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Messages immediately received on my phone, takes long time to receive in TB (up to 10 min.+)

  • 9 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by abonnee

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Most of the time receiving messages is taking a long time. Normally this is no problem, because all messages are coming in as soon as I start TB when coming home. Sometimes I need a message immediately. When it is sent I receive it on my phone, but it takes at least 5 min.+ to receive in Thunderbird. I can't find out the reason for such a delay. I work with W10, TB 60.9.1 (32-bit) with POP3 and there are some message filters active. I would like to know what could cause such behaviour.

Most of the time receiving messages is taking a long time. Normally this is no problem, because all messages are coming in as soon as I start TB when coming home. Sometimes I need a message immediately. When it is sent I receive it on my phone, but it takes at least 5 min.+ to receive in Thunderbird. I can't find out the reason for such a delay. I work with W10, TB 60.9.1 (32-bit) with POP3 and there are some message filters active. I would like to know what could cause such behaviour.

All Replies (9)

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The account is probably set up as IMAP on the phone, which generally means the mail app notifies as soon as a message arrives at the mail server. POP accounts poll the server every 5, 10, 15... mins., depending on what you have set. IMAP setup is usually the best way to manage and sync. mail across multiple devices.

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You are correct about the difference between IMAP (phone) and POP3 (desktop computer). My several POP3-accounts have different intervals to check for new mail. However, the point is when a new mail arrives on my phone, it must be present in the mailserver of my provider. When I force a check (repeatedly) for new mail in TB it will not receive this message for about 5 to 10 min.+. This is the delay I don't understand. The mail must be ready to be served because it was to my phone, but the mailserver is hesitating when TB asks for it.

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Hello there abonnee.

It could be an information overload from one side.

Then information would be overload:



Information overload occurs when the amount of input to a system exceeds its processing capacity. Decision makers have fairly limited cognitive processing capacity. Consequently, when information overload occurs, it is likely that a reduction in decision quality will occur.


But the question is whether this is a diagnosis of this case.

I think there is a simpler solution.


greetings Firefox Volunteer.

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Thank you for using Thunderbird.

Modified by День сумо

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День сумо said

Greetings Firefox Volunteer.
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Hi there,

It may be a good idea to translate your name in Latin scripture, because I'm not able to read Cyrillic scripture.

And I'm sorry to say, but overload has nothing to do with the problem I noted. Incoming mail is sent directly to my phone, but it takes a long time to be received in my desktop client Thunderbird. Why?

Thanks if somebody has a clue.

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Who is the mail provider for this account? Does it happen with other mail providers? I'm thinking there is some kind of conflict between having the account IMAP on the phone but POP on the desktop, an uncommon setup. For example, gmail doesn't allow downloading POP account on more than one computer unless 'recent mode' is enabled. TB may be just managing the POP account according to what the server allows.

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Hello Abonnee.




we could still talk about an internal service unavailible error like one of a 503 here. Or a 500 service unavailible error:

Do you receive any recent notifications about an error like that?

The problem may be due to a server. something like a temporary overload of various data entered.


Greetings Firefox Volunteer.

Modified by День сумо

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sfhowes said

Who is the mail provider for this account? Does it happen with other mail providers? I'm thinking there is some kind of conflict between having the account IMAP on the phone but POP on the desktop, an uncommon setup. For example, gmail doesn't allow downloading POP account on more than one computer unless 'recent mode' is enabled. TB may be just managing the POP account according to what the server allows.

Now this could be a possible cause. I'm going to investigate it. This will take some time because of my sudden lack of time. Meanwhile: My mail provider is accepting IMAP as well as POP3. So Why would it be a problem to use both on two different clients (mobile and steady)? But as I said: I will investigate it. Thanks for the suggestion.