Login to your account via webmail and delete the offending message on the server.

Did that right away but it had already started to download to thunderbird. A tech specialist took a look and suggested that i copy my emails in thunderbird and then remove the acct and re-add it. My husband , an engineer, is going to check this out. Any thoughts?

Did that right away but it had already started to download to thunderbird.

So did you delete the message on the server or not? If so, do you now get other messages? If not, make sure Thunderbird is closed when you mess with stuff on the server.

A tech specialist took a look and suggested that i copy my emails in thunderbird and then remove the acct and re-add it.

I'd probably not do this at this time. Depending on the account type you'll need to take precautions so that no mail already downloaded to your computer is lost in the process.

thanks for your replies. all of that was done. The other day, wondering if inbox too full, I deleted emails and moved others to local files.. and coompacted files, which said it opened up a lot of space. this morning, out of the blue, after deleting just a few emails, the emails tghat were not downloading for the last 5 days suddenly downloaded from earthlink to Thunderbird. Mysterious. I will have my husband take a look at the storage,, just to see if that's a problem. It was sending emails all along, just not receiving. So for now, resolved. Thanks,, I thikn I hve to break down and follow my 20-something year old's advice and start using my gmail account.