no longer checks mail when starting

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i_am_jim
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by i_am_jim »

When I right click an account folder I do not see a "Favorite Folder" option
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DanRaisch
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by DanRaisch »

Are you clicking on the Account NAME or a mail folder below the account name.
i_am_jim
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by i_am_jim »

Thanks. I was clicking on the account name. Now that I click on the mail folder I get the Favorite option. It appears you can only have one favorite and I don't yet know if that's checking mail on startup. Even if it is I have several accounts that need to be checked.
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DanRaisch
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by DanRaisch »

No, you can have a favorite folder in each email account. I don't believe, however, that that will have any bearing on whether Thunderbird checks that folder for new mail. It's just there as a way to filter which folders will be displayed in the left hand pane.
i_am_jim
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by i_am_jim »

A test making one folder a favorite had no effect on checking mail at startup
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DanRaisch
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by 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 one account's Inbox folder 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 and then to the sub-directory for the chosen account. 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.

If this resolves the new mail problem, repeat the process for the other accounts, only working with one at a time.

The "Real Fix" entry in this article -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders#Real_fix also describes this process.
i_am_jim
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by i_am_jim »

I assume if mail that came in through that mail box has been moved to another account using filters I don't have to copy them?
i_am_jim
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by i_am_jim »

My mailboxes don't have the names I've given them. How do I know which one to delete?

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DanRaisch
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by DanRaisch »

Do you actually have 9 accounts (email addresses) with Comcast?
i_am_jim
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by i_am_jim »

No, but I have 5
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DanRaisch
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by DanRaisch »

In the Thunderbird profile ( http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird ) you'll find a file named prefs.js. Make a copy of that file and rename the copy prefsjs.old. Open that prefsjs.old file in a text editor.

Use the Find function of the editor to locate the lines that include each of those five account email addresses. In other words, find John.Smith@whatever.who and you should find each on a line that begins with 'user_pref("mail.identity.id#.useremail"' where # is a number. Make a note of the number associated with each address. Check back and we'll proceed from there.
i_am_jim
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by i_am_jim »

Let's start with the address I'm using as a test. I find these entries for that one email address:

user_pref("mail.identity.id11.useremail" [the address]
user_pref("mail.identity.id17.useremail" [the address]
user_pref("mail.identity.id23.useremail"[the address]
user_pref("mail.smtpserver.smtp9.username" [the address] I assume this one doesn't count because it doesn't contain useremail

There was no .who in the file
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DanRaisch
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by DanRaisch »

There was no .who in the file
:lol:
user_pref("mail.smtpserver.smtp9.username" [the address] I assume this one doesn't count because it doesn't contain useremail
Correct, that entry is for the outgoing server and doesn't relate to your incoming message problem.
user_pref("mail.identity.id11.useremail" [the address]
user_pref("mail.identity.id17.useremail" [the address]
user_pref("mail.identity.id23.useremail"[the address]
OK, that complicates things as it seems at some point there were multiple set ups created for the same account, which will make it bit more tricky.

Try this: Close Thunderbird. Navigate to the \Mail folder in the Thunderbird profile and, one by one, open the sub-directories you reported existed there, such as mail.comcast-9.net. Sort the folder contents by date. Review the dates of the files found there, looking for and noting the newest date present in the file. Close that sub-directory before opening the next sub-directory (mail.comcast-8.net), and so on. You're hoping to find only 5 of those sub-directories with current or relatively current dates.
Don't delete or change anything in Thunderbird at this time.

You can also try the advise offered by tanstaafl, one of the forum moderators, to another user with a related issue: "...you might be running into a logjam due to a message with bad headers. Thunderbird isn't smart enough to display a warning and skip to the next message when that occurs. The standard workaround is to [close Thunderbird and then] log into web mail using a browser, read and delete the oldest new message (that is the next message it would try to download, which may not be the one at the top of the folder listing), log out of web mail, and try again." You can try that for any one of the Comcast accounts before repeating the process for the others, just to see if it has a positive result.
user_pref("mail.smtpserver.smtp9.username" [the address] I assume this one doesn't count because it doesn't contain useremail
Correct, that entry is for the outgoing server and doesn't relate to your incoming message problem.
i_am_jim
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by i_am_jim »

4 of them had latest dated file of 5 or more years ago. All the rest had dates within a month except one whose latest date was mid December last year (2019).
i_am_jim
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Re: no longer checks mail when starting

Post by i_am_jim »

What is a filterlog.html file and what does it do?
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