Hello,

sometimes I have this odd problem where a message in SM shows nothing at all
(blank page), but if I view it via webmail it's complete.
It doesn't matter the size, or if there is or not an attachment.
I already tried to repair the folder.
This is happening since a long time, so it's not related to a specific SM
version.

What else can I check to understand what's wrong and how to fix it?

Thank you

Gabriel wrote on 12/12/23 10:49 pm:
> Hello,
>
> sometimes I have this odd problem where a message in SM shows nothing
> at all (blank page), but if I view it via webmail it's complete. It
> doesn't matter the size, or if there is or not an attachment. I
> already tried to repair the folder. This is happening since a long
> time, so it's not related to a specific SM version.
>
> What else can I check to understand what's wrong and how to fix it?
>
> Thank you
>
Gabriel, e-mails can be composed in two formats .... either Plain Text
or HTML. If you have your SeaMonkey set up to display HTML (View ->
Message Body As -> Original/Simple HTML) and you are sent an e-mail
composed in "Plain Text", guess what??

(O.K., there is a third format where messages can be sent, in the one
e-mail, in BOTH PT and HTML ... even with a different message in each
format.)

If the received e-mail is all Plain Text and you are set-up to View
either form of HTML, you will see nothing!!

As for fixing it .... tell your correspondent to send in HTML or *YOU*
switch, on a case by case basis, to Plain Text.

Or ... the grey matter is telling me you can set which Format a person
uses, so your SM will automatically switch Formats on a person by person
basis .... (or is that just for Composing e-mails?? Hopefully someone in
the know will drop by??)

HTH
--
Daniel

On 12 Dec 2023 at 14:39:28 CET, "Daniel65" <daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:

> Gabriel wrote on 12/12/23 10:49 pm:
>> Hello,
>>
>> sometimes I have this odd problem where a message in SM shows nothing
>> at all (blank page), but if I view it via webmail it's complete. It
>> doesn't matter the size, or if there is or not an attachment. I
>> already tried to repair the folder. This is happening since a long
>> time, so it's not related to a specific SM version.
>>
>> What else can I check to understand what's wrong and how to fix it?
>>
>> Thank you
>>
> Gabriel, e-mails can be composed in two formats .... either Plain Text
> or HTML. If you have your SeaMonkey set up to display HTML (View ->
> Message Body As -> Original/Simple HTML) and you are sent an e-mail
> composed in "Plain Text", guess what??
>
> (O.K., there is a third format where messages can be sent, in the one
> e-mail, in BOTH PT and HTML ... even with a different message in each
> format.)
>
> If the received e-mail is all Plain Text and you are set-up to View
> either form of HTML, you will see nothing!!
>
>

[cut]

Hi Daniel, I don't think it's an issue based on the format set to display the
content.
Whatever format I choose nothing is shown, not even the attachments in the
right pane. I do see the correct size of the message and if I look at the raw
source the message is correctly received. And it can be normally viewed via
the webmail.

The format can be:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

NB: this is happening even with some of my own messages in the Sent folder.

A few times I did solved by repairing the folder, but that didn't always work.

Gabriel wrote on 13/12/23 4:29 am:
> On 12 Dec 2023 at 14:39:28 CET, "Daniel65"
> <daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
>
>> Gabriel wrote on 12/12/23 10:49 pm:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> sometimes I have this odd problem where a message in SM shows
>>> nothing at all (blank page), but if I view it via webmail it's
>>> complete. It doesn't matter the size, or if there is or not an
>>> attachment. I already tried to repair the folder. This is
>>> happening since a long time, so it's not related to a specific SM
>>> version.
>>>
>>> What else can I check to understand what's wrong and how to fix
>>> it?
>>>
>>> Thank you
>>>
>> Gabriel, e-mails can be composed in two formats .... either Plain
>> Text or HTML. If you have your SeaMonkey set up to display HTML
>> (View -> Message Body As -> Original/Simple HTML) and you are sent
>> an e-mail composed in "Plain Text", guess what??
>>
>> (O.K., there is a third format where messages can be sent, in the
>> one e-mail, in BOTH PT and HTML ... even with a different message
>> in each format.)
>>
>> If the received e-mail is all Plain Text and you are set-up to
>> View either form of HTML, you will see nothing!!
>>
>>
>
> [cut]
>
> Hi Daniel, I don't think it's an issue based on the format set to
> display the content. Whatever format I choose nothing is shown, not
> even the attachments in the right pane. I do see the correct size of
> the message and if I look at the raw source the message is correctly
> received. And it can be normally viewed via the webmail.
>
> The format can be: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>
> NB: this is happening even with some of my own messages in the Sent
> folder.
>
> A few times I did solved by repairing the folder, but that didn't
> always work.
>
Ah!! Well, I tried, Gabriel.

