#465 Dropping e-mail from Thunderbird as task fails

[John F Dawson]

Task coach 1.4.3 as portabel app, Thunderbird 52.1.1. , gmail IMAP connection.
When drag an e-mail from Thunderbird to task coach it seems that a local temporary file is passed as the attachedment in the task with this version of Thunderbird, rather than some reference to the mail on the imap server as used to happen.
The termporarydissapears after the drag and drop so one cannot actually access the e-mail from task coach.
This used to work OK before Thunderbird upgraded, so presume the root of the problem is some change in the way Thunderbirtd works, but it would be nice if you knew how to fix this.
Thanks!

[John F Dawson]

On further investigation it seems that for some time the dragged mail was stored as a file in c:\users\jfd1\appdata\local\temp\ and that the change seems to be that Thundrbird now deletes this location after the drag is complete. Task coach therefore cannot find the mail - it does not seem to makie a copy anywhere.

[Aaron Wolf]

I didn't get a chance to test the situation myuself, but indeed, Task Coach only stores links to files and emails has never stored copies.

[John F Dawson]

Thanks Aaron, I think the problem is that for some reason Thunderbird used to leave a file to which the dragged link pointed. Now it seems to delete the file after the drag. I assume when you drag to a file manager a copy or move is performed and Thunderbird feels obliged to clean up if the file is still there.
I also recall at some point in the past Task coach used to ask for impa credentials as if it linked to the copy on the imap server, but that also no longer happens.
However If anyon has an easy work around that would be great as the drag and drop email to task was one of the most useful features.

[John F Dawson]

Having investigated further, on dragging a mail message to Task coach:
Thunderbird 45.8.0 definitively passes Task coach a url of the form:

imap-message://fred%40gmail.com@imap.googlemail.com/INBOX#69

The e-mail is then retrieved from the imap server by Task Coach and stored internally in task coach's database. It is also stored in a file in c:\users\fred\appdata\local\temp\ so that it also be opened by an e-mail client.

Thunderbird 52.2.1 passes a filename of the form

c:\users\fred\appdata\local\temp\tmps8yrzm.eml

By observing with "PA File Sight" file activity monitor, this is a file written by Thunderbird at the start of the drag and drop, and then deleted by Thunderbird at the end of the drag and drop. Task coach only stores the file path for file drops so the e-mail is lost to it.

So Task coach no longer correctly catches dropped mails from Thunderbird 52.

I expect Task coach may be fixed to correctly catch the file, by copying it's contents in the same way as it did with the imap url, but at the moment my Python skills are not up to the task.

Can anyone help?

[John F Dawson]

Here is a fix - just replace the existing draganddrop.py with the attached. It probably needs a bit of work as I have only tested it on my windows system.
Any fie with the extension.eml which is in the ...appdata\local\temp\ directory is copied into the same directory using a new file name and treated as an e-mail as above.

[John F Dawson]

Thanks Aaron,

I believe I also submitted a fix which worked for me for a number of
years, but I think it does not work on current versions so I switched to
google's built in. Not as nice but works across all devices.

Regards
John Dawson
Please book meetings via google calendar
https://calendar.google.com and search for my e-mail address
(Retired - Usually in Tue & Thu)
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On 10/01/2026 15:43, Aaron Wolf wrote:

• status: unread --> closed
• Comment:

Hi, it's many years later but I'm excited to tell you that
https://github.com/taskcoach/taskcoach now has Task Coach updated to
Python3! I'm using it myself, and things are working better than ever.
Packages are available for some common Linux systems and for Windows
(note that it isn't recognized by Windows Smartscreen but can be
installed by accepting the warning anyway)

We'd love to have you test the updated program, and post any issues
that arise there at GitHub

We won't be continuing with SourceForge, just clearing out old issues
and letting people know about the move

I did already open a ticket about the no-longer-working email
drag-drop feature:
https://github.com/taskcoach/taskcoach/issues/61

Cheers

---

[support-requests:#465]
https://sourceforge.net/p/taskcoach/support-requests/465/ Dropping
e-mail from Thunderbird as task fails

Status: closed
Version: Release_1.4
Created: Sat Jun 03, 2017 03:12 PM UTC by John F Dawson
Last Updated: Tue Jul 11, 2017 08:31 PM UTC
Owner: nobody

Task coach 1.4.3 as portabel app, Thunderbird 52.1.1. , gmail IMAP
connection.
When drag an e-mail from Thunderbird to task coach it seems that a
local temporary file is passed as the attachedment in the task with
this version of Thunderbird, rather than some reference to the mail on
the imap server as used to happen.
The termporarydissapears after the drag and drop so one cannot
actually access the e-mail from task coach.
This used to work OK before Thunderbird upgraded, so presume the root
of the problem is some change in the way Thunderbirtd works, but it
would be nice if you knew how to fix this.
Thanks!

---

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[Aaron Wolf]

Hi, it's many years later but I'm excited to tell you that https://github.com/taskcoach/taskcoach now has Task Coach updated to Python3! I'm using it myself, and things are working better than ever. Packages are available for some common Linux systems and for Windows (note that it isn't recognized by Windows Smartscreen but can be installed by accepting the warning anyway)

We'd love to have you test the updated program, and post any issues that arise there at GitHub

We won't be continuing with SourceForge, just clearing out old issues and letting people know about the move

I did already open a ticket about the no-longer-working email drag-drop feature:
https://github.com/taskcoach/taskcoach/issues/61

Cheers