Thunderbird saving periodically breaks
I'm running Thunderbird 31.1.1 on Ubuntu 14.04. I recently switched from having several different mailboxes to having a single one that, through a series of Filters, moves messages to a series of inboxes. Ever since I made this change, Thunderbird has developed a strange problem.
At first, when I open the program, it works fine. But after a little while, it stops allowing me to move messages to a different folder or to save new messages. I haven't been able to identify a particular cause of this — perhaps it's after moving a certain number of messages, or while running a filter a certain number of times. I don't know. But inevitably, it stops being able to save or move messages. I have to quit the program, restart, and then it works again until the problem happens again before too long.
I've already tried compacting folders. Does anybody have any idea what is going on and what can be done to fix it?
All Replies (6)
Interesting. I have the problem on Windows and I've read about it on Mac OS.
Your comment about switching mail box styles is interesting to me because I have always had a global inbox since I installed TB early this year and have always had this problem. What makes it hard to debug though is that sometimes I have the problem within hours of starting TB and sometimes it goes over a month.
Were you using per account inboxes for a long time (half a year or more?) without the problem? I might switch to that if so.
I was using per-account inboxes for about a year, yes, and didn't have this problem. I wish I knew what was causing it, though. Have you also been using Filters to move mail around your global inbox? Is it the use of Filters that causes the trouble? To what extent can filters be okay, and when do they break TB?
Yes I've always used filters. I currently have 7 defined. I think I would have the same number if I was using individual inboxes. The filters handle mailing lists, payment emails, forum emails etc.
It never occurred to me that using filters could cause an issue. My gut feeling is that filters are such a basic feature that if it was just filters then TB would be failing for almost everyone but I don't really know - nothing I've come up with so far has changed anything.
Does anybody else have any ideas about what the problem might be?
I'm curious: Have you experienced this problem the same way, where this doesn't happen for a few minutes, and then after a while it starts up again?
In my case it is extremely variable - from a daily (or more) to slightly less than monthly.
Across various threads I have occasionally read something like: I downloaded this extension and it fixed it - or I did something else and it fixed it - though you'll often see a post later that says something like: never-mind - it came back.
So I think the timing is pretty variable for everyone.
Some users have criticized me for even leaving TB up for a month at a time, but since it can happen daily too, I don't see why that should be an issue. If any thing, it seems that once you get a solid run for a couple of days, then it's more likely to remain stable for weeks. Though perhaps I am being fooled by randomness like gamblers frequently are. ("Lucky streak" / "hot table")