Now you will have to wait for someone with real knowledge to drop by!!

Sorry. ;-(
--
Daniel

Gabriel wrote:
> Hello,
>
> sometimes I have this odd problem where a message in SM shows nothing at all
> (blank page), but if I view it via webmail it's complete.
> It doesn't matter the size, or if there is or not an attachment.
> I already tried to repair the folder.
> This is happening since a long time, so it's not related to a specific SM
> version.
>
> What else can I check to understand what's wrong and how to fix it?

Are you viewing emails in the "message pane" (part of the same window as
the folders and list of message), or opening messages in a separate
window? I sometimes find the message pane doesn't display properly at
first, but toggling it off and back on then shows the message (View >
Layout > Message Pane, or press F8 on the keyboard, twice).

--
Mark.

Daniel65 wrote:
> Gabriel wrote on 12/12/23 10:49 pm:
>> Hello,
>>
>> sometimes I have this odd problem where a message in SM shows nothing
>> at all (blank page), but if I view it via webmail it's complete. It
>> doesn't matter the size, or if there is or not an attachment. I
>> already tried to repair the folder. This is happening since a long
>> time, so it's not related to a specific SM version.
>>
>> What else can I check to understand what's wrong and how to fix it?
>>
>> Thank you
>>
> Gabriel, e-mails can be composed in two formats .... either Plain Text
> or HTML. If you have your SeaMonkey set up to display HTML (View ->
> Message Body As -> Original/Simple HTML) and you are sent an e-mail
> composed in "Plain Text", guess what??

....You see the plain text content. SeaMonkey is clever enough to show
the plain text part, since that's all there is.

> (O.K., there is a third format where messages can be sent, in the one
> e-mail, in BOTH PT and HTML ... even with a different message in each
> format.)
>
> If the received e-mail is all Plain Text and you are set-up to View
> either form of HTML, you will see nothing!!

Does that actually happen for you? I regularly receive plain-text-only
emails, and don't have to switch the option away from viewing HTML to
see them.

What can happen is if a buggy mail client sends a message with both
plain text and HTML parts, but one of them is blank. Then, if SeaMonkey
is set to display the part that's blank, you'll see a blank message.
That's a problem on the sender's side though, and shouldn't normally
happen; it's usually a buggy system which automatically sends emails,
since most human-driven mail clients automatically create the plain-text
part from the HTML part.

> As for fixing it .... tell your correspondent to send in HTML or *YOU*
> switch, on a case by case basis, to Plain Text.

Neither of those should be necessary.

> Or ... the grey matter is telling me you can set which Format a person
> uses, so your SM will automatically switch Formats on a person by person
> basis .... (or is that just for Composing e-mails?? Hopefully someone in
> the know will drop by??)

That's for sending emails, to select which format SeaMonkey will use
when composing a message addressed to the recipient.

> HTH

--
Mark.

