What is the size of your Inbox?

Are you accumulating messages in Inbox?

Possible reasons for disappearing messages: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disappearing_mail

Whether your missing messages can be recovered, I don't know.

I don't know what the size of my inbox is and don't know how to find out. Yes, I am accumulating new messages in my inbox, but older messages are disappearing. I have an older laptop with thunderbird on it, where i don't have this problem at all, but the older laptop has several keys that don't work at all on the keyboard - hence the need for a new laptop. I have the dot next to the option in my account settings saying don't delete any messages, but this is obviously not working and being overruled by something else!

I don't know what the size of my inbox is and don't know how to find out.

Right-click Inbox - Properties - Size Can't be that hard.

Yes, I am accumulating new messages in my inbox

This isn't best practice. Keep your Inbox as clean as possible. Also see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_working_-_Thunderbird

Everything is easy to people who know what they are doing - for me as a non computer expert then it is not easy! Now you have explained i can look up the size - it says 25.4Mb - which sounds tiny. My old laptop has a size of 2 Gb. So, how can I increase the available size of my new laptop inbox?

My old laptop has a size of 2 Gb.

So are you saying you'd expect an Inbox size of 2 GB? That would certainly explain the loss of messages. The most common scenario for lost messages is mail file corruption due to anti-virus software messing with Thunderbird files. Please check the troubleshooting steps in the article linked above.

So, how can I increase the available size of my new laptop inbox?

I'm not sure what you're asking for. Is the disc on your new laptop already full?

That didn't solve any of my problems - you asked for more information on my problem - so i gave it. With my old laptop I had no problems with thunderbird at all - everything worked well and using BT as my email provider. Now still with BT and with thunderbird and on a new computer I have problems and would like to get round them. 2 Gbs on my old laptop inbox was probably more than i needed, but wasn't a problem for me. My older emails disappeared from the inbox of my new laptop - even though my inbox is only 25Mbs in size. Checking the C drive of my new laptop I have over 700 Gbs of free space.

That didn't solve any of my problems - you asked for more information on my problem - so i gave it.

I gave you a link with possible reasons for disappearing messages. Did you bother to read the article? If you expected a magic button which will bring back your lost messages you'll be disappointed.

Now still with BT and with thunderbird and on a new computer I have problems and would like to get round them.

I've given you suggestions how to avoid trouble in the future. Wrt your lost messages, I think chances to recover anything are pretty low. Your best bet would be to restore a recent backup of your Thunderbird profile. Did you create a backup? In case not, here are instructions to prevent data loss in the future. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_backing-up-a-profile

2 Gbs on my old laptop inbox was probably more than i needed,

2 GB was the actual size of your Inbox on the old computer. Letting the Inbox grow to 2 GB is asking for trouble. See recommendations above.

My older emails disappeared from the inbox of my new laptop - even though my inbox is only 25Mbs in size.

Your 2 GB Inbox mail file got corrupted. The most likely culprit is anti-virus software. Cleaning up the corruption resulted in a 25 MB Inbox and lost messages.

To prevent data loss in the future, follow these recommendations wrt anti-virus software:

Create an exception in your anti-virus software for the Thunderbird profile folder, so that the anti-virus real-time scanner will not scan it. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

Don't let your anti-virus software scan incoming and outgoing messages.

Don't let your anti-virus software scan attachments.

Don't let your anti-virus software intercept your secure connection to the server.

Remove any add-ons your anti-virus software may have installed in Thunderbird.

And again, keep it working. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_working_-_Thunderbird

Good luck.

I'm sorry, but I am an expert in several scientific fields, but computers isn't one of them - computers are a tool for me to achieve my work I'm afraid that i found your reply a bit condescending.

Yes, I did BOTHER to read your article about disappearing messages and I understood some of it, but it didn't solve my problem. The word bother in there is not helpful! If you read my last message carefully you will see that i have 2 separate laptops.

My old one uses thunderbird for emails and BT as my email provider - it still works perfectly in spite of having 2Gbs of emails in my inbox - the only problem with that laptop is that it is old and the keyboard doesn't function properly any more. It might be asking for trouble but I have had none with that laptop. You suggest the 2 Gbs has caused corruption and that might be true, but nothing has gone wrong on that computer. emails in my inbox on that date back to 1/1/2015!

In contrast my new laptop was bought in September and has been receiving emails since then using what i felt was the same set up ie thunderbird and BT for my email. This laptop is not linked to my old one in any way, but older emails in my inbox disappear from it. Older emails in the inbox of this latop keep disappearing and I have now lost all from September, October and November and all from December up till 28/12/2016. So, if there is a corruption on my old computer which I don't think there is, there is no way this corruption could have jumped to my new computer! And currently my new computer inbox is at only 25Mbs.

I don't expect a magic button, but i do expect to be spoken to more politely from mozilla support or are you nothing to do with mozilla itself?

Yes, I keep backups of emails and do this every couple of months and also my old laptop that I refer to on several occasions, but you seem to have missed, acts as a very good live backup - it just happens to have keys not working on the keyboard.

