"Virtual" Files in wrong accounts

[Klaus4]

Good Morning.
We are running several E-Mail Accounts on different Computers with different users.
All are using TB for MAC.
All Software latest Version.
Problem: TB creates "virtual" files with emails in accounts which are not related to this file.
Result: wrong users can see content of these files even if the original file is in a totally different E-Mail Account.

How comes this?
How can I avoid this?

Thank you for any support!

[tanstaafl]

Please explain why you think a virtual file is created and how its accessible outside of the profile. It sounds like you have a problem due to your configuration but its not clear to me what your configuration is. Thunderbird supports creating a virtual folder (based on "saved search" folders) in an account but nothing offhand that I think of as a virtual file.

Are multiple users (each with their own account) sharing a profile?

Are these POP or IMAP accounts?

If you're using IMAP accounts did you configure them to lets users access either a public mailbox or other users mailboxes, without having to login to those accounts? This typically requires an admin to setup ACLs on the IMAP server to manage who can access what.

Are your users roaming from one computer to another? The normal solution for that is to use Portable Thunderbird instead of a normal build , installed on a USB flash drive. It doesn't need to be installed on the PC and leaves no traces.

[Klaus4]

Hello tanstaafl.
Thank you for your quick answer. I will try to explain.
Example: 2 Mac, complete different.
Mac 1: email accounts
info@domain.de
user@domain.de
guest@domain.de

Mac 2: email account
guest@domain.de

In our account
info@domain.de
is a file with name "storage".

after a while, the accounts on Mac 1 show all the file in ITALIC LETTERS "storage".

also after a while, the Mac 2 creates the same file "storage" on Mac 2 in the account guest.

This file can be deleted. but it appears again after some days, a week or so. The problem is, if the user on Mac 1 has personal information in "storage", the user at Mac 2 can read that.

We are wondering how comes. It looks that TB at Mac 1 makes "virtual" duplicates on all other email-accounts of this file.

All email accounts are imap.
We do not share a profile (not known) because this is on different computers.

If you're using IMAP accounts did you configure them to lets users access either a public mailbox or other users mailboxes, without having to login to those accounts? -> unsure what public mailbox means, but no access w/o password.

Hope that helps.
Thank you again.

[tanstaafl]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Files_and_fol ... hunderbird (hasn't been updated for version 60 yet but should still be useful as you're talking about account specific files).

The only "storage" file I can think of is a storage.sdb file used by Lightning that is maintained for backwards compatibility. Its invisible to the user and not account specific.

If "storage." was a mbox file (a file used to store messages for a mail folder) Thunderbrid would automatically create a corresponding storage.msf file for it. Is there one? If not, what type of file does Finder think it is?

The "local directory" for a IMAP account typically has just mbox files (files named after the folder, with no file extension), index files (*.msf), renamed subdirectories (*.sbd) used to organize the other two files into a folder hierarchy, and a messagefilter.dat file. i.e mainly files like "inbox." (mbox file for the inbox folder), "inbox.msf" (its index file) and inbox.sbd (subdirectory).

If you login into that account using webmail (browser based) is there a "storage" folder?

A IMAP account will either ignore or delete any mbox files that don't have a a corresponding remote folder on the IMAP server when it syncs. So if a mysterious file is migrating from one PC to another my first thought would be its somehow due to there being a real remote folder called storage.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Grey_italic_folders . A grey italic folder normally means its a remote folder (on the IMAP server) that can contain messages but not child folders.

[Klaus4]

I need a bit to follow up.
Just to be clear, with "files" I mean "FOLDERS". Sorry if this was confusing.

[Klaus4]

Good Morning. My hosting supplier checked that problem, it seems the iphone mail app creates these folders.
So it is not a TB thing.

However, If someone has any idea how to stop that.

Thank you again for your support, tanstaafl.