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Thunderbird Ate My Mail

By dr k (Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 03:46:26 PM EST) (all tags)

And Firefox ate my bookmarks.

Last week I noticed that Thunderbird was not downloading messages from one of my email addresses. But like a loyal dog it kept trying to tell me something; a message would appear saying "You have new messages", but there wouldn't be anything new in the folder. After poking around the options I found the "include this account when checking new mail" had been turned off somehow.

But today I start it up and I get a cheery "Welcome to Thunderbird" message. "Please configure your email account."

Fortunately my old mail folders are still intact. I'll have to setup all the accounts again, and rebuild my mail filters.

I've noticed that there is a js (JavaScript) file in the Thunderbird folder which is used to configure all the mail accounts. How or why the old file got lost or corrupted I don't know.

Also, all of my Mozilla bookmarks disappeared. I still have cookies, and saved form information, and all that crap. Ironically, even though I had saved 20 or so bookmarks since installing Firefox on this machine, I rarely ever clicked on any of them. Bookmarking a page is such an impulse behavior I am surprised they don't charge money for them.

So, what is to blame for this strange behavior? Windows 2000? Corrupt hard drive? A rogue virus? (Norton says "Nope.") Dirty gnu Mozilla hippies?

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Thunderbird Ate My Mail | 15 comments (15 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Switch to Microsoft! by greyrat (4.00 / 1) #1 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 03:54:06 PM EST

~ ~ ~
Remember: There is absolutely no correlation or causation amongst intelligence, power, talent and wealth.

: I think I might just by dr k (2.00 / 0) #9 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 05:39:35 PM EST

switch off the computer.

:| :| :| :| :|
[ Parent ]

Same old same old by Rogerborg (4.00 / 2) #2 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 03:58:09 PM EST

I'm not going back to IE, but Firefox is still buggy as hell. Lock-ups, crashes, weird pauses at startup, failing to download new versions (with no way to cancel or exit other than killing the process), and random losing of bookmarks and history. Truly the poster child for FOSS development.

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Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.

Anti-OSS comment accepted by jayhawk88 (4.00 / 3) #3 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 04:14:06 PM EST

Please choose your desired zealot response:

I have not experienced a single bug, crash, or problem in 5 years of using both Firefox and Thunderbird, it must be your fault.
How can you blame Firefox for the obvious deficiencies in the Microsoft API code?
If you'd be using Linux as well, you wouldn't see any problems.

[ Parent ]

4. Why aren't you using Opera? by greyrat (2.00 / 0) #5 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 04:17:30 PM EST

~ ~ ~
Remember: There is absolutely no correlation or causation amongst intelligence, power, talent and wealth.

[ Parent ]

: 5. My grandmother is a hooker by cam (4.00 / 1) #6 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 04:46:03 PM EST

and uses ubuntu to control her Malaysian botnet.
cam
Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic
[ Parent ]

weird pauses by dr k (4.00 / 1) #8 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 05:35:33 PM EST

Firefox's long load times have started to make me paranoid. What is it doing? Is it going on the net and downloading new toolbars? Has it turned my machine into a zombie box?

Oh, did I mention that about 50% of the time when I try to play videos from the CBS News web site, Firefox somehow manages to paralyze my router so I have to manually power cycle it?

:| :| :| :| :|
[ Parent ]

I get that by Bob Abooey (4.00 / 2) #4 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 04:15:31 PM EST

Everytime my machine crashes with FireFox running (not as a result of firefox running) when I boot the machine up firefox magically loses it's bookmarks. I'm guessing it loads them into memory upon startup and re-writes them when you close out and if you never close out they somehow just magically get deleted. Or something like that.

I can't believe they don't test to see what happens if your machine crashes while FireFox is running. Smelly hippie bastards.

Warmest regards,
--Your best pal Bob

standard engineering practices by dr k (2.00 / 0) #7 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 05:31:12 PM EST

To make an application robust, you would at least make sure all your open filehandles get closed, and that any persistent data would be handled in a fail-safe manner. To cache bookmarks in memory while simultaneously wiping them from disk is simply poor engineering.

In other words, you shouldn't have to test the case where the machine crashes, because you should already know it will behave in a sane way.

:| :| :| :| :|
[ Parent ]

I invoke Murphy's law! by ptyx (2.00 / 0) #10 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 05:43:17 PM EST

What you know will behave correctly should be tested anyway, because there is a good chance the computer doesn't agree with you.

[ Parent ]

: "crashing the computer" by dr k (2.00 / 0) #12 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 06:23:31 PM EST

is not a well-defined test case, and engineering isn't generally concerned with emergent behavior that can't be detected by testing.

:| :| :| :| :|
[ Parent ]

Strange. by black symposium (2.00 / 0) #11 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 05:50:50 PM EST

To say the least. Who in bloody hell uses IE any more? AOL subscribers?

On the other hand I do seem to be experiencing some flash Macromedia Shockwave problems.

Hmmm.

Thunderbird is a wine. by blixco (4.00 / 1) #13 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 06:44:53 PM EST

Pine is a tree.

Outlook is a warning.

For email, I use email.app.

I mean, with a name like that? It's totally what it is.
---------------------------------
The farmers always win.

: I love you. by joh3n (4.00 / 1) #14 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 08:31:37 PM EST

not in the biblical sense though
----

[ Parent ]

Don't forget... by theboz (2.00 / 0) #15 Wed Oct 12, 2005 at 11:52:25 PM EST

...Mister T ate your balls.
- - - - -
That's what I always say about you, boz, you have a good memory for random facts about pussy. -- joh3n

Thunderbird Ate My Mail | 15 comments (15 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback