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Steps to reproduce:

In the webmail interface, apply a label to a message in the Inbox, such that it is labeled "Inbox" and "SomeLabel".

Actual results:

In the webmail interface, if you archive the message then the "Inbox" label is removed, the message is available in All Mail, and it is also available under "SomeLabel". This behavior is the same when viewing all messages under the label "SomeLabel" and performing the same archive function on the email from the webmail interface.

In Thunderbird, if you are looking at the message in the Inbox and archive it, then the "Inbox" label is removed and the behavior is the same. However, if you archive the message from the subfolder, the subfolder's label is removed, and the message remains in the Inbox.

Expected results:

This part is difficult because of the difference between folders and labels, and while one standard solution may not be correct for all cases, having the ability to change how this function operates could be helpful. For example, creating three possible options via settings such that:

1. The behavior stays as it is, where archiving a message in Thunderbird removes the label in the context of where the message was stored, i.e. "Inbox" or "SomeLabel" respectively. This operates differently from the webmail, but makes sense because if I archive a message, I don't expect it to stay in the folder on Thunderbird.

2. The behavior can match gmail, where archiving a message removes the "Inbox" label and moves the message to all mail, preserving any other labels. (To Thunderbird, this message would be removed from the Inbox but REMAIN in the label's folder, which could seem "unexpected" if not understood).

3. The behavior can remove the "Inbox" label in addition to the "SomeLabel" label when archived from the context of the folder.

Each scenario has its own use case depending on how the end user manages their email, and for our purposes, number 3 would be ideal so that the subfolders can be reviewed and managed as separate inboxes.

We want to be able to remove both the "SomeLabel" label from the context of the folder, as well as the "Inbox" label so the message only lives in All Mail after review. That way there is not a need to archive the same message twice.

Something like this was mentioned in bug 1571122.

Matt, you've commented on some filtering bugs lately. What about this one here?

I think making changes to Thunderbird to deal with the idiosyncrasies of gmails imap implementation is bad enough, adding further changes to deal with the completely different scenario of Gmail labels as they stand is one step to far. Fundamentally we have an IMAP paradigm of one email one folder and trying to make that play in the gmail labels world of one email many pseudo folders is destined to end badly as realistically we don't have labels used in that manner.

Despite the recent work to only download a single copy of each email. I would not be supportive of this at all. IMAP archiving is something that happens to an email. it is about moving the email to an archive, not about adding labels or removing database labels.

If we were to replace MBOX with a relational database then I could see some justification for use of label type folder names. As it is we are moving to EML storage, in a maildir like form. So the less we mess with Gmails labels the better as the maildir like storage is even more focused on individual files for individual mails stored in specific folders.

I am not the module owner, but I would no see this getting traction and I am doubtful a patch should be accepted even if it did.

Do you also see this issue when using versoin 68?

Wayne, I tested it using the same process above and Thunderbird 68.2.2 (64-bit). The results are the same.

Matt does make a good point, I agree that Thunderbird does not need to bend over backwards for gmail.

As a workaround, we implemented a set of gmail filters that would remove the Inbox label when applying the corresponding category label.

Instead of looking at the Inbox for new mail, each subfolder must be reviewed and refreshed individually.

This creates a consistent experience when archiving in the web interface, from Thunderbird, or via the app: the label is removed and the message is moved to All Mail.

This works, but does present some notification issues for new emails in subfolders. We enabled "When getting new messages for this account, always check this folder" in Thunderbird to make sure the folders get updated during send/receive.

Do we need to keep this open as a bug, or close it out? (Thanks everyone for your detailed attention so far!)