compacting deletes messages in folders
When Thunderbird compacts my folders, it often gets rid of older messages that I have saved in subfolders. The folder I created is still there but it is empty. How can I get this to stop?
I tried to NOT compact since I was worried about losing my messages. But then Thunderbird asks me every 5 minutes to compact which is annoying.
I really don't want to go back to Outlook since Thunderbird is so much better. However, I can't keep losing messages that I save.
Note that I did go into Options -> Account Settings -> Disk Space and the radio button for don't delete any messages is selected.
Please help. Bobcat
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You may be able to avoid lost mail due to improper compacting, as well as frequent compacting requests, by rebuilding the folders according to these instructions:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders#Real_fix
Essentially, you delete the mbox and msf files for the folder and have TB create new ones automatically.
Makes sure you also don't have a security program scanning the TB profile.
I did what you suggested. The problem is still there. I have folders that still have lost all their data. It's not the inbox that's the problem (although I did save that through the Mozilla backup). When I delete the .msf file for a subfolder, the folder is still there but still empty. Does this mean all the data that was lost is truly gone?
How can I stop this from happening in the future? It makes no sense for me to save email messages from my inbox to subfolders if the saved emails are only going to disappear.
What is the size of an mbox file, the file with no extension, that has the same name as the subfolder? You can view it in a text editor, so if you don't see any message contents, there won't be anything to see in TB.
Hard to say what causes a folder to disappear, but one possibility is a security program that quarantines a folder because it found a suspect message. Do you have such a program scanning the mail folders?
The empty folders have .msd files that are 2-4 kB. I do have Norton 360 running. Do you think that's the problem?
I think you mean .msf files, which are index files for mbox files, the ones with no extension, and the same name, which contain the mail content.
It's generally recommended to disable email scanning by any AV program, or add the TB profile folder as an exception, depending on what settings are available in the AV.
I checked my settings for Norton. It is set to do spam filtering on Outlook (which I don't use anymore) but NOT for Thunderbird. Is there another reason you can think of -- as so why my folders are being emptied out?
I also just realized that the folders that are empty have just the .msf file and there is no file with no extension - with the same name. So the .msf files are not being deleted, but the file with no extension are.
If the account is IMAP, and you set certain folders to not be downloaded for offline access, then there would be an .msf file but no mbox file. The setting is in Tools/Account Settings, Synchronization & Storage, for the account. Also, if it's IMAP, you should see the folders when you access the account through webmail - and if a folder is empty there, it will be empty in TB, no matter what the offline setting is.