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Since July 4th I have noticed a folder called popstate-1.dat on my TB email. The folder is empty and I do not understand why this appeared. Is it okay?

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I have read about popstate1.dat files but this seems to be a folder that appeared under my TB email on the left hand side of the screen along with my other email folders. This folder is empty. Is this necessary, can I delete it, and if so how. On the Application Data/Roaming/Thunderbird I can see the files relating to this folder. I am using TB 45.2.0. and windows 10 with the default anti virus firewalls. The first sign of this appearing was July 4th 2016............was this an upgrade day?

I have read about popstate1.dat files but this seems to be a folder that appeared under my TB email on the left hand side of the screen along with my other email folders. This folder is empty. Is this necessary, can I delete it, and if so how. On the Application Data/Roaming/Thunderbird I can see the files relating to this folder. I am using TB 45.2.0. and windows 10 with the default anti virus firewalls. The first sign of this appearing was July 4th 2016............was this an upgrade day?

All Replies (5)

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Well, it shouldn't be there, and the fact that it does appear in Thunderbird indicates a fault. I don't think it's a serious fault and I'd just delete the file/folder, going into the profile folder via my file manager if necessary. Does Thunderbird let you delete it, just as you can with any regular Thunderbird folder?

There is some ambiguity about files and folders here. Items which appear as folders in Thunderbird are actually implemented as files in the operating system. So a file in the wrong place may appear as a folder in Thunderbird. I suspect that Thunderbird knows not to display a file/folder named popstate.dat, but has been confused by the "1" appended to the filename so assumes this is a user-defined file/folder and so shows it in the account folder listing.

The "1" on the end suggest to me that it is a temporary copy, perhaps made as a backup while the real popstate.dat file was being updated, but the process failed or was interrupted and the backup copy was not erased.

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Thankyou for your response. On further investigation, it looks as though it may have come from a system crash on July 4th. Yes I can see popstate.dat and popstate-1.dat files in the operating system. I have not tried to delete it from the TB email just as I would other email folders as I do not know the consequences of this action. Other posts on here have had multiple popstate-N.dat files/folders but none of the replies to their problems apply to my situation. Maybe I'll live with it for a while and see what happens as so far I have not noticed anything detrimental to my system. Thankyou again.

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As Zenos said It shouldn't be there.

The popstat.dat keeps track of when the last pop3-mail were downloaded Every pop3-account should contain one. It rewrites/updates every time and the important part is the file-time.

Probably there is no activity in one of your popstat(?).dat files. Check the dates.

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'popstate.dat': Keeps track of which messages have been left on the POP3 server.

If you deleted the 'popstate.dat' file, a new is created and when Thunderbird next accesses the server Inbox, it may download everything currently in that Inbox. Some servers act a bit differently, eg: gmail as they also keep a record and additional changes would need to occur to get access to those previously downloaded emails - if required.

So by deleting 'popstate.dat', the worst that could happen is a complete download of anything on the server Inbox.

re : popstate-1.dat totally agree with Zenos whilst popstate was being updated, it would seem the temporary backup (popstate-1.dat) was not removed.

It would seem on this occasion the 'crash' interrupted the process. delete the 'popstate-1.dat' file.

For anyone else reading this - additional info: If you get regular and extra popstate-N.dat folders showing in Folder Pane and no 'crashes': Please check the 'popstate.dat' file has 'Write' permissions. right click on 'popstate.dat' (not 'popstate-N.dat') file and select 'Properties'. The 'Security' tab should display all the permissions for various users, system etc.

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Thankyou All, Your responses have helped me.