"Unable to write email to mailbox" & "Messages could not be moved/copied because writing to folder failed"

Hello, Attached are the messages I have been receiving ever since 6 October 2025. I've tried to read about fixing these myself, to no avail. (I mean, I can Read; I just c… (kàsi)

Hello, Attached are the messages I have been receiving ever since 6 October 2025. I've tried to read about fixing these myself, to no avail. (I mean, I can Read; I just can't fix this.) I've tried to Compact ALL folders individually. But that seemed to do nothing. (Before 6 October, the Thunderbird window would at least "flicker" a little after compact.) Trash is empty. Tried disabling McAfee AntiVirus & Firewall. And, no, this isn't happening because I'm using McAfee; I've been using McAfee since Windows XP and Thunderbird since before it "broke away" from Mozilla. They have, until 6 October, played nice together. I really like Thunderbird so I do not want to find another email client/program/what-have-you. There are LOTS of saved emails that I cannot move/copy to "save space", so...Help? Please?

Thanking you in advance, tonyg

P.S.-I am not computer illiterate. But, slow, easy to follow, non-BIOS changing, step by step directions would be preferred.

Asked by Anthony G 2 àwọn ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by Anthony G 53 àwọn ìṣẹjú ṣẹ́hìn

finding a list of email authors, finding first and last?

I want to continue using TB but a few things really make me despair of it. But there may be workarounds. If I have a question, when did these people last send me an email… (kàsi)

I want to continue using TB but a few things really make me despair of it. But there may be workarounds. If I have a question, when did these people last send me an email, or have any of these people responded to something, there seems to be no way to get to a list. But. I found a way to do it. Using sqlite3.

I have been wanting a CLI for interacting with TB for a while. You know, that folder I have with 10k+ emails and if I click on it, the UI spins forever. What is even in that?

Now I can do this: 1) copy the global-messages-db.sqlite from the active profile to another place 2) run: sqlite3 global-messages-db.sqlite 3) ```sqlite> select m1.c3author, min(m2.date), max(m2.date) from messagesText_content m1, messages m2 where m1.docid = m2.id group by m1.c3author order by m1.c3author; ... ray kiddy <ray@ganymede.org>|1732124816000000|1759268233000000 ruby29@something undefined|1756740716000000|1756740716000000 salvatore@someother undefined|1758733831000000|1758733831000000 support@linode.com undefined|1755126295000000|1755126295000000 ... ```

Holy sender dates, Batman! Now I can see the earliest and latest email sent by any user. Now I can filter, sort, and see every person who sent me something in a time period. And whether it was 1 email or 1000, I just see the names and not an enormous amount of other information.

So, is this the only way to get this? Or the best? I have no idea. Please let me know if there is a better way, perhaps one using TB itself. It would be nice.

In the meantime, I will be wrapping this in a python call, doing some formatting and it will work and I can stop worrying about not seeing their email.

Asked by RayKiddy 1 wákàtí sẹ́hìn

Lost the indicator showing which folder I'm in

I have lost the indicator in the folder pane showing which folder I'm in. It used to have a small color tab in the folder pane on the left hand side. Indicating that the … (kàsi)

I have lost the indicator in the folder pane showing which folder I'm in. It used to have a small color tab in the folder pane on the left hand side. Indicating that the folder was selected. Any ideas to get it back? Thunderbird 140.3.1esr (64-bit)

Asked by hal2010 1 ọ̀sẹ̀ tó kọjá

Last reply by hal2010 4 àwọn wákàtí sẹ́hìn

Undesired change in response to email selection

I have just installed Thunderbird on Windows 11 and it has two very annoying new habits. When I click on an email it opens it instead of giving me a preview. And when I m… (kàsi)

I have just installed Thunderbird on Windows 11 and it has two very annoying new habits. When I click on an email it opens it instead of giving me a preview. And when I move an email to another folder it also opens that folder. Neither happened on the old computer so how can I get back to the way it used to be?

Asked by jsw152 1 ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by jsw152 4 àwọn wákàtí sẹ́hìn

Unable to add a third email account to my laptop, even though I have it on my desktop.

