Duplicate incoming e-mails - removed popstate did not fix problem
I've been trying to help an elderly neighbor (93 yo) with her Thunderbird. She uses Windows 7. I don't recall which version of Thunderbird she has, but I'm almost sure it is the latest version. Every time she starts Thunderbird, some of her previously downloaded e-mail is downloaded again when an e-mail is larger than about 4MB.
Her settings are set to delete e-mail from the server when they are downloaded. I removed the popstate.dat from her profile (as explained elsewhere in community support).
The above steps work... until she gets another e-mail larger than about 4MB. At that point, her incoming e-mails are duplicated again. Her e-mail server is Frontiernet.net . I have also logged onto the Frontier web mail website to manually delete the large e-mails, but the minute she gets another large e-mail, the problem comes back in Thunderbird.
Is there another setting in Thunderbird I need to check? Is it possible that Thunderbird and Frontier do not communicate properly when Thunderbird "tells" Frontier to delete an e-mail on the Frontier server?
Thanks.
Modified by David12846
All Replies (3)
David12846 said
Modified by David12846
Duplicate incoming e-mails - removed popstate did not fix problem
That would have made things worse if anything. Only the delete on download would have prevented a flood of duplicates.
But to your problem, this is more than likely not a thunderbird issue. What anti virus is in use? What happens if you disable the email scanning component and reboot.
What I think is happening is that the anti virus is taking to long in it's scanning. The server and Thunderbird are loosing the connection and therefore next time the mail is collected the delete commands were not sent last time so the mail is still there.
Now you will obviously question disabling this "security feature". The risks in the case of Thunderbird are minimal, to the point of non existence. Thunderbird does not allow scripting in emails. This means that you can not get an infection just from opening a mail. There is the technical risk of malware from remote images. But nothing live has ever been seen. Added to that is the anti virus scans the incoming remote image as it arrives over the wire the same as it does web pages.
If the mail should have an infected attachment it is entirely harmless until it is opened and to do that Thunderbird must make a copy in the Temp folder at which point the anti virus gets to stomp it. So the risk are not great. Probably more dangers from a multi media text message on your phone.
That said, I personally have issues with Outlook.com. There is actually something wrong in their system that is not moving mail when the download occurs. So if Frontier is using live mail as a back end, the same could be happening to your neighbor. I doubt it though as my issue affects ALL mail regardless of size.
She is using AVG free (excluding the firewall protection) and Zone Alarm free. I also use these on my Windows 7 and have no problem using Thunderbird, but I also do NOT use Frontiernet.net nor do I use Frontier DSL like she has. She also uses the very cheapest rate that Frontier has.
When she gets her e-mail (large or small), she gets the complete e-mail message and the download doesn't appear to time-out. I suspect the connection back to Frontier's server to delete the e-mail might be timing out. She DOES have a slow ISP connection. I may call Frontier's tech support and ask a few questions. Maybe she's using the wrong connection type (POP3 vs IMAP). I don't recall which one Frontier uses.
I use Outlook at work (ugh), but I'm not going to put that on her PC. I may try putting Windows Live Mail on her PC, but I think the problem will still occur IF it is a time-out problem.