TB trying to download all messages again

You are comparing paid services with a service that is free. Until recently Yahoo has been very reliable for me.

I'm quite happy to move to a paid service but it is not clear which one to choose.

But you are still not answering the main issues. I'm not sure if you are avoiding them. You say you have decades of experience so I don't get why you are not answering them. It is easy to tell a user it is all their fault, but it is not so easy to help when things go wrong.

I think you will agree that, given I have two TB/Yahoo accounts, on the same hardware, with the same configuration and same anti-virus, that the issue is not related to those things. So, what is it and how do I move on from it?

Even if I move to a new provider I still need to know how to sort this out. As Yahoo has now made email forwarding a paid service it is not just a simple issue of forwarding my old email to a new account.

I'm not saying it's your fault. I also haven't said that the problem can't be caused by Thunderbird. What I am saying is yahoo is known to be unreliable. And again, I'm not going to research providers.

> I think you will agree that, given I have two TB/Yahoo accounts, on the same hardware, with the same configuration and same anti-virus, that the issue is not related to those things.

I don't agree. Also, by the same logic, the problem shouldn't be Thunderbird, or hardware, etc. And yet, there IS a problem. It could some unique data in the failing account. It could be something on your computer. Anything is possible.

So I will repeat what I wrote previously, so we can at least eliminate some possibilities:

• Have you run the full battery of hardware checks on your computer?
• You have yet to list your Thunderbird version number. Please do when making your initial posting
• Please do Help > Troubleshoot Mode and tick the checkbox for Disable all add-ons https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-mode-thunderbird
• Please post a full screen shot of your Server Settings from Account Settings
• Does the problem reproduce with Windows started in Safe Mode with networking enabled ? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

I have worked in IT for many years. I know how to debug things. And there is NO point in posting screenshots that merely show what I have already said. The account settings are the same as an account that is working. The hardware is the same. The anti-virus is the same. Those are all just time wasting red herrings. I'm not sure you are asking for them because you think I am lying.

Asking for those things is the same as telling me I have done something wrong rather than answering my questions.

You have said that old files should not be in the TB directory. So, how am I meant to get rid of them given that TB didn't? When i search what some of them are I just see they are obsolete. It is never clear to me what TB publishes and what is done by other people. For some files it says the purpose is unknown, so I assume it is not TB/Mozilla.

The add-ons are the same for the working account and the non-working account so that is not relevant.

I see in forum after forum people being told to do things that are not relevant but imply that the user is stupid. Matt told me it is my anti-virus despite my saying I disabled my anti-virus and still got the problem.

It would be far more helpful to tell me how to backup my TB data reliably and restore it on a new installation.

I tried restoring from my local backups and that didn't work. Can I just delete the account and re-create it? Those are the things I'm looking for answers on.

I also thought that there must be a program that goes through and checks the integrity of a TB installation, but I can't find one.

> I also thought that there must be a program that goes through and checks the integrity of a TB installation, but I can't find one.

Because there isn't one.

> I have worked in IT for many years. I know how to debug things.

46 years here. And I'm not infallible.

> . Matt told me it is my anti-virus despite my saying I disabled my anti-virus and still got the problem.

Disabling AV also sometimes factually isn't reliable. Windows Safe Mode is.

> It would be far more helpful to tell me how to backup my TB data reliably and restore it on a new installation.

There are people who can provide those instructions of that's what you want. I'm not one of them. Make a new question here in support asking specifically for that and someone will pick it up. It's also far from guaranteed to work after the effort.

Is https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1614728 for the "one account that is not working"?