email account is stuck on "loading messages"
I have two email accounts (one is imap, one is pop3) in my older version of Thunderbird. They have both worked normally until last week. The pop3 account continues functioning normally, but now when I select (in Thunderbird) the imap account, the mouse cursor starts showing the hourglass and the bottom status bar reads "loading message" . I've closed and restarted Thunderbird, but this doesn't make any difference. The imap account is stuck on "loading message" and doesn't download anything. I also checked my imap email account on the ISP's website, there is new email there waiting to be downloaded,. What can I do to troubleshoot this?
ps...a few weeks before this problem surfaced, I had all my email (inThunderbird) disappear, so I renamed the prefs.js file and that fixed the problem. My email worked normally after that, until this current problem occured.
Wšě wotmołwy (3)
Which is your "older" Thunderbird version? How many messages does your IMAP inbox contain? Open "Activity Manager" whilst Thunderbird is downloading messages. Also go to Tools > Developer Tools > Error Console and explore possible errors
Sorry for the delay answering, I didn't see your answer until a day ago...
My version of Thunderbird is 44.0. I just switched this problematic email account from IMAP to POP to see if there was any difference but there was none, same problem occurring: the status bar reads "connected to mobile.charter.net" for a long while. When I switch to my other email account, a POP account, then switch back to the one with a problem, the status bar reads "loading message" and will stay at this forever. The cursor hourglass also is constantly on when I've selected anything in this account. But it goes off is I switch to the other email account.
The Inbox shows 436 messages. Checking Activity Manager, the top line from 5 minutes ago, shows:
"jbclem4@charter.net is up to date, total number of messages downloaded: 1 "
I checked on my ISP's website and there are at least three days worth of emails that haven't been downloaded to this account in Thunderbird,
Looking in the Error Console, there are a long list of errors from 22 hours ago, such as the following:
Timestamp: 5/30/2026 2:16:22 AM Warning: Unknown property 'mso-table-lspace'. Declaration dropped. Source File: about:blank Line: 29, Column: 17 Source Code: mso-table-lspace: 0;
I've also found two errors that named the relevant email account. These were marked by a red box with an X inside. There may be more of these, but these are so many errors from this time period that I haven't read through all of them...but were most marked with a yellow triangle with explanation mark inside:
Timestamp: 5/30/2026 2:16:34 AM Error: 2026-05-30 02:16:34 autosyncActivities ERROR OnDownloadError: Inbox of jbclem4@charter.net Source File: resource:///modules/gloda/log4moz.js Line: 693
Timestamp: 5/30/2026 4:08:55 AM Error: 2026-05-30 04:08:55 autosyncActivities ERROR OnDownloadError: Inbox of jbclem4@charter.net Source File: resource:///modules/gloda/log4moz.js Line: 693
Do you want me to try to copy all of the error messages?
Obviously your IMAP account cannot sync with the server. Do you use a firewall or antivirus software?
Dyrbiće so pola swojeho konta přizjewić, zo byšće na přinoški wotmołwił. Prošu stajće nowe prašenje, jeli hišće wužiwarske konto nimaće.