Dragging email from Thunderbird into Evernote makes Evernote enter unusable state

[CherryDT 7]

EDIT: I realized that this is not the best place for bug reports. I opened a support ticket now. Sorry for the unhelpful thread.

---

Today, I dragged an email from Thunderbird into Evernote.

After a second, the note editor area went white, and moving the mouse around over it showed no text-entry cursor anymore.

Changing note didn't do anything, neither did changing notebook (the previous notebook's note list stayed). Otherwise, the interface itself was responsive.

Closing Evernote made a "synchronizing notes" window pop up which didn't progress.

Clicking "cancel" confirming cancellation then made the UI hang indefinitely.

At that point, Evernote was apprently waiting on a mutex object using WaitForSingleObject.

Call stack:

26, KernelBase.dll!WaitForSingleObject+0x12 (No unwind info)
27, Evernote.exe+0x1ccad6 (No unwind info)
28, Evernote.exe+0x1d8a06 (No unwind info)
29, Evernote.exe+0x1d2c86 (No unwind info)
30, Evernote.exe+0x606ec (No unwind info)
31, atlthunk.dll+0x287f (No unwind info)
32, user32.dll!AddClipboardFormatListener+0x4b (No unwind info)
33, user32.dll!CallWindowProcW+0x1a8d (No unwind info)
34, user32.dll!CallWindowProcW+0x1121 (No unwind info)
35, user32.dll!CallWindowProcW+0x1038 (No unwind info)
36, user32.dll!AddClipboardFormatListener+0x4b (No unwind info)
37, user32.dll!CallWindowProcW+0xb2c (No unwind info)
38, user32.dll!CallWindowProcW+0x6ca (No unwind info)
39, user32.dll!IsRectEmpty+0x1ff (No unwind info)
40, ntdll.dll!KiUserCallbackDispatcher+0x4d (No unwind info)
41, user32.dll!SendMessageW+0x123 (No unwind info)
42, comctl32.dll!ImageList_DrawIndirect+0x66c (No unwind info)
43, comctl32.dll!SetWindowSubclass+0x1573 (No unwind info)
44, user32.dll!AddClipboardFormatListener+0x4b (No unwind info)
45, user32.dll!CallWindowProcW+0xb2c (No unwind info)
46, user32.dll!DispatchMessageW+0x22e (No unwind info)
47, user32.dll!IsDialogMessageW+0x101 (No unwind info)
48, user32.dll!DialogBoxIndirectParamAorW+0x25e (No unwind info)
49, user32.dll!DialogBoxIndirectParamAorW+0x114 (No unwind info)
50, user32.dll!DialogBoxIndirectParamAorW+0x32 (No unwind info)
51, user32.dll!DialogBoxParamW+0x4a (No unwind info)
52, Evernote.exe+0x1d513a (No unwind info)
53, Evernote.exe+0x1459bd (No unwind info)
54, Evernote.exe+0x1488af (No unwind info)
55, Evernote.exe+0x68723 (No unwind info)
56, Evernote.exe+0x11c5c (No unwind info)
57, atlthunk.dll+0x18d6 (No unwind info)
58, user32.dll!AddClipboardFormatListener+0x4b (No unwind info)
59, user32.dll!CallWindowProcW+0xb2c (No unwind info)
60, user32.dll!CallWindowProcW+0x7f (No unwind info)
61, Evernote.exe+0x50ee8 (No unwind info)
62, atlthunk.dll+0x26ef (No unwind info)
63, user32.dll!AddClipboardFormatListener+0x4b (No unwind info)
64, user32.dll!CallWindowProcW+0xb2c (No unwind info)
65, user32.dll!DispatchMessageW+0x22e (No unwind info)
66, user32.dll!DispatchMessageW+0x10 (No unwind info)
67, libcef.dll!GetHandleVerifier+0x3cd01 (No unwind info)
68, libcef.dll!GetHandleVerifier+0x3cdc3 (No unwind info)
69, libcef.dll!GetHandleVerifier+0x3ccef (No unwind info)
70, libcef.dll!GetHandleVerifier+0x3c95d (No unwind info)
71, libcef.dll!GetHandleVerifier+0x3ceb5 (No unwind info)
72, libcef.dll!GetHandleVerifier+0x1b079 (No unwind info)
73, libcef.dll!cef_time_to_timet+0x6ba9 (No unwind info)
74, Evernote.exe+0x4726a6 (No unwind info)
75, Evernote.exe+0x46a84d (No unwind info)
76, Evernote.exe+0x46b411 (No unwind info)
77, Evernote.exe+0x46ab90 (No unwind info)
78, Evernote.exe+0x465e2d (No unwind info)
79, Evernote.exe+0x467be5 (No unwind info)
80, Evernote.exe+0x11c5c (No unwind info)
81, atlthunk.dll+0x2cdf (No unwind info)
82, user32.dll!AddClipboardFormatListener+0x4b (No unwind info)
83, user32.dll!CallWindowProcW+0xb2c (No unwind info)
84, user32.dll!DispatchMessageW+0x22e (No unwind info)
85, user32.dll!DispatchMessageW+0x10 (No unwind info)
86, libcef.dll!GetHandleVerifier+0x3cd01 (No unwind info)
87, libcef.dll!GetHandleVerifier+0x3cdc3 (No unwind info)
88, libcef.dll!GetHandleVerifier+0x3ccef (No unwind info)
89, libcef.dll!GetHandleVerifier+0x3c95d (No unwind info)
90, libcef.dll!GetHandleVerifier+0x3ceb5 (No unwind info)
91, libcef.dll!GetHandleVerifier+0x1b079 (No unwind info)
92, libcef.dll!cef_time_to_timet+0x6ba9 (No unwind info)
93, Evernote.exe+0x471e96 (No unwind info)
94, Evernote.exe+0x44e22d (No unwind info)
95, Evernote.exe+0x45589b (No unwind info)
96, Evernote.exe+0x465dea (No unwind info)
97, Evernote.exe+0x467be5 (No unwind info)
98, Evernote.exe+0x11c5c (No unwind info)
99, atlthunk.dll+0x2cdf (No unwind info)
100, user32.dll!AddClipboardFormatListener+0x4b (No unwind info)
101, user32.dll!CallWindowProcW+0xb2c (No unwind info)
102, user32.dll!DispatchMessageW+0x22e (No unwind info)
103, user32.dll!DispatchMessageW+0x10 (No unwind info)
104, Evernote.exe+0x6f3d5 (No unwind info)
105, Evernote.exe+0x732d9 (No unwind info)
106, Evernote.exe+0x74176 (No unwind info)
107, Evernote.exe+0x869ff3 (No unwind info)
108, kernel32.dll!BaseThreadInitThunk+0x19 (No unwind info)
109, ntdll.dll!RtlGetAppContainerNamedObjectPath+0xe4 (No unwind info)
110, ntdll.dll!RtlGetAppContainerNamedObjectPath+0xb4 (No unwind info)