I'm sorry, but I am an expert in several scientific fields, but computers isn't one of them

Fair enough.

Yes, I did BOTHER to read your article about disappearing messages

Good. The problem is, you haven't mentioned that in any of your follow-up replies. The information you provide here in this topic is the only thing other can see what you're doing. So I had to assume you didn't (bother) to read the article. I probably could have spared the 'bother'. But then it bothers me when people asking for help do seem to ignore advice.

and I understood some of it

Which steps from the article did you understand and try? What was the problem with the ones you didn't understand?

... but it didn't solve my problem.

The steps in the article are suggestions trying to understand why messages got lost. There is no promise or guarantee they can be recovered. Particularly when anti-virus is involved, they may only be recovered from a backup.

If you read my last message carefully you will see that i have 2 separate laptops.

I do understand that.

My old one uses thunderbird for emails and BT as my email provider - it still works perfectly in spite of having 2Gbs of emails in my inbox

Then consider yourself lucky. But this can change any time. Note the suggestions wrt Inbox given above.

In contrast my new laptop was bought in September and has been receiving emails since then using what i felt was the same set up ie thunderbird and BT for my email.

So then it's fair to assume the 2 GB Inbox should have appeared on the new laptop too? Did you download 2 GB of email to the new laptop, or did you copy over the Thunderbird profile with all your mail from the old laptop?

In case of the former, were the 2 GB ever downloaded?

This laptop is not linked to my old one in any way, but older emails in my inbox disappear from it.

Both laptops do access the same account as per your information. Can you confirm your account type for both laptops - POP or IMAP? Assuming it's POP, do you leave messages on the server?

Older emails in the inbox of this latop keep disappearing

I can only urge you again to go through the steps in the article.

So, if there is a corruption on my old computer

Nobody said there is.

i do expect to be spoken to more politely from mozilla support or are you nothing to do with mozilla itself?

Thunderbird is a community project, not a Mozilla product. There are no Mozilla employees developing Thunderbird, nor are there any Thunderbird employees. The people answering questions in this forum are mostly volunteers and Thunderbird users like you (including myself) dedicating their time to help others.

... but you seem to have missed, acts as a very good live backup

Perfect. Then you can easily restore your missing messages on the new laptop from the old one.

You say 'Perfect. Then you can easily restore your missing messages on the new laptop from the old one.'

How do i do this? it would be easy for you with the knowledge you have, but impossible for me without help.

Before going that route can you answer all the questions from the previous post please? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1153637#answer-952929

So you're not prepared to help me with the 'easy' bits but instead prefer to push the hard bits!

In answer to your questions about the mozilazine article: Initial set-up - i don't understand any of these 4 points or what to do about these to help my problem - do these points have any relevance at all to disappearing older emails?

Routine usage - keep inbox empty - why? i have not had a problem before and how does this help my current problem? Regularly empty junk and trash folder - I already do this every day, but again how does this help my current problem?

Regularly compact your inbox - I don't know how to do this and never did with my old laptop which worked fine why do I need to with my new laptop and why has this caused my current problem?

Regularly back up your profile - I don't know how to do this and how will this help my current problem?

Make sure you have enough unused disk space - I don't know how to do this?

Add-ons and upgrading - i don't understand any of this.

i have now answered everything you insisted I answer, but don't see how this has helped my problem in any way? You are the expert - why do i have a problem on my new laptop with a tiny inbox, but don't have a problem at all on my old laptop, which you have repeatedly told me off for running badly. I haven't seen any sign of you coming even close to an answer to any of this?

You seem to be desperate for me to do 'good practice' with my mozilla, yet none of this appears to have any relevance to my current problem. My old laptop has contravened all your good practice and works fine. My new laptop doesn't contravene your good practice yet I have a problem on it which you don't seem to be even close to solving - I find this incredibly frustrating - that you as an expert are forcing me to do all sorts of things which appear to have no relevance to my current problem. You suggest no reasons at all for my current problem and no solutions. Can you see why I am frustrated?

it looks like i will have to swop my email from thunderbird to someone else. The chat on here has not helped me at all. And today i have just lost another day of emails from my inbox. I now have 38.4Mbs in there which seems to me like a tiny amount yet for some reason thunderbird keeps deleting them - I have now lost all my emails from 28th December in my inbox.

You don't seem to know why or to be able to help me. If there is not a solution found quickly then I will just have to change to a different provider.

This is not helping me and not good for thunderbird's reputation.

There is one thing that no one has mentioned yet that could be happening.

Thunderbird has an option built in to "Archive" older messages. So maybe your older messages are not gone, but are just not in the Inbox anymore.

From what I've read here, it seems like you keep every single e-mail in the Inbox (as noted, not a good practice). So perhaps you never looked in any other Thunderbird mail folders for your messages?

Look for an "Archives" folder and see if your e-mails are there. If they are, then your settings in Thunderbird are to Archive old messages.

That is actually a good thing for you, so the old messages are not all in one Thunderbird folder.

The reason why you shouldn't keep every e-mail in just one folder is because if the file on your computer for that folder should ever become corrupted, then you don't lose every single message. File corruptions happen more than the average person suspects, or even know about.

