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Why has one of my email accounts stopped storing sent messages in Sent folder?

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  • Last reply by Matt

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I have an Apple iMac running OS X 10.8.5 and Thunderbird 24.5.0. The computer is set up for 2 users - myself and my wife. I have Thunderbird set up for me with 3 email accounts, and my wife has 1 email account. We have been using Thunderbird for many months without major issues. Suddenly today when my wife sent an email via her Outlook (Hotmail) account, it came up with an error message saying that the message could not be sent. I investigated and found (by logging onto Outlook) that the message had indeed been sent and was showing up in the Outlook Sent folder, but not in the Thunderbird Sent folder. After trying several test messages (with the same result), it is apparent that my wife's Thunderbird account is misbehaving as described above. I then tried my own account and was able to send emails using my Outlook (Hotmail) account normally. The messages were saved in the Sent folder as expected. I have tried turning off the computer and starting again - no change - my Thunderbird setup works as it has done previously, but my wife's setup no longer works as previously.

So it would appear that the program itself is ok, but there is something wrong with my wife's setup.

I have examined the contents of both of our Profile Folders using Thunderbird's "Troubleshooting Information" to show each Profile Folder in Finder.

When I drill down to the "pop3.live.com" folders, there is a difference between the contents of those folders. My "pop3.live.com" folder contains the expected document files for "Drafts", "Inbox", "Sent", "Trash", etc... I can open and inspect the contents of those folders.

According to Finder, my wife's "pop3.live.com" folder contains Unix Executable files rather than document files (They all have the expected names, just not the expected file type, and I cannot open and inspect the contents of those folders).

Could this explain the behaviour described above, and if so, how can it be fixed? If this is not the answer, could someone point me in the right direction?

I have an Apple iMac running OS X 10.8.5 and Thunderbird 24.5.0. The computer is set up for 2 users - myself and my wife. I have Thunderbird set up for me with 3 email accounts, and my wife has 1 email account. We have been using Thunderbird for many months without major issues. Suddenly today when my wife sent an email via her Outlook (Hotmail) account, it came up with an error message saying that the message could not be sent. I investigated and found (by logging onto Outlook) that the message had indeed been sent and was showing up in the Outlook Sent folder, but not in the Thunderbird Sent folder. After trying several test messages (with the same result), it is apparent that my wife's Thunderbird account is misbehaving as described above. I then tried my own account and was able to send emails using my Outlook (Hotmail) account normally. The messages were saved in the Sent folder as expected. I have tried turning off the computer and starting again - no change - my Thunderbird setup works as it has done previously, but my wife's setup no longer works as previously. So it would appear that the program itself is ok, but there is something wrong with my wife's setup. I have examined the contents of both of our Profile Folders using Thunderbird's "Troubleshooting Information" to show each Profile Folder in Finder. When I drill down to the "pop3.live.com" folders, there is a difference between the contents of those folders. My "pop3.live.com" folder contains the expected document files for "Drafts", "Inbox", "Sent", "Trash", etc... I can open and inspect the contents of those folders. According to Finder, my wife's "pop3.live.com" folder contains Unix Executable files rather than document files (They all have the expected names, just not the expected file type, and I cannot open and inspect the contents of those folders). Could this explain the behaviour described above, and if so, how can it be fixed? If this is not the answer, could someone point me in the right direction?

Chosen solution

Thanks for the suggestion, Matt. Not long before I received your response, I found a work-around. Compacting all folders seems to have solved it.

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right click (Command click) the folder and select properties. What is the size of the problem one on disk. 2Gb is a hard limit on unix operating systems as I understand it.

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Chosen Solution

Thanks for the suggestion, Matt. Not long before I received your response, I found a work-around. Compacting all folders seems to have solved it.

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2Gb is a hard limit on unix operating systems as I understand it.

Mac OS HFS+ files system supports at least 2 TB files (depending on the Mac OS version).

The standard Linux file system ext4 supports 16 TB files.

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@christ1 Yes, using the same logic windows limit is something like 16 extbytes. Reality is 4Gb pulls it up.

There has been recent work on the messageid that will be in the next release, might even have made it into a recent security and stability release. But until that happens Thunderbird has 4Gb limited messageid numbers. I am still not convinced a non IMAP folder can be successful in the 4Gb plus range. Only time will convince me all the ugly realities have been fixed.