Mark Bourne wrote on 15/12/23 12:53 am:
> Daniel65 wrote:
>> Gabriel wrote on 12/12/23 10:49 pm:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> sometimes I have this odd problem where a message in SM shows
>>> nothing at all (blank page), but if I view it via webmail it's
>>> complete. It doesn't matter the size, or if there is or not an
>>> attachment. I already tried to repair the folder. This is
>>> happening since a long time, so it's not related to a specific SM
>>> version.
>>>
>>> What else can I check to understand what's wrong and how to fix
>>> it?
>>>
>>> Thank you
>>>
>> Gabriel, e-mails can be composed in two formats .... either Plain
>> Text or HTML. If you have your SeaMonkey set up to display HTML
>> (View -> Message Body As -> Original/Simple HTML) and you are sent
>> an e-mail composed in "Plain Text", guess what??
>
> ...You see the plain text content. SeaMonkey is clever enough to
> show the plain text part, since that's all there is.
>
>> (O.K., there is a third format where messages can be sent, in the
>> one e-mail, in BOTH PT and HTML ... even with a different message
>> in each format.)
>>
>> If the received e-mail is all Plain Text and you are set-up to View
>> either form of HTML, you will see nothing!!
>
> Does that actually happen for you? I regularly receive
> plain-text-only emails, and don't have to switch the option away from
> viewing HTML to see them.
>
> What can happen is if a buggy mail client sends a message with both
> plain text and HTML parts, but one of them is blank. Then, if
> SeaMonkey is set to display the part that's blank, you'll see a blank
> message.

So if a correspondent sends you a HTML *ONLY* e-mail (i.e. ZERO Plain
Text) and you are set up to read Plain Text *ONLY* logically, you should
see *NOTHING* because SM will not/does not de-crypt the HTML portion of
the message.

> That's a problem on the sender's side though, and shouldn't
> normally happen; it's usually a buggy system which automatically
> sends emails, since most human-driven mail clients automatically
> create the plain-text part from the HTML part.

REALLY??

>> As for fixing it .... tell your correspondent to send in HTML or
>> *YOU* switch, on a case by case basis, to Plain Text.
>
> Neither of those should be necessary.
>
>> Or ... the grey matter is telling me you can set which Format a
>> person uses, so your SM will automatically switch Formats on a
>> person by person basis .... (or is that just for Composing
>> e-mails?? Hopefully someone in the know will drop by??)
>
> That's for sending emails, to select which format SeaMonkey will use
> when composing a message addressed to the recipient.

Thank you.

--
Daniel

Daniel65 wrote on 15/12/23 8:44 pm:
> Mark Bourne wrote on 15/12/23 12:53 am:
>> Daniel65 wrote:
>>> Gabriel wrote on 12/12/23 10:49 pm:
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> sometimes I have this odd problem where a message in SM shows
>>>> nothing at all (blank page), but if I view it via webmail it's
>>>> complete. It doesn't matter the size, or if there is or not an
>>>> attachment. I already tried to repair the folder. This is
>>>> happening since a long time, so it's not related to a specific SM
>>>> version.
>>>>
>>>> What else can I check to understand what's wrong and how to fix
>>>> it?
>>>>
>>>> Thank you
>>>>
>>> Gabriel, e-mails can be composed in two formats .... either Plain
>>> Text or HTML. If you have your SeaMonkey set up to display HTML
>>> (View -> Message Body As -> Original/Simple HTML) and you are sent
>>> an e-mail composed in "Plain Text", guess what??
>>
>> ...You see the plain text content.  SeaMonkey is clever enough to
>> show the plain text part, since that's all there is.
>>
>>> (O.K., there is a third format where messages can be sent, in the
>>> one e-mail, in BOTH PT and HTML ... even with a different message
>>> in each format.)
>>>
>>> If the received e-mail is all Plain Text and you are set-up to View
>>>  either form of HTML, you will see nothing!!
>>
>> Does that actually happen for you?  I regularly receive
>> plain-text-only emails, and don't have to switch the option away from
>> viewing HTML to see them.
>>
>> What can happen is if a buggy mail client sends a message with both
>> plain text and HTML parts, but one of them is blank.  Then, if
>> SeaMonkey is set to display the part that's blank, you'll see a blank
>> message.
>
> So if a correspondent sends you a HTML *ONLY* e-mail (i.e. ZERO Plain
> Text) and you are set up to read Plain Text *ONLY* logically, you should
> see *NOTHING* because SM will not/does not de-crypt the HTML portion of
> the message.
>
>> That's a problem on the sender's side though, and shouldn't
>> normally happen; it's usually a buggy system which automatically
>> sends emails, since most human-driven mail clients automatically
>> create the plain-text part from the HTML part.
>
> REALLY??

