Thunderbird Support Forum

Windows 7, MacAfee Total Protection, Thunderbird 22, IMAP account (GMAIL) and others. Lately very slow despite compacting folders. I operate many local folders where I store all my emails ("Mail" folder : 9,5Go) : I duplicate them on 2 different computers. The "ImapMail" folder (within the Thunderbird folder) weighs 23,4Go and [Gmail].sbd : 22,8Go while my mails on my gmail web-page only weigh 2,85 Go. There must be something I have to erase somewhere, thanks for your help.

recently and without other changes that I am aware of my thunderbird pull down menus do not populate with text, or sporadically do so after delay of 15 - 30 seconds.

I changed the password on my Yahoo mail account several times due to hijacking of my mail account. Thunderbird will no longer let me send mail or forward mail. It asks for the password but it wont accept it. Why. how do I get Thunderbird to store my password for Yahoo? This is very aggravating to say the least. This means I have to go into Yahoo to send the mail or to forward the mail got. I did not have this problem until I changed my password. Lets get this fixed so we don't have to have all these problems.

Today, in Thunderbird, I received the notification that I should compact my folders. I was about to go and turn off these reminders without compacting the folders -- which is what I did on my last computer. Then I read in some thread that it's actually an "important" thing to do, which seemed to contradict something I read about it at some point in the past. There was one thread from at least a couple years ago, probably several years ago (I wish I could find the thread), but somebody had "compacted" their folders, which then caused something to happen that they didn't expect to happen -- I can't remember what -- but I think it was something along the lines of, they lost something they could never get back. I don't know if they lost some messages that they wanted, I don't know. But this person was suggesting that there should be a warning about "this" happening when you compact the folders. Then someone else wrote a very long and very well-reasoned reply explaining why expecting such a warning wouldn't really make much sense or be necessary, because the possibility of "this" happening was so obvious that a warning wouldn't be warranted.

So I figured, if "compacting" folders can make me permanently lose something I don't want to lose, then it's something I don't want to do. (Again, if I could find that thread, I would post a link and/or provide more details).

Then in another thread I read today, it was suggested that it's riskier not to compact your folders. So which is it? Why is it that someone had some problem (again, I'm sorry, I wish I could find the original thread) where they lost something permanently when they did compact their folders, and others are saying it's riskier not to?

Version 78.2.2 (64 bit) automatically installed today. Other than the changed interface (which I can do without), it now asks me when I delete an email message: "The messages you have deleted can be purged from disk. This operation will save about 1.1 GB of disk space. Select the option below to let Thunderbird do this automatically without asking you."

I do not want to purge my deleted messages. If I want to purge an email, I hold down the shift and delete keys and the email message is not saved to my Trash folder. However, I save my old Trash messages in a separate archive. I do not want to be constantly asked whether I want to purge these messages because I do not want to do so. This is becoming a nuisance

How do I stop this?

Thanks for your help.

Hi, In the new version of Thunderbird, the folder pane, despite having been set as directed, is invisible until I pass my cursor over it, and so is all the mail in the inbox invisible unless I swipe over it. Once I have written an email, both lists revert to this invisible appearance again. This is quite irritating. I would like to see the lists constantly as normal without having to continually swipe over them to make them appear.

Is there some way to stop this from happening?

Thank you

After installing version 78.4.0 (and continuing into 78.4.1), I have an issue with many of the folders in my Local Folders account. When I click on an affected Local Folder folder, it is not highlighted and no messages appear. Messages will appear if I scroll the mouse pointer over the message pane. I can then also read the messages, etc. If I move to another Local Folders folder, messages may appear or they may not (always the same folders) until I move the mouse pointer as described above. Note that the folder name is also not highlighted after clicking it. Sometimes the entire folder/account column on the left side of the screen is blank until I scroll the mouse pointer over that column. Very annoying! Any ideas? FYI - I have tried "repairing" the folders in question. That does cause the messages to appear but as soon as the folder loses focus, the problem reappears - meaning the messages disappear and do not reappear until I either scroll the mouse pointer over the message pane or re-repair the folder.

Ken in Kansas

Having trouble with Thunderbird version 84.0b3 (32 bit)

I have done some house keeping and reduced a number of email accounts and local folders dramatically e.g. one local folder from 1626MB to 88MB.

When I look at size for the local folder it says 18 messages (correct) but 1626MB. If I select all 18 a message says "These messages take up 88.7 MB."

This is confirmed by rerunning MozBackup where after deletion of 15))MB+ messages it still shows the same size .pcv file.

