User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Fedora; Linux x86_64; rv:46.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/46.0 Build ID: 20160503092831 Steps to reproduce: attempt to recover mail while network is down ( either configured for SSH via POP3 ) Actual results: only visible change is status bar showing message of the form : <account name> Looked up <server name> Failed to contact serveur; no mail retrieved; no error message shown. Expected results: Firstly this is a *total failure* to check the server for mail so there needs to be a clear, inyourface error message : eg a modal dialogue. Secondly the message in the status bar is misleading. It just looks like confirmation messaged. "Looked up " server is incorrect: it TRIED to look up the server and FAILED. So at the staging this is shown it would seem that "Looking up server .... " would be a more accurate report. Some kind of hour glass or indication of an ongoing process may also be good. When it gives up and FAILS this needs to be shown. Preferably in a more visible way than a quiet little status bar message. At the moment it remains with the last thing showing the false claim to have "looked up " the server. At the very least the status bar should update to indicate that STATUS, ie it failed! This bug has existed for years and just annoyed be once too often. This error is so poorly reported, that even being aware of the problem I rarely realise something is wrong until the Firefox actually tells me that it cannot connect to whatever I ask of it. Then I glance back at TB and see the old "Looked up " msg.

Is this a pop account, or imap? if pop, you are probably seeing bug 227551 Is "looked up" a translation to english from some other language?

Well I reported POP3 so I guess it must be POP. No, it is not a dupe since that bug describes errors after the server has been contacted and the number of retrievable messages received. I'm reporting the network being down. There is commonality in that that bug also highlights woefully inadequate error reporting. That bug has been open since 2033 !!! Not encouraging indication of any will to fix woefully inadequate error reporting on Thunderbird. Yes "looked up" sounds like it was written by someone who is not a native English speaker. This needs changing because visually the difference between "looking up <domain_name>" and "looked up <domain_name>" is so small it is likely to go unnoticed. I would suggest "<domain_name> found" so at least the change is the status message is noticeable. But that message should not even be appearing when TB fails to connect. That is the primary bug I am reporting. It reported that it "looked up" the domain name when it FAILED TO look up the domain name. That key point has nothing to do with the other bug, so please don't dupe this to another bug which now old enough to be wearing long pants and going to high school !

Will be looked at in bug 1400359.