Bummer!! I just switched to "Compose in HTML", re-booted my SM and
posted a test message in eternal-september.test .... then de-selected
"Compose in HTML", re-booted my SM and checked out
eternal-september.test .... and there was my HTML message, fully readable!!

>>> As for fixing it .... tell your correspondent to send in HTML or
>>> *YOU* switch, on a case by case basis, to Plain Text.
>>
>> Neither of those should be necessary.
>>
>>> Or ... the grey matter is telling me you can set which Format a
>>> person uses, so your SM will automatically switch Formats on a
>>> person by person basis .... (or is that just for Composing
>>> e-mails?? Hopefully someone in the know will drop by??)
>>
>> That's for sending emails, to select which format SeaMonkey will use
>>  when composing a message addressed to the recipient.
>
> Thank you.
>
Oh!! Well! Something else for me to forget!!
--
Daniel

Daniel65 wrote on 15/12/23 9:17 pm:
> Daniel65 wrote on 15/12/23 8:44 pm:
>> Mark Bourne wrote on 15/12/23 12:53 am:
>>> Daniel65 wrote:

<Snip>

>>>> As for fixing it .... tell your correspondent to send in HTML
>>>> or *YOU* switch, on a case by case basis, to Plain Text.
>>>
>>> Neither of those should be necessary.
>>>
>>>> Or ... the grey matter is telling me you can set which Format
>>>> a person uses, so your SM will automatically switch Formats on
>>>> a person by person basis .... (or is that just for Composing
>>>> e-mails?? Hopefully someone in the know will drop by??)
>>>
>>> That's for sending emails, to select which format SeaMonkey will
>>> use when composing a message addressed to the recipient.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
> Oh!! Well! Something else for me to forget!!

It just hit me ..... I was just posting TEXT which both Plain Text and
HTML can display .... so no difference.

If, however, I had attached a picture to my HTML message, Plain Text
would not have shown the picture .... whereas HTML would have, maybe!!
--
Daniel

On 14/12/2023 13:53, Mark Bourne wrote:
> Daniel65 wrote:
>...>> What can happen is if a buggy mail client sends a message with both
> plain text and HTML parts, but one of them is blank.  Then, if SeaMonkey
> is set to display the part that's blank, you'll see a blank message.
> That's a problem on the sender's side though, and shouldn't normally
> happen; it's usually a buggy system which automatically sends emails,
> since most human-driven mail clients automatically create the plain-text
> part from the HTML part.
>
>> As for fixing it .... tell your correspondent to send in HTML or *YOU*
>> switch, on a case by case basis, to Plain Text.
>
> Neither of those should be necessary.
>...>

At least not the first.

I recommend these settings, a combination not available through the GUI,
set in about:config:

mailnews.display.
prefer_plaintext false
html_as 1

What this does is:
- for an email with only text/plain (or no MIME), you see the plain text
part or the email body

- for an email with a text/html part, you see the result of the Mozilla
mail sanitisation procedure that turns HTML into plain text.

So you get a plain text view of the message content, avoiding any
deliberately useless corporate plaintext alternative part that says
something like "To show this message as we want, open this link in your
browser".

If you change "View>Message Body As...", the settings have to be
re-applied. OP might have to do that if a rogue sender is composing
pathological emails with text/plain content and an empty text/html part,
as described above, or vice versa. I might have had the display show the
text/plain part if the text/html transformation resulted in white space.

See my post (re-post on request):

Subject: Reading email as plain text
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2021 16:20:54 +0000
Newsgroups: alt.comp.software.seamonkey

/df

--
London
UK

On 14 Dec 2023 at 14:45:21 CET, "Mark Bourne" <nntp.mbourne@spamgourmet.com>
wrote:

> Gabriel wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> sometimes I have this odd problem where a message in SM shows nothing at all
>> (blank page), but if I view it via webmail it's complete.
>> It doesn't matter the size, or if there is or not an attachment.
>> I already tried to repair the folder.
>> This is happening since a long time, so it's not related to a specific SM
>> version.
>>
>> What else can I check to understand what's wrong and how to fix it?
>
> Are you viewing emails in the "message pane" (part of the same window as
> the folders and list of message), or opening messages in a separate
> window? I sometimes find the message pane doesn't display properly at
> first, but toggling it off and back on then shows the message (View >
> Layout > Message Pane, or press F8 on the keyboard, twice).

