Version 115.5.1 (64-bit) update: All emails vanished but show correct number of emails
Running Thunderbird 115.5.1 (64-bit) on MacOS Sonoma 14.1.2 (both are the latest).
After the Thunderbird auto-update, all email accounts show the correct number of emails, all email accounts are listed, but they do not appear in the viewing pane: it is as if I have no email! Old emails that had open tabs still show, just the main Inbox tab is blank: it is still a tab, but no name in it and is blank.
Went through all the threads I could find on this looking for a solution. Right click on the account does not do anything, and menus do not show Preferences. No filters are enabled. Rebooted, no improvement. Went through every menu item in the pulldowns: most are greyed out.
Gewysig op deur alexdeas
All Replies (3)
No preferences was renamed setting a version or so ago after being options. So I guess you might be able to find those menus now.
I do not think right clicking on the account ever actually fixed missing mail content. But there are some more common causes.
Thunderbird losses all the message headings except the menu widget.
Like all of this but the last square entry.
Unfortunately that has been going on since at least 2012. Generally if you click in the list where mail should be, it will open, it just has no headings to show.
This information is stored in the index database for the folder, you might try right clicking the folder and selecting properties and then the repair. It keeps bringing back the correspondents folder that I hate. Perhaps it will bring back your mail.
Another common cause is the connection to the server has been lost for IMAP accounts. They are fully synchronized and as the server is the canonical device a sync to a not there server simply deletes all the mail in the folder. This is easily fixed by fixing the connection error as mail will sync again from the server once the problem is fixed. This usually sees most folder in the account also disappear at thesame time. So I don't think that fits your story.
Finally if you use the unified folders view the search folders it is based on can be corrupted. I will not go there, unless I need to. Are you using the unified folders view?
Thanks Marat, Yes the problem has been going on for a decade - when searching for solutions I note there are quite a few companies offering tools to migrate from Thunderbird to Apple Mail citing the losing email problem in Thunderbird as the incentive for people to switch.
I am not using Unified view, but see each email account separately.
Discovered a partial fix though, going into Thunderbird Help (under the 3 lines in the top right of the main window) > Troubleshooting Mode, turn it on and restart. That gives a basic view of email, but at least one can see the email.
I should add: 1. The accounts lost include both POP and IMAP accounts. 2. The accounts lost include accounts left on server and accounts stored locally. 3. The fact that they are visible in Troubleshooting mode shows there is no problem with the server connection, and apparently not a corruption problem.