My problem has escalated. Before, I wasn't able to fix the constant request for password on that account. Now, after deleting the account on my laptop, I can't even add i… (kàsi)

My problem has escalated. Before, I wasn't able to fix the constant request for password on that account. Now, after deleting the account on my laptop, I can't even add it back. Error message says "incoming server already exists." I do have another email account with the same domain, but this is not a problem on my desktop computer, only on my laptop. (It used to work find on my laptop, too, but it stopped receiving emails on 8/20/)

Asked by wolfman141 4 àwọn wákàtí sẹ́hìn

cannot get into thunderbird directly without going thru Webmail

My Spectrum password was changed and now I cannot get direct access to TB. For some reason TB is not linking up with Spectrum password. I get a popup panel saying "Login … (kàsi)

My Spectrum password was changed and now I cannot get direct access to TB. For some reason TB is not linking up with Spectrum password. I get a popup panel saying "Login to server Mail.TWC.Com with username jomar159@hvc.rr.com failed" Retry Enter New password Cancel I have 2 accounts on TB 1 is wmarks1 and the other is jomar159@hvc.rr.com HELP

Asked by wmarks1 5 àwọn ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by wmarks1 6 àwọn wákàtí sẹ́hìn

Thunderbird 141.0 "Ghost Message" - deleted message in message list

I have a message that is still listed after being deleted. When I highlight the messages listed above it and below it, I can see their contents with no problem. However,… (kàsi)

I have a message that is still listed after being deleted. When I highlight the messages listed above it and below it, I can see their contents with no problem. However, when I click on the "ghost message" listing in between them, I will see the contents of the last message viewed, not the contents of the ghost message that is highlighted.

Also, when I first open Thunderbird and highlight that ghost message first, the review pane is blank, like there is no message there. Then if I click on a different message, that message's contents will show in the preview pane. Then when I go back and click on the the ghost message listing, that pane is still showing the previous message's contents.

When I click on "delete" message, I get the constant blue indicator light in the lower right glowing and nothing happens.

Asked by lajoes 2 àwọn oṣù sẹ́hìn

Last reply by lajoes 6 àwọn wákàtí sẹ́hìn

no messages fetched from imap server - "your message was sent, but a copy could not be placed in "Sent" folder" due to network or file access issues." SOLVED "ImapMail" folder's properties set to "read-only"

Hi, I recently set up TB with one imap account. All fine. I set up a Local Folder as well - mainly to store bulk of old mails. Then after couple of days, when I sent a m… (kàsi)

Hi, I recently set up TB with one imap account. All fine. I set up a Local Folder as well - mainly to store bulk of old mails.

Then after couple of days, when I sent a message, the system warned me: "your message was sent, but a copy could not be placed in "Sent" folder" due to network or file access issues. Place a copy in local folder instead?"

I recognized, that also, while my account/server seems to connect, no emails at all are fetched from the server actually.

I think there's a strange problem TB internally with ... file access? How to repair?

UPDATE : I checked my TB profile folder, and found the "ImapMail" folder's properties (Win10) showed "read-only". So I closed TB, removed the "read-only" from folder and contents, and restarted TB. But issue persisted. I went back to "ImapMail" folder in my profile - and found it marked "read-only" again. So seems TB itself set it to "read-only", it seems.

Thank you for your advice. Chris

PS:

  • Restart : nothing changed
  • run in safe mode: nothing chnaged
  • repaired folders: nothing chnaged

Asked by chRIS 8 àwọn wákàtí sẹ́hìn

Loss of Local Folders on upgrade to Windows !!

