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Can't create/save new event in calendar (Lightning)

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May 10, 2011 - 4:35pm
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gonzo411
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Can't create/save new event in calendar (Lightning)

I seem to be having the same problem as described in https://portableapps.com/node/24926 . I bring up a New Event dialog box, fill it all in and then try to save it and nothing happens. Nothing shows up in my calendar, but no error messages are generated either.

I've tried all the things suggested in the previous thread with no luck. There is one difference I've observed. My local.sqlite file does not seem to be updating. The size stays the same (79KB) after I try to save the new event. The Date Modified time stamp on that file updated about a half hour ago, but I don't know what triggered that. I've tried repeating everything I've done so far to see what updates the time stamp, but so far, nothing I've tried has updated the Date Modified.

All my files and folders from Profile on down have the read-only bit clear. The local.sqlite file has the Archive bit set.

Any suggestions?

(Sorry for duplicate post. I thought I was creating a new topic when I posted to the previous thread.)

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May 11, 2011 - 3:41am
3D1T0R
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NTFS?

It seems possible (to me) that your issue is being caused by the dreaded NTFS Permissions error.

Is the File System on the drive from which you are running it NTFS?
(You can check this by right clicking on the drive's icon in "My Computer" [9x/2k/XP] or "Computer" [Vista/7] and clicking "Properties")
If so please follow these instructions:

John T. Haller wroteTo fix it, right-click on the drive letter in Explorer, Select Properties, Select the Security tab and then edit it to give Everyone full control.

If not, can you give any more information?

~3D1T0R

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May 11, 2011 - 7:40am
(Reply to #2)
gonzo411
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FAT32

Nope, it's FAT32 (Vista, SP2, 64-bit).

I checked comparable Sharing settings, shared it in a way that seemed analogous to the permissions John set in the NTFS, but it didn't change anything.

So, what other kind of information would you like?

Thanks for the help.

Ross

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May 11, 2011 - 3:08pm
(Reply to #3)
ottosykora
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calaender name?

what name of calendar do you use? Did you define some ?

Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland

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May 11, 2011 - 3:31pm
(Reply to #4)
gonzo411
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Home

I didn't intentionally name it, so I guess 'Home' is the default.

When I right-clicked on 'Home' and then clicked on properties, I see that the location is: moz-storage-calendar:// Is that a variable? I assume it's possible to check its value; does it make sense to do that? I'm just guessing here. I'm an old unix hack, although I've been out of IT for over a decade, and I never learned how windows works, so I'm definitely shooting in the dark.

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May 12, 2011 - 12:43am
(Reply to #5)
ottosykora
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try new calendar

if you just create new calendar, so in addition to the one called home, something else calendar1 or so.
Make also sure that the calendar is not read only, there is a tickbox for it in the properties.
Also the 'switch calendar on' has to be ticked before you can use it and also the tickbox next to the calendar name has to be active. If all those cond not met, you can not save what you enter in the event fields.

Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland

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May 11, 2011 - 10:35pm
(Reply to #6)
3D1T0R
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Sorry,

Well, sorry but it's not as simple as I thought it might have been, I personally have no experience with Lightning, so I'll leave this to those who do.
However I'd like to point out that the "comparable Sharing settings" that you set are not really comparable at all, those are mainly for sharing the folder over the network so your other computers can access it's content (though it does have a bearing on in-PC access of certain folders [but probably not this one]). I doubt that this is what you want (and if you do want to share a PortableApp over the network, you'll want to Map the share as a Network Drive cause UNC paths are unsupported).

Actually, one more attempt at being helpful here from me: You should try installing Thunderbird Portable over itself (any user data will remain intact) to correct any possible problems in the TBP install that might cause such a problem (IDK what, it's just an idea).

Hope you get it figured out.

~3D1T0R

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May 11, 2011 - 10:37pm
(Reply to #7)
John T. Haller
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Corrupt DB?

Offhand, my only other guess is a corrupted SQL db. You could manually export your calendar as is (if you need to save it). Uninstall Lightning and then manually remove the calendar bits and reinstall it. Then import any stuff you exported before. I'd suggest backing the whole ThunderbirdPortable\Data directory up first to be safe.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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May 12, 2011 - 10:05am
(Reply to #8)
gonzo411
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minimum files/folders to back up

Hello again John,

As you may recall, I just recently migrated from U3 to PA. When I first did that, I had backed up (copied) everything that looked remotely relevant and then pasted those into the new PA environment. I suspect my problem here might relate to a file I replaced in that process that I shouldn't have. Do you think that's possible?

After backing up the entire Data folder, uninstalling and then reinstalling, what minimum set of folders/files do I need to copy back into the Thunderbird/Lightning environment to restore all my email folders/files and my calendar events, but not reinstall whatever might be responsible for my problem?

When you say you suspect a corrupted SQL db, are you referring to local.sqlite?

Is 'exporting' the calendar equivalent to backing it up?

Can you give me more detail on the steps for 'uninstalling the Lightning extension, and removing the calendar bits' as you suggested. The only thing I see how to do is to uninstall Thunderbird, not just Lightning. Or is that what you meant?

Thanks...