Update: This call stack is from 6.23.2.8859 (308859) Public (CE Build ce-62.6.10954). I just installed 6.24.2.8919 (308919) Public (CE Build ce-62.6.10954) and tried again, and it still gets Evernote stuck, but the difference is that now closing Evernote doesn't even have any effect (it stays open with no message). The UI is still processing messages at that point, but sluggishly. (It can take up to a second to show mouseover effects for example.)

[PinkElephant 8,075]

And now - who is going to sort out this self-inflicted mess ? We are other users, so what do you expect from dropping a heap of system messages on our heads ?

The established way to move an e-Mail from a mail client into EN is to send it to your own internal e-Mail-adress that is linked to your EN account. You can drag & drop anything into EN, but sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. 

[CherryDT 7]

Quote

You can drag & drop anything into EN, but sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. 

"Doesn't work" would mean it does nothing and/or displays a 🛇 cursor. If a software reacts with hanging or getting into an undefined state, it is always a bug.

Quote

And now - who is going to sort out this self-inflicted mess ? We are other users, so what do you expect from dropping a heap of system messages on our heads ?

While I don't agree that it is "self-inflicted", as explained above, I realize now that even though this forum is under "evernote.com", titled "Possible bugs" and also linked first when checking about bug reports on the homepage, it is actually probably not the best place to report bugs. However, last time I did that, a staff member responded, thanked me for reporting and said it would be forwarded to the developers... so it is not only "other users" it seems, but still, you are right.

I apologize for my misconception and I will open a support ticket now.

