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Thunderbird suddenly will not download mail from the server

  • 3 replies
  • 7 have this problem
  • 354 views
  • Last reply by CWTL

CWTL
CWTL

This problem began suddenly yesterday. Thunderbird is set to download messages automatically. When I opened it up yesterday, 8/27/2023, it said "downloading 1 of 50". I waited and it just stopped, no error message and no mail came in. Repeated attempts resulted in the same outcome. I reset TB, reset the PC with the same result. I turned the computer off overnight hoping for a better tomorrow and the same thing is happening now, except that it says "downloading 1 of 193". The last e-mail messages appear to have been downloaded on 8/26/2023, in the afternoon. No settings were changed prior to this problem popping up. I don't know whether TB did some sort of automatic update and I'm not sure how I would discover that anyway. An outgoing test message from this account to another account did arrive, although slowly. I'm running TB 102.14.0 (32-bit) on an up-to-date Windows 10. Does this problem sound familiar, and is there a simple fix? The mail is on the server and on my phone as well. I use POP and have not had any problems receiving mail on both my iPhone and my PC. Thanks.

This problem began suddenly yesterday. Thunderbird is set to download messages automatically. When I opened it up yesterday, 8/27/2023, it said "downloading 1 of 50". I waited and it just stopped, no error message and no mail came in. Repeated attempts resulted in the same outcome. I reset TB, reset the PC with the same result. I turned the computer off overnight hoping for a better tomorrow and the same thing is happening now, except that it says "downloading 1 of 193". The last e-mail messages appear to have been downloaded on 8/26/2023, in the afternoon. No settings were changed prior to this problem popping up. I don't know whether TB did some sort of automatic update and I'm not sure how I would discover that anyway. An outgoing test message from this account to another account did arrive, although slowly. I'm running TB 102.14.0 (32-bit) on an up-to-date Windows 10. Does this problem sound familiar, and is there a simple fix? The mail is on the server and on my phone as well. I use POP and have not had any problems receiving mail on both my iPhone and my PC. Thanks.

Chosen solution

Thanks for the response - I will save those links. In the meantime, I found advice on another site, to the effect of closing TB, deleting the global-messages-db.sqlite file, and re-opening the program. This supposedly forced TB to download the messages. After waiting for TB to finish indexing the inbox and the previous years' archive folders, which took a little time, it downloaded all messages that were missing and brought the inbox up to date. Thank you again for the response.

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All Replies (3)

CWTL
CWTL Question owner

PS, in case anybody's listening, I have another e-mail account on the same server which is coming through normally on TB. This makes me believe that it's some sort of settings corruption or problem with the first account only.

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 25 Contributor

First thing to do is check for a corrupted message:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1301414

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1158670

CWTL
CWTL Question owner

Chosen Solution

Thanks for the response - I will save those links. In the meantime, I found advice on another site, to the effect of closing TB, deleting the global-messages-db.sqlite file, and re-opening the program. This supposedly forced TB to download the messages. After waiting for TB to finish indexing the inbox and the previous years' archive folders, which took a little time, it downloaded all messages that were missing and brought the inbox up to date. Thank you again for the response.