This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Hierdie gesprek is in die argief. Vra asseblief 'n nuwe vraag as jy hulp nodig het.

First emails of the day are blank

more options

It happened a few days ago and just happened again: When I turn my computer on in the morning and open Thunderbird, the first batch of downloaded emails are all blank. I can send a test email and it's fine, and emails that come in after the first batch are fine. But the first downloaded batch are all blank. HELP! Any idea what could be causing this?

It happened a few days ago and just happened again: When I turn my computer on in the morning and open Thunderbird, the first batch of downloaded emails are all blank. I can send a test email and it's fine, and emails that come in after the first batch are fine. But the first downloaded batch are all blank. HELP! Any idea what could be causing this?

Gekose oplossing

Thank you for your offer of help, but I am going to close this problem for now (mark it as solved) and wait to see if it happens again before trying a lot of fixes.

Lees dié antwoord in konteks 👍 0

All Replies (15)

more options

Hello there We have read your message. We try to help you.


The inbox seems to be blank.


This is caused by a corrupted inbox files. By multiple bugs or one bug in the Thunderbird software. Created is the dirty hack button. That fix the most of it.

Right click the inbox folder)properties)menu opens)repair folder. Click on the last typed option.

Most of the problems are fixed with this repair folder option.



Greetings Firefox volunteer.

Gewysig op deur Googlethunderbird

more options

Just to clarify, the inbox is not blank. There are lots of emails in the inbox, including new ones. But when I open some of those emails (the first ones downloaded after turning on the computer), they are blank. Luckily, I can go to Gmail and read the messages there, but not in Thunderbird.

more options

Hello there

Try to use private modus in your browser. Sometimes can cookies and extensions block authorization. Recommended is to clean cookies and cache. From time to time.


Greetings Firefox volunteer.

Gewysig op deur Googlethunderbird

more options

Hello there


note. that messages that are sent can also be blank of page as she sends them. This may also be that it was sent to you incorrectly.

Watch out for ads that are classified as PuP. (Potentially Unwanted Products). Recommended.


Greetings Firefox volunteer.

Gewysig op deur Googlethunderbird

more options

No, the messages were not sent blank. There were about 10 of them, including from companies, and they were all blank. I could see who they were from and the subject, but that's it. No time stamp, etc.

The weird thing is that after I threw these away, they were readable in the Trash folder! And every other email that has come in has been fine. It's ONLY the first emails that come in after the computer is turned on in the morning.

more options

Hello there


would you like to perform an option that resets the trash to clear it is to delete the files trash msf.files so that it functions normally again. as well as the option to boot in safe mode and see if there is a possibility to reset the basic network connections.

if they work normally it could be the mail server. Or uninstall the Thunderbird program and reinstall a new piece.

It is possible that the reading formats for text fields do not function properly or cannot function. for some reason.

as I already recommended to you cleaning the cookies and whether also the cache should also work.


Greetings Firefox volunteer.

Gewysig op deur Googlethunderbird

more options

I think this is a hard problem to describe, but I appreciate your replies. They aren't really addressing the problem, though. I'm going to let it go for now and see if it ever happens again. I'll leave the question up for a while as unsolved in case anyone else has the same problem. Thanks!

more options

Corrupted display of the message text


Symptoms The body of your messages appears as foreign characters that replace your normal ASCII characters.

(possibly also a blank field.)

Solution Close Thunderbird. Make a backup of your prefs.js file. Open prefs.js in a text editor (e.g. Notepad) and look for this line: user_pref("font.name.monospace.x-western", "CSD10"); Note that "CSD10" may not be the name of the font in your prefs.js file. Remove this line and save prefs.js as text .


Launch Thunderbird and test it.

Gewysig op deur Googlethunderbird

more options

Greetings Firefox volunteer.

Gewysig op deur Googlethunderbird

more options

It happened once this week and then again today. A couple of points just to be clear.

1. It only happens with the very first emails of the day, after the computer has been turned off for the night. All other mail comes through just fine, as usual.

2. It happens with all the emails in the first batch, whether from businesses or friends. No spam, as such -- the business emails were from businesses I shop at.

3. The emails look fine in the Inbox list, with the Subject line in place, but the Subject line and everything in the body of the message are blank when I open it.

4. Once the messages were put in the Trash folder, they could be opened from there and read. (See image.)

It's alarming when it happens, for sure, but at this point it's more of an interesting mystery!

more options

I removed you from the list again for the same topic.

okay good the question about messages that were not properly formed on startup.

I was able to find you a good piece of text for your problem that you may experience again the topic dirty hack will come out handy one day.

yet I can let you read this to get a little closer to your problem at the moment. it is clear that it appears well in the trash and is readable again.

I'll try to figure this out for you. do you have a moment for that.

" What is your anti virus software?

It sounds like your mail files are corrupted. First of all create a backup of your Thunderbird profile folder. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profiles-tb#w_backing-up-a-profile

Then try to rebuild the index file of the troubled folder. Right-click the folder - Properties - Repair Folder

Note: depending on the corruption this may erase messages from the affected folder which cannot be recovered anymore. In that case you'd need to restore them from a recent backup done prior to the corruption.

Corruption is often caused by anti-virus software messing with Thunderbird mail files. It is therefore recommended to create an exception for the Thunderbird profile folder, so that the real-time scanner won't attempt to scan the profile with your mail.

For more information on the profile location see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_how-to-find-your-profile

Also see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_working_-_Thunderbird

                        "



Greetings Firefox volunteer

Gewysig op deur Googlethunderbird

more options

Oké I have got your message. I try to read it.


ok i read your message. Yes, the first messages you open are blank, the rest of the data is present, the sender, the sender's name, the entire email is present.

But ,the text field is white, okay.

I do have for you to avoid misunderstandings the details of the way to deal with these blank emails.

but being able to read these files in the recycle bin is both familiar to me. it is indeed mysterious.

I can send you the details to fix this. And you can try them both.

Fixing the trash can to delete the msf.file for the trash. The other fixing method is for the blank page issue.

I m trying to get this into the text field . A moment please.

Greetings Firefox volunteer.

Gewysig op deur Googlethunderbird

more options

Oké hello there.



First step is to back up the profile folder.

Then we try to delete some msf.files on your computer oke?

Let me hear you when you are ready.


Greetings Firefox volunteer.

more options

Gekose oplossing

Thank you for your offer of help, but I am going to close this problem for now (mark it as solved) and wait to see if it happens again before trying a lot of fixes.

more options

Hello there.


Spam can be dangerous for your computer.

thanks for using Thunderbird .

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-junk-spam-messages

Greetings Firefox volunteer.

Gewysig op deur Googlethunderbird