Please help How do I fix this issue?

I know you think you have a simple issue and someone should be able to wave a wand over it and it will just fix itself.

Unfortunately we are seeing more and more of this, especially with people with the multi gigabyte mail accounts adding their account to a new device and exceeding their mail providers daily download limit, leaving them waiting. For example, Google offer Download with IMAP of 2500 MB per day, so a mail account approaching the 15Gb free limit will take the best part of a week to download.

Then we have issues with security software that can not cope with the large continuous mail downloads that setting up a large mail account can represent. They just drops their bundle so mail just basically stops until the system is rebooted. Nothing to do with Thunderbird, but that is where the complete failure of fetching mail is actually seen.

I know you think you have a simple issue and someone should be able to wave a wand over it and it will just fix itself. Unfortunately we are seeing more and more of this, especially with people with the multi gigabyte mail accounts adding their account to a new device and exceeding their mail providers daily download limit, leaving them waiting. For example, Google offer Download with IMAP of 2500 MB per day, so a mail account approaching the 15Gb free limit will take the best part of a week to download. Then we have issues with security software that can not cope with the large continuous mail downloads that setting up a large mail account can represent. They just drops their bundle so mail just basically stops until the system is rebooted. Nothing to do with Thunderbird, but that is where the complete failure of fetching mail is actually seen.

But I just waited a day and it literately downloaded 3 emails then stopped I have to manually spam the dl button so it will dl more then 1-3 at a time 9 time out of ten, why doesn't Thunderbird automatically run this recursively? When I hit to dl 100s of times it works it really has no reason to not do this itself. The fix is the definition of a wave of the hand. As it's so simple me clicking a 10000 times can over come it. if it knowing when to turn off is hard simple let the turn off 'autorefresh' once it's fully up to date. I have no clue what thunderbirds codebase looks like but sound like a less then 50 line fix at most to me.

Who is your mail provider?

Have you tried ...

Start Windows in safe mode with networking enabled - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

Still In Windows safe mode, start Thunderbird in Troubleshoot Mode - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-mode-thunderbird

Who is your mail provider? Have you tried ... Start Windows in safe mode with networking enabled - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode Still In Windows safe mode, start Thunderbird in Troubleshoot Mode - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-mode-thunderbird

I'm on Debain 12 64, and Gmail.

I'm not so sure this has anything to do with code or Thunderbird at this point. In fact I've seen this sort of issue many times in the past, but it's usually occured in a POP account.

Are you talking about a Pop or an Imap mail account ?

It's possible that most people set up imap accounts as that is the default setting which Thunderbird uses when creating a mail account. But not everyone wants to use an Imap account.

However, I do recall in the past many cases of gmail being a complete pain in the posterior when it comes to Pop accounts.

First it depends upon what setting you have selected in gmail webmail account on what to do if a Pop account is set up. In gmail Settings under 'Forwarding and Pop/Imap' you need to select 'In the 'POP download' section, select 'Enable POP for all mail' else it only downloads new emails.

But Gmail has been well known to do this stop and start nonsense and some advise in the past was to change a setting in Thunderbird - uncheck 'Leave messages on server' but that's not always desireable because it removes everything off the server after email is popped/downloaded to a pop account. If you do not care if emails are deleted off the server then you can try that option.

Basically, gmail would prefer you to stop leaving messages on server if you use Pop, so it can deliberately choose to be a pain.

The problem is this - when you use a Pop account and delete an email, it's not necessarilly deleted off server. In the case of gmail, only emails that get put in the gmail server Trash folder will get deleted. Otherwise, it's possible only the 'label' got deleted, so gmail by default has Archived the email in the 'All Mail' folder.

If you logon to webmail acount and check the 'All Mail' folder - you may see tons of emails you thought had been deleted - they will have no label. But do be aware - if you used imap or webmail and chose to 'Archive' then gmail will do exactly the same action - just remove the label and store in 'All Mail'.

For people using gmail Pop account - I advise as follows:

• logon to the gmail webmail account and do the following.
• Check 'Inbox' and also 'All Mail' folders.
• Delete a large number of very old emails, so significantly reducing what is held on the server.

After all, if you have had a pop account for a while then you should have copies of these emails previously downloaded. This mass deletion on server may get gmail to behave more to your liking in the Pop account. It has worked in the past, so is worth trying if use a Pop account.

