Partial mail download

[christopherFL]

I have recently bought a new computer and have set up Thunderbird with the same settings as my old one(as far as I can tell!). Whilst the old computer downloads all the messages as normal my new one does not. It loads apparently normally and then tries to download my messages but stops after doing 3. I know there are more because it will tell me there are, say 35, messages before it downloads 3 and stops. If I press 'Get Messages' nothing happens. Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong? Thanks

[DanRaisch]

* How is that mail account set up, as POP or IMAP?
* Who is your mail provider? Your ISP, corporate e-mail system or Web-based?
* Are you using an antivirus and/or a firewall program? Which one(s)?

[christopherFL]

I am using POP. My ISP is Talktalk. And I am using McAfee virus protection. Thanks for your response. Any ideas?

[DanRaisch]

Although McAfee is a possible factor here, try the following procedure --

First, backup your Profile ( http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup )

Create a new sub-folder under Local Folders. Move all of the messages currently in your Inbox to that new subfolder.

Confirm that you have made the recommended backup of your Profile.

Close Thunderbird and navigate to the \Mail sub-folder of your Profile folder. Delete both the file Inbox.msf and the file Inbox with no extension.

Restart Thunderbird and you should find a new, empty Inbox folder in place. Copy any messages you MUST have in your Inbox from the sub-folder created above to the Inbox. Compact the Inbox after those messages are copied in.

The "Real Fix" entry in this article -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders#Real_fix also describes this process.

[christopherFL]

Thanks Dan, very helpful and it seems to have solved the problem. I am very relieved as it was hugely frustrating! Thanks again.

[christopherFL]

Unfortunately I spoke too soon!! The problem has reappeared. This is typical of the intermittent nature of the problem, some email comes through sometime but not others. I have a gmail account and tested this my sending myself a gmail message. I confirmed it left my outbox but never arrived in my Thunderbird inbox. I did have a Windows mail set up with the same POP3 data but I have just deleted that in case there was some interference. Unfortunately that did not appear to be the problem. Any other suggestions?

[christopherFL]

I have just looked again and there are 2 inboxes. Under > Mail I can see folders called Local Folders, pop3.gotadsl.co.uk and smart mailboxes. The inbox I have been deleting has been the one under pop3.gotadsl.co.uk but there is also an inbox and inbox.msf in the Local Folders area. Should I delete that too?

[DanRaisch]

Should I delete that too?

Not unless the POP account is set up to use the Global Inbox option -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Global_Inbox

[christopherFL]

No, its not. No email arriving now. I am wondering if I should delete Mozilla and reinstall. Would/Could that be useful? Any other suggestions?

[DanRaisch]

I am wondering if I should delete Mozilla and reinstall. Would/Could that be useful?

Normally, no. I'm still suspicious of McAfee. You might try uninstalling that software using the utility available from McAfee's website, then reboot the system, then installing a free security package such as Avast. If you still have problems with getting mail you could revert to (reinstall) McAfee.

[christopherFL]

Thanks. I don't think it can be McAfee as my old computer, where Thunderbird still works, also has the same software installed. This morning my email appears to be working and consequently fingers, toes etc. are all crossed! My inbox now appears to be at a higher level in the file structure and not part of my Local Folders as it was previously. This may be as a result of me trying new things on the set up options. When I said there was no email yesterday it may have been going to this top level folder but as it was collapsed so I couldn't see the emails. I'll leave things as they are for a few days and see if what I have now is stable. Thanks once again for your help. Wonderful to have someone to turn to as it is hard to fix these things by yourself in the dark!

[DanRaisch]

You're welcome and it may have had nothing to do with McAfee. Understand, however, that many (most?) security programs have tables/options to identify a program as accepted or rejected. Those can modified by the program and often by the user to accommodate different situations and needs. That means that the same security software on two different computers can treat a particular application differently, allowing it access in one case and refusing it in another.

[christopherFL]

I am afraid the problem has returned! I have disabled McAfee and it does appear to make any difference. On my iPad I can see I have about 20 new emails after about 8:53 this morning when the last email arrived in my Thunderbird inbox. Feels like I am back to square one! Any other ideas?

[christopherFL]

My wife's account, also with McAfee, works on this computer so it is I think unlikely to be that. I have just taken the drastic step of deleting the Thunderbird App and my ENTIRE account from the computer and reinstalling both in the hope that might do some good but it has not! When I restarted Thunderbird I got about 5 messages and then it stopped. I did a test email to a different account and the email was sent but my reply never got to my Thunderbird account.

[christopherFL]

Any new thoughts? Just to let you know, I have been manually transferring Thunderbird files from my backup to the folder Mail>Local Folders. This is working in the sense that they appear in the Thunderbird app but I am not sure if this is having any adverse effect on the working of Thunderbird and may be contributing to my mail delivery problems,