redundant e-mails

[orealius]

The last few days I've noticed that a number of e-mails that have been placed in other folders...or have been sent to the trash have resurfaced as unread messages in the Inbox. Any help appreciated.

[tanstaafl]

Resurrected deleted messages is a typical sign of a corrupt inbox. I suggest you move most of the messages in your inbox to other folders, empty the trash and manually compact the folders using file -> compact folders.

When you move a message it copies the message and then deletes the original. Deleting the message doesn't physically remove it until the folder is compacted, which is why there is a hidden copy left in the inbox that can get resurrected.

[orealius]

So...move messages from Inbox to another folder, compact folders and then move the messages back to the Inbox?

[tanstaafl]

No. Don't move them back to the inbox afterwards. Lots of messages in a folder that also has lots of deletions (i.e. a inbox) makes it more vulnerable to corruption. I suggest you try to keep the inbox folder under 500 messages. Its the number of messages, not their size, that matters.

[orealius]

There must be another reason I am getting all these duplicate messages. (I followed your instructions)

[tanstaafl]

Do you see duplicates if you log into webmail using a browser?

[orealius]

Just Checked....No dupes!

[orealius]

Where in the Thunderbird program itself does it show what profile it is using?

[orealius]

What if I move everything out of the Inbox into another folder and then reinstall TB copying the profile with the Inbox empty. Will that "uncorrupt" the Inbox??

[DanRaisch]

No, not at all. Uninstalling and reinstalling the application itself has absolutely no impact on your Profile, which is where saved data such as account settings, message files, etc is stored and where most problems originate.

[orealius]

So...how is this problem resolved...I mean if its a corrupted Inbox? (I get over 30 new e-mails each morning...now its about 50 with the dupes!)

[tanstaafl]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Deleting_mess ... P_accounts
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

Compacting and expunging are two different ways of physically removing "deleted" messages.

If you're using a IMAP account consider setting mail.imap.expunge_option to 2 (Thunderbird will expunge all deleted messages when there are 20) using the config editor. The problem with relying upon compacting is that they raised the lowest possible threshold to 1MB of wasted space before it automatically compacts, and it only works well if you normally get large messages. Most of mine are about 10KB, with the occasional 100KB message.

tools -> account settings -> account_name -> server settings -> "clean up (expunge) inbox on exit" is also useful for IMAP accounts. However, at least on my system that feature has been broken for several releases.

[orealius]

POP Accounts?

I've tried to isolate the problem to my backup software which had been renaming files with the same name and different properties. I've changed those settings so will see how it goes.

[tanstaafl]

The only option for POP accounts is compacting.

"inbox." is a mbox file. Mbox files are named after the mail folder, but have no file extension, and contain the messages for the corresponding mail folder. "sent.", "drafts." etc. are other examples of a mbox file. In this case it ("inbox.") contains the mail messages for the inbox folder. "Inbox.msf" is a so called index file. Basically just a cache of the folder listing. "inbox.sbd" is just a renamed directory, used to help organize the files into a folder hierarchy." If a *.msf file is missing Thunderbird will automatically re-create it.