Message body disappearing

[alansecker]

When I check back on older emails, the bodies are blank.

Why does this happen?

Is it a problem with my hosting service or a time deletion thing?

Any info will help.

[DanRaisch]

Why does this happen?
Is it a problem with my hosting service or a time deletion thing?

You'll have to provide more information or folks will just be guessing.

What version of Thunderbird?
How is the account set up in Thunderbird, as POP or IMAP? Find out using menu path Tools->Account Settings->Server Settings->Server Type at the top right of the dialogue.

[alansecker]

Version 60.6.1 on Linux Mint 19.1.

This only applies to my POP account and only to all emails prior to 25 February 2019.

I can see headers going back to 2008. (Only those that I chose to save I would add).

This only applies to incoming messages. All outgoing ones are intact.

[DanRaisch]

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.

[alansecker]

I do not have Inbox.msf nor Inbox directly beneath my profile file.
What I do have are these folder/files.

inmail.alansecker0.gmail.com
inmail.asandco.co.uk.sbd
inmail.asandco.co-1.uk
inmail.asandco.co-1.uk.sbd
inmail.asandco.co-2.uk
inmail.asandco.co-4.uk
inmail-asandco-o-uk
Local Folders
localhost
mail.asandco.co.uk
mail.asandco.co-1.uk
pop.googlemail.com
pop.googlemail-1.com
pop.googlemail-2.com
smart mailboxes
temp
enq.alansecker.f2s.com.msf
inmail.asandco.co-2.uk.msf
inmail.asandco.co-4.uk.msf
pop.googlemail.com.msf


Beneath most if not all the folders there are Inbox.msf and Inbox files. Should I delete all of those?

[DanRaisch]

No, don't delete all of those files!

Are the bodies of older messages disappearing from the Inbox of ALL of your email accounts or just a particular account?

[alansecker]

It seems to be all the POP accounts with messages earlier than 25/02/2019.

[DanRaisch]

I would suggest testing by performing that procedure the files of just one POP account. If that successfully resolves the issue for that one account, proceed to handle the other accounts, one by one, in the same way. (I'd make a backup each time [after confirming things are as desired] as well, overwriting the previous backup files, in case something is deleted unintentionally during the process.)