Files in inbox do not display
This morning, messages in one of my Inboxes did not display. Doing a Compact seems to have roughly restored order, at least for now, but it is still a bit odd. This is not the only sign that strange things are happening in Thunderbird on my computer. I now have three objectives:
1) Don't do anything that will rock the boat! 2) Try to get to the bottom of it all so nothing terminal happens to mails in future 3) Save copies of all messages without corrupting the destination file, and without rocking the boat
I would appreciate any advice on any of that.
Thunderbird version is 31.4.0, running on Windows XP with all known updates. Add-ons used, which are all the latest according to the Add-ons Manager, are:
AddressBookTab 1.5 British English Dictionary 1.19.1 Google Contacts 0.7.12 ImportExportTools 3.1 Lightning 3.3.3 Remove Duplicate Messages (Alternate) 0.3.10 Signature Switch 1.6.12
Before doing the Compact, the previously viewed folder remained on the screen for a while when the affected Inbox was selected. After that, all the fields in the mail list were blanked, and remained that way. The Search box in the toolbar was able to find items from the affected folder.
Since the Compact, mails appear again and things seem to be mostly fine. However, a number of mails from the fairly distant past have been marked unread, and some have been duplicated. Most, though not all, are within a period of a month or so.
A few weeks ago, Thunderbird indicated that there were unread messages in this Inbox when there were none (I checked all the way back). Mark Folder Read sorted that out, but it may have been the first sign of an impending problem.
The other, possibly unrelated, problem is that the Drafts folder for the affected account has been saving multiple copies - sometimes a dozen or so - of mails that have already been sent, and where I did not save a draft.
Any ideas???
All Replies (4)
Compacting is only part of the business of keeping Thunderbird healthy.
If you have doubts about your mailstore's integrity, making a backup of it is a wise precaution. You can do this by copying your profile.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-tb
If the folder or message content goes awry, rebuilding the index is often productive. Select the affected folder, right-click, select Properties then Repair Folder.
Hi Zenos
Thanks for the suggestion, which was helpful in an indirect way. If there is a problem to be solved it is quite nice if it is reproducible, and doing a Repair Folder actually brings the problem back!
I had already made a backup of the mailstore, and also used ImportExport tools to export a copy. My mail is separately retrieved by my laptop and by a linked MSN account, and my ISP can take me back quite a long way. So we are talking inconvenience and mild annoyance here rather than panic.
Nothing appears to happen on clicking the Repair Folder button, but maybe it is quick (what should I expect?). After clicking Repair Folder Thunderbird does not respond to the OK button in the dialogue, only Cancel. After Cancel, the summary goes blank again. It worked the same way twice.
Once through Compact went through the usual steps, but left the overview screen blank. A second Compact takes me back to roughly where I was. Again, this was reproducible - it takes two Compacts.
The only odd thing following the Compact (I did check that it had completed) is that once the unread messages count disappeared when I did something - sorry, not sure what. It returns when the Inbox is selected again.
It might be worth tucking it away in the back of your mind that when things are a bit delicate, it looks as if a Repair Folder can be less than productive.
-- Follow-up --
One other thing. Thunderbird prompted me to Compact yet again after deleting a few mails. It really look as if the mail folder is corrupted. What is the best way to get the mails out of Thunderbird and then back in again without bringing the problems along with them?
An gyara daga MikeSeabrook
The import export tools are pretty good at such things, but simply moving to another folder within Thunderbird will achieve the same thing.
You do not mention what anti virus your using, but it is often a prerequisite to get mail working correctly to exclude the profile folder from any "on access" scanning. It takes an anti virus program up to 5 minutes to scan a large mail file. If it is trying to do this while Thunderbird is replacing the index (repair) or the larger store file (compact) unpredictable results occur.
Hi Matt
Yes, I should have thought of mentioning the anti-virus. It is Avast free edition, and I did try turning it off. I recently had some problems with certificates for an account hosted by Microsoft, but worked through the instructions on the Avast web site and it seems OK so far.
There are no other ideas on the Thunderbird Wiki or the Avast web site that look relevant to my present problem. But maybe I missed something, or have a shiny new problem.