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Rarely used local folders do not show content until I move to a recent folder and back

  • 5 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by Otto

Otto
Otto
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I'm a happy user of Thunderbird for some 10 years now and have accumulated an e-mail archive of 20 GB. When I open local mail folders that are rarely used, I often get a display where instead of the folder contents (upper window listing messages and lower window showing the content of the selected message) I see the settings page (see the attached)

Thunderbird Mail - <folder name such as Asiantuntijatehtävät in the example screen shot> Accounts View settings for this account Create a new account Create a new calendar

When I now move back to my inbox (or another folder for which the index file is up to date), and then back to the problem folder again, I see the content normally. However, this jumping between folders is very annoying and certainly cannot be the planned behavior. I wonder if the problem is caused by the size of e.g. the RAM cache taken by Thunderbird and my local folders -archive, which I know is large, but is only going to be larger year by year (AND I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO READ MY ARCHIVE FOR THE WHOLE CENTURY, OR AT LEAS THE NEXT FEW DECADES THAT I MAY STILL LIVE....)

Any idea what is happening and how to solve this?

I'm a happy user of Thunderbird for some 10 years now and have accumulated an e-mail archive of 20 GB. When I open local mail folders that are rarely used, I often get a display where instead of the folder contents (upper window listing messages and lower window showing the content of the selected message) I see the settings page (see the attached) Thunderbird Mail - <folder name such as Asiantuntijatehtävät in the example screen shot> Accounts View settings for this account Create a new account Create a new calendar When I now move back to my inbox (or another folder for which the index file is up to date), and then back to the problem folder again, I see the content normally. However, this jumping between folders is very annoying and certainly cannot be the planned behavior. I wonder if the problem is caused by the size of e.g. the RAM cache taken by Thunderbird and my local folders -archive, which I know is large, but is only going to be larger year by year (AND I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO READ MY ARCHIVE FOR THE WHOLE CENTURY, OR AT LEAS THE NEXT FEW DECADES THAT I MAY STILL LIVE....) Any idea what is happening and how to solve this?

All Replies (5)

Otto
Otto Question owner
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Screen snapshot added

Matt
Matt
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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What happens if you hold the sift key while starting Thunderbird nd continue in safe mode when prompted.

That sounds like and add-on and given the menu location, your either using a very old version of Thunderbird or an add-on.

If your using a very old version, it may be that updating is all that you need to do.

Otto
Otto Question owner
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Thank you Matt, but starting in safe mode as instructed did not change the behavior. I am using the Portable Apps version with the automatic updates enabled, my version is 38.3.0 "Thunderbird is up to date" in the about box.

Through the years I have installed few add-ons, but I am not able to see the list of installed add-ons via the Tools-Add-ons -view...

Otto
Otto Question owner
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I restarted Thunderbird once more in safe mode, now choosing in the dialog also to disable all addons. It seemed to reduce/postpone the first occurance of the trouble while browsing through the part of folder tree not used every month, but the problem occurred anyway few folders further. Thus I would suggest that it is not about add-ons and that it is not about old version of Thunderbird. Any other ideas?

Otto
Otto Question owner
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This problem persists and is annoying.

I noticed that besides browsing back to my inbox or other recently used folder (for which the index is up-to-date) and back, I can also do this:

- rename the problematic folder (F2, then press enter to use the same name); then click the folder again (even though it is already selected). Now the contents appears in the message headers list.

Any ideas for a real solution?