Bug: multiple primary password prompts with multiple accounts registered and prompt is ignored on linux
Status: RESOLVED
Priority: --
Resolution: INCOMPLETE
Created: 2023-04-01 13:09:32+00:00
Resolved: 2023-10-07 18:10:47+00:00

This has been happening for years. If it was fixed at some point I haven't noticed, but it's definitely back. Users have commented on the old report that it's back but it hasn't been reopened. I'm having it happen on v102.7, 2 years later. If there is a newer report for this regression I couldn't find it.

Reproduction steps are the same as the original report, but prompts appear every 15 minutes, presumably because that's the "check for new email" interval I have configured.

It's now called "primary password" but the basic behavior is the same.

What makes this so annoying is that it's not enough to enter the password to make the prompts go away. After entering the password once, the other prompts have to be closed manually before Thunderbird opens.

This is only really an issue if you have Thunderbird in autostart, because it means you may not immediately want to interact with Thunderbird after it starts.

Operating System: EndeavourOS
KDE Plasma Version: 5.26.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.103.0
Qt Version: 5.15.8
Kernel Version: 6.1.11-zen1-1-zen (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 4 × Intel® Core™ i5-4300U CPU @ 1.90GHz
Memory: 7,5 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 4400
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 20ARS1M901
System Version: ThinkPad T440s

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #584014 +++
> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2.8) Gecko/20100722 Firefox/3.6.8 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
> Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; de; rv:1.9.2.7) Gecko/20100713 Lightning/1.0b2 Thunderbird/3.1.1
>
> In short: If I start Thunderbird and go fetch a coffee, there are multiple master password prompts stacked upon each other when I return.
>
> more details:
>
>     I store my account passwords in Thunderbird and use a master password.
>     The number of stacked password prompts is equal to the number of registered accounts (IMAP in my case).
>     The first master password prompt appears right after the start of Thunderbird .
>     If the prompt is ignored, every 5 minutes (quite exactly) another password prompt appears at the exactly same location without closing the previous one.
>     This continues until there are exactly as many password prompts as registered email accounts.
>     If I enter my password in one of the visible prompts, the others continue to stay visible but no new ones appear.
>
> This is not a big deal, but it is a bit annoying. I always think that I entered a wrong password because the topmost prompt disappears after my input but the one below - which was hidden by the topmost one - comes into focus "re-prompting" my password.
>
> Reproducible: Always
>
> Steps to Reproduce:
>
>     Have more than one (imap) account
>     Have stored the password for these accounts secured by a master password
>     Start Thunderbird and ignore it for at least five minutes
>
> Actual Results:
> If you now move the password prompt, you will see a second prompt beneath it. The second prompt stays visible even after supplying the correct password to the first prompt.
>
> Expected Results:
> There should only be one active password prompt at any given time.