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email appears blank in preview pane (ie no content) when selected in upper pane

  • 9 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by adcot

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this problem occurred before , I was told to right click the folder , properties and repair. All this did at that time was remove all of the messages that I could not read. I do not know where they are now located.

with the same issue occurring again i rebuilt the global database - did not fix

the problem only affected emails from a particular time - after that time any new messages are OK.

did not want to go thru the same process as before as it just removed the emails I could not view , so nothing was achieved

how do I fix the current issue,

how can I find the emails that disappeared the last time this occurred - they must be located somewhere on my PC

why does this happen

Trevor

this problem occurred before , I was told to right click the folder , properties and repair. All this did at that time was remove all of the messages that I could not read. I do not know where they are now located. with the same issue occurring again i rebuilt the global database - did not fix the problem only affected emails from a particular time - after that time any new messages are OK. did not want to go thru the same process as before as it just removed the emails I could not view , so nothing was achieved how do I fix the current issue, how can I find the emails that disappeared the last time this occurred - they must be located somewhere on my PC why does this happen Trevor
Attached screenshots

All Replies (9)

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I suggest you look in your anti virus logs for the deletion or quarantine of a file with the same name as the folder the mails disappeared from. Say inbox or deleted.

The list in Thunderbird is displayed from an index, when you click on the entry in the list the program goes to get the mail. Blank either meants the index is outof date for some reason or the mail is simply not there. If you repair you rebuild the index by scanning the mail storage file. If the file was deleted by the anti virus in some spurious discovery of an innocuous virus then the repair can not scan the existing file. It is not there and hence those mails disappear from the mail list.

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Mark thankyou I shall give it a try and let you know

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sorry

Matt

need new glasses !!

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THIS ISSUE HAS OCCURRED AGAIN The above suggestion did not solve the issue I went searching thru various files and found the following inbox files which may be the missing emails - how do I retrieve them. Why is this problem occurring , it is enough to turn me off thunderbird. I have another email address which uses Outlook - never had a problem in 10 years of use.

Trevor

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do you compact your folders?

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not normally although have done some time ago

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I thought I would try something I downloaded a thunderbird to outlook convertor

imported my current thunderbird inbox to outlook inbox

it only imported the emails that I can view in thunderbird i.e. 33 emails , which are the ones that came after the others disappeared

Trevor

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Adcot Please do not compact folders just yet. Compacting is very important to maintain a healthy Thunderbird, but if the file is corrupted, it can lose emails.

I notice that you have used the 'Local Folders' Inbox. I also note that you have a mail account Inbox. Can you tell me if you get all your mail in the Local Folders Inbox? Is the mail account set up to be a Global Inbox using Local Folders Inbox? Please make a backup copy of both of these 'Inbox' files and put it on desktop.

Can you open the Local Folders 'Inbox' file (no extension) using Notepad. Emails are written one after the other in the order downloaded. Using notepads 'Edit' > 'Find' Try to locate the 'manufacturing future rapidly evolving' email. Can you locate it and read the contents? Does the email appear to still be there?

The email will start with lines similar to this:

  • From - Wed Nov 14 11:32:26 2012
  • X-Account-Key: account1
  • X-UIDL: ABxUfbwAAIUiUTKG4wCaX1m96QF
  • X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
  • X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000

Locate this line: X-Mozilla-Status: what numbers are written here?

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Firstly thank you for your reply.

The Local folders inbox is the one in use The mail account inbox was not created by me - it appears to have come about May 2012. (The fist loss of emails occurred July 2013)) I do not know if it is setup as a global inbox. My knowledge is not that extensive.

I cannot open the local folder mail file unless I add a txt extension. I did this by copying the file and giving it the txt extension then it will open. The only emails that appear are those that arrived after the loss which occurred at 1:00 PM on 29th. The email "manufacturing rapidly evolving" email is not present.

I also notice that the local folders mail box now has 43,763KB whereas the image that I sent has 631,080KB. The image that I sent was created in April 2015 - after the second loss of emails.

The mail account inbox has a content of 2.66GB. I cannot open this unless I copy and add txt extension. Note pad will not open as it is too large to be edited by notepad.

Trevor