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Why Does Database Lose Summary Files?

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In 2017 it seems impossible that ThunderBird could "lose" the Summary Files seemingly out of the blue! I have tried to solve the problem by doing a search on all of my local files prior to downloading any e-mails (recreates any missing Summary Files) but lately I cannot read all of my e-mails at one time before I get errors. The errors occur when I attempt to store e-mails using Message Filters. I don't understand why, if T'Bird discovers a missing Summary File, T'Bird can't first recreate it prior to storage. It has the processing to learn that the file isn't there, why can't it fix the error instead of simply reporting it? FYI, I am using a Microsoft Surface Book, Windows 10, x64, and all of my profile files are on a partition of the SSD in the Tablet. I would appreciate any thoughts anyone has - I don't think that "keeping the files small in number" is an acceptable response - the software should be sophisticated to handle anything. The total size of my profile is 4.63 GB.

Thank you in advance!

In 2017 it seems impossible that ThunderBird could "lose" the Summary Files seemingly out of the blue! I have tried to solve the problem by doing a search on all of my local files prior to downloading any e-mails (recreates any missing Summary Files) but lately I cannot read all of my e-mails at one time before I get errors. The errors occur when I attempt to store e-mails using Message Filters. I don't understand why, if T'Bird discovers a missing Summary File, T'Bird can't first recreate it prior to storage. It has the processing to learn that the file isn't there, why can't it fix the error instead of simply reporting it? FYI, I am using a Microsoft Surface Book, Windows 10, x64, and all of my profile files are on a partition of the SSD in the Tablet. I would appreciate any thoughts anyone has - I don't think that "keeping the files small in number" is an acceptable response - the software should be sophisticated to handle anything. The total size of my profile is 4.63 GB. Thank you in advance!

All Replies (3)

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What's the exact error message? I can't recall ever seeing any error message from Thunderbird mentioning summary files.

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Hello, Zenos:

Here is the first one I received. This morning I have read all of my e-mail addresses several times, including over 100 messages, without a problem. Then, a few minutes later, I read "all messages" and this popped up. There is nothing wrong with anything the message suggests. I also get it (much more often) with messages I store on the same drive using a filter. All of the filters are OK because I have previously confirmed them. Somehow, T'Bird loses the Summary files and doesn't know how to recover!

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I just received another, this time while T'Bird was attempting to use one of my filters.