Lets see, the default period for checking mail is 15 minutes. there is 10 minutes from the online message to your forwarding it. So I guess your just being impatient.

You misunderstood. Look at the times on the mail. Some of this stuff has been on the Outlook server for days. If I forward it to the same inbox it gets delivered. Look at the times from the original mail from Gordon and the forwarded mail that made it through.

Interestingly, just this morning, all the mail which was still in the Outlook inbox was finally delivered to my Tbird inbox. This included the mail from Gordon which you see is from days before.

Please confirm that you have the screenshot and now understand the problem.

Again, to clarify:

Occasionally, mail is left on the Outlook server and not retrieved by Tbird. It will sometimes show up days later. The mail from Gordon Lam you see in the Outlook inbox wasn't retrieved by Tbird until this morning, when all unread mail spanning days was retrieved.

When you next experience no download and there are emails on server dating back longer than 15minutes,does Thunderbird 'Activity Manager' show thunderbird is checking the server at regular intervals?

How frequently do you compact the Inbox ? When was the last time you did it?

Do you have the account server settings set to compact/expunge clean up Inbox on exit?

Do you normally exit Thunderbird at the end of each day or leave it running and allow computer to go to sleep?

1) I didn't check activity manager but I forced a retrieval. Mail which arrived after Gordon's was downloaded. The mail I forwarded from the Outlook inbox to the same outlook inbox was also forwarded, but the original remained on the Outlook server.

2) I never compact the inbox. I have more than ample space for everything, trust me. Do you recommend I do that? Since later mail is retrieved a full inbox isn't the issue.

3) I delete messages from the server after downloading them. See screenshot.

4) I typically leave Tbird open and let the PC sleep but usually reboot weekly.

I attached another image to show it's still happening. Your reply went to junk. I forwarded to Inbox and it got stuck. I had to forward again to get it to Tbird.

Also, if you know any way to turn off junk mail in Outlook so Tbird handles everything I'd like to know.

Thank you again for your time and attention.

Joe

re 2) I never compact the inbox.

Emails are stored in mbox files. Mbox files are simple text files. As emails are downloaded, they get written to the file in the order downloaded, so oldest would be at the top. This means each email is not stored in a separate file. As you have a Pop account, this means everything would be coming in to the Inbox, so think of it as a single text document, where each email is like a paragraph.

Whenever you delete or move an email, that email gets a marker eg: 'marked as deleted' and it is hidden from view. However, it is still in the file. Compacting makes a copy of the file, then scans the file for good email and writes them to the new file. The original is then replaced. It has got rid of all those marked as deleted emails and cleaned up the file, reducing it's size.

If you do not compact on a regular basis, you risk that file getting corrupted and then you may start to get issues that could end up losing emails.

This is the same for any file, but each time you save a draft, it adds to the file even if the Drafts folder looks empty. The same goes for the 'Junk' folder.

Do you have the 'folderpane toolbar' enabled ?

• Menu app icon > options > select 'Folder Pane Toolbar'
• Then make sure the 'Size' column is enabled. see image below.

It will tell you the current size of folder.

As you have never compacted the Inbox (or indeed any folder), I would advise you move all good emails out of the Inbox and put them into suitable folders for storage. Then delete any you do not want. You do not normally need to completely empty the Inbox, but just in case there is some corruption, it is better safe than sorry.

When Inbox is empty:

• Right click on Inbox folder and select 'Compact'.
• Right click on Junk' and select 'Compact'.
• Right click on 'Drafts' and select 'Compact'

This will reduce the size of the folders.

Then you will have a clean new Inbox.

You can then watch to see if incoming mail is arriving as it should.

As you do not keep any messages on server, I suggest you make a backup of your profile as this maybe the only copy of emails.

In thunderbird

• Help > Troubleshooting Information
• click on 'Open Folder'

A new window opens showing contents of 'profile name' folder.

• Exit Thunderbird now.

• Go up the directory, 'profile name' folder will be in 'Profiles' and 'Profiles' will be in 'Thunderbird' folder which is in 'Roaming' folder. You need to copy the 'Thunderbird' folder which is in the 'Roaming' folder and put in a safe place like an external hard drive or other suitable location.

Thanks very much for the information and detailed reply.

I'll take the actions you recommended. I do believe I'm set up to automatically compact as I think I've seen messages to that effect.

When this occurs I've seen a dialog that references a PETR (I think) error but I closed it too quickly and didn't get a screenshot.

Do you want me to mark this closed and reopen if the actions don't fix it or leave it open for a while and see if it happens again?

Joe

Leave open for now, so you can respond with how things progress just in case we might need to check something else. But if all is ok after compacting, you could mark my previous comment on compacting as solution to close. After some months, it will be auto closed.

Will do, thank you.

Please note that even after compacting, waiting an hour, forcing retrieval, and automatically retreiving other messages (package notification), that after compacting these 3 messages still remain in the Outlook.com inbox. See screenshot.

Thanks again.

Joe

I notice you have some messages in Junk Email folder on server.

Can you compare the dates of those junk emails, to see if they are just earlier or later than the dates of emails that did not download.

Is there a correlation eg: Junk date preceeds an email that did not download.

I'm wondering if the order of received emails is soemthing like this:

Good email 8am - downloaded ; Junk email 8.05am moved Inbox to junk, good email 8.06- not downloaded.

So what are the dates of the junk emails in comparision to those good emails that did not download as expected.

Are you using Outlooks default "priority" inbox. Funny how "innovations" that sort your mail can have unintended consequences.

All,

I'm still having the problem. Screenshots show that both your replies yesterday got stuck in the Outlook inbox. Note also that the Toad Hall reply from June 2 suddenly showed up in my inbox along with others that were stuck in Outlook.

It may or may not correlate with junk mail. I think I've seen it when there was nothing in junk. I would love to turn junk mail off in Outlook--let me know if you know how to do it.

I don't know what the Outlook priority inbox is. This problem started recently, I don't know if it correlates. For 2 years everything was fine. If you can tell me how to turn priority inbox off I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for continuing to look into this.

Joe

Found this on 'priority' inbox:

• https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/inbox-priority-and-others/6512ac4f-5763-4561-bbf4-c6a19683669b

NEVERMIND.

I didn't realize your mail was in the Junk folder--I thought I was looking at the Inbox. I created a rule to move to Inbox and it did. Tbird then retrieved all from the inbox fine.

Compacting may have fixed the problem but I'll leave this open for a bit. Note that the junk email correlated with the mail held in the inbox finally being retrieved by Tbird.

Again, if you can tell me how to disable junk mail or priority inbox in Outlook I'd appreciate it.

Thanks again for your time and attention.

Sometimes a log jam can occur when an email that was in Inbox gets moved to Junk (in webmail), it's like the inbox still contains some info on what to download but it isn't there; it has been moved. That's why I was asking about Junk email dates/times in comparison to those emails in Inbox not downloaded. Often emptying webmail Junk fixes the issue.

Outlook.com does not seem to have any means of leaving everything in Inbox and this is a bone of contention with many people; even those who use imap because junk might have good emails and there is no auto filtering on items that have already been filtered by the server and no longer in the Inbox.

I turned off priority mail add added my vote to the people who are hectoring MS to give the user control over junk mail.

Thanks again. I'll leave this open, as discussed.

The problem hasn't reoccurred so I marked it solved.

One issue--if corruption occurs without compacting it seems to me that compacting shouldn't be optional. Repairing/maintaining and compacting are different. Whatever compacting is necessary to fix this problem should be automatic. Comments?

Thanks again to all.