Will Not GET MAIL and more...

[a.k.a. Djeau]

Reset a friend's Windows 10 system, then had to download and reinstall Thunderbird ver. 54.4.0 (I think?) Now next to his INBOX shows (7) message folder and next to his DRAFTS folder shows (1). Now here's the kicker! Checking either folder shows NOTHING in the Message panes! Another weird symptom is that the UNREAD, CONTACT, TAG and ATTACHMENT buttons above the message pane all appear to be "depressed" and cannot be undone/reset.

Using and checking his gmail.com account via his Google browser, there are several emails in the inbox. Their (lousy) email systems seems to receive, send and forward okay.

I'm out of ideas and would appreciate any suggestion.

[tanstaafl]

POP or IMAP?

If its a POP account log into webmail using a browser and read and then delete the oldest new mail message (not the one at the top of the folder listing, unless there is only one new mail message). Logout and try Thunderbird again. Its possible Thunderbird couldn't download a message due to bad headers. If that happens it causes a logjam as it is not smart enough to warn you and then skip over it to the next message. Another possibility is that Gmail set a captcha due to suspicious activity. Thunderbird has no way to tell that or clear it. Logging in via webmail will clear it if it exists.

[a.k.a. Djeau]

POP or IMAP?

If its a POP account log into webmail using a browser and read and then delete the oldest new mail message (not the one at the top of the folder listing, unless there is only one new mail message). Logout and try Thunderbird again. Its possible Thunderbird couldn't download a message due to bad headers. If that happens it causes a logjam as it is not smart enough to warn you and then skip over it to the next message. Another possibility is that Gmail set a captcha due to suspicious activity. Thunderbird has no way to tell that or clear it. Logging in via webmail will clear it if it exists.

I think you told me the answer!!! I thought I had the correct setup for gmail (on my friends Tbird) and either left the server as POP and mistakenly put it that way.

Today I checked the setup for my (working!) gmail and found it is IMAP. I'll see if that fixes everything tomorrow morning on friend's PC.

Thank you for the help.