Subject disconnected from body

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larrycfc
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Subject disconnected from body

Post by larrycfc »

With increasing frequency over the past couple of weeks, I'm finding emails where clicking on the subject brings up a different email. It may be one I read previously with no problem, or it may be a new one. I'm also seeing more emails come through as raw html. Most of those appear to be spam so that's less of a concern but I'm worried about the seemingly increasing corruption. Would it help to repair all the mailboxes, or would a reinstall help?
Windows 10 and TB 102.0.
Larry Triplett
APTCO Inc.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by tanstaafl »

Sounds like a corrupt inbox. Additional symptoms would include seeing dates of approx. January 1st, 1970 (due to missing Date: header), message fragments, and/or resurrected deleted messages.

Try right clicking on the folder in the folder pane, selecting properties and selecting repair folder. If you are lucky its just a corrupt folder listing (not a corrupt folder) and you can leave it at that.

If that doesn't solve the problem I suggest you back up your profile, move most of the messages in that folder (I assume its the inbox) to other folders/child folders, empty the trash and then compact the folders.

You could also install the ImportExportTools NG add-on, use it to export all of the messages as .eml files, and then import them into another folder. Frequently it won't export corrupt messages. Then you could try compacting the corrupt folder.

Compacting a folder physically removes the marked deleted and hidden messages in the mbox file. Its good preventative maintenance, not just a way to free disk space. However, if the folder is badly corrupted enough it can make things much worse . Its possible to lose every message in the folder if you're very unlucky. That could occur if the topmost message in the file is marked deleted and when it tried to physically remove it it can't figure out where the message ends due to corruption. So you don't want to automatically compact a folder when it might be corrupt. You need to evaluate your circumstances first.

Re-installing will not help as its not a problem with Thunderbird, its with your profile. I assume you're using POP accounts. The problem is probably a corrupt mbox file. A mbox file is named after the folder, has no file extension, and is what stores all of the messages for that folder. If you're lucky its just the *.msf file (the cache of the folder listing that gets rebuilt if you "repair folder") . "inbox." (has the messages) is the mbox file for a inbox folder, "inbox.msf" is the cache of its folder listing (no messages in it) . "inbox.sbd" would be a renamed subdirectory used to organize other mbox files into a directory tree used to create the hierarchy of mail folders you see in Thunderbird.
larrycfc
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by larrycfc »

Thanks! I believe I've seen some of this in other folders (all of which are subfolders of inbox). If that is true, would the approach be the same? This is an IMAP account, in case that changes anything.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by tanstaafl »

I've seen corrupt folders in a IMAP account but its pretty unusual. Does the same problem occur using webmail (browser based)? If it does, then the problem is not with Thunderbird.

If you have accounts with multiple email providers try copying some of the "bad" messages to another account and see if the problem occurs there too. You could also try copying some of them to "Local Folders" though that is not as useful.

A message partially displayed as raw html can be something different. Thunderbird is a real stickler about following standards and a message with both a plain text and a HTML version of the message body can be displayed as expected using webmail and other email clients, but Thunderbird interpret the HTML version of the message body as part of the plain text message body because it doesn't recognize where the MIME section for the plain text message body ends. So the raw HTML code is displayed as is.

They have the same attitude regarding images that don't have a meaningful MIME type (it identifies its a jpeg or png image etc.). Most email clients realize its an error and make a reasonable assumption, displaying the image. Thunderbird just shows the outline of the image.

If that's what's causing it then it would probably only occur for mail from a couple of senders.
larrycfc
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by larrycfc »

These messages display correctly in webmail.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by tanstaafl »

If all of the "bad" messages display correctly in webmail I'm at a loss. Who is your email provider?
larrycfc
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by larrycfc »

It's hosted on Go Daddy—secureserver.net.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by tanstaafl »

That sounds like you are using Workspace Email and not Microsoft 365 (which they also offer).

https://www.godaddy.com/help/add-my-wor ... rbird-4878

Try copying some of those troublesome messages to either "Local Folders" or a IMAP account with a free email provider such as Gmail or outlook. See if the same problem occurs. I've got IMAP accounts with fastmail, outlook, gmail, comcast, gmx, and yahoo and don't see anything like that.

