Dear Thunderbird Team,
I am writing to report a critical issue with the Thunderbird Extension API where it returns stale, cached data instead of live folder contents for… (مزید پڑھیں)
Dear Thunderbird Team,
I am writing to report a critical issue with the Thunderbird Extension API where it returns stale, cached data instead of live folder contents for Gmail IMAP accounts.
Issue Description
The browser.messages.list() and browser.messages.query() APIs are returning outdated message data from 2016-2021, completely ignoring the actual current contents of my Gmail IMAP inbox. While Thunderbird's UI displays current emails correctly, the extension API serves permanently cached old data.
Evidence of the Bug
What Thunderbird UI Shows:
Current inbox with emails from today and recent weeks
Real-time folder contents
Proper folder synchronization
What Extension API Returns:
Only 100 messages total (artificial limit)
Messages exclusively from 2016-2021
No emails from 2022-2025 present
Completely ignores current folder contents
Technical Details:
Profile: /Volumes/Data/Mail Files/Thunderbird/Profiles/aq8q4la7.default-release/
Account: Gmail IMAP (imap.googlemail.com)
Folder: account1://INBOX
API Used: browser.messages.list(folderId) and browser.messages.query()
Steps to Reproduce
Set up Gmail IMAP account in Thunderbird
Write extension using browser.messages.list() API
Compare API results with actual folder contents
Observe API returns stale cached data from years ago
Debugging Attempted
We have tried:
Deleting all .msf index files
Clearing folderCache.json and global-messages-db.sqlite
Removing cache folders (cache/, cache2/, startupCache/)
Rebuilding folder indexes
Using different API methods (messages.query vs messages.list)
None of these resolved the issue - the API continues to return the same stale dataset.
Impact
This completely breaks any extension that needs to access current folder contents, such as email tracking, automation, or filtering extensions.
Request
Please investigate why the Extension API serves different (and outdated) data compared to Thunderbird's main UI, and fix the API to return actual live folder contents.
Thank you for your attention to this critical issue.
Best regards,
Hasan