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✔ GPGMail #835: Saved rich-text draft msg loses formatting when re-opened (or switches to text mode?)

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sky

07 Jun, 2015 04:43 PM

GPGMai, or GPGServices, ...
Mac OSX Yosemite 10.10.3
GPGTools 2.5b6 917b downloaded on 2015-06-06

1) Open Apple Mail
2) Create an outbound message (opens a window), type a few words in the body of the message, click command-S to save
3) Close the message's window either with command-W or by clicking the close button on the window
4) Double-click the title of the draft from the message list in Apple Mail, a message window opens
5) Turn one of the words in the message into underlined, or italic, or boldface, or color, or different font, any formatting change; an alert may appear asking whether you want to convert to rich text, which you should approve
6) Save the message using command-S
7) Close the message window
7a) Note that if you have a preview panel in Apple Mail, the formatting of the draft correctly appears in the preview panel, so clearly it's saved -with- formatting 8) Double-click the title of the draft again
8a) The message window opens, 8b) The correctly-formatted message appears for one brief shining moment (sometimes you can miss this on a fast computer - it is very brief) 8c) The message gets turned into plain text 8d) You can close that window -without- saving and the preview panel still shows the correct formatting 8e) If you save the draft at this point, it goes back to plain text (loses the formatting)

What happened: "Formatting was destroyed when opening a draft." Note that I said the formatting was destroyed -when opening- not when saving.

What I expected: "The draft should open with all of the saved formatting."

I have tested by uninstalling the GPGTools and Apple Mail performs the way you would expect, which is that formatting is -not- destroyed when opening a draft.

1. 1 Posted by sky on 07 Jun, 2015 04:46 PM

   

   This behavior occurs on two different Mac OS X systems, both using the current GPGTools and current Apple Mail. One has been altered to -encrypt by default- and -do not sign by default- ... not sure about the other one.

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2. 2 Posted by sky on 07 Jun, 2015 04:52 PM

   

   I just verified that three different systems, all on GPGTools current version, have this issue. I usually keep a system on the previous version, if possible, but we did this for a day and then decided everything was OK (which it clearly was not) and then upgraded all three systems. So have no way to test here.

   But the three systems have somewhat different settings, so this problem is most likely widespread.

   We very much support what you are doing here to improve the product -- this is an essential product! We also support your charging something for the product, as long as it remains affordable to casual users.

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3. Support Staff 3 Posted by Steve on 11 Jun, 2015 11:03 PM

   

   Hi Sky,

   thanks a lot for your report. I think I would give one arm if all user feedback was researched and formulated on this level :)

   I can confirm all your findings. We are in the midst of a slow roll out of the upcoming stable release. A fix will sadly not make it into that release.

   We have a ticket for this problem. I connected this discussion with the existing ticket. That means, should this discussion get closed, it will be re-opened as soon as the ticket is closed. That way you'll receive a notification. Feel free to open a new discussions should you run into further problems or need assistance.

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4. 4 Posted by sky on 12 Jun, 2015 12:29 AM

   

   Do not part with your arm. You will need it to support your hand while you type.

   I see there’s a release out today, and I was hopeful this would reach you because it’s going to affect many people. Most of them won’t know how or won’t take the time to research it.

   I will breathlessly await a fix. My wife actually discovered it and we spent 7 hours researching it because it was intimately connected to a real Apple Mail bug, which took about half of that time to spot. They were intertwined so tightly it was a real bear to figure them out.

   The Apple Mail bug is that if you start a draft message, leave the subject empty, press command-S to save the draft, then later on you returne and open the draft, the subject line cannot be changed when you save a second time. You can see this is happening at the same time as the GPGTools bug, so I found it almost impossible to guess whether it was one bug or two bugs. In fact, the GPG bug might be caused by whatever causes Apple Mail to erase subject lines when you open a draft message.

   Just keep up the good work.

   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
   Sky (Jim Schuyler, PhD)
   —The future has arrived, and the label says “some assembly required.”
   Blog: http://blog.red7.com/
   Phone: +1.415.759.7337
   PGP Keys: http://web.red7.com/pgp

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5. 5 Posted by sky on 12 Jun, 2015 02:52 AM

   

   Apple has acknowledged another problem that may seem to interact with this one -- that if an email is drafted with no subject line and then saved; then quit Mail; then launch Mail; then open the draft; then type a new subject line; then save again. The "new" or edited title is discarded. Changes to the actual message, including formatting, are saved. This can be duplicated if you turn off GPGMail first, so you can verify that it's not GPGMail causing the subject to disappear. Apple acknowledged this behavior to me on the phone today. But this may be a confounding factor in what GPGtools does. Just be aware there may be some interaction here.

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6. Support Staff 6 Posted by Steve on 12 Jun, 2015 06:59 PM

   

   Thanks for the info. This might indeed be relevant detail.

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7. Support Staff 7 Posted by Steve on 10 Jul, 2015 08:47 AM

   

   Hey Sky,

   good news. We think, this issue has been fixed. If you want to test the fix, please download our latest nightly GPG Suite. That page also has sig and SHA1 to verify the download. It would be very helpful, if you can provide feedback, as to whether the fix works as expected.

