Thunderbird marks messages as "read" after some time
Dear community, When I open Thunderbird and have like 10 UNread emails, I usually click through them to get a quick overview of the content of the mails (so I click on the first one, read the content for 5sec and go to the next one ... aso).
Since I disabled "Automatically mark messages as read", the mails stay unread in Thunderbird. So far everything is good.
When I now leave Thunderbird as it is for like 15sec, I can see how the previously clicked message switch from unread to read. All of a sudden. Very spooky.
Because it is reproducible, I could record a video of this phenomenon, if it helps?
Are there any logs where I could see any hints to this issue?
Someone else with this issue or a clue what could be the trouble maker here?
Best Regards, Chris
Windows 10 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 60.9.1 (32-bit)
Modified by Chris
All Replies (4)
Usually this is caused by a phone also accessing the mail account.
Matt said
Usually this is caused by a phone also accessing the mail account.
Thanks for your answer.
However, my email account is not used on any other device (no other pc, phone etc.). It is used by my laptop only.
I could narrow down the issue, so Just an update:
If I start Thunderbird an click on some emails (to see the content, but mail stays as unread) and then I click on "Get Messages", the emails become displayed as "read" suddenly. However on the mail server the mails are NOT flagged as read!
This means, even the mails look like "read" in Thunderbird, when I close Thunderbird and open it again, the mails become displayed as "unread" again. => Mail server correct, Thunderbird GUI bug!?
This explains also the "spooky behavior". So it is not spooky or it happend "suddenly", the issue just happend with the automatism to check for new emails every x minutes.
Now the question is: What causes this bug that Thunderbird marks emails as read on "get-new-messages", even though the mails are not read on mail server?
To diagnose problems with Thunderbird, try one of the following:
- Restart Thunderbird with add-ons disabled (Thunderbird Safe Mode). On the Help menu, click on "Restart with Add-ons Disabled". If Thunderbird works like normal, there is an Add-on or Theme interfering with normal operations. You will need to re-enable add-ons one at a time until you locate the offender.
- Restart the operating system in safe mode with Networking. This loads only the very basics needed to start your computer while enabling an Internet connection. Click on your operating system for instructions on how to start in safe mode: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, OSX
- If safe mode for the operating system fixes the issue, there's other software in your computer that's causing problems. Possibilities include but not limited to: AV scanning, virus/malware, background downloads such as program updates.