
TB InBox Gets Corrupted; Repair Eliminates Recent Messages
5/26/2025: I'm a long time TBird user, currently running 138.0.2-1 on Arch Linux 6.14.6-arch1-1 and xfce 4.20.4-1.
On 5/21/2025 my InBox began behaving strangely. After moving a message from InBox to another folder, TB announced that it was unable to compact InBox because it was read-only (which was obviously false). Various combinations of compacting InBox, stopping/starting TB, and rebooting the machine, seemed to work.
On 5/23/2025 things escalated. TB would not show the body of any messages in the Preview window, usually after I moved or deleted a message. Opening a message would open the appropriate window, but not show the body content; Reply showed neither body nor To:. Restarting and compacting InBox did no good. Other folders seemed to behave normally.
Taking the next step, I opened Properties for InBox and clicked Repair. The result was the disappearance of all my InBox messages back through 5/19/2025. Very irritating to lose several dozen messages.
On into today (5/26/2025) TB has been pretty well behaved (though I did update from 138.0.1-1 on 5/25/2025 as a hopeful pre-emptive strike). Then I moved a message from InBox and the Preview window failed to reflect the body of the now-current message or any other InBox message. Again, other folders were fine. No improvement with Compact, so I tried Repair again. This time it deleted InBox messages back through 5/6/2025.
I can restore from today's early a.m. backups, but have no idea how to reconcile with the current state of InBox. Obviously something is seriously wrong and I have no idea what to do. Meanwhile, I will deal with email clumsily on my phone.
PLEASE HELP!! Thanks.
All Replies (4)
That may be https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1952311. Try the workaround mentioned in Comment #2.
Ed said
That may be https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1952311. Try the workaround mentioned in Comment #2.
(seeing that you have been using version 138) Or use version 139, which ships this week.
Ed & Wayne: Thanks for your guidance on this one. I have enabled the compaction confirmation feature -- being very careful how I use it -- and will await the release of 139 through Arch Linux. Fortunately, I was able to recover a portion of my deleted emails from backups, so less damage than initially. Thanks again.
You're welcome :-)