I'm not so sure this has anything to do with code or Thunderbird at this point. In fact I've seen this sort of issue many times in the past, but it's usually occured in a POP account. Are you talking about a Pop or an Imap mail account ? It's possible that most people set up imap accounts as that is the default setting which Thunderbird uses when creating a mail account. But not everyone wants to use an Imap account. However, I do recall in the past many cases of gmail being a complete pain in the posterior when it comes to Pop accounts. First it depends upon what setting you have selected in gmail webmail account on what to do if a Pop account is set up. In gmail Settings under 'Forwarding and Pop/Imap' you need to select 'In the 'POP download' section, select 'Enable POP for all mail' else it only downloads new emails. But Gmail has been well known to do this stop and start nonsense and some advise in the past was to change a setting in Thunderbird - uncheck 'Leave messages on server' but that's not always desireable because it removes everything off the server after email is popped/downloaded to a pop account. If you do not care if emails are deleted off the server then you can try that option. Basically, gmail would prefer you to stop leaving messages on server if you use Pop, so it can deliberately choose to be a pain. The problem is this - when you use a Pop account and delete an email, it's not necessarilly deleted off server. In the case of gmail, only emails that get put in the gmail server Trash folder will get deleted. Otherwise, it's possible only the 'label' got deleted, so gmail by default has Archived the email in the 'All Mail' folder. If you logon to webmail acount and check the 'All Mail' folder - you may see tons of emails you thought had been deleted - they will have no label. But do be aware - if you used imap or webmail and chose to 'Archive' then gmail will do exactly the same action - just remove the label and store in 'All Mail'. For people using gmail Pop account - I advise as follows:

• logon to the gmail webmail account and do the following.
• Check 'Inbox' and also 'All Mail' folders.
• Delete a large number of very old emails, so significantly reducing what is held on the server.

After all, if you have had a pop account for a while then you should have copies of these emails previously downloaded. This mass deletion on server may get gmail to behave more to your liking in the Pop account. It has worked in the past, so is worth trying if use a Pop account.

So I should do Imap instead of pop? I don't see the forwarding menu your talking about where do I find it?

re : I don't see the forwarding menu your talking about where do I find it? In gmail webmail account accessed via a browser. Click on 'Settings' - the gear shaped icon top right If it only shows a column with some basis stuff - you may need to click on the text near the top 'See all settings' Then it displays 'Settings' with following tabs across the page. General, Labels, Inbox, Accounts and Import, Filters and blocked addresses, Forwarding and POP/IMAP, Add-ons, Chat and Meet, Advanced, Offline, Themes

re :So I should do Imap instead of pop?

Depends upon what you require. If you need to access server emails from more than one location eg: laptops, desktop computers, phones etc. And you want to auto see exactly the same each no matter what device you are using then IMAP will be the best option.

But please note: Emails are stored on the server and Imap accounts can only display whatever is on the server. Even if you have downloaded full copies of emails you cannot presume them to be an independent copy on your computer because all imap folders synchronise with server.

Gmail store all emails, incoming, outgoing,stored, archived etc etc - all are stored in the 'All Mail' folder. Gmail understands stuffing everything in one folder is not exactly user friendly, so it invented a thing called 'labels'. You apply a label - it acts like a special tag - the label for incoming mail would be 'Inbox'. That means that email can be virtually seen in what looks like a more conventional manner - a folder called 'Inbox'. It also means the same email can be seen in more than 'folder' if more than one 'label ' is applied. Thunderbird imap has no knowledge of 'labels', so whatever is in the server 'Inbox' will be downloaded to an mbox test file called Inbox and is a real copy of email. If you delete email and put it in the server Trash folder then periodically gmail will auto empty the Trash and auto delete email from the 'All Mail' folder. If you delete email by-passing the server Trash then from gmails point of view you are only removing the 'label', so email is still in 'All Mail' - basically gmail archived the email. Useful to use if you have more than one copy in more than one folder and only want to remove one of the copies.

Any folder you create in an imap account, will also be displayed on server in webmail account. In effect the server and an imap account are like mirror copies of each other.

IF you delete an email via imap using phone and later use laptop and Thunderbird imap to see emails, you will find that previously deleted email will auto disappear from Thunderbird imap account.

Downloaded emails may give a cause for concern regarding the amount of space used on disk drive. But Thunderbird offers quite a choice of options.

It is advisable you do not synchronise You have the choice to download full copies in all folders or only selected folders and only download headers in other folders OR you can choose to download full copies for emails eg: 60 days old and all the rest are just headers (you will need to compact more freqently to maintain this). If you want to create a complete backup then you can download full copies for all folders and then backup the '.thunderbird' or '.mozilla-thunderbird' folder in this location: Linux and Unix OS: Profile folders by default are located here:

• ~/.thunderbird/<Profile name>/

However, if you're using a third party build from Debian or Ubuntu, those builds store your profile folder here:

• ~/.mozilla-thunderbird/<Profile name>.

Mind you, I think Flatpak apps store their data in a different directory, in the case of thunderbird it's ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/cache/thunderbird/

POP accounts can only access and download emails from the server Inbox. If server spam filters move emails into the Spam folder then Thunderbird will not know about them because they are not in the Inbox. Pop accounts can download full copies of emails and because Pop accounts do not synchronise with server, they can be considered completely independent copies of emails on your computer. Best use by people who only access emails from one location, but as there is an option to leave mail on server, other devices could also use a pop (must select to leave copies on server) or imap account to download emails. Not as convenient because each copy may be different. But having a separate account accessing via imap may help with correctly deleting email off server.

Otherwise it's advised that you periodically access the webmail account via a browser and remove old mail which you may have already deleted from the pop account. Those emails maybe located in the 'All Mail' folder. Please note - anything you sent via a pop account gmail smtp - gmail will put a copy of sent mail on server, so if you logon to webmail you should see copies of emails you have sent. So be aware that these copies of sent mail will also use up quota.