Outlook.com and Thunderbird don't play well together

[ritergal]

Since installing the latest update a day or so ago I'm having a problem with my outlook.com account. The inbox currently shows 4 unread messages. I moved every message out of that folder into a new one. The empty inbox shows 4 unread messages. This morning it was only one. This is not going to work for me.

The account is set up as pop-mail. I tried IMAP, but that caused all sorts of weird craziness. For this account only, Thunderbird sporadically downloads extra copies of random emails, sometimes as many as six. These dups are spread over a few months -- they don't come all at once.

I have three email accounts wired into Thunderbird, one each from Windstream.net, gmail.com, and outlook.com. Outlook.com is the only one causing me the least bit of grief. Is it outlook.com or Thunderbird or both? Why are they not playing nicely together?

[ritergal]

P.S. I have the server set to leave the messages on the server until I delete them. That should not be a cause for the double-downloads. I have that same setting on my other two accounts.

[DanRaisch]

The problem seems to be with Hotmail.

Do you regularly compact the message folders? Compacting is something that needs to be done regularly in any email program, particularly with POP type accounts. We recommend weekly, but many of us do it daily. When done often enough, it can be an extremely fast process. Not doing so can lead to problems like those you are experiencing. See this about how to and why it's so important: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

If you haven't been doing that before, first back up your Thunderbird Profile -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup then compact all folders. If 'compacting' them (and leaving a long enough time for the process to complete) doesn't fully resolve the problem then do the following on each account:

Close Thunderbird. Find and delete all of the files with the .msf file extension in your profile folder/Mail http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Folder#Thunderbird including your Local Folders, especially if you are using the global inbox. You must have "View hidden files and folders" on http://spywarewarrior.com/viewtopic.php?t=272 and you need to set "hide extensions for known file types" off (just below View Hidden) if you are using Windows. These are your mail summary files and do not hold any messages themselves. They will be rebuilt the next time you open each folder in Thunderbird. Compact all your folders when you have completed this.

To avoid this happening again, see the tips in these articles:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_worki ... derbird%29
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Performance_%28Thunderbird%29

[fdisk2k]

I confirm the same issue, Outlook using IMAP disconnects every time, I can't get my messages from any folder.

I'm having this problem from long time ago, at least three years ago.

I don't know if that is Microsoft side, because I tried Outlook (mac) with the same settings and have the same results, nevertheless Mail (native OSX mail client) get all the mails, all the folders without hiccups.

Something in the core of Thunderbird & Outlook doesn't get well with Hotmail/Outlook+IMAP

@Dan I've did all the procedures you mention, but nothing seems to fix that server hiccups, disconnections , as a Mac user I don't use any antivirus that could make this problems as always read the tips for pinpoint server glitches.