Rename IMAP folder bug
I'm using Thunderbird 78.14.0 (32-bit) on a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop with Win10. I successfully renamed one of my IMAP folders, but when I then immediately attempted to move a message from my Inbox to the renamed folder, an error message popped up saying the operation failed because the folder doesn't exist -- even though the folder obviously does exist and still contains all the messages it had before I renamed it. I suspected this error occurred because the part of Thunderbird which handles message-move operations is not being properly informed of folder renaming operations, and therefore I suspected I could work around the problem by exiting and restarting Thunderbird so that the message-move routine in Thunderbird would then have an updated list of folder names -- and indeed that worked fine. Anyway, I just wanted to let the developers know about the bug.
-- Larry Afrin
Chosen solution
As you are using IMAP, Your rename command must be sent to the folder and a result has to be obtained by Thunderbird.
It is a text based conversation and looks like this;
An example from RFC 3501:
A682 LIST "" *
- LIST () "/" blurdybloop
- LIST (\Noselect) "/" foo
- LIST () "/" foo/bar
A682 OK LIST completed A683 RENAME blurdybloop sarasoop A683 OK RENAME completed A684 RENAME foo zowie A684 OK RENAME Completed A685 LIST "" *
- LIST () "/" sarasoop
- LIST (\Noselect) "/" zowie
- LIST () "/" zowie/bar
A685 OK LIST completed a folder in Thunderbird. That sets up a request to the server to change the folder name.
So while this 12 or 14 step conversation is going on in the background (after the authentication cycle to get you authorized) you are trying to move a mail to a folder that has not been renamed on the server so you get told it does not exist. Nothing with server synchronization is instant and often it is downright slow. Especially if you have an anti virus scanning and increasing the time taken often by a factor of 2 or 3.
Basically don't expect results immediately.
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Chosen Solution
As you are using IMAP, Your rename command must be sent to the folder and a result has to be obtained by Thunderbird.
It is a text based conversation and looks like this;
An example from RFC 3501:
A682 LIST "" *
- LIST () "/" blurdybloop
- LIST (\Noselect) "/" foo
- LIST () "/" foo/bar
A682 OK LIST completed A683 RENAME blurdybloop sarasoop A683 OK RENAME completed A684 RENAME foo zowie A684 OK RENAME Completed A685 LIST "" *
- LIST () "/" sarasoop
- LIST (\Noselect) "/" zowie
- LIST () "/" zowie/bar
A685 OK LIST completed a folder in Thunderbird. That sets up a request to the server to change the folder name.
So while this 12 or 14 step conversation is going on in the background (after the authentication cycle to get you authorized) you are trying to move a mail to a folder that has not been renamed on the server so you get told it does not exist. Nothing with server synchronization is instant and often it is downright slow. Especially if you have an anti virus scanning and increasing the time taken often by a factor of 2 or 3.
Basically don't expect results immediately.
Thanks, Matt!
-- LBA