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.

Avatar for Username

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Folders don't seem to be re-indexed properly after updates, causing [apparent?] duplication of mails. Caused by Microsoft Defender Antivirus?

  • 7 replies
  • 0 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by MrsF

MrsF
MrsF
more options

On 12/12/23 I posted a query 'How do I stop mails being duplicated in a folder?'. I recently discovered by chance that in most cases repairing the folder fixes this. Good news! But it's still happening many times a day, sometimes on 'busy' folders that I regularly move to/delete from, sometimes on infrequently used folders.

What might be causing this please? As I said previously, what was an occasional problem became much worse after Supernova.

Thank you.

On 12/12/23 I posted a query 'How do I stop mails being duplicated in a folder?'. I recently discovered by chance that in most cases repairing the folder fixes this. Good news! But it's still happening many times a day, sometimes on 'busy' folders that I regularly move to/delete from, sometimes on infrequently used folders. What might be causing this please? As I said previously, what was an occasional problem became much worse after Supernova. Thank you.

Modified by Wayne Mery

Chosen solution

Create an exception in your anti-virus software for the Thunderbird profile folder, so that the anti-virus real-time scanner will not scan it. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_how-to-find-your-profile

Does the problem go away?

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (7)

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

What is your anti-virus software?

MrsF
MrsF Question owner
more options

Hi christ1

Microsoft Defender Antivirus in Windows 10

I did notice a lot of previous queries about indexing problems touched on antivirus software...

MrsF

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

Chosen Solution

Create an exception in your anti-virus software for the Thunderbird profile folder, so that the anti-virus real-time scanner will not scan it. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_how-to-find-your-profile

Does the problem go away?

MrsF
MrsF Question owner
more options

Thank you; I've done this and will report back.

MrsF
MrsF Question owner
more options

Hi again

I believe this has fixed it, but will leave this open for a few more days for luck!

Mrs F

Wayne Mery
Wayne Mery
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

MrsF said
Hi again I believe this has fixed it, but will leave this open for a few more days for luck! Mrs F

Thanks for the update.

MrsF
MrsF Question owner
more options

Hi again

Thank you both for your advice. I've also been compacting more often, having seen that suggested in another thread. The duplication still happens occasionally, but careful testing has proved that with rare exceptions repairing the folder fixes it.

I say careful as from past experience I thought that repairing sometimes deleted everything, having seen all the mails vanish, but I now think I just hadn't re-opened the folders.

Whatever, I'm no longer wasting time so thank you again.

Mrs F