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Emails displaying as duplicates in Inbox

  • 5 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 37 views
  • Last reply by compass_drg

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As to be expected, the issue is not consistent. But it does happen often, and apparently only on startup when Thunderbird collects mail after overnight shutdown. I have no recollection of this happening during the day when emails arrive piece-meal.

And it seems to be specific to GMail.

All emails from that GMail address appeared in the Inbox twice. If I close Thunderbird and restart, then all the duplicates disappear.

I have noticed that if I delete one of the emails which appear twice, they are both deleted, but a new entry in the Inbox appears to replace them. That email has no subject, and has the epoch date as received.

fyi & regards, David.

As to be expected, the issue is not consistent. But it does happen often, and apparently only on startup when Thunderbird collects mail after overnight shutdown. I have no recollection of this happening during the day when emails arrive piece-meal. And it seems to be specific to GMail. All emails from that GMail address appeared in the Inbox twice. If I close Thunderbird and restart, then all the duplicates disappear. I have noticed that if I delete one of the emails which appear twice, they are both deleted, but a new entry in the Inbox appears to replace them. That email has no subject, and has the epoch date as received. fyi & regards, David.
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Sounds like you index for the folder contents may be a bit broken. Right click the folder, select properties and then the repair button.

If you are not using the release version. Perhaps the beta or daily build. Now would be a good time to say so as the answers are different for different builds

For instance this applies strictly to Beta releases https://thunderbird.topicbox.com/groups/beta/T66f149662b00799d/tb-beta-107-0-b-1-deleted-messages-reappear.

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Thanks Matt, I'll keep that in mind when more emails arrive. Could not see any result of the process on an empty inbox.

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Selecting compact from the file menu is a good way to ensure that such corruption is addresses in all folders as that process creates new index files.

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I've tried File/Compact on numerous occasions with this circumstance. It sometimes clears away the messages with no subject and an epoch date, but it has not de-duped the inbox. When File/Compact doesn't fix the inbox, I end up recycling Thunderbird.

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Since the original post, I have had one instance where duplicate emails have appeared in the Unified Inbox. I was planning to a suggestion by Matt to "repair", but never got the chance… After tapping the arrow to show all the Inboxes being Unified, and once tapping on the first GMail Inbox within, all the duplicates disappeared. Tapping on the individual Inbox caused a refresh maybe?

Related somewhat, since the last post, I have had a blank email with an Epoch date appear in the Unified Inbox after an Email was deleted. Again I thought I would try the "repair" option to delete it. But that "email" was not visible in any of the individual Inboxes, it only appeared in the Unified Inbox. "repair" is not an option there, so recycling Thunderbird was still the most definitive way of removing that one.