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A Local Folder disappears

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 16 views
  • Last reply by justinteim

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System: Thunderbird 78.11.0, Debian Linux 10.7.0

Background: I created several local folders, and setup filters to move incoming messages to them. One of them, named ALL_mail is a default for my principal mail address (by filter, all messages with the status "read" are moved into it). All went well....for a day.

Problem: Today, on starting Thunderbird, the ALL_mail folder does not appear in the left-hand pane, i.e. I cannot click on it to read any messages there. All the other Local Folders do appear.

Efforts to date: I closed TB, went to the profile, and confirmed that under Profile/Mail/LocalFolders the "ALL_mail" folder is there. The msf file, oddly had no content. I deleted the msf file, re-opened TB. The newly-created msf file was also empty, and the ALL_mail folder was not seen in the panel. I then created a new local folder "ALL_read", copied all the messages (Maildir format, so individual *.eml files) to the new folder. All went well (new folder appeared in the panel). However, when I closed and re-opened TB, once again the new folder is not found in the panel (though, again, it does exist in the profile).

Can anyone help ?

System: Thunderbird 78.11.0, Debian Linux 10.7.0 Background: I created several local folders, and setup filters to move incoming messages to them. One of them, named ALL_mail is a default for my principal mail address (by filter, all messages with the status "read" are moved into it). All went well....for a day. Problem: Today, on starting Thunderbird, the ALL_mail folder does not appear in the left-hand pane, i.e. I cannot click on it to read any messages there. All the other Local Folders do appear. Efforts to date: I closed TB, went to the profile, and confirmed that under Profile/Mail/LocalFolders the "ALL_mail" folder is there. The msf file, oddly had no content. I deleted the msf file, re-opened TB. The newly-created msf file was also empty, and the ALL_mail folder was not seen in the panel. I then created a new local folder "ALL_read", copied all the messages (Maildir format, so individual *.eml files) to the new folder. All went well (new folder appeared in the panel). However, when I closed and re-opened TB, once again the new folder is not found in the panel (though, again, it does exist in the profile). Can anyone help ?

All Replies (3)

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why not try using a name like testALLmail. I would also refrain from using case as Thunderbird does not always have a good relationship with file systems that use case in file names as Linux does.

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Matt; I tried your solution, with no success. However, if TB is sensitive to file names, is it possible that "mail" in a local folder name creates this problem? So, I created a new local folder "ALL_here", closed TB, copied the mail messages into this new folder, deleted the msf file, then re-opened TB. Success ! (At least, so far.) I would not have thought about this without your comment. Thank you !!

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Well, the "solution" above worked for about a day. Again, when re-opening TB, a local folder is not seen in the panel. In the profile folder, it is "there", but the *.msf file is empty. I closed TB, deleted the folder's msf file, re-opened TB. It does re-create the msf file .... with 0 kb size.

Matt -- or anyone else -- can you please help ?