   If you have other questions you can open a new discussion any time.

   Best, steve

   Disclaimer: This is a development version which has not been thoroughly tested yet, so bugs or crashes are to be expected. Thanks for helping us test this fix.

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8. 8 Posted by sky on 10 Jul, 2015 05:54 PM

   

   Which of those many downloads should I test? I would like to minimize risk.

   GPG Suite
   GPGKeychain
   GPGMail
   GPGPreferences
   GPGService
   MacGPG2

   ?

   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
   Sky (Jim Schuyler, PhD)
   —The future has arrived, and the label says “some assembly required.”
   Blog: http://blog.red7.com/
   Phone: +1.415.759.7337
   PGP Keys: http://web.red7.com/pgp

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9. Support Staff 9 Posted by Luke Le on 10 Jul, 2015 06:04 PM

   

   While we usually recommend installing the entire suite, GPGMail will do in your case.

   Hope that helps.

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10. 10 Posted by sky on 10 Jul, 2015 08:16 PM

    

    This worked on my Macbook Air with current OSX and current Apple Mail. I installed the full GPGSuite build on the site 2015-07-10 (today — probably yesterday’s build — I did not check the build date).

    There is one interesting, non critical, side-effect.

    If you are drafting a message, hit command-S to save, hit command-W to close the draft window, then the preview panel in Apple Mail still shows the “old” version of the message. To refresh the preview, you have to click to another message, then back to the first one. This was “automatic” with the previous version.

    I will switch both of my systems to this daily build and will let you know if there are any lingering issues.

    -Sky

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    Sky (Jim Schuyler, PhD)
    —The future has arrived, and the label says “some assembly required.”
    Blog: http://blog.red7.com/
    Phone: +1.415.759.7337
    PGP Keys: http://web.red7.com/pgp

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11. Support Staff 11 Posted by Luke Le on 10 Jul, 2015 09:01 PM

    

    Hi Sky,

    that is a scenario which is sometimes happening with encrypted drafts, but it's most certainly not related to this version, since I've seen it in many versions before (including the stable)
    It doesn't happen all the time for me, but often.
    Also, would you mind checking if the "store drafts on server" option is enabled for the account you're seeing this issue with. I think it might be related to that.

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12. 12 Posted by sky on 11 Jul, 2015 12:30 AM

    

    I do not see any option to store drafts on server. This is Apple Mail most recent version. I doubt that I store drafts on the server anyway, as I prefer to limit my exposure profile…that’s a major reason I use encryption.

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    Sky (Jim Schuyler, PhD)
    —The future has arrived, and the label says “some assembly required.”
    Blog: http://blog.red7.com/
    Phone: +1.415.759.7337
    PGP Keys: http://web.red7.com/pgp

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13. 13 Posted by sky on 14 Jul, 2015 06:01 PM

    

    I have been working with the dailies for a couple of days now and this issue seems fixed. However, I have been having kernel panics when my computers are sleeping. Two computers, both with these dailies installed and both are going into panic some time during the night so that in the morning they have to reboot. My impression is that a kernel panic isn't easy to cause, and GPGTools doesn't install anything deep and dark, but just in case I thought I would let you know. I also upgraded MS Office to Macintosh version 2016 on one of the computers, but not the other. Both computers panic. Been running version 1372n for a couple of days (panics occurred with this one installed), and just installed 1379n today. No panic yet today, however the computers don't sleep much during the daytime. I'm telling you just in case you've been experiencing panic reports from testers.

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14. Support Staff 14 Posted by Luke Le on 14 Jul, 2015 06:03 PM

    

    Hi Sky,

    thanks for keeping us updated. I also don't think GPG Suite is involved, but would you mind sending us a panic report. Usually the reason can be deduced from those files.

    Thanks!

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15. Support Staff 15 Posted by Steve on 17 Jul, 2015 08:52 AM

    

    Did you encounter any further kernel panics?

    If you have some free time you might want to update http://web.red7.com/pgp.php with the new https URL for https://gpgtools.org/ and rename GPG Keychain Access to GPG Keychain.

    Also the default GPG Keychain keyserver is now a hkps server using SSL which we recommend to use.

    Regards,
    steve

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16. 16 Posted by sky on 17 Jul, 2015 05:35 PM

    

    No kernel panics for several days now. Just none at all.

    Updated the references you suggested.

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    Sky (Jim Schuyler, PhD)
    —The future has arrived, and the label says “some assembly required.”
    Blog: http://blog.red7.com/
    Phone: +1.415.759.7337
    PGP Keys: http://web.red7.com/pgp

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17. Support Staff 17 Posted by Steve on 17 Jul, 2015 05:43 PM

    

    As Luke mentioned, we don't think GPG Suite would be causing kernel panics. I'll go ahead and close this discussion.

    Should you re-encounter any panics, do send the log and we will have a look.

    Besides that, you can always open a new discussion if you run into other trouble or need assistance.

    All the best,
    steve

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18. Steve closed this discussion on 17 Jul, 2015 05:43 PM.