562456 - Mail disappearing from Inbox

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[Judith Hellerstein]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/3.6.3
Build Identifier: Thunderbird 3.0.4

This has been happening often when Thunderbird realizes that it needs to rebuild the index file to the Inbox because of some corruption or problems with the index.  In past when a new index file was created, inbox.msf, for the inbox Thunderbird would create a new inbox.msf and redownload all the mail from the server, (as I have checked download mail (for main inbox) when offline) adding it to the current inbox file as stated in bug#495862.  However, lately when the index file inbox.msf and Inbox files are rebuilt, only the most recent emails since the last complete uncorrupt index file, ie, the last time the index fiel was recreated, show up in the Inbox.  

The only way to retrieve all the emails is to force Thunderbird to rebuild the index file or to tosh out both the inbox and inbox.msf files so that the program would then redownload the files and create a correct index file.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.reproduces automatically when it determines the index file for the the inbox is corrupt or unreadable
2.
3.
Actual Results:  
Inbox will only contain the mail that was new since the last time the index file, inbox.msf was rebuilt.

Expected Results:  
If the index file is corrupt or needs to be rebuilt, the software should be build it correctly and then redownload all the mail from the server.

Comment 1

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Are you using pop or imap ?

Why would you want to redownlaod everything, and not just the corrupted parts ?

Comment 2

[Judith Hellerstein]

I am using IMAP and so if I want to see more than 10 of my messages, I need the system to rebuild the index file. When Thunderbird rebuilds an index file it redownloads all the mail as it does not know it already has it. As I understand, Thunderbird does not know the mail is there because it can no longer see it.  Actually the new mail is attached to the old file ontop of the older mail to create a larger file, which is why I have to compact it on a weekly basis to avoid other problems on Thunderbird when the file size grows to more than 1 gb

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

respectfully, I think you are speculating about why this is happening - these ideas don't sound right. 

did you see this problem in version 2?
do you see the problem when using a new profile and no add-ons?
 http://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/Profiles

Comment 4

[Judith Hellerstein]

Wayne,
Actually I am not speculating, this was the answer (re-downloading of mail) I was given by the techies in response to my bug# 495862, which is now closed as the solution is to compact the file.Perhaps I summarized the issue incorrectly, you can read the complete issues at that closed bug report, 495862. The only thing that is unclear, is why Thunderbird is detecting a corruption in the index, that is likely never going to be solved and fixed as my hoster does not know either, they just see it occurring.

Yes as you see in the closed bug report, this was happening in version 2 & in version 3.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

only the reporter of bug 495862 mentions corruption, so I don't understand what advice you are referring to, and I don't see any postings of yours in bug 495862 - you'll have to be far more explicit.

I don't know of any specific fixes that might help your problem, but you might try 3.1beta2 http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/nightly/3.1b2-candidates/build2/

Comment 6

[Judith Hellerstein]

Sorry I meant bug 587992 instead, it is also closed. Problem still exists, but is solved by compacting the mail

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

bug 587992 does not exist - you might use cut&paste :)

Comment 8

[Judith Hellerstein]

Sorry, it is bug 487992 and look also at 493222. These two bugs explain better what I meant when I wrote the statement "Actually the new mail is attached to the old file ontop of the older mail to create a larger file, which is why I have to compact it on a weekly basis to avoid other problems on Thunderbird when the file size grows to more than 1 gb"

This bug is only for the problem that comes up often when Thunderbird notices corruption and rebuilds the index. What seems to be happening is that it is not rebuilding the index, just fetching the mail since the corruption. Only by forcing it to rebuild the index either by clicking "rebuild index" under Folder Properties or by manually removing the index file, inbox.msf and the local inbox. Will Thunderbird go back to the server and rebuild the index. Then all mail will come.  The next step here is to compact the inbox otherwise the size of the inbox will grow exponentially as was described in bugs 487992 &493222.

Comment 9

[Judith Hellerstein]

Yes. This seems to have been resolved in the latest version of Thunderbird 3.1.8

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Thanks for updating and closing your bug. (note however we use resolution WORKSFORME when we don't know what precise patch fixed a bug)