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Thunderbird - all emails in one folder completely garbled into raw HTML

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I received an email from an iPhone whilst my anti-virus software was updating. Immediately afterwards I found I coudn't read emails in my Inbox - the viewing pane shows either blank or snippets of unconnected raw HTML. All other folders are OK. I believe it's due to a virus which my anti-virus dealt with, though I have no log to show what virus it was as logging was turned off. Sample from viewing pane below: </div></blockquote></body></html>=

--Apple-Mail-0BE7D62A-3E0B-45DD-A6A4-AAC3FBD60FCD--

>From - Tue May 09 08:52:00 2017 X-Account-Key: account5 X-UIDL: UID27767-1278763274 X-Mozilla-Status: 0008 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 X-Mozilla-Keys: Return-path: <martin106@cacan.net> Envelope-to: martin@martinotto.co.uk Delivery-date: Mon, 08 May 2017 20:49:03 +0100 Received: from [111.221.44.166] (port=14147 helo=cag.cacan.net) by server.dnsblock5.com with smtp (Exim 4.87) (envelope-from <martin106@cacan.net>) id 1d7oeU-0001uW-5N for martin@martinotto.co.uk; Mon, 08 May 2017 20:49:03 +0100 Date: Mon, 08 May 2017 14:48:28 -0500 From: "Best Credit Cards" <martin106@cacan.net> To: <martin@martinotto.co.uk> Subject: Top Business Card Info: 42ET85G Message-ID: <201705081448_AC95BE3C@cacan.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="---------=_Part_06482721_048XT2UG74.S648DG7=_?:----" X-EsetId: 37303A296F91236A66746B

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.


=_Part_06482721_048XT2UG74.S648DG7=_?:----

Content-Type: text/plain;

   charset="utf-8"

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit



Top Business Card Info: AEJ5Y8B

Top Business Card Info: PM3E0LV

Top Business Card Info: 6VKDE7V


Top Business Card Info: 96K724B

Top Business Card Info: 858M2SG

Top Business Card Info: E8BPQAI

I received an email from an iPhone whilst my anti-virus software was updating. Immediately afterwards I found I coudn't read emails in my Inbox - the viewing pane shows either blank or snippets of unconnected raw HTML. All other folders are OK. I believe it's due to a virus which my anti-virus dealt with, though I have no log to show what virus it was as logging was turned off. Sample from viewing pane below: </div></blockquote></body></html>= --Apple-Mail-0BE7D62A-3E0B-45DD-A6A4-AAC3FBD60FCD-- >From - Tue May 09 08:52:00 2017 X-Account-Key: account5 X-UIDL: UID27767-1278763274 X-Mozilla-Status: 0008 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 X-Mozilla-Keys: Return-path: <martin106@cacan.net> Envelope-to: martin@martinotto.co.uk Delivery-date: Mon, 08 May 2017 20:49:03 +0100 Received: from [111.221.44.166] (port=14147 helo=cag.cacan.net) by server.dnsblock5.com with smtp (Exim 4.87) (envelope-from <martin106@cacan.net>) id 1d7oeU-0001uW-5N for martin@martinotto.co.uk; Mon, 08 May 2017 20:49:03 +0100 Date: Mon, 08 May 2017 14:48:28 -0500 From: "Best Credit Cards" <martin106@cacan.net> To: <martin@martinotto.co.uk> Subject: Top Business Card Info: 42ET85G Message-ID: <201705081448_AC95BE3C@cacan.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="---------=_Part_06482721_048XT2UG74.S648DG7=_?:----" X-EsetId: 37303A296F91236A66746B This is a multi-part message in MIME format. -----------=_Part_06482721_048XT2UG74.S648DG7=_?:---- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Top Business Card Info: AEJ5Y8B Top Business Card Info: PM3E0LV Top Business Card Info: 6VKDE7V Top Business Card Info: 96K724B Top Business Card Info: 858M2SG Top Business Card Info: E8BPQAI

All Replies (3)

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Have you rebooted your computer since this has happened? Never underestimate the problems that magically get solved by rebooting.

Disable e-mail scanning in your antivirus program.

It is recommended that e-mail scanning be disabled in antivirus programs because antivirus programs already automatically scan everything when it is accessed. So e-mail scanning is an unnecessary duplication, and e-mail scanning itself can cause problems.

If there is still a problem after rebooting and disabling e-mail scanning in your antivirus, then:

1. Run a Check Disk to fix any file system errors. <a href="http://brucejohnson.ca/CheckDisk.html">How to run a "Check Disk" in Windows</a>

2. Restart Thunderbird with add-ons disabled (Thunderbird Safe Mode). On the Help menu, click on "Restart with Add-ons Disabled".

If Thunderbird works like normal, there is an Add-on or Theme interfering with normal operations. You will need to re-enable add-ons one at a time until you locate the offender.

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Thanks Bruce - tried all your suggestions but no useful effects. The checkdisk info was interesting - I haven't done checkdisk for a long while! I will also get on to my antivirus (ESET) and see if they can shed any light. Luckily my garbled inbox contained less important emails which hadn't been filed elsewhere. New incoming emails are fine.

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Since it is just old e-mails that are corrupted, then data recovery is in order. Specifically, looking at the mbox files and compare the good e-mails to the corrupted to see the difference. There may be one specific thing that has gone wrong with each e-mail that can be fixed with a search and replace. Or it may be more complicated than that.

I recommend backing up the Profile folder (which should be done regularly anyway). Then either you, or someone more knowledgeable about mbox files, figure out what is wrong with those e-mails and hopefully fix them.