I restarted my PC while Thunderbird was compressing files. Inbox won't accept incoming emails and subfolders are missing. Is there any way to recover them?
Incoming messages won't go into Thunderbird. Instead I get an error message: "This message may contain a virus or there is not enough disk space. Skip this message?" The compression created one nstmp file for my inbox and had started another for the inbox subfolders when the restart interrupted it.
Task 1 is to get the Inbox working properly again. Task 2 is to see if I can recover the subfolder emails. Task 3 is guidance on setting up a Thunderbird backup system. My PC backs up but apparently does not cover Thunderbird.
Thanks!
All Replies (2)
It is compacting, not compressing and the only critical time is the second that the original store file is deleted and the new one renamed to the old ones name. You must have been very unlucky if that occurred.
Options > Security > anti virus. Ensure this option is disabled. If the anti virus is taking too long, that message can occur.
Also create an exception in your anti virus for your Thunderbird profile folders. They can lock the store file with the result that it reports an error message as you suggest.
Rebuild the global database. If it gets messed up it to can lock the file for other actions https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/rebuilding-global-database.
While you are deleting files, delete the XULStore.json file from the same folder. That will force Thunderbird to rebuild it's folder cache and may just make the missing folders appear.
Run a disk integrity check. You appear to be using Windows 7 so these instructions should do it. https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/2641432/check-your-hard-disk-for-errors-in-windows-7
Windows key +R Type %appdata% Press enter. The Thunderbird folder shown in the windows file manager and all of it's sub folders is what you need to backup.
Ok I think that should keep you busy for a while as the integrity check and the global database rebuild could well take a day to complete. Please report back your results.
Matt: Thanks for the reply. I was able to do everything except create an anti-virus exception for my single profile folder. The folder had an eight-character name (numbers and letters) followed by: .default. Is that typical?
The disk integrity check only took a few minutes and did not report any significant errors that I saw. If there is a way to report to you the errors it fixed, let me know and I will do so.
I rebuilt the global database and deleted the .json file and, after restarting the PC, restarted Thunderbird. Unfortunately, no luck. The inbox still will not receive e-mails. Also, my nstmp folder which was my prior inbox is gone. The second nstmp folder, which was a small percentage of information from my inbox subfolders, is still there.
Any suggestions on how to get the inbox working? I am still able to send out emails from Thunderbird. I also would like to recover the missing nstmp file. Your guidance is appreciated.