Thunderbird stopped downloading emails and error "Unable to write the email to the mailbox. Make sure the file system allows you write privileges, and you have enough disk space to copy the mailbox." Cause: Avast mail shield
Running TB 115.4.1 (64-bit), POP3 account, up until this morning everything was fine.
Now getting msg - "Unable to write the email to the mailbox. Make sure the file system allows you write privileges, and you have enough disk space to copy the mailbox."
Have more than 70 Gb free on my drive. Have tried: -deleting messages and compacting the inbox. -using TB's built-in repair folder utility. -deleting and re-creating the global-messages-db.sqlite file in my profile
Have logged into my email with my browser and can't find anything wrong with the account itself. Everything seems ok on that end.
Nothing has worked. Any other suggestions?
Modified by Wayne Mery
Chosen solution
Have you tried without your antivirus scanning in the Thunderbird profile folder? the inability to write to the mail file, which is essentially what that error is about, usually means some other process is using the file at the time it is to be written. (file contention)
There can be many causes, the most common being the antivirus product. Others common ones can be network congestion if the profile is on a file server or NAS, Synchronization if the profile is in a location that is syncronised to the cloud or subject to streaming backups.
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Chosen Solution
Have you tried without your antivirus scanning in the Thunderbird profile folder? the inability to write to the mail file, which is essentially what that error is about, usually means some other process is using the file at the time it is to be written. (file contention)
There can be many causes, the most common being the antivirus product. Others common ones can be network congestion if the profile is on a file server or NAS, Synchronization if the profile is in a location that is syncronised to the cloud or subject to streaming backups.
Many thanks, Matt.
I turned off the mail shield and promptly downloaded all the mail that had been accumulated on the server - none of them had any attachments, although one was a costco ad with a lot of images.
Anyway, all seems well now and I've got another little item to add to my own store of troubleshooting techniques.
Hi Matt, maybe you can help me. (win10 running TB 115.5.1-32bit but on a 64bit Notebook). Because I travel, I bring a copy of my entire TB Mail folder (e.g. 9drsumio.default) with me off my main home machine and run that in an external 1TB USB drive. This set up has worked faultlessly until this trip out to Athens. The startup profile on this machine is set up to present me with the option to use a local profile (which is all IMAP and runs on the C: drive) or to switch and run off the external drive (T:) which is a mix of POP3 and IMAP. The Local C: drive configuration works fine. The external T: drive config however works on all other accounts save my main POP3 account. I'm getting the same error msg as Irosen888 but mine is solid. Looking in the console log I get the same 4 error entries every time I try to pull emails for this one POP3 account. The other POP3 accounts are all on the same email Host so it's unlikely to be host related. The failing email account is 480MB and I have 80GB space on the external drive. Hosting wise I'm only running at 5%. I therefore conclude that it isn't a space problem. I've checked around the file permissions and they are identical to the other POP3 accounts that are working. I've eliminated the router as a possible issue by switching to "Hot Spot" on my mobile but I get the same errors. I'm not using any antivirus software other than what comes with Windows 10. I've run CHKDSK on both drives - both came back clean. I can access this eMail account on my Mobile and Tablet too (but only using IMAP though).
Any ideas where I can look next?
Thanks in advance.
Now the Good News. SInce my last post I've managed to fix the problem. Being an old hand at fixing Data Systems I've learnt the hard way not to put multiple changes into the mix as that can get very confusing when debuggung systems. It is with confidence therefore that I can say that using the TB internal "Repair Folder" function in the "Folder Properties" menu resolved my problem. Just prior to that though I was on the 32bit version of TB but did the upgrade to the 64bit version which in itself didn't resolve the problem. Phaz
Modified by Phaz
Hi:
I got the attached pop up this morning. After reading through a number of threads on this issue, I tried compacting my folders. It saved a bunch of space, but had no effect on the issue.
I then disabled my Avast anti-virus. I had quite a bit of trouble finding the instructions to do so, so I pass them along in case others could use this information.
1. Right click on the Avast icon in the hidden icons area of the task bar.
2. Hover over "Avast shields control" and select your choice for the length of time to disable the AV.
3. To re-enable the AV, hover over the "Avast shields control" and select "Enable all shields".
After disabling the AV and downloading all of the messages, I re-enabled the AV and things seem to be working fine again as messages download without the file system complaint.
I also followed Phaz's suggestion to use the repair folder function on my Inbox. Can't say whether this had any effect, but it didn't make things any worse.
Hope this is helpful to someone.
Greg
AV issues are listed at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Antivirus_Related_Performance_Issues