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Multiple copies of old incoming messages appear in inbox.

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 11 views
  • Last reply by Lundqd_MN

Lundqd_MN
Lundqd_MN
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Five or six times in the last 6 or 7 weeks Thunderbird has retrieved old previously received incoming messages. The messages are up to 30 to 60 days old. Thunderbird Server Settings is set to "Leave messages on server" for at least 21 days. It is also set to "Automatically download new messages", "Check for new messages at startup", and "Check for new messages every 10 minutes". This last happened upon starting Thunderbird this morning along with the automatic install of the 52.7.0 32-bit update .

Five or six times in the last 6 or 7 weeks Thunderbird has retrieved old previously received incoming messages. The messages are up to 30 to 60 days old. Thunderbird Server Settings is set to "Leave messages on server" for at least 21 days. It is also set to "Automatically download new messages", "Check for new messages at startup", and "Check for new messages every 10 minutes". This last happened upon starting Thunderbird this morning along with the automatic install of the 52.7.0 32-bit update .

All Replies (4)

Matt
Matt
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What mail provider are you using?

Lundqd_MN
Lundqd_MN Question owner
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Hello, Matt. The e-mail provider is compuserve.com

Are you thinking this is a problem at the provider's end?

Matt
Matt
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Compuserve is now part of Verizons Oath inc, along with AOL and Yahoo. You are not the first Compuserve/AOL user in these forums complaining of id=ssues that used to be exclusively the realm of Yahoo. I therefore assume everyone is being migrated behind the scenes to what I see as the seriously flawed Yahoo facilities and servers.

Yahoo have always played fast and hard with the index numbers on mail, re-indexing a couple of times a year at some points. Such re-indexing causes the carefully crafted list of downloaded messages Thunderbird stores in the popstate.dat file to be useless. The index numbers it has are now meaningless. The result is everything on the server becomes "new" again as it has a new index number. Much as I hate to say it, you really have only a few choices to avoid the frustration.

  1. Switch your mail to IMAP, then at least the changes will remove the duplicates.
  2. Stop leaving mail on the server.
  3. Leave mail on the server for only short periods (days or weeks) so the numbers of mails tat are duplicated are less and more manageable.
  4. Get a mail provider that actually values their customers. I have created an account with GMX.com as they ask very little, offer a standards compliant service and do not track you, or profile you, as US based corporation do. Something about being subject to German law. They know about privacy like no other really.
Lundqd_MN
Lundqd_MN Question owner
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Thank you, Matt, for you detailed analysis and very helpful suggestions. I will evaluate my options and may reply later if I have any follow-up questions.