sewlady3 said

I have 38.3.0 and as of 10/27/15, TB still doesn't always automatically check for emails. Occasionally, it does, but not always. Especially frustrating when awaiting a reply from someone. Hitting "get all mail" or "get messages" doesn't pick up new mail. Have to close TB down & re-start to have it check again.

Does no one have any ideas? It's still happening as of 11/11/15.

TB still doesn't always automatically check for emails.

How do you determine that Thunderbird does not automatically check for new mail?

christ1 said

TB still doesn't always automatically check for emails.

How do you determine that Thunderbird does not automatically check for new mail?

I email with my daughter every night, and we both reply to each other's emails usually within a few minutes. When I don't get a reply and I know she's awaiting my reply, but nothing has shown up in T-bird, I go on-line to see if there's an email waiting and there always is! I'm hitting 'get all mail' in T-bird, several times but that new email does not get downloaded. After blaming my ISP's email software, I found out by trial and error that if I close T-bird and open it right back up, BANG! There's the new email that was waiting to be downloaded. So, I know for absolutely sure that the email is available, but won't download until I close/restart T-bird.

Thank you for asking! I sure hope someone can figure out why this is happening.

Can you post your Troubleshooting Information? At the top right of the Thunderbird window, click the menu button , then select Help, and then Troubleshooting Information. Press the Copy text to clipboard button and paste the information into your reply.

I tried copying in the info but I get a prompt that says I have to shorten my reply to 10000 chars and I'm using 10042 chars. Do I need to make a text file out of the troubleshooting info and sending that as a File?

Thanks so much.

You can skip most of the 'Important Modified Preferences' section, e.g. any prefs related to your printer. That's usually a lot.

Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 38.3.0
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.3.0
   Profile Folder: Show Folder

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20150928051427
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Memory Use: about:memory

 Mail and News Accounts
   account1:
     INCOMING: account1, , (pop3) pop.googlemail.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account2:
     INCOMING: account2, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext

   account3:
     INCOMING: account3, , (imap) mobile.charter.net:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: mobile.charter.net:587, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account4:
     INCOMING: account4, , (imap) mobile.charter.net:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: mobile.charter.net:587, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account6:
     INCOMING: account6, , (imap) mobile.charter.net:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: mobile.charter.net:587, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account7:
     INCOMING: account7, , (imap) mobile.charter.net:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: mobile.charter.net:587, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account8:
     INCOMING: account8, , (imap) mobile.charter.net:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: mobile.charter.net:587, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account9:
     INCOMING: account9, , (pop3) pop.googlemail.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account11:
     INCOMING: account11, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account12:
     INCOMING: account12, , (imap) mobile.charter.net:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: mobile.charter.net:587, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account13:
     INCOMING: account13, , (imap) mobile.charter.net:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: mobile.charter.net:587, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

 Crash Reports

 Extensions
   Color Folders, 1.1, true, [email protected]
   Edit email subject, 2.0.3, true, [email protected]
   Empty 'em, 0.90, true, [email protected]
   FireShot, 0.98.77, true, {0b457cAA-602d-484a-8fe7-c1d894a011ba}
   Get all mails, 1.1.4, true, [email protected]
   Google Search for Thunderbird, 1.0, true, [email protected]
   ImportExportTools, 3.2.4.1, true, {3ed8cc52-86fc-4613-9026-c1ef969da4c3}
   Lightning, 4.0.3.1, true, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}
   quickFilters, 2.9, true, [email protected]
   QuickFolders, 4.2.2, true, [email protected]
   Rainbowpicker, 0.6.1.1-signed, true, {9c1acee4-c567-4e71-8d1b-edf314afef97}
   ReFwdFormatter, 0.3.1, true, [email protected]

 Important Modified Preferences

   Name: Value

     accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0
     browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
     browser.display.foreground_color: #3333FF
     extensions.lastAppVersion: 38.3.0
     font.name.monospace.el: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.tr: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-baltic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-central-euro: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-cyrillic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-unicode: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-western: Arial
     font.name.sans-serif.el: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.tr: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-baltic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-central-euro: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-cyrillic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-unicode: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-western: Comic Sans MS
     font.name.serif.el: Cambria
     font.name.serif.tr: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-baltic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-central-euro: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-cyrillic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-unicode: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-western: Cambria
     font.size.fixed.el: 14
     font.size.fixed.tr: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-baltic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-central-euro: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-cyrillic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-unicode: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-western: 12
     font.size.variable.el: 17
     font.size.variable.tr: 17
     font.size.variable.x-baltic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-central-euro: 17
     font.size.variable.x-cyrillic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-unicode: 17
     font.size.variable.x-western: 12
     gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0
     mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
     mail.winsearch.enable: true
     mail.winsearch.firstRunDone: true
     mail.winsearch.global_reindex_time: 1413311441
     mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: 941efef3-50f2-4aa5-8db8-5a152fe483a
     mailnews.database.global.views.conversation.columns: {"threadCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"1"},"flaggedCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"3"},"attachmentCol":{"visible":fals…
     mailnews.database.global.views.global.columns: {"threadCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"1"},"flaggedCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"3"},"attachmentCol":{"visible":false…
     network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
     network.predictor.cleaned-up: true
     places.database.lastMaintenance: 1446941470
     places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858
     plugin.importedState: true
     print.always_print_silent: false

