we have two computers, same email address, both using t-bird, I don't get half of the emails that the other computer gets.
I work for a company that the emails are very important, there are 2 computers, same email account running on Thunderbird on both computers, why suddenly does one email get tons of email and the other computer only gets some. we checked the settings, and the settings are identical, I have tried uninstalling and then re-installing. Nothing has helped.
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I assume that as a business that you would want to save all emails in one location.
Check your 'Account settings - Server Settings' on each computer. In the 'Server Settings' area, if there is NO check mark next to 'Leave messages on server' then the first computer downloads all the messages, deleting them from the server. This leaves only the newer messages for the next computer that signs in.
Better to check mark 'Leave messages on server' so messages are available to both. Also check 'Until I delete them.'
The following article is for Outlook but the same principles apply to Thunderbird -
The problem still remains, the settings are all set to leave on server. Settings on both computers are identical. Was working great, then just stopped receiving all messages only on one machine. I never know if I can trust my email to have all of the current emails on both computers.
how frequently are you checking mails. I have seen folk here complaining of similar issues and they have set mail to be collected in unrealistic time frames like 1 minute. For a pop account 5 minutes should be considered an absolute minimum.
they are set to retrieve every 3 minutes, the same as they always have. Just now we are having issues. I'll change it to 5 minutes if you think that will help. I'll let you know....
For a "…company…" where "…emails are very important…" I really wouldn't have chosen your solution.
How do you track which messages have been dealt with? How do you know what was done in response to a message? Neither of you can automatically see what the other has done.
I don't think the behaviour of a POP server with multiple concurrently-connected clients is well defined. I don't know the details of how POP servers work, but I am wondering that if your two computers are on the same network behind a router then maybe the server can't tell them apart; they both have the same (public) IP address. So, maybe, once a message has been offered to one user, it isn't offered to the other because the server can't tell it's a different user. Or one computer being connected "locks" the account, excluding the other computer.
IMAP would at least give you sight of what the other user is doing or has done. IMAP may be intrinsically better suited to concurrent access by multiple users, though I suspect this is really a function of how the operator configures their server. Some operators specifically choose to accept only one connection at a time.
(There is a story-cum-puzzle about a lad who goes fishing, but there is both a river and a lake that he likes to fish. He can catch a train to the lake or another train to the river from the same platform at his local railway station. He has trouble deciding which to visit, so decides just to go to the station and take the first train that shows up. Both trains run at hourly intervals. He finds he ends up visiting the lake about 5 times more often than the river. Why?
The train to the lake train arrives at 10 past, the train to the river arrives at 20 past. So if he turns up at the station at random, he is more likely (5/6) to arrive in the interval after the 20 past train, and only 1/6 of the time he will arrive in the interval between the 10 past and 20 past trains. So he is significantly more likely (5:1) to catch the 10 past train, and so end up at the lake.
Your two computers may both be polling the server at the same intervals, but one of them will typically be polling "after" the other one. i.e. 20 past vs 10 past. The "first" of the two (10 past) will in all likelihood claim the bulk of the incoming traffic.)
With what you have, I'd try setting up new independent accounts for each user, and set the primary account to auto-forward to these new accounts. Then each user will have uncontested access to his own copy of all the incoming messages. For replies, you could set up each account in Thunderbird with a second identity, representing the primary account's email address, so all replies would appear to come from the one primary account.