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Blank box with yellow triangle with exclamation point.

  • 11 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by Drax

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Launched thunderbird today but get a blank white box with close thunderbird in the top banner, box has a yellow triangle with an exclamation point inside. What does it mean and how is it fixed?

Nothing launches besides this box.  HELP!  I am expecting some important email this morning.
Launched thunderbird today but get a blank white box with close thunderbird in the top banner, box has a yellow triangle with an exclamation point inside. What does it mean and how is it fixed? Nothing launches besides this box. HELP! I am expecting some important email this morning.
Attached screenshots

All Replies (11)

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Nobody has any ideas what this is?

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Hello there drax . We have read your message. We try to help you.


Oké,is this issue still there? Can you still open the inbox from the Thunderbird software? I can offer you a workaround but if things are worse then that we could try a another step to solve this issue.


Greetings Firefox volunteer

Modified by Googlethunderbird

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Things are worse, Nothing opens. Thunderbird software fails to open beyond what I have stated. Start TB on Mac, the icon bounces, thunderbird shows in the menu bar, and the screen just displays what I have shown. Not sure why I am getting it but that is all there is to show.

Have you seen this before?

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any chance for a Mozilla developer to respond? I really need to get my email back online ASAP

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a full day and nobody else has had this issue?

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Hello there again.

If you can go into Thunderbird software. Check what is still working Exit Thunderbird.

Read the rescue text down here

Delete the files "InboxOld" and "InboxOld.msf" and the folder "InboxOld.sbd" from your profile folder. Download the ImportExportTool extension. Note: The ImportExportTool extension used to be called the mboximport extension. Start Thunderbird and install the ImportExportTool extension. After restarting Thunderbird, try to import one of the copies using the ImportExportTool extension. If this succeeds, you can move the messages to where you want them (I suggest somewhere else than the Inbox). If you get a message that the file is not in a valid mbox format, you can try opening the file using any text editor (note that for big Inbox files - I was working with one problematic one that was more than 200MB - it will take a long time to open the file) Check that the opened text file is of a proper mbox format. In the case of my problematic file, the corruption occurs in the first line of the file. Correcting the line results in successful importing using the ImportExportTool extension. If this also fails, you may have to take your loss.

What version of Thunderbird do you guys use on that workflow? https://addons.thunderbird.net/nl/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools-ng/?src=ss We are out of add-ons after version Thunderbird add- on 94.0


Greetings Firefox volunteer.

Modified by Googlethunderbird

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I cannot go into thunderbird at all nada, nil nothing. I keep almost nothing in the inbox, everything shows up in boxes under the accounts. yes I have many accounts. I don't know if that means that everything is still in the inbox or not. I would hope not. Also there isn't any inbox anything under the thunderbird profile........ All there is is a mail folder which as subfolders for every email account I have. There is inbox and inbox.msf in each but nothing else you mentioned.

What you are basically suggesting is delete the inbox and blow up thunderbird and hope I don't lose 80K emails. If thunderbird is really this unreliable then perhaps it's time to be looking for a more robust, crash proof email client. I will beyond pissed that thunderbird doesn't take care of backing itself up against these things.

My version I think is the latest one. I just updated the other day. 91 maybe?

Modified by Drax

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Hello there again drax.


Try to follow this text.

Running thunderbird software has to be closed. Try to locate the inbox Mbox files. And the inbox.msf file delete them both. Then restart Thunderbird a new inbox will automatically recreated. It will synchronize if it s a Imap with the Map server again.



The other option is

Yes ,for a short message back to you , try to safe your profile stuff and all ongoing sub maps. Maybe you ve crossed the line somewhere with over limiting rules. Or antivirus is messing with your files somewhere. Delete the .exe file clean the pc and reinstall the latest version of Thunderbird software. Nothing can go wrong.


Also you can try to delete https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/rebuilding-global-database

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/releases/

Use a good backup for your maps. Clean the pc for running up a new version of Thunderbird Software.


Greetings firefox Volunteer.

Modified by Googlethunderbird

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There is no inbox or inbox.msf except in the individual accounts. There is an imapmail folder and a mail folder for the respective accounts that are imap and pop respectively. No separate inbox or inbox.msf.

Crossing the line with overlimiting rules???? This is the first I have heard of this with Thunderbird. I moved from another client because it had limit rules that crashed the client causing loss of email. I would be VERY disappointed to find limit rules where NONE are supplied to us on the front side.

Mozilla has been updating Thunderbird once or twice a week for some time now. I have not received anything from them to indicate any limits on anything with Thunderbird.

I deleted the GLODA, started Thunderbird No difference. Guess I give up and just blow it up and hope I can rebuild while I look for other clients that have more crash protection. Something that would create a viable backup every hour or whatever so that if anything crashed you would have several backups to chose from.

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Hello there again


Nothing there from trash .sbd to delete?

What happens if you use inbox-Folder Properties - Repair? Test it on a map of choice. From what is left of that account? Nothing does work after the reindexing? After making a new profile with your same initials for that account. What does it says? Is that possible?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-crashes

Thank you for using thunderbird.

Greetings Firefox volunteer.

Modified by Googlethunderbird

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Nothing worked. I am simply on to find a more robust client that does backups of itself