(*********printer info deleted by me************)

     security.disable_button.openCertManager: false

 Graphics

     Adapter Description: AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series
     Vendor ID: 0x1002
     Device ID: 0x6738
     Adapter RAM: 1024
     Adapter Drivers: aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64
     Driver Version: 8.850.0.0
     Driver Date: 4-19-2011
     Direct2D Enabled: false
     DirectWrite Enabled: false (6.2.9200.17461)
     ClearType Parameters: D [ Gamma: 2200 Pixel Structure: R ClearType Level: 100 Enhanced Contrast: 400 ] D [ Gamma: 2200 Pixel Structure: R ClearType Level: 100 Enhanced Contrast: 400 ]
     WebGL Renderer: false
     GPU Accelerated Windows: 0

     AzureCanvasBackend: skia
     AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0
     AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo
     AzureContentBackend: cairo

 JavaScript

 Incremental GC: 1

 Accessibility

   Activated: 0
   Prevent Accessibility: 0

 Library Versions

     Expected minimum version
     Version in use

     NSPR
     4.10.8
     4.10.8

     NSS
     3.19.2 Basic ECC
     3.19.2 Basic ECC

     NSS Util
     3.19.2
     3.19.2

     NSS SSL
     3.19.2 Basic ECC
     3.19.2 Basic ECC

     NSS S/MIME
     3.19.2 Basic ECC
     3.19.2 Basic ECC

Thanks for posting the Troubleshooting Information. You do have quite a few accounts set up.

Do you see the problem on one particular account only, or on all of them?

There is an extension 'Get all mails'. What does it do? Do you still see the problem when you disable the extension via Add-ons Manager?

You're right, I do have a lot of accounts. I did notice that in the "Mail and News Accounts" section, it shows Account1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, skipping #'s 5 and 10. Don't know if that's significant, but thought I'd mention. Question: is there a limit to the # of accounts that TB can handle?

According to the author, the Get All Mails supposedly adds a toolbar button for the same functionality as using Shift+F5 and is supposed to get all mail for all accounts. I don't have a problem disabling that extension.

I only specifically noticed the problem with 2 of my email accounts, but those are the ones that I used for emails with my daughter (1st one had issues, so I tried using the 2nd but that exhibited the same problem). The others MAY have had a problem, but it wasn't that noticeable to me.

Is there anything I can/should do to try & 'reset' things? (Hopefully not having to uninstall & reinstall -- I sure wouldn't want to lose my emails!)

Thank you again for your time.

skipping #'s 5 and 10

That isn't a problem.

I don't have a problem disabling that extension.

Does it make any difference when you disable 'Get All Mails'?

I only specifically noticed the problem with 2 of my email accounts

Can you identify the two accounts in the Troubleshooting Information, i.e. which account no.? Or is it a Gmail account, a Charter account, or both?

It appears to be mainly Charter, from what I can tell. And it's not ALL the Charter accounts, just a couple. At least, that's my impression. It could be with all of them (including Gmail), but I'm normally not waiting breathlessly for any other emails.  :)

The accounts are #3 and #13.

All accounts (except the one I'm really interested in) are set to check for mail every 5 minutes. The one I'm interested in is set to check every 1 minute.

When I was using Outlook Express, I had pretty much the same accounts and the same "check for new mail every 1 minute" and never noticed a problem like this.

I won't know if the disabling the extension has any effect until this evening when I'll be trading emails back & forth with my daughter again. I'll post an update after tonight.

There are email providers who limit how often an email client is allowed to check for new mail. A one minute interval seems overkill to me. So you may want to try to increase the value. Since both accounts are IMAP you can also try to allow the 'Idle' command if this isn't enabled yet. It basically means that the server pushes an email to the client right away without waiting for the client to retrieve it. But the server must support that functionality, I don't know if Charter do that.

Tools (Alt-T) - Account Settings - Server Settings - Advanced Check 'Use IDLE command if the server supports it'.

You can send yourself a message to see if it works.

All of the accounts defaulted to "use idle command if server supports it".

Well...I don't know what's happening. I sent quite a few test emails. The last test was after I'd already gotten email from an earlier test, but I didn't stop/restart TB. The emails did not come in until I used the Shift+F5 command. Those accounts were set to check email every 1 minute so I wouldn't have to sit & wait & wait for the test mail.

I give up. I guess there's nothing else to check. Sigh. Thank you so much for all your assistance. At least, I've learned some things today so that was nice.

Thanks - sure appreciate your trying.  :)

Those accounts were set to check email every 1 minute

As said before, your email provider may be throttling your connection attempts if the frequency is too high.