SeaMonkey Mail connects, doesn't download,No error (Linux)

[Zeiss Ikon]

I just had to install a new version of Linux (Ubuntu Mate 16.04.3, 64-bit), which went along with installing SeaMonkey fresh. That means I received 2.49.1. Since this, this machine (only, works fine on my laptop with the same Ubuntu and same SeaMonkey version) reports "connecting", then "connected", but never gives a message count or downloads the messages.

Background: I've been using SeaMonkey and, before then, Netscape Suite and Netscape Navigator since 1994. I've got stored email going back to 1998 (older messages were lost in a migration from machine to machine). Since I started using Linux in 2011, I've had my email message store located remote from my SeaMonkey installation, originally to allow interoperability between Windows and Linux versions of SeaMonkey, and now just because it simplifies keeping my email across reinstalls and distro changes. For a few years, I was able to do the same by making places.sqlite and 3-4 other files symbolic links to the Windows versions, stored in Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Mozilla\SeaMonkey\Profiles\[random string].default, but changes after about 2.10+ caused that to stop working, requiring copying the bookmarks, history, etc. files for each reinstall.

In my most recent Ubuntu reinstall, I reused the same /home folder I'd had in the previous install, so all my SeaMonkey settings and bookmarks (including stored cookies and passwords, seemingly, based on spot sampling of web sites that need login) were preserved, though (because of drive designator changes -- this was also a hardware rebuild/upgrade) I had to change the mail storage location entry in Server Settings. However, when I attempt to download my email, I get "connecting" and "connected" messages for each mail server (popd.earthlink.net and pop.gmail.com), then no message count and no downloaded messages. When I try to send a test messages, I get an error as follows: "Sending of the message failed. An error occurred while sending mail: Could not get password for smtpauth.earthlink.net. The message was not sent." I am not, however, being prompted to reenter my mail server password on any of the three servers.

When I was setting up SeaMonkey, I did get a message about a couple corrupted files (history and something else, with a .mab extension -- don't recall precisely, this was four-five days ago) that were being renamed and replaced with new, empty ones -- and sure enough, my address book seems to be empty, though my history seems intact, at least as far as auto-complete is concerned (recovering that is less urgent; I should be able to import the data from the renamed file, if simply renaming it back to original doesn't work). As I understand things, I should still be able to download my mail, even with an empty abook.mab. I know this isn't a mailbox problem, because my laptop accesses the same mailboxes (but leaves the messages on the server, so they can be archived on this desktop machine).

What do I need to do (or what information do I need to supply, and where would I find it) to restore my email function? Please don't tell me to just install Thunderbird. I've used it, on my older laptop, and don't really see any advantage over SeaMonkey Mail;

[frg]

Check the browser console for any errors. I suspect profile corruption. Maybe also wrong access rights. I usually zip my profile path using the original account, move it over and then unzipping it under the new account..

[Zeiss Ikon]

@frg In this case, my profile contents *should* be unaltered, since I preserved the old /home when installing the new Ubuntu and SeaMonkey -- that is, whatever I had in my old SeaMonkey should be unaltered at this time. Not to say whatever clobbered my old Kubuntu couldn't have also damaged something in my SeaMonkey profile.

That said, I'm not sure what you mean by "browser console" -- under "Help", "Troubleshooting information" I find no crash reports (not surprising, the browser seems to work fine and mail doesn't crash, just fails to retrieve even message count, never mind headers or bodies). If it's profile corruption, the only solution is to delete and recreate my profile, right? My mail store is on an NTFS volume, so permissions shouldn't be an issue.

[therube]

Tools | Web Development -> Error Console
Tools | Web Development -> Browser Console

You could always test in a new, clean Profile.
If POP, & if it matters to you if messages are downloaded, you could always set "leave messages on server" (or whatever Mail might call it) such that you could download them in your old Profile (assuming you get that back working).
If IMAP, & not that I'm familiar with IMAP, that might not be an issue (again, if it matters to you).