Yesterday I upgraded my PC from Windows 10 to 11. Today I discovered my Local Folders are not visible. Searching tells me the messages still exist, but TB does not show t… (kàsi)

Yesterday I upgraded my PC from Windows 10 to 11. Today I discovered my Local Folders are not visible. Searching tells me the messages still exist, but TB does not show the folders. I did the same upgrade a month ago on a laptop (Windows 10 Pro to 11), no problems. I didn't externally back up the messages as I am a dinosaur and don't know how, but at least they are still on the hard drive. Thousands of them though so I need the local folders back. Tried all the fixes I can find on the Community Forum, without success. Can anyone help please? Bob

Asked by bob246 6 àwọn ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by bob246 14 àwọn wákàtí sẹ́hìn

Double draft folders

I would like help removing one of the folders called drafts as it is empty and uses the other for subfolders. I have tried right clicking but it has no effect on removing… (kàsi)

I would like help removing one of the folders called drafts as it is empty and uses the other for subfolders. I have tried right clicking but it has no effect on removing it. Only the draft folder where the subfolders are located can be removed. How do I remove the extra draft folder. Thanks in advance for your help.

Asked by Bruno Nissen 1 ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by Bruno Nissen 16 àwọn wákàtí sẹ́hìn

Empty Trash/Compact driving me crazy - "The messages could not be moved or copied to folder xxxxx because writing to folder failed. To gain disk space, from the file menu, first choose Empty Trash, and then choose Compact Folders, and then try again."

I'm in the process of cleaning up Thunderbird e-mail before moving to a new computer. I started with 11,593 e-mails in my Inbox and 7,799 e-mails in my Sent folder. I'm… (kàsi)

I'm in the process of cleaning up Thunderbird e-mail before moving to a new computer. I started with 11,593 e-mails in my Inbox and 7,799 e-mails in my Sent folder. I'm now down to 7,634 in my Inbox and 4,965 in my Sent folder. I've allocated 2 weeks for this process and found that it's taking me about 3 hours per day to meet my daily goals. I'm finding that I'm spending at LEAST half the time responding to "Empty-Trash/Compact-folders" requests. There are times I can delete 50 e-mails at a time without getting a request. Other times I will try to delete ten e-mails and get the request. With the old version of Thunderbird I could literally delete hundreds of e-mails at a time. Can you help? Russ Bukwa Yardley, PA ps. I have intentionally given you specific numbers. Based on my software- and test-engineering experience, I speculate you need to create a stress test to solve this nagging problem.

Asked by newdayrj 4 àwọn oṣù sẹ́hìn

Last reply by newdayrj 20 àwọn wákàtí sẹ́hìn

RECOVER Thunderbird POP3 Account (all messages in the IN BOX & folders are? gone)

Tuesday Oct. 7, our ISP converted to a new e-mail program. I could NOT log in/on I called our ISP's help desk. The 'technician' could not help me log in to our Thunderb… (kàsi)

Tuesday Oct. 7, our ISP converted to a new e-mail program. I could NOT log in/on I called our ISP's help desk. The 'technician' could not help me log in to our Thunderbird POP 3 account. He had me, WITHOUT asking if I had essential - legal - medical-etc. e-mails in the IN BOX or in folders! He NEVER warned/cautioned all ?would? be lost - GONE.

I URGENTLY need to recover all TB POP3 IN BOX & e-mails in folders. I need to access legal messages today, if possible.

If Mozilla does not have a recovery program, what do I do? I am not seeking to recover ' deleted messages (unless his having me change from the POP3 account to a 'new' IMAP account is the same as ' "delete" '.

Any & all prompt responses APPRECIATED! Remain WELL & Be SAFE!

Robin

Asked by dulca 2 àwọn ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by dulca 1 ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Cant send mail on mac

HI all. This is a good one. I recently got a MAC, my first one, so dont know much about it. I installed thunderbird and can receive via IMAP but cant send via SMTP. I ha… (kàsi)

HI all. This is a good one. I recently got a MAC, my first one, so dont know much about it. I installed thunderbird and can receive via IMAP but cant send via SMTP. I have smtp setup EXACTLY how it is on my windows PC which works. When I hit send on a message, it immediately comes back with "Sending of the message failed. The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) <maileserver.com> timed out. Try again. This message comes back immediately, as in .000001 second. This particular mail server I own and is on my network, and checking the logs, the request never even gets to the server, so its not a server issue. (Again, it works for all my other devices and other clients). server info, password etc are correct. I tried deleting the account and recreating it but no go. From a command tool, I can telnet to my mail server on port 25 and it answers and I can interact. If I use the built in mac mail client, it works fine. So this is definitely a thunderbird issue from what I can tell. Thunderbird 143.0.1 (aarch64) on 26.0.1 (25A362) Any tips appreciated, Im ready to take a bath with a toaster. Thank you!

