Thunderbird Community Forum

Hi,

TL;TR. Thunderbird should not change the whole folder (e.g. Inbox) during compacting by replacing "From" with "From - Mon May 3 20:50:30 2004" and the other way round. It dramatically increases the size of incremental backups done by tools detecting only blocks of bigger files which change.

Longer version. I use Borg to backup Thunderbird profile. It supports deduplication and can incrementally backup only parts of bigger files which have changed. As I use filters to automatically move messages from Inbox to the other folders, before backup, I perform compacting of the Inbox folder to effectively remove moved messages (and those deleted manually - e.g. the biggest ones). I worked pretty fine - there were no changes detected by Borg in the old messages. Only new messages were backed up.

However, it worsen in the recent months - Borg started to detected changes also in the old messages in Inbox (after compacting performed before the every backup session). As a result, a (compressed) incremental copy takes ~1/3 of the whole Inbox (instead of some MBs). For Inbox having 5GB+, it can be a problem (e.g. when - slow - network storage is used).

I diffed the Inbox file before and after of recent compacting and Thunderbird around an upgrade to 128.x (I cannot tell exactly which minor version it was) changed the "From" line for every message from just "From" to "From - Thu Nov 14 22:32:10 2024" (a date when the compaction was performed). In older backups I see that some earlier versions of Thunderbird removed the date replacing the line with just "From".

My question. Had it been an accidental change (with removing the date) which was later reverted and there will be no more "rewriting" compacted folders? Or it's "more complicated" and people using incremental backup cannot sleep peacefully?

Marcin

P.S. Let's skip the msf files for the moment as they are much smaller.

I've recently installed Thunderbird 128. I want to setup auto-reply but I have not found where to enable it despite looking through Settings and Account Settings.

I have composed an auto-reply and saved it as a Template - however, I cannot find where it is saved.

Also, the Actions in Manage Message Filters does not list "Reply with Template".

Any idea how to resolve this, please?

I had had issues with gloda (search) for a long while. I have tried deleting the sqlite file to force a reindex as per the guidance. I am watching Activity Monitor in TB after reopening, to monitor the reindex process. But it hangs every time. it goes through sent items and seems to get stuck at one point every time. See image below, it's been sat like that for an hour or more now. Any ideas? thanks (Image uploader doesn't seem to be working on this board, so here's the screenshot: https://ibb.co/8MjfKRW)

Is it possible to copy Tunderbird email files to the computer's documents. Our server uses POP, so they can only be accessed on my PC and not other devices. Thanx.

I am using a Mac with Big Sur (macOS Monterey Version 12.7.6), and my email is POP, using Thunderbird Version 128.4.2esr. My incoming messages are sorted in reverse order so that the latest message is listed first. I retrieve the message headers first then I either delete the message or download the contents of the message. The problem is that when I click on the download instructions Thunderbird does download the message OK, '''BUT it highlights the message just downloaded and it jumps to the next message. '''This is very annoying because in order to read the contents of the message I have to go back one message and purposely select the message just downloaded. It did not do this previously. Please correct or tell me the corrective action I should take.

Why is my email slow or fails to send? Why am i regularly asked to input the password sometimes several time a day.

I am in the UK using the BT email address

Security is Bit-defender premium total security

Thunderbird V 128.4.3esr (32-bit) on a Windows10 pc

Thank You

The global search in TB is completely defective. I am now running 128.2.0esr and hoped that update might fix it. It hasn't. I just wonder, are there any older or non ESR versions I can downgrade/move to, where the search is fully functional?

Hi

I have for many years moved relevant email messages from my inbox to an archive folder. My wife who also uses Thunderbird does the same.

Some time in the not too distant past Thunderbird has started preventing me from moving files from folder to folder.

I am running the latest version of Thunderbird.

