Thunderbird Community Forum

Several times a day, TB pops up a message box with the following...

The folder 'Inbox on email@domain.com could not be compacted because writing to folder failed. Verify that you have enough disk space, and that you have write privileges to the file system, then try again.

I have a few accounts in TB, and it does this for all of them, but at seemingly random times.

Everything seems to work, it's just annoying to have these messages pop up.

I have 0.9Tb free space on the disk, so I don't think it's a lack of space! I also have admin rights to the file system, so that's not it either.

Anyone any idea why I get this? Thanks

Each time I start TB, I get this message: "The folder 'Inbox on redacted@aol.com' could not be compacted because writing to folder failed. Verify that you have enough disk space, and that you have write privileges to the file system, then try again." What does this mean and what can I do to fix it. Thanks. M. Campbell

I keep getting a pop up when opening my mail that reads, "The folder on inbox (then gives my email address) could not be compacted because writing to folder failed. Verify that you have enough disk space and that you have write privileges to the file system and then try again".

I don't understand!!!

At startup of Thunderbird, get error related to Outlook which I do not use. Get message - "UserHasNoMailboxandNoLicenseAssignedError"

How do I get rid of this error, has been present since last esr release and expected it to go away with new release - did not. Do I have to reinstall Thunderbird to clear.

Today in two of my accounts I get error message "Unable to open the summary file for Inbox on imapML. Perhaps there was an error on disk, or the full path is too long." Two other accounts work fine so no error on disk, and full path hasn't changed.

Hi, everyone,

I have a strange problem with my TB installation - when I go to repair a folder through it's properies settings, TB deletes BOTH the message (mbox) file and the index (msf) file. There is nothing wrong with either (the folder is fine) - I'm just testing out TB's functionality as I'm moving to it.

The settings are set to always download everything and always keep everything. It's TB version 143. The reason I know the files get deleted is - if I disconnect the Internet connection and click Repair Folder, then go into the profile directory, the mbox file is just gone, while the .msf is sitting at 0Kb waiting for the connection to re-establish. Only the connection is back, TB re-downloads both the index and then ALL the messages in the account...! This is, obviously, highly problematic.

My question is two-fold: - is the expected behavior of the "Repair Folder" button to work offline? Should folder repair be possible even in offline mode? - has anyone else encountered this? I reported this on Bugzilla, along with another fellow who has encountered the same: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1997845 But it appears the developers have a hard time believing it's actually happening...

Many thanks!

Whenever I want to print an email the print preview doesn't show, it keeps displaying a spinning wheel. Printing also doesn't work (as in, I press Save, enter a filename and press Save; the dialog closes but no file is generated).

I already tried the Troubleshooting information -> Clear saved print settings, but to no avail.

Browser console screenshot attached. I'm using Fedora 41 and Thunderbird 128.11.0esr (flatpak).

Am getting this message along with a recurring download of a specific email (keeps coming back even after deletion) that does not allow any other new messages to be downloaded. I do see new emails on my phone but will not read into Thunderbird??

Error: "Unable to write the email to the mailbox. Make sure the file system allows you write privileges, and you have enough disk space to copy the mailbox."

Tried: Troubleshooting, closing Thunberbird and reopening, rebooting windows system, compacting, etc. to no avail....

This has happened the last two times I've tried to write a reply. I will be writing along and all of a sudden the screen dims and I get the blue circle thingy. Thunderbird locks up and doesn't come back but the red exit button is available. Of course, I lose all the reply I've written. I've never run into this error before and I've been using Thunderbird for years. I'm running v. 139.0.2 (64-bit) on a win-11 laptop, Firefox in the background but no other programs running. I clear my cache at the beginning of every month, so I did that this morning before starting any programs.

Need help with Thunderbird. No matter what I tried always comes back to the same problem.

Problem: Keep getting message non responding. Very buggy, difficult deleting emails (will delete after a prolong period of time > 5 sec). When typing a message there will be no characters then after a short period of time the charterer typed shows up. Sometime without and reason while using Thunderbird it close by itself.

What I have down to solve the problem: 1. Start in safe mode Thunderbird operates as expected with any issues. 2. Win 10 environment, closed all apps and made sure there was no extensions running. Made sure the only app open on the task manger was Thunderbird. NO SOLUTION FOUND 3. Download and install latest version of Thunderbird. NO SOLUTION FOUND 4. Created a new profile file. NO SOLUTION FOUND

Need help, what else is there to try short of a total Nuclear solution?

Performance was already poor in v115, but has gotten much worse since upgrading to 128.5. This is a documented bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1906482 Are there any known workarounds? If not, how can I downgrade with losing all of my settings? I have 7 e-mail accounts and a few calendar accounts set up. This took a lot of time, since several of them require app-specific passwords. Thunderbird complains if I try to open a profile from a newer version in an older version of the software. How can I do this safely?

Long-time user here. A month or so ago I switched from 128 esr to 139 release, and since then I have had constant messaging several times a day that folders could nor be compacted. I've verified everything, but the message still happens with annoying regularity. I saw on Reddit that this may be a known bug, but thought I would report it to the forum anyway. Hope that it will be resolved in the next release.

I have a fresh install of ubuntu 24.04.3,... on my AMD 'go-faster' PC. S/w all up to date,.. and snaps up to date. In my pursuit of migrating TB email from one m/c to another,... nothing works,.. least of all the TB i/f. My TB screen looks as follows:- with only a few seconds in-between shots. This 'font' type issue is my primary problem,.. and is consistent even if a create a 'new profile',.. emails are display still with funny fonts, ( which change as my mouse moves over them ). secondary issue is in copying over my '.thunder' folder structure, from one m/c to new one,.. is TB insists on creating new profile,.. as it reports profile is outdated,.. yet as far as I can see both are running TB 140.2.0esr 64 bit. I have tried several clean installs,.. but results 'seem' to be the same. Does anyone have any ideas...