Asked by Bob D 1 ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by Bob D 1 ọjọ́ tó kọjá

thunderbird won't start after installion

thunderbird won't start after installation giving message that a version is already running. I end the task in task manager and it doesn't help, then restart with same e… (kàsi)

thunderbird won't start after installation giving message that a version is already running. I end the task in task manager and it doesn't help, then restart with same erro. I tried deleting the parent.lock file from the profile and that didn't help. What next? Has anyone solved this issue?

Asked by Beno 2 àwọn ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by Beno 1 ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Add outlook.com account to TB 143.0.1

When trying to add my outlook.com email account to Thunderbird 143.0.1, using the instructions at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-exchange, I get an … (kàsi)

When trying to add my outlook.com email account to Thunderbird 143.0.1, using the instructions at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-exchange, I get an "Exchange auth error." I'm able to add the account manually using imap, but I want to use Exchange so I can access my outlook.com calendar and contact when TB is updated to include them.

Asked by rgplantz 3 àwọn ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by rgplantz 1 ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Arrange email folders alphanumerically

For some reason (accidental key stroke?) one of my email account's folders are no longer arranged alphanumerically. How can I reset the order to alphanumerical? I can't f… (kàsi)

For some reason (accidental key stroke?) one of my email account's folders are no longer arranged alphanumerically. How can I reset the order to alphanumerical? I can't find a menu item or setting to do this. Thanks

Asked by Jonathon 2 àwọn ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by Jonathon 1 ọjọ́ tó kọjá

My email service shut down,

Hello, my email service has shut down for the second time. When asked to open, a small window appears and says the system is affected by a whatever. The window only lasts… (kàsi)

Hello, my email service has shut down for the second time. When asked to open, a small window appears and says the system is affected by a whatever. The window only lasts for a couple of seconds.

I tried to follow the instructions as how to get my profile, but is was lost due to an internet access cut.

Hoping someone can help. regards Stephen

Asked by stephenroger.baty 6 àwọn ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by stephenroger.baty 1 ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Thunderbird incorrectly creates Archive folders on mail server

Hello, I've used Thunderbird on Linux for a while and love it! I use it for multiple email accounts from different providers. Until recently I manually Archived email … (kàsi)

Hello,

I've used Thunderbird on Linux for a while and love it! I use it for multiple email accounts from different providers.

Until recently I manually Archived email in to Local Folders on my PC. I do this to remove email from my mail providers and to avoid storage limits.

I recently learned that if I I set the "Message Archives" option to a specific folder for each account under "Local Folders" I can either manually archive there or I can use an Extension like "AutoarchiveReloaded" to do this semi-automatically. Great!

Unfortunately for my main mailbox only, despite being configured to write to a sub-folder under Local Folders, Thunderbird seems to ignore the settings. It always tries to create an Archive folder in the mailbox itself. Every attempt creates a mess which takes time to cleanup.

The mailbox in question:

  • Uses IMAP
  • Has "Keep message archives in:" set to "Other:" "Local Folders > Archives > (the name of the account)".

I am concerned that if I try "Keep message archives in:" "Archives" Folder on Local Folders it will combine with all my other archived accounts which are sorted in to sub-folders correctly.

Is anyone able to help please?

Thank you!

Asked by LMPC 1 ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by LMPC 1 ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Finding Lightning add-on

Greetings! I read everywhere that we must install the Lightning add-on to use the calendar feature in Thunderbird. But when I search for this add-on, I get a bazillion op… (kàsi)

Greetings! I read everywhere that we must install the Lightning add-on to use the calendar feature in Thunderbird. But when I search for this add-on, I get a bazillion options, none of which appears Lightning. There is something called Lightning Calendar Tabs that keeps coming up. Is this it? Doesn't seem so.

Where can one download/install the Lightning add-on?

Thank you.

Asked by VLMin 3 àwọn ọjọ́ tó kọjá

Last reply by VLMin 1 ọjọ́ tó kọjá