right+click on folder > properties > repair. helps??

right+click on folder > properties > repair. helps??

Ah yes, thank you. I did try that, to no avail. I just tried it again, and sadly the same result.

Thunderbird version: 140.1.1esr (aarch64) MacOS 15.6 After the most recent Thunderbird update, I noticed that one of my local folders was completely empty.

Is this folder a subfolder of your Local Folders or is it a subfolder of another folder in Local Folders? Can you show a screen shot with the contents of Local Folders in the Thunderbird profile folder?

turvey.au said

Thunderbird version: 140.1.1esr (aarch64) MacOS 15.6 After the most recent Thunderbird update, I noticed that one of my local folders was completely empty.

Is this folder a subfolder of your Local Folders or is it a subfolder of another folder in Local Folders? Can you show a screen shot with the contents of Local Folders in the Thunderbird profile folder?

It is a folder within Local Folders. The highlighted folder in the image - *School info - is the problematic one. (I created **School info as a new temporary holding folder to keep the waters clear until I find a resolution to the problem.)

Unfortunately this screen shot doesn't help me. ì 'd asked for a screen shot with the contents of your Local Folders in the Thunderbird profile folder. To open the profile folder go to Help (menu in TB) > Troubleshooting information > Profile Folder > Open folder, then quit TB: In the profile folder xxxxxxx,.default-release (or similar) go to Mail > Local Folders (see image)

Do you use TB with POP accounts unified in a "global Inbox" ?

Unfortunately this screen shot doesn't help me. ì 'd asked for a screen shot with the contents of your Local Folders in the Thunderbird profile folder. To open the profile folder go to Help (menu in TB) > Troubleshooting information > Profile Folder > Open folder, then quit TB: In the profile folder xxxxxxx,.default-release (or similar) go to Mail > Local Folders (see image) Do you use TB with POP accounts unified in a "global Inbox" ?

Thanks for the clarification. I don't have a global inbox. I used to have an email address I used as a POP account, but have closed that now. I retained the local folders, and use them as a filing system for my IMAP email address now, but that has a seperate inbox.

As a result of that local folder filing system, I have a lot of local folders, and therefore there are a lot of files and folders in the location you indicated (133 to be exact). Some of the files names reveal more personal information than I'd prefer to share. Is there anything in particular that I can look for, or something specific it would be helpful for you to see?

Can you make a selective screen shot of your Local Folders content showing only the *School info mailbox file with adjacent files (which you can anonymise) and with modification date and file size. This can give important infos about the file, it might be corrupted. Signs like *, /, #, ? etc in a folder name are seeking for trouble...

Also in the folder pane R-click on *School info > Properties > General information and make a (slightly anonymised) screen shot

Can you make a selective screen shot of your Local Folders content showing only the *School info mailbox file with adjacent files (which you can anonymise) and with modification date and file size. This can give important infos about the file, it might be corrupted. Signs like *, /, #, ? etc in a folder name are seeking for trouble... Also in the folder pane R-click on *School info > Properties > General information and make a (slightly anonymised) screen shot

Interestingly, most of the other * folders are not immediately visible in the Local Folders folder. (Probably the trouble you mentioned, although I have used this system for years with no noticeable issues prior to this - should have gone with an Aa prefix...)

• School info is right at the top of the list, with no files above it.

There seems to be something foul (corrupted) in your *School Info mailbox file. The Thunderbird properties info says 0 messages and an unknown size. The macOS file info indicates a size of 295 MB! You said that you have made backups with Time Machine. If you only have trouble with *School Info you could go back in Time Machine to the last backup and just copy the file *School Info (the one without extension) and paste in your actual profile - TB closed. If this doesn't work I have one or two other tweaks to restore your messages....

When you open *School Info with Text-Edit do you see normal text and many lines of gibberish ? Each message in a POP mailbox file begins with a line such as

   From - Fri Oct 10 00:29:48 2014

There seems to be something foul (corrupted) in your *School Info mailbox file. The Thunderbird properties info says 0 messages and an unknown size. The macOS file info indicates a size of 295 MB! You said that you have made backups with Time Machine. If you only have trouble with *School Info you could go back in Time Machine to the last backup and just copy the file *School Info (the one without extension) and paste in your actual profile - TB closed. If this doesn't work I have one or two other tweaks to restore your messages.... When you open *School Info with Text-Edit do you see normal text and many lines of gibberish ? Each message in a POP mailbox file begins with a line such as From - Fri Oct 10 00:29:48 2014

I have tried restoring/copying the files from the Time Machine backup before, with no success. I just copied only the *School info file with no extension as you directed above (from my oldest backup, in May, in an effort to pre-date the problem). When I reopened Thunderbird there was no change.

I do see the above when opening the file in Text Edit - see attached.

I can't say what is the cause of this mailbox file corruption. Recently had a similar problem with one of my folders in Local Folders. The folder name was "TotalEnergies", and one day I realised that TB had renamed it to TotalEnergies77863ee3 and the folder was empty already the mbox file still had a size of 9.6 MB. Renaming the file in TotalEnergies didn't bring back the messages.

At the same time some user in the German TB forum had a similar problem when importing mbox files from Postbox. Eventually he could "repair" the mbox file by editing it in BBEdit and saving it as .xml file. I succeeded to repair my mbox file with the same method. Note that both files were repaired on Macs. The problem seems to be that mbox files ending with bare CR linings don't work in Thunderbird : https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1942540 "Support mbox files with bare CR line endings (produced on Mac pre Thunderbird 1.0)"

You could install BBEdit, open your recalcitrant mbox file in BBEdit and try to save it (File > Save as) using one or another of the three line breaks as shown in my screen shot.

Also see https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/operating-systems/difference-between-carriage-return-and-line-feed/

I can't say what is the cause of this mailbox file corruption. Recently had a similar problem with one of my folders in Local Folders. The folder name was "TotalEnergies", and one day I realised that TB had renamed it to TotalEnergies77863ee3 and the folder was empty already the mbox file still had a size of 9.6 MB. Renaming the file in TotalEnergies didn't bring back the messages. At the same time some user in the German TB forum had a similar problem when importing mbox files from Postbox. Eventually he could "repair" the mbox file by editing it in BBEdit and saving it as .xml file. I succeeded to repair my mbox file with the same method. Note that both files were repaired on Macs. The problem seems to be that mbox files ending with bare CR linings don't work in Thunderbird : https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1942540 "Support mbox files with bare CR line endings (produced on Mac pre Thunderbird 1.0)" You could install BBEdit, open your recalcitrant mbox file in BBEdit and try to save it (File > Save as) using one or another of the three line breaks as shown in my screen shot. Also see https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/operating-systems/difference-between-carriage-return-and-line-feed/

I am so sorry for the delay in my reply (life exploded in every way possible), and thank you for your assistance so far. I downloaded BBEdit and tried the above and just ended up with the screenshot. (I have thunderbird open over the top of the finder window in the screenshot.) I also tried saving the .msf file in unix format (retaining the .msf suffix) to no avail. I found a couple of other folders that are 'empty' thanks to this glitch (all with an * at the start), and tried tinkering with them too, with the same null result.

The only further help I can propose would be an examination of one of your "missing mail" folders in my own Thunderbird installation to see where they are broken and whether they could be repaired or not. If one of those folders doesn't contain any private data except for your email address - let's say a folder full of publicity or newsletters - you could upload the file on some server such as Dropbox and then send me the URL to download it. If I found a method I would explain you how to proceed with your other folders.