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Suddenly I'm "Unable to write the email to the mailbox...."

  • 5 replies
  • 0 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Rick

mrtimgriggs
mrtimgriggs
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I've been running Thunderbird 145.0 very smoothly under W11 since 145 was released on esr. 24 hours ago, after making no changes to any software at all, I found that the following message appeared when i tried to download mail routinely from my Gmail server.

It reads 'Unable to write the email to the mailbox. Make sure the email system allows you write privileges, and you have enough file space to copy the mailbox'.

Does anyone else have this currently? I have used Thunderbird for over 15 years without this occurrence.

And yes, I do have write privileges (or I did until 24 hours ago) and there's plenty of space available.

I have a backup profile available but before I turn to that is there anything else I can try?

Thanks.

I've been running Thunderbird 145.0 very smoothly under W11 since 145 was released on esr. 24 hours ago, after making no changes to any software at all, I found that the following message appeared when i tried to download mail routinely from my Gmail server. It reads 'Unable to write the email to the mailbox. Make sure the email system allows you write privileges, and you have enough file space to copy the mailbox'. Does anyone else have this currently? I have used Thunderbird for over 15 years without this occurrence. And yes, I do have write privileges (or I did until 24 hours ago) and there's plenty of space available. I have a backup profile available but before I turn to that is there anything else I can try? Thanks.
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All Replies (5)

Lin
Lin
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Can I assume you have rebooted? That can often fix such anomalies. Otherwise...

I'll guess that it's your anti-virus that's interfering with file writing. As a test, try temporarily disabling your AV (MS Defender?) to see if that helps. Be careful, though - it may have flagged a questionable email, triggering the "write" error.

mrtimgriggs
mrtimgriggs Question owner
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Thanks for the response. Yes, I rebooted everything pretty soon after spotting the problem.

I don't know why my anti-virus software would suddenly cause a problem - I use AVG and it's worked happily alongside TB for many years. AVG is very good at flagging potential problems. But I will carefully examine the emails that arrived around the time of the problem.

So the situation is: TB will download emails but can't write them to the profile file so they don't appear in the Inbox. I can send email perfectly well.

Rick
Rick
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  1. Start Windows in safe mode with networking.
  2. Start Thunderbird in troubleshooting mode (help menu).
  3. Does the problem occur?
mrtimgriggs
mrtimgriggs Question owner
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Thanks all for your input. What has happened is that after four days of being given the error message I first reported above, everything started to work again - with no input from me apart from rebooting Windows 11 and TB 145.0, and no other changes to hardware or other software. I guess I'll just have to keep an eye open on future bugs and faults....

Rick
Rick
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If the problem happens again, you may want to consider Lin’s thought about anti-virus software and try the troubleshooting steps that I suggested.

Good luck.

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