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Mail Stars reappear after some time by themselve

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Hello!

Since a few months, I have a problem with the yellow stars used as labels next to mails in the inbox. Sometimes, when changing the inbox from e.g. one of the accounts (or some other folder) to the collective inbox, stars, which I had removed from mails months ago, reappear. To further clarify: For example, I mark a mail with a star to remember to answer to it. Then, after some time, I did what I wanted, remove the star again, and the mail goes down in the inbox. After some days, directly after changing from the collective inbox to some other folder and back to it, those mails are again marked with a star, without my interaction with them. I normally have about ten mails marked with a star, but after the described occurrence, another 20-30 old mails are mixed into them and it's getting a bit difficult to keep track of which mails correctly have a star and which have wrongly joined them. Until now I wasn't able to determine any pattern between the occurrences, nor seems it to be a problem of the provider (the affected mails are from accounts from several (GMX, Web, Telekom)). Also, I've never seen it happen when using my phone to check mails, so I think some residue on the server side would be unlikely. Something that has come to my attention recently is that before the occurence, the "new mails counter" (the number in brackets behind the inboxes) is out of sync: The collective inbox shows no number, but one of the accounts claims to have f.e. two new mails. Everytime I noticed it being out of sync, the occurrence happened afterwards, but sometimes it also happens when there are no indicators of new mails on any inbox.

I so far reinstalled thunderbird; switched from the 32bit version to 64bit; updated to a newer version multiple times; and removed my accounts and used ImportExportTools to add them again.

I am (now) on Thunderbird 64bit 60.6.1 on a Windows 10 Pro machine. I did some minor changes to the config (mailnews.default_sort_order, mailnews.default_sort_type), and have a few plugins installed (ImportExportTools, SignatureSwitch, IdentityChooser).

I hope somebody has a hunch on how to solve my problem, and that I didn't overlook something fairly simple, but currently I'm stumped. Thanks in advance!

Hello! Since a few months, I have a problem with the yellow stars used as labels next to mails in the inbox. Sometimes, when changing the inbox from e.g. one of the accounts (or some other folder) to the collective inbox, stars, which I had removed from mails months ago, reappear. To further clarify: For example, I mark a mail with a star to remember to answer to it. Then, after some time, I did what I wanted, remove the star again, and the mail goes down in the inbox. After some days, directly after changing from the collective inbox to some other folder and back to it, those mails are again marked with a star, without my interaction with them. I normally have about ten mails marked with a star, but after the described occurrence, another 20-30 old mails are mixed into them and it's getting a bit difficult to keep track of which mails correctly have a star and which have wrongly joined them. Until now I wasn't able to determine any pattern between the occurrences, nor seems it to be a problem of the provider (the affected mails are from accounts from several (GMX, Web, Telekom)). Also, I've never seen it happen when using my phone to check mails, so I think some residue on the server side would be unlikely. Something that has come to my attention recently is that before the occurence, the "new mails counter" (the number in brackets behind the inboxes) is out of sync: The collective inbox shows no number, but one of the accounts claims to have f.e. two new mails. Everytime I noticed it being out of sync, the occurrence happened afterwards, but sometimes it also happens when there are no indicators of new mails on any inbox. I so far reinstalled thunderbird; switched from the 32bit version to 64bit; updated to a newer version multiple times; and removed my accounts and used ImportExportTools to add them again. I am (now) on Thunderbird 64bit 60.6.1 on a Windows 10 Pro machine. I did some minor changes to the config (mailnews.default_sort_order, mailnews.default_sort_type), and have a few plugins installed (ImportExportTools, SignatureSwitch, IdentityChooser). I hope somebody has a hunch on how to solve my problem, and that I didn't overlook something fairly simple, but currently I'm stumped. Thanks in advance!

Chosen solution

It sounds like you use 'Unified' folders which is a virtual view created by Thunderbird.

Maybe that 'Unified' folder has become out of sync or corrupted, so I suggest you do the following to see if this rectifies the issue.

  • Menu icon > Folders > Select 'All'
  • In all the individual Inboxes, check the 'stars' are correct.

In Thunderbird

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • click on 'Open Folder' button

A new window opens showing contents of profile name folder.

  • Exit Thunderbird now.
  • Click on 'Mail' folder.
  • Delete the 'Smart mailboxes' folder.

Start Thunderbird.

  • Menu icon > Folders > Select 'Unified'

A new 'smart mailboxes' folder will be created.

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All Replies (2)

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Chosen Solution

It sounds like you use 'Unified' folders which is a virtual view created by Thunderbird.

Maybe that 'Unified' folder has become out of sync or corrupted, so I suggest you do the following to see if this rectifies the issue.

  • Menu icon > Folders > Select 'All'
  • In all the individual Inboxes, check the 'stars' are correct.

In Thunderbird

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • click on 'Open Folder' button

A new window opens showing contents of profile name folder.

  • Exit Thunderbird now.
  • Click on 'Mail' folder.
  • Delete the 'Smart mailboxes' folder.

Start Thunderbird.

  • Menu icon > Folders > Select 'Unified'

A new 'smart mailboxes' folder will be created.

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Thank you for your response!

I wasn't aware of how thunderbird handles the unified view, a possible corruption of these files seems natural.

I followed your instructions and let thunderbird create a fresh smart mailboxes folder (the .msf's all halfed in size).

Because the occurence happened irregularly, I can't immediately confirm whether the problem is solved for good, so if it persists I'll report.

Again, thank you for your fast help!

(PS: I just noticed the formatting ate the line breaks which had no empty line in between, making my first post a bit hard to read, sorry for that!)