Kubuntu 12.04
KDE 4.8.1
Kontact/KMail 4.8.0

I cannot right-click on the trash folder and select Empty trash because it is greyed out. I can though, click on File > Empty All Trash Folders and that works.

If I quit Kontact/Kmail and restart it I can right-click on the trash folder and empty it -- if I haven't put anything new into it first.

Why is this? This wasn't the behavior just a few days ago.

Is there anything of note which has changed recently which could have caused this issue? It seems that Kontact/KMail is not detecting changes to this folder properly.

Only normal updates over the last few days. Nepomuk Desktop, File Indexer, and Email Indexing are enabled. At the moment, Kmail is allowing me to empty the trash folder with right-clicking. I'll monitor it and see if it changes again or not.

Nope. Behavior still exists. In this instance, I had new email. I read it and then deleted it, thus, having it moved to trash. Right-clicked on the trash folder, and yup, the option to empty the trash is grayed out. I can still empty the trash folder from File > Empty All Trash Folders.

Do you have multiple trash folders (ie. an IMAP Trash folder, a Local Folders Trash folder, etc)?

bcooksley wrote:Do you have multiple trash folders (ie. an IMAP Trash folder, a Local Folders Trash folder, etc)?

No. Just one trash folder (that I am aware of). I don't use IMAP; my ISP is a POP3 account.

Hmm. The Kmail trash folder shows 9 deleted emails, but a listing of ~/.local/share/.local-mail.directory/trash/new shows eight.

~/.local/share/.local-mail.directory/trash/cur
and
~/.local/share/.local-mail.directory/trash/tmp
have no content.

So is there a connection between the behavior of right-clicking on trash not working (until a restart) and the fact that what Kmail shows as being in the trash folder doesn't agree with the actual content in .../trash/new?

Once you empty the trash folder, do the counts agree?

They did tonight. I had ten new emails. Deleted them all and they all went to Trash. Count in Trash showed ten. I was not able to use the right-click on Trash to empty - the option was grayed out. I emptied the Trash via File > Empty All Trash Folders and the Trash folder was emptied.

Ok, it seems that something internally is definitely wrong here. I am out of ideas as to what it could be however. Perhaps you may wish to try asking on the kdepim-users@kde.org mailing list?

Thank you. I do appreciate your help, and you have helped me previously. I'll take your suggestion and ask on kdepim-users@kde.org mailing list.

Sent an email on this issue to kdepim-users@kde.org. Waiting on it to be accepted (I'm not a member of the list).

Additional info on this issue.

When Kontact/Kmail is first launched, and if the Trash is already empty, then deleting new emails results in this behavior - the Trash folder cannot be emptied with the right-click option. Exiting Kontact/Kmail with items in the Trash folder and then relaunching it does make this option 'available' (I *think* that is the case, but not sure, as I haven't actually made notes, but a reboot of the system and then launching Kontact/Kmail does). Once the items in the Trash folder are available for emptying with the right-click, then any addition email deleted and sent to the Trash folder does not prevent the right-click option of emptying the Trash to reappear. Interesting.

Hmm. If you have items in the trash when starting Kontact, then empty the trash - is the "Empty Trash" option still available to you? Sounds like something is not updating it's status.

bcooksley wrote:Hmm. If you have items in the trash when starting Kontact, then empty the trash - is the "Empty Trash" option still available to you? Sounds like something is not updating it's status.

No.

Launch Kontact/Kmail. New mail is in Inbox. Delete the mail in the Inbox. Trash folder reflects the deleted email. Right-click to empty Trash is not available. Leave the Trash folder with it's deleted email and Exit Kontact/Kmail (Empty Trash on exit is not enabled).

(This is known to be true) Reboot and launch Kontact/Kmail. The Trash folder has the previously deleted emails. New email is received. Delete the new email and it goes to the Trash folder. I can then right-click and empty the Trash folder. Trash folder is now empty. New email arrives. I delete it and it goes to the Trash folder. I cannot right-click to empty the Trash folder.

Ok, it seems that this is definitely a code bug. The code path to enable the empty Trash folder action appears to not trigger when the folder recieves email, whilst the code path that disables it does work.

Please file a bug at bugs.kde.org, if you are running KDE 4.8.1. Otherwise, please update and re-test.

Done. Added my comments. See https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=295473#c5

The bug is marked as RESOLVED FIXED in KDE 4.8.2. Will KDE 4.8.2 be in the official release of Kubuntu 12.04 in April?