Why is Thunderbird still holding over 1500MB of non-existent messages.

Any advice please?

Finally got tired of the nagging messages to update TBird (because I was afraid of the new bugs it would introduce...) lo and behold, predictably, there's a problem. I open it; the icon has a badge indicating new messages, but THERE IS NO TBIRD WINDOW. My mac thinks that TBird is open, but it is NOT ACCESSIBLE.

When I click on the icon to open it, a window does appear, but it hangs in "ceaseless spinning beachball of death" mode. If I do ANYTHING, like navigate to another program, while waiting, that window disappears, never to be seen or accessible again. If I try to switch to the "open" TBird app, I get the blue spinning ball of death.

I force quit, start over again, and go through this same process. When I double click on the icon, it says "application not responding." Ad nauseum.

W. T. H. Mozilla?? I'm so tired of this BS merry-go-round.

I searched the help and F&A section and tried to google for an answer – but found nothing. So hopefully someone here can answer my (may be too obvious) question.

With an IMAP account set up – WHERE will folders be compressed if the command is executed In the SERVER, on my LOCAL hard drive or BOTH?

I do not want to (actually must not) change anything on the server – I only want to compress my local hard disk.

Every time I use TB now it asks me to compact (delete) my trash. I want to keep my trash. I don't want to move it but I do want to keep it. How can I turn off this super-annoying continual pop-up?

I'm using Thunderbird 87.0b3 (32 bit) on a 64 bit PC I recently deleted an email and saw the message:

“Compact Folders.     The messages you have deleted can be purged from disk. This operation will save you 202MB of disk space. Select the option below to let Thunderbird do this automatically without asking you.

[] Remove message deletions automatically and do not ask me. Proceed Cancel”

This message confused me. It was entitled “Compact Folders”, but then stated it would PURGE messages from my disc. Without ticking [] Remove message deletions automatically, I selected “Proceed”. I was very relieved to see that messages were compacted but none of my messages in “Trash” had been deleted.

I strongly suggest that this message should be rewritten to say: Compact folders. If you allow Thunderbird to compact your folders this operation will save xxx MB of disk space. Select the option below to let Thunderbird do this automatically without asking you. [] Compact folders automatically and do not ask me.

I have 4 email addresses and therefore 4 TB folders. I would like to compact these folders but don't want to have to go to each folder and then each file to do this. Hence, how can I compact all folders simultaneously?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you!

In another question I received an answer to how to revert from beta to current version.

I realized I had another question somewhat related. When a problem occurs in beta, I know crash reports go in. Or are they going somewhere else?

I also know a report can be filed on bugzilla. I’ve done that and Felt like a spectator while everybody else fixed the problem.

Ought a person using beta not use this venue for such things?

Aggravations are fairly short lived with beta, I don’t mind if I am being helpful.

If I misunderstand and beta version is for “bug busters then I’m in wrong place.

And I need to revert.

Apparently since version 91, I have an issue with Virtual Folders.

Current version is 91.3.0

In my "Sent" virtual folder, messages sent by Gmail do not appear in the overview list.

I tried to clarify the issue: - the messages sent through my Gmail accounts do not appear in the summary list, but they appear in the detailed folders - this problem concerns all my Gmail accounts and no other accounts (laposte.net, me.com). - this problem only concerns the SENT virtual folder, not the other virtual folders - I can make all the messages sent to reappear correctly, by going to the properties of the virtual folder, then "choose" and ticking the right folders. But when I quit Thunderbird and come back, the messages no longer appear (and the checkmarks for those folders have disappeared). - I arrive at the same result by deleting in the data of Thunderbird the folder "smart mailboxes" and the file "VirtualFolders.dat": at the first launch everything works, at the second one again, the unified view for the Gmail accounts is lost (and Gmail mailboxes do not appear in the VirtualFolders.dat file, section Sent ". They appear in all other sections.) - I deleted and recreated one of my Gmail accounts, without success.

Thanks in advance for your help. Jean-Pierre

I am running Thunderbird 91.3 which repeatedly pops up a message saying it wants to compact my folders. I do not see any option either in Preferences or in Account Settings for disabling this feature, as there was in previous versions. How can I stop TB from compacting my folders? Thanks.

Is there a way to require Thunderbird to ask before emptying the trash folder? It will ask if I... click on/try to delete... a single message from the trash folder but does not ask when I click/try to empty the trash folder...sometimes I really wamt that second or two to quickly review....