What type of account is this (POP, IMAP)?

I note that the 'Location' box is blank. Presumably it should not be. Presumably it should show either the location of locally stored messages on my hard drive, or the location of the messages on the email server. I am not sure which.

This is correct. And it was smart of you to check that. I'll take note because it's a symptom that may prove useful in the future to help differentiate problems that look similar. That field should show either the location on disk for locally stored folders, or the location on the mail server for IMAP folders.

I have clicked on that to bring up the dialog box with the "Repair" icon.

Have you tried clicking that Repair button to rebuild the folder index? That could be all that's needed to fix the problem…

DavidGG, thank you, and apologies for the delay - I was not aware that you had responded. According to the Thunderbird 'Server Setting' it is a POP account. I did click the repair button, but nothing changed, I assume because the location box is blank. (Did this twice.) And I was not sure (and am still not sure) whether the 'Location' box should feature the location on the local drive (which I have found) or that on the server (which I do not know how to find, though I have the server name). You mention that for IMAP it should be the location of the server. Do I infer correctly from your reply that since it is a POP account, the location should be the local one, not the server one? Please confirm. With many thanks again, I look forward to your further advice. Iain

I have found the directory on my hard drive where I believe the messages are stored locally. The size of the file suggests to me that they are all there. The periodic 'Checking for new messages' is happening, but nothing is displaying, though a check via webmail shows that new messages are arriving on the server. What should I do to get my Inbox to display correctly? With many thanks, Iain

Can you show us a screen shot with the contents of this "directory on my hard drive where I believe the messages are stored locally." This screen shot should include in its upper part the path to the before-mentioned directory.

Mapenzi - of course - I will try. You guys are fantastic. And I really value your help. The path is, or rather was: "C:\Users\Iain\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bv3rkl2t.default\Mail\mail.salight.co.uk\Inbox" I attach two JPEG screenshot images. The first is of that path as of 22.00 hours GMT 16 Feb (yesterday UK time), when I made my first post showing the file in which I believed my Inbox lay. I've just spotted in that image: Inbox.msf, 0 KB - presumably the origin of this problem. However since then, Thunderbird has crashed twice, and now those files do not display - see second image taken approx 24 hours later (22.00 GMT 17 Feb) where the listing stops after the first two directories. Over the same period, and doubtless connected, I have in the last 24 hours lost the ability to display the 'Sent' box which was hitherto displaying correctly. 'Drafts' is still there. As ever, hugely grateful and look forward to your next advice. Iain

Just an FYI, I have edited the questions and answers to remove the leading spaces in the paragraphs, so the whole should be more readable with line wrapping occurring.

No worries about your delay. Forum email notifications appear to not be working for some reason, I don't get them either. But sorry about my delay, I was unsure how to proceed in your case so I decided to reply in other threads first while I figured what to do in this case… :)

The fact that the folder that has the problem is Inbox complicates matters by compounding the problem in that folder with the necessity to receive new incoming messages. We're going to separate the two problems by moving the file where the Inbox contents are stored on disk into Local Folders, so we me deal with it separately there, and make Thunderbird create a new empty Inbox to let you receive incoming messages normally.

The following article explains what's a profile and how to locate the profile folder in the filesystem, you probably know that already. We're going to move files around there: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data

Now, locate the folder within the profile folder where mail for this account is being stored. This being a POP account, it should be a folder within the Mail folder in the profile folder, named after the incoming server. If in doubt, you may go to Account Settings > Server Settings in Thunderbird and check the Local Directory there.

You should see there files corresponding to each of the folders belonging to this account. Thunderbird stores mail using text files in mbox format with no filename extension. Accompanying .msf files are index files that can be removed, they're automatically re-created when not present. Now, proceed as follows:

1. Quit Thunderbird.
2. Make a backup copy of the profile folder, just in case.
3. Move Inbox from the account folder into Local Folders (which is located also in the Mail folder, together with the account folder).
4. Delete Inbox.msf
5. Launch Thunderbird.

As a result of having removed both Inbox and Inbox.msf from the account folder, Thunderbird should now create a new Inbox mbox file (and the associated .msf index) to store your incoming messages and you should be able to receive and see incoming mail normally now.

And as a result of having moved Inbox to Local Folders in the filesystem, a new Inbox folder should appear under Local Folders in the folder pane in Thunderbird… BUT… that may or may not solve the problem of messages not appearing there… If the mbox file is corrupt and Thunderbird cannot display its contents, there is little you can do about it, I at least don't know how to solve that problem…

Post back with the results and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

PS: You appear to be typing spaces or tabs at the beginning of paragraphs in your posts, presumably to indent them, but they're interpreted as meaning some special formatting that makes your posts more difficult to read. I'd try to avoid that and edit the posts if possible to remove those leading spaces.

EDIT: Matt had already fixed the leading spaces while I was typing this :)

Ughhh… What happened there? Are all the folders of this account gone from the account folder now?

DavidGG and Team - Thank you so much. It's now half past midnight in UK, so I will tackle this in the morning. Point about spaces/indents noted. I was trying to make it easier to read, but seemingly have achieved the opposite. With regard to the folders situation, so far as I know, it is as I presented in the two screenshots. I was equally surprised. As at the first screenshot (no inbox msf file) it made a bit of sense. What has caused the apparent loss of the files between the first and second screenshots I don't know, other than Thunderbird crashed twice in the period. Is this a virus, and should I be switching the machine off? Thanks again, Iain

DavidGG - I've re-read your advice above, and will happily follow it in the morning, but I thought I should first mention, lest it change your advice, that the existing Inbox appears to be receiving new messages satisfactorily - I've had one this evening. My concern is not so much seeing new stuff, it is regaining access to the old 'legacy' messages which are potentially important to me, and go back some years. Ditto Sent items. Iain.

Can you back up a little and confirm some things.

If Thunderbird crashed. Can you post the crash ids. as it might all be related. See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-crash-reporter-tb#w_viewing-crash-reports

Second go to the troubleshooting information on the help menu, click on the open folder button beside the Profile folder entry and confirm it is where you think it is. ie C:\Users\Iain\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bv3rkl2t.default

Now goto the account settings for the account and select "server Settings" Please confirm that the "local Directory" is set to and confirm that the directory is set to C:\Users\Iain\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bv3rkl2t.default\Mail\mail.salight.co.uk

Next can you post an image showing the blank inbox in Thunderbird. Once in a great while Thunderbird looses the list of heading for a folder, and then stops showing any mail in that particular folder, not because it has no mail, but because it has no heading to list what to show. I think I first saw it way back around 2011. it has not seen a specific fix as no one knows exactly what goes wrong for the list to vanish.

I am not saying any of this will fix anything, but I do think there is a lot of assuming going on as to where things are stored. When things just do not appear to exist, verifying all those bases is probably a good idea before trying more complex solution to determine why tings are going wrong.

Matt - Thank you for your engagement. As a mechanical engineer I totally get the idea of checking some basics first, and the notion that the real situation may not always be what the instruments are telling you. In 30 years this is my first experience of an IT problem like this. Thus it is unfamiliar, and a bit unnerving. I'll follow your and DavidGG's advice, but it will be tomorrow morning - it's now 01.00 am in UK and need some sleep first. Really appreciate you guys support. Iain

Looks like Thunderbird’s inbox is stuck in a timeout! Try closing the app, deleting the Inbox.msf file from your profile folder, and restarting. If that doesn’t bring you back in the game, check your account settings to ensure the local directory is correct. Let me know if you need more help!