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How to trigger Thunderbird to repair ALL folders

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  • Last reply by Matt

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Question: How do I trigger Thunderbird to run the equivalent of the "Repair Folder" option (Folder Properties, Repair Folder) on ALL folders under an account?

Background: After a recent unexpected system reboot (with Thunderbird running), I have dozens of folders that Thunderbird will not move messages to on receipt. (Although applying filters to all messages in the folder appear to move the messages, but I do not see an update to an affected folder to which a message was moved.) In order to move and see the messages in the affected target folder(s) I currently have to find that each folder, right click, select "Properties", then click "Repair Folder". There does not seem to be rhyme or reason to which folders, and I do not know which are affected until a message comes in that should be moved to that folder. Due to the number of folders I have, the logical thing would be to trigger "Repair Folder" on all folders.

(Yes, I have searched, and I have read "How do I repair ALL forlders?" (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1390491 , posted 2022-09-24), but the response(s) to that post did not answer the question.)

Thanks in advance for any guidance/direction you may be able to provide.

Question: How do I trigger Thunderbird to run the equivalent of the "Repair Folder" option (Folder Properties, Repair Folder) on ALL folders under an account? Background: After a recent unexpected system reboot (with Thunderbird running), I have dozens of folders that Thunderbird will not move messages to on receipt. (Although applying filters to all messages in the folder appear to move the messages, but I do not see an update to an affected folder to which a message was moved.) In order to move and see the messages in the affected target folder(s) I currently have to find that each folder, right click, select "Properties", then click "Repair Folder". There does not seem to be rhyme or reason to which folders, and I do not know which are affected until a message comes in that should be moved to that folder. Due to the number of folders I have, the logical thing would be to trigger "Repair Folder" on all folders. (Yes, I have searched, and I have read "How do I repair ALL forlders?" (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1390491 , posted 2022-09-24), but the response(s) to that post did not answer the question.) Thanks in advance for any guidance/direction you may be able to provide.

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I looked at the link you provided and the question itself contains the most reliable method I am aware of, because you should not be repairing lots of folders unless there is an underlying issue.

You could try using the compact all entry on the file menu, as that rewrites the store file and the index, but as it uses what you are identifying as a corrupt index it may well make things worse.

For those using windows it is often an antivirus product that thinks you need to have the files you are using scanned while the program is updating them. Creating an exception in the antivirus product from scanning the files in your Thunderbird profile folder while Thunderbird is open is often a sure fire fix.