Thunderbird downloading all unread messages again
I have been using Thunderbird for many years. One of my accounts is IMAP and set to leave messages on server until I delete them in Thunderbird. As a result, I have more than 3000 unread messages in my inbox.
Suddenly today, without making any configuration changes, Thunderbird is downloading all unread messages again, duplicating what is in the Inbox folder.
I am using version 52.6.0 and it says that it is up to date. What happened?
Wšě wotmołwy (4)
Seriously, I doubt you are using imap. THe option to leave messages on the server until I delete them is not available on IMAP accounts.
So please add the troubleshooting information to your post that we might confirm which it is IMAP or POP among other things.
To find the Troubleshooting information:
- Open Help (or click on three-line-icon and select Help)
- Choose Troubleshooting Information
- Use the button Copy to clipboard to select all. Do not check box "Include account names"!
- Paste this in your post.
I did as you requested. You are right, it was pop3, not IMAP as I initially thought.
Application Basics
Name: Thunderbird Version: 52.6.0 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.6.0 Profile Folder: Open Folder
(Local drive) Application Build ID: 20180123185941 Enabled Plugins: about:plugins Build Configuration: about:buildconfig Memory Use: about:memory Profiles: about:profiles
Mail and News Accounts account1: INCOMING: account1, , (pop3) pop.verizon.net:995, SSL, passwordCleartext OUTGOING: , smtp.verizon.net:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
account2: INCOMING: account2, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext
account3: INCOMING: account3, , (nntp) news.verizon.net:119, plain, passwordCleartext OUTGOING: , smtp.verizon.net:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
account6: INCOMING: account6, , (pop3) pop.verizon.net:995, SSL, passwordCleartext OUTGOING: , smtp.verizon.net:465, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account7: INCOMING: account7, , (pop3) mail37.pair.com:110, plain, passwordCleartext OUTGOING: , smtp.verizon.net:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
account8: INCOMING: account8, , (imap) imap.aol.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext OUTGOING: , smtp.aol.com:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account9: INCOMING: account9, , (imap) imap.mail.yahoo.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext OUTGOING: , smtp.mail.yahoo.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
account10: INCOMING: account10, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, OAuth2, true
account11: INCOMING: account11, , (imap) imap.aol.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext OUTGOING: , smtp.aol.com:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
Crash Reports
Extensions Lightning, 5.4.6, true, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}
Important Modified Preferences
Name: Value
accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0 browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400 browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1 browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false browser.display.use_document_fonts: 0 dom.apps.reset-permissions: true extensions.lastAppVersion: 52.6.0 font.language.group: x-western font.minimum-size.x-western: 12 font.name.monospace.el: Consolas font.name.monospace.tr: Consolas font.name.monospace.x-baltic: Consolas font.name.monospace.x-central-euro: Consolas font.name.monospace.x-cyrillic: Consolas font.name.sans-serif.el: Calibri font.name.sans-serif.tr: Calibri font.name.sans-serif.x-baltic: Calibri font.name.sans-serif.x-central-euro: Calibri font.name.sans-serif.x-cyrillic: Calibri font.name.sans-serif.x-western: Calibri font.name.serif.el: Cambria font.name.serif.tr: Cambria font.name.serif.x-baltic: Cambria font.name.serif.x-central-euro: Cambria 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network.predictor.cleaned-up: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1520790237 places.history.enabled: false places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 122334 plugin.importedState: true plugin.state.flash: 0 print.print_printer: Net LJ4 print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_bgcolor: false print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_bgimages: false print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_colorspace: print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_command: print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_downloadfonts: false print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_duplex: -121485024 print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_edge_bottom: 0 print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_edge_left: 0 print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_edge_right: 0 print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_edge_top: 0 print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_evenpages: true print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_footercenter: print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_footerleft: &PT print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_footerright: &D print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_headercenter: print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_headerleft: print.printer_Net_LJ4.print_headerright: 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Graphics
GPU #1 Description: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 Vendor ID: 0x1002 Device ID: 0x9480 RAM: 1024 Drivers: aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64 Driver Version: 8.970.100.7000 Driver Date: 11-16-2012
Features Direct2D: false DirectWrite: true (6.2.9200.22164) WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0) -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 2.1.0.2a250c8a0e15)
AzureCanvasBackend: skia AzureCanvasAccelerated: 0 AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureContentBackend: skia
JavaScript
Incremental GC: 1
Accessibility
Activated: 0 Prevent Accessibility: 0
Library Versions
Expected minimum version Version in use
NSPR 4.13.1 4.13.1
NSS 3.28.6 3.28.6
NSS Util 3.28.6 3.28.6
NSS SSL 3.28.6 3.28.6
NSS S/MIME 3.28.6 3.28.6
It is account 1 that is having this problem. Most of the other accounts are inactive or essentially dormant. The file was too large to post intact. I deleted only the text that had to do with printer info for PDFCreator.
Lou57 said
It is account 1 that is having this problem. Most of the other accounts are inactive or essentially dormant. The file was too large to post intact. I deleted only the text that had to do with printer info for PDFCreator.
It is only rarely that the text after the account settings and extentions is of any use.
Now to your mail problem. Basically it will be an issue between the fundamental process used to work out which mail is downloaded and the cavalier way ISP's manage their mail systems these days.
When Thunderbird downloads mail and is instructed to leave messages on the server, it writes a log of what is what in a text file called popstate.dat. This file contains the reference number used by the server to describe the actual email.
This process works a treat, as long as the server operators respect the importance of these reference numbers. I am seeing more and more instances of providers not respecting that and re-indexing the mail on the server. To install new hardware or software or as some sort of maintenance I do not know. But it must also be remembered that when the POP protocol first appeared in the last millennium that having more that a couple of hundred emails in an account was bad form and would see you run out of space to store new incoming mail.
So what happens is the server re-indexes the mail, and all of the until I delete it and where and what was the last email stuff just goes up in virtual smoke. Thunderbird is forced to start getting your mail as it is it a new account as what it has stored is useless. The result is you get lots and lots of duplicates.
I think it may be germane that Verizon has migrated their email base to AOL.. That migration may have seen a re-index of mail. https://help.aol.com/articles/verizon-move-to-aol-mail-updating-your-third-party-email-program-or-mobile-device-with-your-new-account-information-pop3