Doing things the way you always have in the past doesn't necessarily mean that those ways will continue to work for you in the future. Especially when people tell you that your old way can lead to problems.

If you cannot find your old messages in any folder in Thunderbird, then it could be that one or more of the files for your Inbox on the computer has become corrupted. There are things you can do in this situation, but because you are not good with computers, you would probably not be able to follow the instructions I/we would give to help. You would need a computer tech to help you or do them for you. If the computer tech is not familiar with Thunderbird, they can ask us here for specifics.

i have now answered everything you insisted I answer, but don't see how this has helped my problem in any way?

No you haven't. There is no evidence in your posts you went through the steps in the support article linked in my very first post. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disappearing_mail

Did you bother to create a backup of your Thunderbird profile now as suggested? I guess the answer is no.

Instead you're talking about being an 'expert in several scientific fields', but not following instructions, and you're complaining a lot about not getting help. This isn't the way it works.

Simply answer the questions being asked, and stop complaining.

Beyond that, in case anti-virus software is involved in the lost messages problem, you got precise instructions for changes to your anti-virus software to mitigate the problem. You apparently choose to ignore them.

If there is not a solution found quickly then I will just have to change to a different provider.

As Thunderbird isn't an email provider, I don't see how that will help you in any way to solve your problem. If you meant using another email client, that's entirely up to you. Good luck.

In answer to Christ - i did answer all the questions in the mozillazine you insisted i read and here they are repeated from above and as not noticed by you:

In answer to your questions about the mozilazine article: Initial set-up - i don't understand any of these 4 points or what to do about these to help my problem - do these points have any relevance at all to disappearing older emails?

Routine usage - keep inbox empty - why? i have not had a problem before and how does this help my current problem? Regularly empty junk and trash folder - I already do this every day, but again how does this help my current problem?

Regularly compact your inbox - I don't know how to do this and never did with my old laptop which worked fine why do I need to with my new laptop and why has this caused my current problem?

Regularly back up your profile - I don't know how to do this and how will this help my current problem?

Make sure you have enough unused disk space - I don't know how to do this?

Add-ons and upgrading - i don't understand any of this.

I have found your responses to me as a person who doesn't know much about computers to be condescending and bordering on rude

In answer to Bruce - thankyou it is brilliant to get an answer from someone who is friendly and helpful and not condescending to a person like me who is not a computer expert. We can't all be experts at everything we come across in life!

I did find an archive folder in my thunderbird and checked this but unfortunately there is nothing in there!

I understand now that it is not a good practice to keep all my mails in my inbox. i have now halved the number of messages stored in my inbox and sent items boxes in my old broken laptop. I have also backed all of them up again by copying to folders on an external hard drive.

However my inbox in my new laptop is tiny in thunderbird - ie currently 38.3 Mbs and therefore I assume size is not a problem? Yet in the last 24 hours i have just lost all my emails from my inbox for 28th December.

It looks like maybe you can't help me with my level of computer expertise - so it looks like i will have to swop to Microsoft outlook .

But i do appreciate the way that you have been friendly and helpful in your message to me - thankyou Bruce.

In answer to your questions about the mozilazine article:

These are steps from another article I was suggesting to read, but not the one you were supposed to read in the first place.

I don't know what's so hard with simply clicking a link.

I have found your responses to me as a person who doesn't know much about computers to be condescending and bordering on rude

As said before, following suggestions and answering questions is key. One doesn't need to be a computer genius to do that. If you're either unwilling or unable to do that, it won't work.

christ1 I am not a computer expert, but i do have a real problem with my computer and Bruce above has answered my query in a polite and helpful way.

It appears from what you say above that i have answered questions from a wrong article from mozillazine - I didn't realise this and you will now understand why I found that it didn't help me and why i was so frustrated. The reason why i have answered the wrong article is because you haven't explained this clearly enough.

My business is about training people and explaining things in a clear and helpful way - this is not what has happened with mozilla support from you here.

Simply clicking a link is easy and i don't see what's so hard in treating someone in a polite way instead of the condescending way you talk to me - this is supposed be a mozilla support forum!

I am not unwilling to sort this problem I would love to sort it out, but if people trying to 'support' me don't give me clear instructions then I am not able to follow them.

The reason why i have answered the wrong article is because you haven't explained this clearly enough.

The link to the support article was in my very first post to this topic. And it was the only link. I don't know how I could have made that more clear. All you had to do was clicking that link. For reasons beyond me you didn't. For someone with a scientific background I don't think this is too much to ask.

I am not unwilling to sort this problem I would love to sort it out,

Good.

but if people trying to 'support' me don't give me clear instructions then I am not able to follow them.

I understand you're not a computer genius. However, you're expected to at least put in a little effort to follow instructions. And I gave you crystal clear instructions. Instead you're looking for the easy way out, someone giving you a handful of simple to follow steps, which will magically fix your problem. That's not gonna happen.

I'm not willing to continue this fruitless discussion, and I'm not going to continue to post to this thread with your accusations.

As you apparently do like post from Bruce better you may be able to fix this with his help. Good luck.