This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Want to Redownload a specific message over pop3 after crash during original incomplete download

more options

I was downloading e-mails when all of a sudden my computer crashed and thunderbird alongside with it (crash was not caused by thunderbird). After restarting my computer thunderbird started just fine and downloaded the remaining messages. However, the message thunderbird was downloading during the crash appears in my inbox, but does not contain any text. I looked at the source of the e-mail, the header is complete. Using the webinterface of my e-mail service provider I confirmed that the message actually does contain text. So now I would like to tell thunderbird to download the message again. It is still available on the server. How can I tell thunderbird to discard the partially downloaded e-mail? Note that I use pop3 to access the server and do not wish do download ALL messages from the server, only this specific one. Thanks for your help.

I was downloading e-mails when all of a sudden my computer crashed and thunderbird alongside with it (crash was not caused by thunderbird). After restarting my computer thunderbird started just fine and downloaded the remaining messages. However, the message thunderbird was downloading during the crash appears in my inbox, but does not contain any text. I looked at the source of the e-mail, the header is complete. Using the webinterface of my e-mail service provider I confirmed that the message actually does contain text. So now I would like to tell thunderbird to download the message again. It is still available on the server. How can I tell thunderbird to discard the partially downloaded e-mail? Note that I use pop3 to access the server and do not wish do download ALL messages from the server, only this specific one. Thanks for your help.

Modified by Wayne Mery

Chosen solution

Wayne Mery said

you could remove popstate.dat file, but that would cause all mails still on the server to redownload

Thanks, but that did not quite work. I actually tried to modify the popstate.dat file, but it only contains two lines which are commented out. However, someone has found me a different solution: I went to the webinterface again, made the server display the entire source of the message, saved this message in a .eml file and opened this file with thunderbird. The message gets displayed and I could easily move it to the desired folder within thunderbird. Problem solved. Hope this might help someone else, too.

Skaityti atsakymą kartu su kontekstu 👍 0

All Replies (3)

more options

Short answer is you have what you will get.

more options

you could remove popstate.dat file, but that would cause all mails still on the server to redownload

more options

Chosen Solution

Wayne Mery said

you could remove popstate.dat file, but that would cause all mails still on the server to redownload

Thanks, but that did not quite work. I actually tried to modify the popstate.dat file, but it only contains two lines which are commented out. However, someone has found me a different solution: I went to the webinterface again, made the server display the entire source of the message, saved this message in a .eml file and opened this file with thunderbird. The message gets displayed and I could easily move it to the desired folder within thunderbird. Problem solved. Hope this might help someone else, too.