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Threaded notes do not remain threaded after exiting the Inbox

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I have an inbox with a few hundred emails. I use threading to keep the emails from each sender organized. I keep the threads closed until I need to read the ongoing conversation with that sender. Then I close it again. When I exit the inbox, Thunderbird used to keep the closed threads ... closed. Now, when I exit the inbox, and come back, the threaded conversations are ALL opened / exploded. I manually close the threads again, exit the inbox, come back, and they are again exploded into individual notes. They are still threaded, just that the conversations are expanded rather than compacted into the original note.

What may have had an impact ? I created 2 subfolders below the inbox so that I could move the high volume of these threaded conversations into a "pending" status. BOTH of those subfolders behave correctly - threaded conversations remain either open or closed after exiting and then returning to the original folder. But the Inbox appears broken. I moved those 2 subfolders from the Inbox to the actual account parent (similar to trash / sent /etc folders). They continue to work properly but the inbox is still broken.

I created another folder, called Inbox 2, and copied the threaded conversations from the Inbox to Inbox 2. They work perfectly. Then I copied 2 of the conversations back to the Inbox. They fail to remain threaded when leaving / returning to the folder.

I don't know if I can delete the inbox and create a new "inbox".... something has been corrupted in the inbox.

Suggestions ? For now, I am working out of Inbox 2 by coping all inbound mail to that folder.

Thank you.

I have an inbox with a few hundred emails. I use threading to keep the emails from each sender organized. I keep the threads closed until I need to read the ongoing conversation with that sender. Then I close it again. When I exit the inbox, Thunderbird used to keep the closed threads ... closed. Now, when I exit the inbox, and come back, the threaded conversations are ALL opened / exploded. I manually close the threads again, exit the inbox, come back, and they are again exploded into individual notes. They are still threaded, just that the conversations are expanded rather than compacted into the original note. What may have had an impact ? I created 2 subfolders below the inbox so that I could move the high volume of these threaded conversations into a "pending" status. BOTH of those subfolders behave correctly - threaded conversations remain either open or closed after exiting and then returning to the original folder. But the Inbox appears broken. I moved those 2 subfolders from the Inbox to the actual account parent (similar to trash / sent /etc folders). They continue to work properly but the inbox is still broken. I created another folder, called Inbox 2, and copied the threaded conversations from the Inbox to Inbox 2. They work perfectly. Then I copied 2 of the conversations back to the Inbox. They fail to remain threaded when leaving / returning to the folder. I don't know if I can delete the inbox and create a new "inbox".... something has been corrupted in the inbox. Suggestions ? For now, I am working out of Inbox 2 by coping all inbound mail to that folder. Thank you.

Chosen solution

I am in awe... I screen captured the above tip, and I don't think there was an extraneous word in the whole paragraph. Took me a little while to follow it, because EVERY word was important. It seems to have corrected my issue! MANY MANY thanks !

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All Replies (5)

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You could rebuild the Inbox, but I would first try repairing the index from Properties in the right-click menu, Repair Folder.

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Thanks for the tip on repairing a folder, although it did not solve the thread issue. I will try re-building the inbox to see if that works... i really appreciate the hot link to learn how to do it. I had no clue!

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Well, I looked and I decided I need to hold on this rebuild. I can't find the "inboxes" per the instructions., and I have 3 of them since I have 3 email addresses. Can not afford to lose my emails at this point as I am doing a service project. THANK YOU again for the tips...

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Create a subfolder of Local Folders and copy the Inbox messages there, and verify they are readable. Help/Troubleshooting, click Open Folder to open the profile, close TB. Open Mail/<popaccount> or ImapMail<imapaccount>, depending on the account type, delete or remove the mbox file, Inbox (no extension) and Inbox.msf. Restart TB, and a new, empty Inbox will be created. If it's an IMAP account, the Inbox will sync with the server.

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Chosen Solution

I am in awe... I screen captured the above tip, and I don't think there was an extraneous word in the whole paragraph. Took me a little while to follow it, because EVERY word was important. It seems to have corrected my issue! MANY MANY thanks !