Hi, usually I read them in the main message pane.
But in this case even if I click on Reply (so it opens a new window) nothing
appears.
I also tried what you suggested, it doesn't work.
I can see correctly the same message via webmail.

Daniel65 wrote:
> Mark Bourne wrote on 15/12/23 12:53 am:
>> Daniel65 wrote:
>>> Gabriel wrote on 12/12/23 10:49 pm:
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> sometimes I have this odd problem where a message in SM shows
>>>> nothing at all (blank page), but if I view it via webmail it's
>>>> complete. It doesn't matter the size, or if there is or not an
>>>> attachment. I already tried to repair the folder. This is
>>>> happening since a long time, so it's not related to a specific SM
>>>> version.
>>>>
>>>> What else can I check to understand what's wrong and how to fix
>>>> it?
>>>>
>>>> Thank you
>>>>
>>> Gabriel, e-mails can be composed in two formats .... either Plain
>>> Text or HTML. If you have your SeaMonkey set up to display HTML
>>> (View -> Message Body As -> Original/Simple HTML) and you are sent
>>> an e-mail composed in "Plain Text", guess what??
>>
>> ...You see the plain text content.  SeaMonkey is clever enough to
>> show the plain text part, since that's all there is.
>>
>>> (O.K., there is a third format where messages can be sent, in the
>>> one e-mail, in BOTH PT and HTML ... even with a different message
>>> in each format.)
>>>
>>> If the received e-mail is all Plain Text and you are set-up to View
>>>  either form of HTML, you will see nothing!!
>>
>> Does that actually happen for you?  I regularly receive
>> plain-text-only emails, and don't have to switch the option away from
>> viewing HTML to see them.
>>
>> What can happen is if a buggy mail client sends a message with both
>> plain text and HTML parts, but one of them is blank.  Then, if
>> SeaMonkey is set to display the part that's blank, you'll see a blank
>> message.
>
> So if a correspondent sends you a HTML *ONLY* e-mail (i.e. ZERO Plain
> Text) and you are set up to read Plain Text *ONLY* logically, you should
> see *NOTHING* because SM will not/does not de-crypt the HTML portion of
> the message.

I confess I hadn't checked that way around, but just happened to find a
recent HTML-only email in my inbox. Setting SeaMonkey to view as plain
text, it shows just the text content extracted from the HTML, without
any of the formatting (and without downloading any remote images etc.).
So you do still see what content can be represented as plain text. As
far as I'm aware, the only time you'd see content with one and not the
other, is if the email includes both HTML and plain text parts but one
of them is blank.

>> That's a problem on the sender's side though, and shouldn't
>> normally happen; it's usually a buggy system which automatically
>> sends emails, since most human-driven mail clients automatically
>> create the plain-text part from the HTML part.
>
> REALLY??

That's been my experience. SeaMonkey gives you the option to send only
plain text, only HTML or both, but if you select both it generates the
plain text part from the message you've already typed and formatted with
HTML. You don't have to type it all again to provide a plain text part.
Others I've seen either do similarly, or send only a HTML part (so
there is no plain text part, not a blank plain text part).

If a mail client sends a multipart/alternative email with content in the
HTML part and nothing in the plaintext part (or vice-versa), I'd
consider that a bug in the sending mail client (or user error, if it's a
more advanced client that allows the HTML and plaintext parts to be
customised separately, although I think the only places I've seen that
capability are in setting up automated mailing systems).