Any help gratefully received

Many thanks

Peter Moran

Hello Folks Incoming email is posted directly to my Trash folder and not to my Inbox on my Thunderbird program. Can anyone help me with this problem please? Terry O [email protected]

Please Help Me. Have been a Thunderbird user for over 10 years. I have "new" desktop with windows 11. when setting up my thunderbird account for my three email accounts the gmail setup when fine, but the other two accounts will not SEND emails. All settings are same for incoming and outgoing SMTP. Have spoken with TWC and confirmed the settings and they said it's on your end. Please Help! thanks.Mike

Apologies if this is a very basic question but I've searched for an answer and not found one that works. I'm using Thunderbird 128.4.3 on a Windows 10 desktop PC.

If I click on a message which already has several replies, each reply is opened in a separate tab. I thought there was an alternative to this, and indeed a found a piece about it, which includes this advice:

Enable threading on a folder... Open the View menu... In the Sort by submenu, choose Threaded. Your messages will be bundled into tree structures that can be expanded or collapsed with the > or v arrow next to the subject.

Unfortunately, when I looked at the settings for a few of my folders, the Threaded option was already ticked. But the ladder-with-indents display I w as expecting (and hoping for) doesn't appear. I'd be grateful for any advice.

Many thanks.

stopped sending emails. a new error message : login to smtp comcast.net with username( the only email address I have ever had) failed. i have no idea what to do. Yesterday I got a completely different error message about some authentication B.S. a couple of people have responded with suggestions that I dont understand. how do you check something when you dont know what it should be ?

I am running Thunderbird snap 128 esr on Ubuntu 24.4. A few days ago the usual alert popped up advising me that a new version of Thunderbird was available. I duly closed the programme, waited a little while and then reopened it. But on checking I found that it was still stuck on 128.4.2, while the release notes say that the latest version is 128.4.4. Yesterday the alert appeared again. I again closed and opened the programme but found it to be still on 12.4.2. The same thing happened again today. Any idea why Thunderbird is apparently not updating? NB: Each day the alert is reducing by one the number of days in which it says Thunderbird will be automatically updated.

I do not receive attached files in my emails. As far as I know all my server settings are correct. I have disabled my VPN so that is not interfering as it does with sending emails. Thunderbird was set up to preview pdf docs but it doesn't.

Since today, when I opened TB on my M1 mac, the cursor suddenly started multicolour circling and nothing happened. below the following message comes host contacted. sending login information Force quit TB but nothing changed. restarted the mac but nothing changed switched off wifi . then the circling stopped and could check, delete old email. the moment wifi is switched on , the cursor starts circling and cannot do anything. i think TB is not connecting to internet. Please help solve the problem

Dear all, Since two days my e-mails are downloaded multiple times, i.e. I receive one and the same mail up to 10 times or more. I have 3 accounts, but only two of them have this problem. The account without problem is with a different provider. What could be the reason? What could I do? Many thanks and best regards, Ute

I just left from Postbox (on macos) since this program has been sold to another company and is not maintained anymore. Postbox is designed after Thunderbird. It has a convenient feature: displaying Location in the headers of displayed messages. For those users who have a lot of mailboxes, this can be quite helpful. If no add-on can do this, I suggest that it is implemented in Thunderbird itself.

Dear Sir or Madam, Since last monday I'm unable to receive Thunderbirds messages but can send and the 2 emails went into my local folders file now instead of my [email protected] sent file (see attachedment). I am unable to carry out any functions of my current files in [email protected] (eg move, change or delete). I've also noticed if I try other methods to retrieve messages I get the 1st attachment each time on my screen. I've tried checking my Settings / Account settings with my very limited experience and all the settings appear to be correct according to other blogs I've read. As further info when I open my Thunderbirds page it is not normal for the page to show permanently [email protected]: Connected to imap.aol.com... (see 3rd attachment). Normally it would search for emails received in my INBOX and if nothing found remain empty?. I hope the attachments assist - so PLEASE HELP Dave S Smith