just a question of getting the account
setup to set the prefs correctly. As I understand it, there's no backend work
required, just front end work...

[Nathan Willis (n8)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Phillip, please see bug 253519 - it's just a question of getting the account
> setup to set the prefs correctly. As I understand it, there's no backend work
> required, just front end work...

Has any progress happened on this? This should definitely be bumped up from
"enhancement."

It is a major inconveniece, in fact a blocker for anyone wishing to use
movemail, since New Mail Notification does not work for these accounts.

It should be marked with the correct severity.

[Matěj Cepl (mcepl)]

Scott, I agree with comment 6 -- this is really bug not enhancement.
However, much more interesting is the question -- can you suggest a way how to configure using of the global inbox by any means (like editing prefs.js or something)? I tried to add appropriate defer_get_new_mail and deferred_to_account (copy of the ones from POP3 account), but it doesn't make any change. Can you help me please?

[Ben (pufiad)]

TB 2.0 does ask if you want to use the global inbox during the account setup, but does not set it up. Once the movemail account is created, there is no way to configure it.

Is there something with the movemail accounts that make this difficult to implement?

Does anybody have a work-around?

[Biörn (bioern)]

Binary package hint: thunderbird

When setting up a movemail account in Thunderbird, the wizard provides the option to the Global Inbox with the account. However, this type of account seems not to support the global inbox.

To reproduce:
- Create a new account of type 'Unix Mailspool (Movemail)'. In the wizard choose 'Use Global Inbox' (it is checked by default).
- Send mail to yourself (verify that it arrived with ls -l /var/mail/<username>)
- Get mail for the movemail account

Expected behaviour:
- new messages from the /var/mail/username mailbox are moved to the global inbox under the Local Folders account.

Observed behaviour:
- Nothing happens, the Local Folders account does not even have an 'Inbox' folder.
- Instead, messages are copied to the account-local inbox (.mozilla-thunderbird/.../Mail/localhost/Inbox).
- In the movemail account settings, there is no option to control the use of the global inbox (as with POP accounts).

Without the global inbox option reading mail works.
Note: I have no other account configured which could make use of the global inbox (only IMAP accounts) -- in case this matters.

thunderbird 2.0.0.17+nobinonly-0ubuntu1
Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Dependencies:

DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
Package: mozilla-thunderbird None [modified: /var/lib/dpkg/info/mozilla-thunderbird.list]
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LC_TIME=en_DK.utf8
 PATH=/home/username/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/tcsh
SourcePackage: thunderbird
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-7-generic i686

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

what version of thunderbird and where did you get it from? paste all output from apt-cache policy thunderbird.
Also please look for this bug upstream, I do think i have come across this bug before upstream or LP dont remember

[Biörn (bioern)]

Tested with thunderbird 2.0.0.18+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1 and a fresh profile.

The "Use Global Inbox" option is still available. However, with the option enabled, the new movemail account is shown in the folder pane and mail is delivered to the account's inbox.

So, the global inbox option in the account creation wizard is now ignored.

[David A. Cobb (superbiskit)]

No workaround, I'm afraid.

1) This should be reset to "Mailnews Core" The same thing occurs in T-Bird, so it is likely in common code.

2) This is NOT an enhancement request. An "advertised" feature is not working.

[Joshua Cranmer (jcranmer)]

*** Bug 521834 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Colan Schwartz (colan)]

Still a problem in 11.04, Natty. The checkbox is ignored.

[Vseerror (vseerror)]

Does this definitely make sense? Should there be checkbox? And if implemented, might there be problems?

(mitigated by the ability to use unified Inbox?)

[Acelists (acelists)]

Considering movemail is similar to pop3 (you pull down msgs locally and then do whatever you want with them), I think this option should be possible. It should be a matter of exposing the prefs (also in the Account manager) and make the movemail backend honor them if it doesn't already.
I can probably look at that (seems I already assigned it to myself in the past), but can't look at it due to always finding other higher priority bugs.

[David Chmelik (dchmelik)]

Don't remove it!

[David Chmelik (dchmelik)]

Oh, that was removed decades ago. It never should've been removed, because what aceman says makes sense. I preferred pre-tabs Thunderbird, and majority such changes have been annoying: I still wish I could just have one inbox (multiple movemail AND multiple POP3) which '"one' inbox' also means NO tabs opening EVER (sure, I disabled them, but they still open from various things)... got a bit off-topic now but I don't think wishes of users, to not have such changes forced, were addressed. So anyway, yes, please re-add the feature of global inbox for movemail (people I know who use IMAP would also like global inbox.)

[Vseerror (vseerror)]

Support for Movemail has been removed as of version 87 per Bug 1625741