My emails are missing, but TB still shows counts for all folders.
I've been using TB for a while. I have several thousand emails, some in archives and some in about 50 folders. I've been having problems with TB displaying blank headers when I go to some folders and I've been using the Properties, Repair Folder option and exiting out to save the changes.
Two days ago, TB opened all the folders and showed no message headers, but did show counts for the number of messages in the folder and number of unread messages. I tried the repair and was unsuccessful on any of the folders (all folders were blank but showed the counts). I did an internet search and backed up the entire TB C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird directory then removed the *.msf files. When I reopened TB, the display was the same. I've retried this several times, but nothing seems to restore the display of the message headers in the folders; yet the unread and total message counts remain.
I have exported all messages again, as a backup and retried the Properties, Repair Folder option again and this time it seems to work, but I have to run this on each folder individually (a very tedious task to say the least). I'm using Windows 10 Home edition on a Asus laptop, TB version 91.11.0 (I've heard to many bad things of the 100+ versions to risk upgrading. Can anyone explain what is going on? Why isn't TB able to manage the *msf index files to track the message headers? Why doesn't deleting the *msf files fix the header display problem when TB recreates them after reading the individual folder mbox formatted files? Most critically, how can I avoid these issues in future?
I have liked TB and the many plugins that make this much more useful than Outlook or similar products; but I'm growing increasingly frustrated with the unreliable performance of TB when it comes to the issue of the headers disappearing and no way to reindex all the folders at one time. Any help, especially with how to prevent this problem from recurring, would be appreciated.
All Replies (4)
I am thinking this sounds like you have no message headings in the list, so nothing is displayed.
on the right above the up arrow in the scroll there is a squarish icon. Click it and select "restore column order" from the displayed menu.
Thanks for the response Matt. While it didn't resolve the issue, I found that reopening TB and clicking on the apparently empty folders and waiting a few minutes would cause the message headers to appear again.
Apparently, when you delete the *.msf index files, TB recreates the index files, but doesn't populate any data until the user clicks on the folder and pauses for several seconds.
TB really needs to have a Properties, Repair Folder option that works on all folders and we need to have TB create the folder index for all folders upon user selecting an option. TB really needs to work on their indexing for message headers. I've had more trouble with this than any other email client I've ever used.
brianswilson said
Apparently, when you delete the *.msf index files, TB recreates the index files, but doesn't populate any data until the user clicks on the folder and pauses for several seconds.
The MSF is not regenerated until the folder is accessed.
TB really needs to have a Properties, Repair Folder option that works on all folders and we need to have TB create the folder index for all folders upon user selecting an option. TB really needs to work on their indexing for message headers. I've had more trouble with this than any other email client I've ever used.
There is a feedback and ideas forum here https://connect.mozilla.org/ I have no issues with folders, others do. I have no third party anti virus. Others do.
Some folk have huge IMAP folders with hundreds of thousands of email in them, I do as well. I try not to mess with them however as they are carrying a huge overhead in network traffic for any actions you take with them.
Fundamentally there is an expectation from the development team that you will not delete anything from the profile folder. You have gutted the Thunderbird's display cache by deleting ALL of the MSF files and apparently think that they are regenerated in the background. They are not they are regenerated in the foreground, after you select them.
Then we get to repair. This is all good for a local folder in a pop account. But depending on the type of account and the settings restoring an MSF file may require waiting on a response from the server listing all the mail in the folder.
For now using File > compact will force a re-validation of all folders and their msf files. In the case of IMAP accounts a re-download of the folder list will occur as well to determine the validity of the folder contents V the server it is synchronized to. It is also recommended to expunge the imap server as server data is not expunged by other means by default.
I think unless your server is connected to you on a gigabit network connection, without any contention or congestion, you will find transferring lots of data over the network is slow in the extreme. Your expectations on how fast things should go appear to be based on access to a local disk which is not the canonical source in an IMAP account.
> There is a feedback and ideas forum here https://connect.mozilla.org/ I have no issues with folders, others do. I have no third party antivirus. Others do.
Thank you for the forum information. I've posted a comment there. As to the antivirus, I don't think this issue is related to any AV interference.
> Some folk have huge IMAP folders with hundreds of thousands of email in them, I do as well. I try not to mess with them however as they are carrying a huge overhead in network traffic for any actions you take with them.
I understand this view, but if you can't see the messages and Properties, Repair Folder doesn't fix the problem, you're pretty much SOL.
> Fundamentally there is an expectation from the development team that you will not delete anything from the profile folder. You have gutted the Thunderbird's display cache by deleting ALL of the MSF files and apparently think that they are regenerated in the background. They are not they are regenerated in the foreground, after you select them.
Gutting the TB display cache is the only thing that restores the ability to actually read the emails. Whether the development team expects this or not, the message indexing is not always working properly, many people have complained about this and the two recommendations that are always listed as solutions are Properties, Repair Folder, and if that fails, remove the *msf files.
Yes, I expected that when TB was restarted and found folders with no msf indexes, it would reindex automatically and do so in the background like any sensible chimp would do. Turns out I was wrong and you have to physically revisit each and every one of your folders long enough for TB to reindex in the foreground. Bad design, and something I would recommend be rethought for a future release along with fixing the problem with the msf indexing in the first place.
Then we get to repair. This is all good for a local folder in a pop account. But depending on the type of account and the settings restoring an MSF file may require waiting on a response from the server listing all the mail in the folder.
If you can't read the email, and you Properties, Repair Folder doesn't fix the issue, I guess you're stuck with waiting for the reindex as you point out here.
For now using File > compact will force a re-validation of all folders and their msf files. In the case of IMAP accounts a re-download of the folder list will occur as well to determine the validity of the folder contents V the server it is synchronized to. It is also recommended to expunge the imap server as server data is not expunged by other means by default.
If the msf index files are messed up, a compact will likely delete messages and lose important material completely. Several websites caution against doing a compact with these kind of errors unresolved.
I think unless your server is connected to you on a gigabit network connection, without any contention or congestion, you will find transferring lots of data over the network is slow in the extreme. Your expectations on how fast things should go appear to be based on access to a local disk which is not the canonical source in an IMAP account.
I have both IMAP and POP accounts. Again, if I can't read the emails because the msf indexes are corrupted, and the Properties, Folder Repair doesn't fix the problem, the only remaining choice is to clear the corrupted files out and reindex regardless of the data transfer issues. It does no good to have an email client that can't keep the message indexes in good working order and then complain about the time to reindex when problems arise and must be fixed.