However I also have to say that I don't appreciate your attitude towards me in that matter. You could have pointed out that this place is mostly frequented by other users and not by staff and I should open a support ticket instead, in a friendly way. I reported a bug in a perfectly fine way, even including highly valuable debugging information that makes the devs' job easier in figuring out what went wrong, I didn't harm or offend anyone, so no need to be so salty...

[PinkElephant 8,075]

Sorry for not explaining - maybe my misconception is based on the assumption that when I go to a new place for the first time, I try to find out what the rules & procedures are like. I am not prepared to explain it individually to everybody who starts posting here.

With the support ticket I think you are on the right track now.

About the evaluation I disagree: Not every forced instability of a software is a bug. For E-Mail there is a defined way, well documented about how to send them into EN.

What I think caused the problem on your computer was probably some HTML-Code that today is part of many E-Mails. EN is partially HTML-Based, so simply dropping an E-Mail into it is probably like dropping a few lines of code into a program under execution. This can produce interesting effects, which is what you just proved. Sure it would be better if nothing happens -but if I am right, this was sort of a brute force attack.

Please let us know what the support action produces in the end.

[CherryDT 7]

Well I did read the code of conduct, which doesn't say anything about that, and there are several other reports about issues here. After all it is called "possible bugs/technical issues". And as mentioned before, when I previously posted about this sort of issue I got a positive response from staff, so in my mind this forum stuck as place to go for reporting issues. I did indeed miss the description of some of the subboards (including this Windows board) though, which said it's "community help". I'm sorry about that. 

Being a developer myself, I don't think that this is "forced instability" though, because good robust software should not choke on anything you throw at it. That's why there are tools called fuzzers, which create thousands of variations of intentionally incorrect input, in order to test your software to verify that this can't happen. (as for HTML: what you just described is, if it were the actual cause - which I don't know - an example for an injection attack which, if it would succeed, would mean that it's an even more problematic bug than I thought. And it shouldn't be triggered by everyday actions a user may take, like this.) I didn't complain either, I just reported a bug. (If it were my own software I'd be happy to get this sort of report. It can always be decided that it gets low priority assigned, and it may end up never being fixed if there are more important things to do, but nonetheless it's important to know what issues exist, regardless of their severity.) At the end of the day it doesn't matter though, I think it should be reported and it's up to the developers to decide how to triage it. 

Anyway, I think the misunderstandings are sorted out now, I'll wait for a reply from support. I guess they will just forward it to devs since it's technical.

Again sorry for causing confusion here.

[jefito 5,589]

Hmmm, I tried this. Dragged it into a notebook on the note panel, draged it into a note in the note list, dragged it into a note body. The email was stored as a .eml attachment, in each case. No crashes, though syncing is dodgy at the moment, I think due to planned stuff on the Evernote server end.

Version is 6.24.2.8919 (308919) Public (CE Build ce-62.6.10954)

In any case, it's fine to report such things here. It's a natural thing to try, and for some reason it's going navel-up for you, which is a bug in my book.I'd be curious as to what I did that might have been different then what you did, or what the differences are, apart from the different Evernote versions.

[CherryDT 7]

Is there anything I can try to help figure this out? (Things involving debuggers are fine too.)

Unfortunately I can't provide the EML since it contains sensitive information. 

I'm on Thunderbird 68.6.0.

I was dragging to the note body by the way. Sorry I missed this piece of information.

EDIT: It seems the EML wouldn't help anyway since it happens for all emails for me. I tried now with an entirely new note and a totally unrelated, bare bones email, and it happened as well.

EDIT2: Reading your message again, I noticed that it's not even a different Evernote version... As I wrote at the very bottom:

Quote

I just installed 6.24.2.8919 (308919) Public (CE Build ce-62.6.10954) and tried again, and it still gets Evernote stuck, but the difference is that now closing Evernote doesn't even have any effect (it stays open with no message). The UI is still processing messages at that point, but sluggishly. (It can take up to a second to show mouseover effects for example.)

So that makes me very curious too, since it seems we should have the same experience.

[jefito 5,589]

1 hour ago, CherryDT said:

So that makes me very curious too, since it seems we should have the same experience

Not sure that it matters, but my version of Thunderbird is 52.6.0 (32-bit). Old, I know, but we use GMail at work now, rather than our own mail server. I could update and try it again. Also, I did notice things being very sluggish when I dragged & dropped, but waited it out and everything came back eventually (10 - 20 seconds or so?).