You could export your address books as a .csv file, try installing version 91.12.0 (64-bit, english usa) in a different location, add --allow-downgrade to the command line arguments in the shortcut, and if necessary use the about:profiles link in help -> more troubleshooting information to set your profile as the default profile again. The reason to export your address books beforehand is the address book schema changed and some (but not all) people don't see phone numbers in their contacts if they downgrade. I think it might depend upon the address book layout. The workaround is to import the *.csv files to create address books if its a problem.

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" --allow-downgrade

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/ ... 1.12.0.exe

If you do that don't forget to disable automated upgrades in the settings.

Sometimes when I need to troubleshoot whether a problem is in Thunderbird or the IMAP server I see if the same problem occurs using the same IMAP account with the free version of "em client". Its a good email client with very little customization and no add-ons that is limited to 2 accounts that I have installed just for troubleshooting who to blame. I've noticed that it can't tolerate some customization in gmail webmail of the imap settings (not to be confused with the email clients gmail imap account settings) but its a lot better than trying to use the Mail app from the Microsoft store (pretty buggy). https://www.emclient.com

My gut feel is that there is a problem with the GoDaddy IMAP server since it didn't start within a day or two of when you installed 102 and I haven't noticed a flurry of similar threads. However I did a quick search of Bugzilla for any bug reports for 91.* or 102.* that mentioned GoDaddy and didn't find anything.
larrycfc
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by larrycfc »

Meant to reply earlier, haven't had a minute. Thanks for your detailed info. I'm not sure how to classify the type of email system. In the past, I had my primary website hosted by godaddy, as part of a shared hosting plan. Email was set up through C-panel. I think that is different from the product they call workspace email. A few years ago, I migrated the website to another host in order to combine it with an ordering database, but I left the email where it was, as I was keeping the shared hosting plan for some other sites. C-panel is my access point if I need to change things like forwarding.

After a few days with clean emails, the problems are increasing again. Some emails previously viewed (in subfolders) have the disconnected headers. Others, upon arrival or later, display only the word subject and the date/time, without the reply/forward/etc. buttons. The preview pane shows raw html, along with a big chunk of ASCII. They are fine in webmail. Repair and compact don't seem to do anything.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by tanstaafl »

I suggest you sign up for a free email account with gmail that you use just for troubleshooting. Copy some of the messages that don't look right to it and see if the gmail IMAP account has the same problem. That will identify if the problem is Thunderbird or the GoDaddy mail server.
larrycfc
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by larrycfc »

I already have a gmail account. How do you mean to copy? Forward? Copy and paste into a new message to that address?
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tanstaafl
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by tanstaafl »

Select the messages and then use "message -> copy to" to copy the messages to a folder in the gmail account.
larrycfc
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by larrycfc »

I only read gmail on the web. Are you suggesting I do all this in TB?
I'm currently importing into emclient as another test, that's taking a while.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by tanstaafl »

Yes. I'm suggesting you do that temporarily to help troubleshoot . You can still continue to use gmail via webmail if you do that.

If you add a gmail IMAP account to em client it should not take long to import as it only needs to fetch the headers before it becomes usable.
larrycfc
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Re: Subject disconnected from body

Post by larrycfc »

Since I had imported everything into emclient, and it took several hours, I haven't yet done a test with a fresh gmail account. After being away for a few days, I've started looking through emails for ones that show raw code, then comparing to the display in emclient. All display fine there. I get ~400 emails a day, sorted into over a dozen folders, so it is rather tedious work to check. I haven't yet come across one where the subject doesn't match. But I'm thinking the display difference must mean something.
Larry Triplett
APTCO Inc.
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