Right click the folder, select properties and then the repair button. That will rebuild the index used to populate the interface from it's source emails.

Thank you for your response, Matt. I tried your suggestion on two of the folders and the results were that all the Subjects and Correspondents were removed in both folders. I am now wondering if the most expedient repair would be to back up my Profiles folder and then remove TB and reload it, start again. But I'm willing to try other things first. - Dean

I am now wondering if the most expedient repair would be to back up my Profiles folder and then remove TB and reload it, start again.

Probably the least expedient thing you could do as settings and data are all stored in your profile. Removing and adding it again does about nothing in the majority of cases.

The next step is just to restart from the troubleshooting mode option on the help menu and continue when prompted. Does that make any change? Does repairing the folder in that mode make any change?

Does selecting compact from the menu bar file menu have an impact? (f10 to make it visible if it is not.)

I followed your suggestions and there were no discernible changes including when I compacted the folders. Anything else to try?

Matt, I'm getting ready to remove and reload TB. I have folders in the current TB that don't appear damaged. After loading the new TB can I move these folders manually into the new TB? Thanks.

Removing is most unlikely to do anything either. I told you that at the beginning. But go ahead remove and reinstall and when it returns exactly as it is now, we can talk again. I am prepared to be shocked by a 1 in a million win. It does work sometimes by clearing a logjam in the antivirus product.

Fundamentally I do not think your folders are damaged. They are not displaying the lists, but that does not indicate damage to the message store. Sure the store for the folder could be damanaged, but a compact would have cleared that up. Unless the process was prevented from completion by an antivirus scanning or something like that.

I would suggest deleting the MSF file for the folder in question. It worked for me when I was stuck looking at a sub set of emails from a folder with some 50,000 emails in it.

I had 6 folders with empty subject columns and I deleted the MSF files for those folders and restarted TB. The 2 folders I had “repaired” were completely empty in the subject column and those I hadn’t repaired were empty from a few days ago. The emails were present but not showing in the column. Basically, nothing changed; it appears the same as prior to removing the MSF files.

You say that if I uninstall TB and reinstall, it is "unlikely to do anything". My plan, based on what you wrote earlier, was to uninstall TB, check to be sure there is nothing in "C:\Users\dksmi\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird" and then reload TB, starting from scratch. Are you saying that at this point (without trying to reuse anything from the old TB) the subject column is likely to be empty for incoming emails? Thanks.

Go to about :profiles in the troubleshooting information on the help menu. Use the tools there to create a new profile. Make it default is it does not automatically happen (it should)

That will get you a "new start" without removing anything, uninstalling anything, or deleting anything.

Worked great. Didn't lose a thing as you indicated. It's great to have email again. Thank you, Matt.