Don't know whether a debugger would help you; you don't have the symbols/source to debug it properly (unless you're Raymond Chen in disguise). Also it looks like the CEF framework is involved, something that's not written by Evernote. Best bet is to report it, and hope that can get it under a microscope and figure it out, I'll flag it, too, since it's not guranteed that a tech will stumble across this. @Shane D.?

[CherryDT 7]

I was indeed referring to debugging without symbols - Raymond is not a wizard either, it's a skill that can be acquired, you know  But in particular I just thought if someone asks me a specific question that would help to figure it out, I would try to find an answer and be happy to assist. I don't know, like, is this or that function getting called and with what parameters, or things like that. (I know that just poking around would take a long time, that's not what I meant.)

For me, even after several minutes it doesn't fix itself.

I forgot to mention, my Thunderbird is 32-bit as well. (I use it for ages, but I did do the updates.)

One more tiny bit of information that I found: When I try this on a fresh empty note then after dropping the email onto the empty note body, it does set the note title to the email's title (and this persists after killing and restarting) before it gets stuck.

[jefito 5,589]

10 hours ago, CherryDT said:

Raymond is not a wizard

Blasphemy!!!  

I have debugged without symbols before, but it's painful and tedious, particularly with optimized code. Not my first option, for sure.

Anyways, I think I've gone about as far as I can with this one. You're premium, so you should be able to get into support. There is definitely something weird going on. But for now, maybe just forward the emails into your Evernote email, and manage them when they arrive (assuming that that doesn't exhibit the same problem as well -- I can't test that from Thunderbitd at the moment, as the mail server it was using is offline now). Good luck!

[DTLow 5,736]

16 hours ago, CherryDT said:

At that point, Evernote was apprently waiting on a mutex object using WaitForSingleObject.

This is above my pay grade but I was wondering if Evernote's activity log provides any useful info

afaik  Dragging the email into Evernote shouldn't cause a problem.  A .eml object is created and stored as a file attachment

btw, I see no problem posting your issue in this forum.  Perhaps embed the call stack as a text file

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,938]

Well, I couldn't resist trying this. Using Thunderbird 68.4.1 (32-bit) and Evernote 6.24, I created a new note in a separate window. In Tbird, I dragged an email from the email list pane in the middle into the body of the new Evernote. Nothing appeared in the body of the note, and when I clicked in it nothing happened; there was no cursor to type. I typed a title in the title field, but eventually it was replaced with the title of the email. In the main Evernote window the program became sluggish about moving from note to note for awhile. In the new note I clicked the Delete button. This moved it to the Trash, from where I was able to erase it permanently. I tried closing the main window interface, which worked. So I didn't get the full-on crash that you did, but I didn't get a usable note either. I generally use forwarding to get items from Tbird into Evernote, and it works well (esp. with a Thunderbird add-on called EnForward). I've never tried dragging an email into a note like this, but I agree, even if the email as an attachment creates something EN is not able to handle, there ought to be a smoother way of not handling it, e.g., an error message.

[DTLow 5,736]

9 minutes ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

but eventually it was replaced with the title of the email

That's interesting; Evernote must be processing the .eml file somehow

[CalS 5,280]

On 3/13/2020 at 2:58 PM, CherryDT said:

Today, I dragged an email from Thunderbird into Evernote.

After a second, the note editor area went white, and moving the mouse around over it showed no text-entry cursor anymore.

Changing note didn't do anything, neither did changing notebook (the previous notebook's note list stayed). Otherwise, the interface itself was responsive.

Closing Evernote made a "synchronizing notes" window pop up which didn't progress.

Clicking "cancel" confirming cancellation then made the UI hang indefinitely.

I switched from Thunderbird to eM Client a couple of years back.  For my use case TB was "burping" a bit too much.  Anyway, I can add an email to EN by grabbing it from the email list in eM Client and dropping it into a note.  As per @jefito above an eml attachment is added to a note. 

@PinkElephant  I do this when the email involves a follow up to which I want to respond using the original email after completion, and I don't want to go find the email in that client.  Forwarding the email to EN doesn't help.  So process is complete the to do, double click the eml attachment, click reply and go.  Quicker for me anyway.,