Thunderbird "New Mail" popup...

[aSteve]

I'm a long-term thunderbird user, and this glitch has bugged me for ages... until recently, it was rately an annoyance - but having installed Thunderbird on a new Windows 7 laptop, it has started to plague me.

I use an IMAP server (Dovecot on Ubuntu) and have ~2000 folders - of which I'm subscribed to about ~100. Most of my folders track mailing lists - others track spam mails etc. My most urgent emails arrive in "Inbox" - and there are another couple of folders I need to check regularly... but most are for occasional reference only.

I like the pop-up when it informs me about new Inbox email... it isn't annoying if it informs me about the other two folders I need to monitor either... but, now, it most often alerts me to incoming mailing list mail and spam - which is annoying. The "When getting new messages for this account, always check this folder" is not checked for my non-urgent folders... but I still get frequent pop-up notifications about new mail in them.

Is there a way to configure Thunderbird only to notify me with pop-ups about mail in Inbox (and/or a couple of other specific folders)? Am I overlooking a configuration option - or would I need a plug-in?

[tanstaafl]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/How_do_I_chec ... er_folders

I only get notified about new mail in the folders I specified. I've stopped using global search/indexing and offline folders (tools -> account settings -> synchronization & storage). They both fetch messages for other folders in the background. So perhaps that is causing the new mail detection as a sideffect (if you have them enabled).

I don't know if there is a bug report about it, but several people have discovered that Thunderbird changed a setting when they automatically updated. So far it only appears to occur when somebody has unusual server settings and it changed them to more mainstream settings. I've never heard of it effecting global search/indexing and offline folders (tools -> account settings -> synchronization & storage) but check if they are set correctly.

[aSteve]

As far as I'm aware, my settings are 'right' - I want to synchronise all my subscribed folders - I want all messages available offline - and I want (almost) all indexed. That bit works fine... The bit I'm less happy with is when I get a popup window and notification icon in the system tray.

After a bit more messing, I've discovered the notifications are even more random that I'd previously thought... For example, I just sent myself an email... it arrived in the main window, in "Inbox" - and I was able to read it... yet there is no notification. Conversely, I just received notification about a batch of spam... that's a folder without either "Include messages from this folder in global search results" or "... always check this folder" selected. I'm not sure if I had a similar issue with Thunderbird on XP - but, if I did, for some reason I didn't notice it (as much).

This isn't an upgraded Thunderbird install - it's a clean install on a fresh Windows 7 laptop. My IMAP server is Dovecot on Ubuntu Server - and has a pretty vanilla configutation. It seems unlikely that it is my IMAP server at fault... since Thunderbird, excluding the mail notification from the system tray, works perfectly - reliably and quickly reflecing new mail in the main window.

I'm not entirely confident that I can describe this as a 'bug' either... It definitely isn't the behaviour I want (or understand) but I can't point at any slam-dunk evidence to justify shouting 'bug' - conversely... that doesn't get me the behaviour I want, either.

[tanstaafl]

Dovecot works well with Thunderbird. I suspect you're running into a configuration specific Thunderbird bug in either global indexing or offline folders. I suggest you try temporarily running in safe mode (not to be confused with windows safe mode) to disable all add-ons, to rule out one of them being the culprit.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode

[aSteve]

I've just tried safe mode - I hadn't thought about trying this as I have minimal extensions installed... In safe mode, I get exactly the same behaviour as before... so, if what I'm experiencing isn't 'normal' it is not caused by add-ons or their configuration.

[DynaBMan]

Just adding my two cents to this discussion, but I am having the same problem with notifications on Windows 7. It is happening on two different computers, with different accounts. They are so random, it's impossible to predict when I will receive a notification for new mail. Sometimes, the icon works, sometimes it doesn't. The popup is just as random. I have tried every suggestion I have found in this forum and nothing fixes it. This leads me to believe it is a Thunderbird problem alone.

[frankster]

I've been having similar problems with the new mail feature as well (on Windows 7, with an imap account). Typically what happens is I receive a new email, receive a new mail popup, but all it shows is (always the same) 4 emails in my spam folder, and doesn't show the email I have just received! The settings of my junk mail folder were "Include messages in this folder in Global Search results" ticked, but "When getting new messages for this account, always check this folder" unticked.

I would not expect messages in this folder to ever appear in the new mail notification, whether or not they are marked as read. Unfortunately this is what happens. I have unticked the "Include messages in this folder in Global Search results" to see if this makes any difference.

Unfortunately while attempting to test this, I have sent messages to myself and noticed that I don't always receive notifications! I'm trying to work out if this is due to thunderbird having focus, the inbox (that the mail is delivered to) being selected, or some other issue.

[Hawks]

I'm having this issue too and it's driving me completely nuts. It's. So. Bloody. Random. MailTweak breaks too many other 'features' to be of any use.

I've been a supporter of Mozilla since FF 0.x but I'm really losing my patience here. Also I just noticed TB5 (what the hell, 5?) was released. I installed it to try it out and these were my reactions and then I reinstalled TB3. Outlook 2010 looks tempting...