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May 12, 2011 - 11:59am
(Reply to #9)
consul
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let me try too. :D

As I recall, the important bits are found in the profile, so no matter what where you got your thunderbird from (u3, portableapps.com, mozilla) the profile has the info that is key. On the portableApps folders, it is here: x:\PortableApps\ThunderbirdPortable\Data\profile

Exporting a Calendar to me is the same as backing it up, it's a specific backup of a one of your calendars that you created.

Uninstalling the lightening extension is just by uninstalling the lightening add-on found by looking in the Tools - Addons in Thunderbird

Like John mentioned, I'd make a new folder, call it ThunderbirdBackup, that has everything as is now, so you can work with a copy while experimenting what to try.

Don't be an uberPr∅. They are stinky.

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May 12, 2011 - 12:59pm
(Reply to #10)
gonzo411
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Ah ha

Now I get it. By 'bits' you mean pieces or elements. I was thinking along the lines of a flag or something that you had to set or unset.

Thanks for the tip on uninstalling. I'm still learning the jargon. I had seen the Add-ons when I was exploring looking for a way to uninstall extensions, but I had a bit of tunnel vision I guess and didn't equate Add-on to extension. It's so much easier when you speak the lingo, eh?

What would you put in the 'ThunderbirdBackup' folder? Just the profile folder or the entire Data folder? Then after reinstalling, what would you put back? Would just restoring the profile folder restore all my personal stuff? Clearly I could figure this out trial and error, but if you know the answer off the top of your head, you can possibly save me a step or two.

I plan on trying these suggestions this evening. Will see how it goes...

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May 12, 2011 - 1:29pm
(Reply to #11)
consul
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Do the entire Data folder

Technically Thunderbird does it with just the profile, but portableApps has things in the other folders, and it's the whole Data folder that is looked at when it runs.

Don't be an uberPr∅. They are stinky.

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May 12, 2011 - 9:30am
(Reply to #12)
gonzo411
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Thanks

I do appreciate your willingness to lend a hand. I'll keep at it.

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May 12, 2011 - 12:27pm
(Reply to #13)
ottosykora
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now just a Q

you are trying to transfer from u3?
But what version of Thunderbird and lightning did you have on the u3?
In what version are you trying to import the calendar things?

The calendar (lightning) data bases are not compatible between TB version 2.x and 3.x

If you have an old version 2.x Thunderbird on u3, you have to export the calendar , best to *.ics format and then import it into the new installation. This does work, thought I am getting some error msg each time I import calendar file, but it woks ok.
simply copying the calendar with the profile does not do the job in this particular case unfortunately.

Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland

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May 12, 2011 - 1:28pm
(Reply to #14)
gonzo411
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long story

Yeah, it's a long story, but to keep it short, I tried to update my U3 TB, but the update failed. TB was then non-functional - wouldn't even start up. Had to uninstall and hoped to reinstall, but discovered U3 was extinct. So I can't tell you what version of TB+L I had, and I was unable to export my calendar. But the entire Data folder appeared to be intact and I was able to copy that over. But my worry is that I copied something that's incompatible with the PA version of Lightning.

I could possibly fix all this by finding a source for reinstalling the old U3 TB and doing a graceful migration to PA. But U3's Software Central is also extinct so I'd have to search for the app and that's probably at least as much work as just fixing this problem. Besides, I'll probably learn more about PA and TB+L by fixing this problem than by going back.

But I do have TB working very nicely on my new PA platform, and thought I had Lightning working nicely as well. I'm able to see all my existing events, the reminders are working, and I can dismiss an event as well as set the Snooze. It wasn't until I tried to create a new event that I discovered the problem.

FYI, as a quick test, I just created a new calendar and tried to create a new event in it and it has the same problem. I click on the Save & Close button and nothing happens. The dialog box stays there, no error message displays, and nothing changes in the calendar. The Data/profile/calendar-data/local.sqlite file does not change size and the Date Modified doesn't change.

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May 12, 2011 - 12:55pm
(Reply to #15)
J Neutron
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Profile contents

You may want to refer to mozilla's knowledge base for the profile contents info:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Files_and_folders_in_the_profile_-_Thunderbird

neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com

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May 12, 2011 - 1:05pm
(Reply to #16)
gonzo411
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Thanks

Thanks a million for pointing me to this. It's very enlightening. I'd have gotten there eventually I guess, but right now there's just so much new info to digest and on top of trying to troubleshoot this problem, it's a bit overwhelming.

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May 12, 2011 - 3:56pm
(Reply to #17)
J Neutron
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Good resource

Happy to help.

That is a good resource to help understand what goes where and when.

You'll find other pages in the KB that can help answer questions. Just remember that they are talking about the regular Thunderbird (or Firefox) and not the portable ones. The structure is the same, just the profile location is different.

Edit: Oh, if you wander into the Mozilla forums to ask questions, you will probably be told that they don't do "portable" and you'll be referred back here. If you want good answers, you have to go to the KB.

neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com

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May 16, 2011 - 9:34pm
gonzo411
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Thanks

Thanks everyone for your input. So far, it looks like the easiest solution fixed it. (Had to wait until tonight to try to fix it.) I started with what seemed easiest, expecting to progress to the more involved suggestions. All it looks like I had to do was remove the Lightning Add-On and then add it back. So far, it seems to be working fine.

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