Inbox exists but suddenly cannot display any messages
The Inbox of my main email account has suddenly refused to display anything at all. In fact, the left panel shows no messages at all. The inbox file size is 8GB (although I don't know why. The file size for the associated junk file is 1GB even though I clear that out daily). I thought I had backed up my profile folder but, alas, for some reason my backup program shows no backup at all. All other subfolders under that email address can be accessed and displayed just fine. Only the Inbox is a problem.
I have tried the "Repair Folder" option under Inbox Properties, but that did not help. The messages are clearly there. Is there any hope for recovery?
If it helps, this is the Index.msf file after doing Repair Folder. Thanks for any help.
// < <(a=c)> // (f=iso-8859-1)
(B8=sortOrder)(B9=viewFlags)(BA=viewType)(BB=sortColumns) (BC=columnStates)(80=ns:msg:db:row:scope:msgs:all)(81=subject) (82=sender)(83=message-id)(84=references)(85=recipients)(86=date) (87=size)(88=flags)(89=priority)(8A=label)(8B=numLines)(8C=ccList) (8D=bccList)(8E=msgThreadId)(8F=threadId)(90=threadFlags) (91=threadNewestMsgDate)(92=children)(93=unreadChildren) (94=threadSubject)(95=msgCharSet)(96=ns:msg:db:table:kind:msgs) (97=ns:msg:db:table:kind:thread)(98=ns:msg:db:table:kind:allthreads) (99=ns:msg:db:row:scope:threads:all)(9A=threadParent)(9B=threadRoot) (9C=msgOffset)(9D=offlineMsgSize) (9E=ns:msg:db:row:scope:dbfolderinfo:all) (9F=ns:msg:db:table:kind:dbfolderinfo)(A0=numMsgs)(A1=numNewMsgs) (A2=folderSize)(A3=expungedBytes)(A4=folderDate)(A5=highWaterKey) (A6=mailboxName)(A7=UIDValidity)(A8=totPendingMsgs) (A9=unreadPendingMsgs)(AA=expiredMark)(AB=version)(AC=forceReparse) (AD=fixedBadRefThreading)(AE=useServerRetention)(AF=retainBy) (B0=daysToKeepHdrs)(B1=numHdrsToKeep)(B2=daysToKeepBodies) (B3=cleanupBodies)(B4=useServerDefaults)(B5=applyToFlaggedMessages) (B6=MRUTime)(B7=sortType)>
{1:^80 {(k^96:c)(s=9)} } {FFFFFFFD:^99 {(k^98:c)(s=9)} }
<(80=1)(81=0)(82=1ff88b34a)(83=6458cdc7)(84=1e)(85=1683635536)(86=12)
(87=)>
{1:^9E {(k^9F:c)(s=9u)}
[1(^AB=1)(^AC=0)(^AD=1)(^A0=0)(^A1=0)(^A2^82)(^A4^83)(^AE=1)(^AF=1)
(^B0=1e)(^B1=1e)(^B2=1)(^B3=0)(^B4=1)(^B5=0)(^B6^85)(^B7=12)(^B8=1)
(^B9=1)(^BA=0)(^BB=)
(^BC
={"selectCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"1"},"threadCol":{"visible":true,\
"ordinal":"3"},"flaggedCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"5"},"attachmentCol":{"v\ isible":true,"ordinal":"7"},"subjectCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"15"},"unre\ adButtonColHeader":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"9"},"senderCol":{"visible":false\ ,"ordinal":"19"},"recipientCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"17"},"corresponden\ tCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"21"},"junkStatusCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal\ ":"11"},"receivedCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"41"},"dateCol":{"visible":tr\ ue,"ordinal":"35"},"statusCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"23"},"sizeCol":{"vi\ sible":false,"ordinal":"37"},"tagsCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"39"},"accou\ ntCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"25"},"priorityCol":{"visible":false,"ordina\ l":"27"},"unreadCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"29"},"totalCol":{"visible":fa\ lse,"ordinal":"31"},"locationCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"43"},"idCol":{"v\ isible":false,"ordinal":"33"},"deleteCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"13"},"co\ lQuickArchiver":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"45"}})]}
@$${1{@ [1:^9E(^AB=0)] @$$}1}@
Wšě wotmołwy (3)
Update. I renamed the Inbox file to Old Inbox and created a new Inbox file so that I could get to some sense of normalcy. I then attempted to edit the OldIndex file with Notepad++ and got the following message:
Operation did not complete successfully because the file contains a virus or potentially unwanted software.
Really? Now what. I ran the file through a Malwarebytes scan and it found nothing. Now what?
I was able to find a backup from last week before the problem started and was able to recover the Inbox through that point. I was finally able to delete the old Inbox with the malware. The good news is I never opened the email that contained the malware so my system is not compromised.
I had issues where the inbox displayed nothing because defender got it in it's stupid digital head it would quarantine the inbox because if had malware.
I checked the windows site and found the "malware" dated from 2003 and only affected no longer supported versions of windows, stuff was patched 15 years ago against it. So I just created an exception in defender to exclude the Thunderbird mail folders from scanning. The are plain text files and as Thunderbird does not run scripts in email this whole mail scanning thing is something of a waste of my time. Defender can scan the attachments when I try and open them.