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Inbox folders not synchronising for IMAP/Office 365

  • 7 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by christ1

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Inbox folders not synchronising for IMAP/Office 365

Thunderbird was originally configured with Office 365 and all working as expected. However recently sub-folders within Inbox are no longer accessible in Thunderbird. While messages in Inbox can be opened, folders and messages fail – but this failure is not constant

Observed happenings: 1) After PC re-boot Inbox sub-folders appear briefly, but one-by-one disappear before the user has control (while Thunderbird is re-sync'ing?). After this Inbox folder in Thunderbird shows messages but no sub folders.

2) Trying to Subscribe to folders only shows Inbox, not sub-folders for Inbox.

3) By making a new sub-folder in Inbox within Thunderbird, existing Inbox folders will re-appear. However trying to open one of these folders causes the following error message: “Thunderbird The current operation on 'folder_name' did not succeed. The mail server for account my-account.co.uk responded: Deleted/INBOX/folder_name doesn't exist.”

Using a web browser to attach to Office 365, all Inbox sub-folders and their messages are available, as expected. In 3) above, path as reported by Thunderbird appears wrong and should not contain “Deleted”?

Environment: O/S Windows 8.1 64-bit (fully patched) Thunderbird 24.6.0

Inbox folders not synchronising for IMAP/Office 365 Thunderbird was originally configured with Office 365 and all working as expected. However recently sub-folders within Inbox are no longer accessible in Thunderbird. While messages in Inbox can be opened, folders and messages fail – but this failure is not constant Observed happenings: 1) After PC re-boot Inbox sub-folders appear briefly, but one-by-one disappear before the user has control (while Thunderbird is re-sync'ing?). After this Inbox folder in Thunderbird shows messages but no sub folders. 2) Trying to Subscribe to folders only shows Inbox, not sub-folders for Inbox. 3) By making a new sub-folder in Inbox within Thunderbird, existing Inbox folders will re-appear. However trying to open one of these folders causes the following error message: “Thunderbird The current operation on 'folder_name' did not succeed. The mail server for account my-account.co.uk responded: Deleted/INBOX/folder_name doesn't exist.” Using a web browser to attach to Office 365, all Inbox sub-folders and their messages are available, as expected. In 3) above, path as reported by Thunderbird appears wrong and should not contain “Deleted”? Environment: O/S Windows 8.1 64-bit (fully patched) Thunderbird 24.6.0

All Replies (7)

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Check with your email provider whether subfolders underneath Inbox are supported for IMAP. Beyond that, you could simply move them somewhere else via webmail, and then subscribe to the new folders in Thunderbird (assuming the provider supports it).

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Hi Christ1,

Sorry I thought I'd stated email provider and service: Microsoft, Office 365 So yes, sub-folders within Inbox are supported.

As originally stated, when Thunderbird was first installed the Inbox sub-folders were correctly displayed, and the messages inside them accessible.

Thanks for the suggested work-around. However, the observed happenings suggest Thunderbird's data files are not all as they should be. Hence initially I would like to confirm Thunderbird's data files are correct and have not been corrupted, before moving to any work-around.

In the absence of any data file verification tools; I would remove the data files and start over, however I have not yet found a guide to remove / empty the current data set.

Regards, Simon

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Are you subscribed to those subfolders? File (Alt-F) - Subscribe

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"Are you subscribed to those subfolders? File (Alt-F) - Subscribe"

Please see #2 in original post:

"2) Trying to Subscribe to folders only shows Inbox, not sub-folders for Inbox."

Attached is an image illustrating this (this screenshot was taken after forcing Thunderbird to show Inbox folders as described in #3 of OP)

{In OP I was unable to attach images}

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Screenshot of error message as described in OP #3

"3) By making a new sub-folder in Inbox within Thunderbird, existing Inbox folders will re-appear. However trying to open one of these folders causes the following error message: “Thunderbird The current operation on 'folder_name' did not succeed. The mail server for account my-account.co.uk responded: Deleted/INBOX/folder_name doesn't exist.""

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I am having the same problem, is there a fix?

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I don't have an easy fix for your problem. Therefore I'd suggest to create a new profile using profile manager. Start Thunderbird with the new profile and set-up your IMAP account again. See if you get all folders with the new profile.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/using-multiple-profiles