>>> As for fixing it .... tell your correspondent to send in HTML or
>>> *YOU* switch, on a case by case basis, to Plain Text.
>>
>> Neither of those should be necessary.
>>
>>> Or ... the grey matter is telling me you can set which Format a
>>> person uses, so your SM will automatically switch Formats on a
>>> person by person basis .... (or is that just for Composing
>>> e-mails?? Hopefully someone in the know will drop by??)
>>
>> That's for sending emails, to select which format SeaMonkey will use
>>  when composing a message addressed to the recipient.
>
> Thank you.
>

Mark Bourne wrote on 16/12/23 4:39 am:
> Daniel65 wrote:
>> Mark Bourne wrote on 15/12/23 12:53 am:

<Snip>

>>> That's a problem on the sender's side though, and shouldn't
>>> normally happen; it's usually a buggy system which automatically
>>> sends emails, since most human-driven mail clients automatically
>>> create the plain-text part from the HTML part.
>>
>> REALLY??
>
> That's been my experience. SeaMonkey gives you the option to send
> only plain text, only HTML or both, but if you select both it
> generates the plain text part from the message you've already typed
> and formatted with HTML. You don't have to type it all again to
> provide a plain text part. Others I've seen either do similarly, or
> send only a HTML part (so there is no plain text part, not a blank
> plain text part).

I do recall one poster here-abouts (Good Guy, by Nym) who posted his
main "contribution" in the HTML portion of his post but also included a
Plain Text message (abusing Plain Text posters and directing them to his
HTML portion).

After this to-ing and fro-ing, I recalled that the HTML posts only seem
different to the Plain Text posts IF there was something in the HTML
message that a Plain Text message could not display, i.e. pictures, etc.
--
Daniel

On 2023-12-15, Dirk Fieldhouse wrote:

> On 14/12/2023 13:53, Mark Bourne wrote:
>> Daniel65 wrote:
>>...>> What can happen is if a buggy mail client sends a message with both
>> plain text and HTML parts, but one of them is blank.  Then, if SeaMonkey
>> is set to display the part that's blank, you'll see a blank message.
>> That's a problem on the sender's side though, and shouldn't normally
>> happen; it's usually a buggy system which automatically sends emails,
>> since most human-driven mail clients automatically create the plain-text
>> part from the HTML part.
>>
>>> As for fixing it .... tell your correspondent to send in HTML or *YOU*
>>> switch, on a case by case basis, to Plain Text.
>>
>> Neither of those should be necessary.
>>...>
>
> At least not the first.
>
> I recommend these settings, a combination not available through the GUI,
> set in about:config:
>
> mailnews.display.
> prefer_plaintext false
> html_as 1
>
> What this does is:
> - for an email with only text/plain (or no MIME), you see the plain text
> part or the email body
>
> - for an email with a text/html part, you see the result of the Mozilla
> mail sanitisation procedure that turns HTML into plain text.
>
> So you get a plain text view of the message content, avoiding any
> deliberately useless corporate plaintext alternative part that says
> something like "To show this message as we want, open this link in your
> browser".
>
> If you change "View>Message Body As...", the settings have to be
> re-applied. OP might have to do that if a rogue sender is composing
> pathological emails with text/plain content and an empty text/html part,
> as described above, or vice versa. I might have had the display show the
> text/plain part if the text/html transformation resulted in white space.
>
> See my post (re-post on request):
>
> Subject: Reading email as plain text
> Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2021 16:20:54 +0000
> Newsgroups: alt.comp.software.seamonkey
>
> /df

A suggestion: can you include the Message-IDs when referring to older
posts? While certain archives (at least some on the web?) make it
harder to work using Message-IDs, I think it's a good way to identify a
news post.

In this case, I suppose this is sovup6$6dv$1@gioia.aioe.org?
( news://news.blueworldhosting.com/sovup6dv@gioia.aioe.org for a
server which has your post )

If so, maybe the following http address is useful too:
http://al.howardknight.net/?ID=166321887300

(This is the "for bookmarking" address of that post at Howard Knight's
"Usenet Article Lookup" post search [1].)

[1] http://al.howardknight.net/?STYPE=msgid&MSGI=%3Csovup6%246dv%241%40gioia.aioe.org%3E

--
Nuno Silva