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Emails not downloaded from IMAP server unless I restart

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  • 3 views
  • Last reply by desta.mente

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Hi all,

I asked this question back in 2020 (back then I was using Thunderbird 68.10.0 on a Mac Sierra 10.13.6) but didn't get any advice, and the problem still persists (Thunderbird 102.2.1, on the same laptop).

I have Thunderbird configured with 4 accounts.

Every once in a while (maybe once every few days) Thunderbird stops to automatically download checking for new emails for one and only one of the accounts. As far as I can see, the other three work just fine and I keep getting new incoming emails.

For the problematic account, the flow just entirely stops. If I use the web browser email server (this is a university email, not based on Exchange nor Gmail) I see all of the new emails in the inbox. But somehow Thunderbird either doesn't check anymore, or if it checks doesn't download them.

The only way I found to fix this, is to restart Thunderbird, at which point it will download all the new emails as expected, and will restart automatically checking, until the problem presents itself again after a few days.

This has been going on for a couple of years now, so it doesn't seem to be related to any specific version.

What makes this annoying, is that I do not have any way to realize that Thunderbird stopped downloading emails for that account, until I get suspicious that I have not been getting emails for a few hours, which is quite unusual. This has made it very hard to diagnostic.

The instance of Thunderbird that stops checking for new emails, works otherwise fine: I can read existing emails, and seem to be able to send (even from the problematic account).

Any help would be appreciated, in particular on how to debug this.

thanks salvo

Hi all, I asked this question back in 2020 (back then I was using Thunderbird 68.10.0 on a Mac Sierra 10.13.6) but didn't get any advice, and the problem still persists (Thunderbird 102.2.1, on the same laptop). I have Thunderbird configured with 4 accounts. Every once in a while (maybe once every few days) Thunderbird stops to automatically download checking for new emails for '''one and only one''' of the accounts. As far as I can see, the other three work just fine and I keep getting new incoming emails. For the problematic account, the flow just entirely stops. If I use the web browser email server (this is a university email, not based on Exchange nor Gmail) I see all of the new emails in the inbox. But somehow Thunderbird either doesn't check anymore, or if it checks doesn't download them. The only way I found to fix this, is to restart Thunderbird, at which point it will download all the new emails as expected, and will restart automatically checking, until the problem presents itself again after a few days. This has been going on for a couple of years now, so it doesn't seem to be related to any specific version. What makes this annoying, is that I do not have any way to realize that Thunderbird stopped downloading emails for that account, until I get suspicious that I have not been getting emails for a few hours, which is quite unusual. This has made it very hard to diagnostic. The instance of Thunderbird that stops checking for new emails, works otherwise fine: I can read existing emails, and seem to be able to send (even from the problematic account). Any help would be appreciated, in particular on how to debug this. thanks salvo

All Replies (2)

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There has been an issue in general where any sort of network interruption causes mail checking to fall over post release of V102. So if your current issue is the same as in the past is going to be rather difficult to guess until a fix for the new version appears, and it might fix more than it is designed to as it enables a graceful recovery process. What version to you have at the moment?

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Hi @Matt,

Thanks for your reply. Currently I'm running Thunderbird 102.2.1, on mac Big Sur 11.6, but have had this issue since Thunderbird 68.10.0 on a Mac Sierra 10.13.6 (and not before).

thanks salvo