Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Əgər kömək lazımdırsa lütfən yeni sual verin.

Some messages in Thunderbird are blank; suspect corrupt profile

  • 3 cavab
  • 0 have this problem
  • 29 views
  • Last reply by david

La_Sombra
La_Sombra
more options

This morning, my wife's Thunderbird messages on version 102.11.2 were blank. They were IMAP messages on gmail, and a quick check showed the were not blank on the server. I tried deleting the entire gmail folder set from the IMAP mail directory, but that only made it worse. So I loaded my wife's profile from a backup. It solved the problem, but for how long? Another person with a similar issue previously noted that another symptom was a vast increase in storage requirements for the profile, and I saw that the profile was more than three times the size it used to be. There were a series of files named NSTMP in the gmail profile that aren't present on my profile. I deleted them from my wife's profile and recovered the storage, without changing the performance. I suspect the profile became corrupt and the corruption resulted in generation of multiple NSTMP files, and eventually started wiping out message content as well. Because I think the profile I restored was likely corrupt, I am guessing this problem will recur, unless someone can tell me how to fix it for good.

I'm running Windows 7 with all updates current as of the time MS stopped supporting it.

This morning, my wife's Thunderbird messages on version 102.11.2 were blank. They were IMAP messages on gmail, and a quick check showed the were not blank on the server. I tried deleting the entire gmail folder set from the IMAP mail directory, but that only made it worse. So I loaded my wife's profile from a backup. It solved the problem, but for how long? Another person with a similar issue previously noted that another symptom was a vast increase in storage requirements for the profile, and I saw that the profile was more than three times the size it used to be. There were a series of files named NSTMP in the gmail profile that aren't present on my profile. I deleted them from my wife's profile and recovered the storage, without changing the performance. I suspect the profile became corrupt and the corruption resulted in generation of multiple NSTMP files, and eventually started wiping out message content as well. Because I think the profile I restored was likely corrupt, I am guessing this problem will recur, unless someone can tell me how to fix it for good. I'm running Windows 7 with all updates current as of the time MS stopped supporting it.

All Replies (3)

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

That sometimes happens when compacting files. You did the right thing in deleting them. Does it happen often? No, it's actually quite rare.

La_Sombra
La_Sombra Question owner
more options

Thanks, David!

Can't say for sure if it solved the problem, but I am hopeful that I guessed right. I think the problem has to do with the size of my wife's gmail inbox (rather large). I am advising her to move some messages to an offline location. My theory is that a large IMAP store keeps Thunderbird busy synchronizing and compacting, and that sooner or later such activity will generate an error.

If anyone wants to try to diagnose the specific cause, I have backups to before the time the nstmt files started accumulating, which I guess is when things began to unravel. If the problems recur, I will use one of them to restore the account, though I will have to preserve the local folders first. But if someone wants to try to find the root cause, let me know and I can put the files in a shared location.

Thanks again for the help. If the problem doesn't recur in a month, I'll mark this "solved."

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

I hope all goes well.