Thunderbird randomly deletes all inbox mail
This is a huge problem I've experienced three times now in the last couple months. For no apparent reason, Thunderbird deletes all my mail in the inbox. The first time it happened I "thought" I inadvertently pressed CTRL+A and DEL, which is like far fetched to begin with. But hey, things happen. The second time, I was baffled but didn't have time to look or ask. Just now, it did it again. I often use my inbox as a To-Do list, or to hold important business mail I need to address. Today, I merely was composing an e-mail. I went to Word to finish composing, TB's spell checker has a lot to be desired. I pressed the hot key I use to pull up Thunderbird, when it opened, I only had one new mail in my inbox and everything else was gone. I'm forced to thrash through piles of e-mails in multiple trash boxes to determine what was in the inbox. I can do this any longer. If I can't find a solution quick, I'm going to need to find a different mailer. Losing mail like this is not good. I have no idea what I lost. Potential client replies I hadn't seen yet? Who knows. I don't believe it is anything I'm doing. It just randomly happens when I return to Thunderbird. My only idea is to create a folder in TB to store important mail and hope it won't delete them too. I'd appreciate it if anyone else is having this issue or better, found the solution. Thanks. Brad
All Replies (3)
Just one point, word when copied and pasted to emails is a mess. Seriously it can actually lead to false positives for anti virus it is such a mess. If you insist on using word you will probably be better off buying a copy of outlook and using that. At least they are designed to work together for now.
You are using a hotkey, so is this one of those programmable keyboards? what exactly is being executed to enable this "hotkey"?
Is the battery getting flat in the keyboard or mouse? So many times it is a failing battery that makes for the inexplicable and unexaplainable key strokes.
You apparently recovered the mail from multiple trash folders, so I am guessing it really was deleted. Simply vanishing and actually being deleted are two different things unfortunately. What does the activity manager show happened?
Hello Matt. Thanks for your thoughts. Perhaps Outlook will be better. I've used Word, not for all e-mails, but for some, for years without issue. I understand. Lots of artifacts there. I use it due to spell checking and formatting needs. TB doesn't create headers and other formatting items as well or at all. I don't use a wireless keyboard our mouse, so no battery issues there. I use a DAS mech keyboard. The global shortcut key is one I made for the desktop icon. Also something I've used for years to pull up applications and frequent docs and folders. I have a copy of Outlook, but I really don't wan to return to it. It killed a computer of mine due to bloated and corrupted PST files years ago. I don't trust it, but I'm having that issue here too apparently. Yes, I was able to thrash around the trash boxes of some accounts to get some mail, but some also weren't there. The problem is, now I don't know what was there and what wasn't. That isn't good. This is a newer laptop with no other issues. Activity Manager doesn't say much. I use a screen reader and it's not very accessible, which is a separate issue apparently. Haven't been in there before, but it just tells me the inboxes which successfully downloaded e-mail. I don't feel my feedback here is of much help towards a solution. Brad
I share your feeling with outlook, and at time I resort to libre office for mail editing but I prefer using short text emails and attachments.
So lets see if we can gather some more information; Which folder view do you use in Thunderbird? Are the accounts IMAP or POP? If IMAP are other devices also accessing them like phones?
Please post the troubleshooting information from the help menu. If it is too long prune the bottom parts. It is probably only the first half that will tell me anything useful. (Most of the graphics stuff might as well be Greek to me)