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Folder Compacting renders emails unreadable

  • 6 replies
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  • 14 views
  • Last reply by Wayne Mery

atscomms
atscomms
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In attempting to address inbox message duplication in Thunderbird (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1453812#answer-1666737), I've been systematically deleting thousands of old emails from my inbox, followed by a folder compacting.

Now, many of the remaining messages are unreadable. Most appear to be blank /empty, while some appear as gibberish text. I've tried repairing the folder using the tool in Folder Properties. That may have made the problem worse.

In attempting to address inbox message duplication in Thunderbird (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1453812#answer-1666737), I've been systematically deleting thousands of old emails from my inbox, followed by a folder compacting. Now, many of the remaining messages are unreadable. Most appear to be blank /empty, while some appear as gibberish text. I've tried repairing the folder using the tool in Folder Properties. That may have made the problem worse.

All Replies (6)

Matt
Matt
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What version of Thunderbird are you using?

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atscomms
atscomms Question owner
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Currently 128.1 32bit, but I've been been having issues since before 128.0

Now, all messages that came in before compacting are unreadable.

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Wayne Mery
Wayne Mery
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You certainly are having issues https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/user/atscomms/questions

What AV software do you use? Imap accounts or pop?

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atscomms
atscomms Question owner
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My main account, the one with the issues, is a POP account. I found out that V 128 or 128.1 had a bug where compacting truncated the file at 4GB, which caused the loss of 5 years of email from my inbox. Fortunately, I have a hierarchy of folders that I move important emails into, so this was more of an annoyance than a tragedy.

As for the duplicates and unreadable messages, a combination of installing V 128.1.1, doing another compacting, rebuilding the folder index, and deleting the Popstate.dat file resolved most of the problems. Thank you to Francesco via Bugzilla.

I do wish that dev team had sent everyone an alert about the serious bug that was found. This saga really shook my confidence in Thunderbird, which I've been using for several decades.

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david846
david846
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"I found out that V 128 or 128.1 had a bug where compacting truncated the file at 4GB, which caused the loss of 5 years of email from my inbox."

Good Morning, where did you find this out?

I cannot find info on this bug and yesterday we had a user compact and then find he is unable to load messages from his INBOX/SENT Folders. As noted in your comment, both of these folders are mysteriously at 4 GB and he thinks he was prompted to COMPACT before problem started.

Thanks...

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Wayne Mery
Wayne Mery
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The compact bug is https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1911076 fixed in 128.1.1

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