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Compaction pop up window reappears every few minutes

trewtus+200514ffox
trewtus+200514ffox

Hello everyone. Thanks for all your support.

A few weeks ago I started noticing a pop up window was occurring every (approx) 5 minutes in Thunderbird suggesting that I run a compact to save 992MB. I assumed this would stop happening after a few weeks and a few updates from Mozilla, but the problem has remained, so I'm coming here to ask about it.

Context: I'm on Windows 11. I have multiple email accounts that my Thunderbird reaches out to. At least one of the accounts is retired so reaching out to its historical server fails.

Reproducing: For me to reproduce it, I run the compact. Quit Thunderbird. Start Thunderbird. It reports 992MB can be freed. I let it compact. The main inbox disappears and reappears. I wait a few seconds and restart Thunderbird. It again tells me that it can save 992MB by running a compact.

What I've tried: I've tried repair on the inbox folder of the account I'm typically in. That didn't help. I have many other folders across many accounts and not tried to repair any other folders. I've searched the Mozilla help system.

Logs: It seems to me that a compact is probably failing but I don't know where to look for evidence of the failure.

Hello everyone. Thanks for all your support. A few weeks ago I started noticing a pop up window was occurring every (approx) 5 minutes in Thunderbird suggesting that I run a compact to save 992MB. I assumed this would stop happening after a few weeks and a few updates from Mozilla, but the problem has remained, so I'm coming here to ask about it. '''Context: ''' I'm on Windows 11. I have multiple email accounts that my Thunderbird reaches out to. At least one of the accounts is retired so reaching out to its historical server fails. '''Reproducing:''' For me to reproduce it, I run the compact. Quit Thunderbird. Start Thunderbird. It reports 992MB can be freed. I let it compact. The main inbox disappears and reappears. I wait a few seconds and restart Thunderbird. It again tells me that it can save 992MB by running a compact. '''What I've tried:''' I've tried repair on the inbox folder of the account I'm typically in. That didn't help. I have many other folders across many accounts and not tried to repair any other folders. I've searched the Mozilla help system. '''Logs:''' It seems to me that a compact is probably failing but I don't know where to look for evidence of the failure.

All Replies (2)

Wayne Mery
Wayne Mery
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor

As far as I know, it's literally not possible for compact to pop up more than once an hour, unless you have restarted Thunderbird.

Are your account types mostly or all pop?

trewtus+200514ffox
trewtus+200514ffox Nkolo motuna

Wayne Mery said
As far as I know, it's literally not possible for compact to pop up more than once an hour, unless you have restarted Thunderbird. Are your account types mostly or all pop?

Thanks for the response. I supposed it's possible it's once an hour and time was passing quickly for me, but it's many times each day and previously it was about once each week. And it seems it now doesn't make any progress given that it's consistently 992MB.

My accounts are all IMAP, and none are POP. Several are with Google/Gmail. The rest are connecting to a managed Linux server running PostFix, etc. I don't know how the now-offline server was implemented... but it was IMAP as well.

I have some technical skills, but am a bit weak on Windows tech skills. With that being said, feel free to suggest steps I can take to provide useful clues.

Tuna motuna

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