Where did you install Firefox from? Help Mozilla uncover 3rd party websites that offer problematic Firefox installation by taking part in our campaign. There will be swag, and you'll be featured in our blog if you manage to report at least 10 valid reports!

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Əgər kömək lazımdırsa lütfən yeni sual verin.

Cannot use global search

  • 6 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by jolindbe

jolindbe
jolindbe
more options

I use Thunderbird 38.8.0 on CentOS 6.8.

Since a few days ago, I cannot use the global search function in Thunderbird - if searching for something in the box, I just get a new tab and the text "Searching...", which never completes. This used to work before, and I can't recall that I've modified anything. "Quick FIlter" still works, though. Right-clicking on Inbox and selecting "Search messages" also still works. I can see all my messages in the inbox.

I have tried to delete global-messages-db.sqlite and restart Thunderbird, which makes Thunderbird start indexing the messages again, but this does not change the search behaviour. The account is an IMAP account.

I use Thunderbird 38.8.0 on CentOS 6.8. Since a few days ago, I cannot use the global search function in Thunderbird - if searching for something in the box, I just get a new tab and the text "Searching...", which never completes. This used to work before, and I can't recall that I've modified anything. "Quick FIlter" still works, though. Right-clicking on Inbox and selecting "Search messages" also still works. I can see all my messages in the inbox. I have tried to delete global-messages-db.sqlite and restart Thunderbird, which makes Thunderbird start indexing the messages again, but this does not change the search behaviour. The account is an IMAP account.

Chosen solution

I finally managed to solve this: Today, even the contents of messages would not be displayed, and I found this forum thread: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=892575

Basically the solution is to shut down Thunderbird, delete all *.msf files in your profile directory, restart Thunderbird, let it index all the messages, then I actually had to restart Thunderbird again, and now I can see the contents of all messages and also use global search.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (6)

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

Did you download all your messages in the IMAP account for offline use? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization#w_synchronization

jolindbe
jolindbe Question owner
more options

Yes, I have selected to keep all messages locally.

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

Is this a Thunderbird version provided via your distributions repository or the vanilla Thunderbird downloaded from the Mozilla website? Note, the latest version is Thunderbird 45.2.0.

jolindbe
jolindbe Question owner
more options

To my understanding, it is the Thunderbird version that comes with CentOS. I do not manage the system, I don't have admin, and can thus not install updates. However, since this has been working up until recently, I can't understand why it would be a version issue.

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

Usually rebuilding the global database does fix things. May be you should ask your system administrator.

jolindbe
jolindbe Question owner
more options

Seçilmiş Həll

I finally managed to solve this: Today, even the contents of messages would not be displayed, and I found this forum thread: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=892575

Basically the solution is to shut down Thunderbird, delete all *.msf files in your profile directory, restart Thunderbird, let it index all the messages, then I actually had to restart Thunderbird again, and now I can see the contents of all messages and also use global search.