Thunderbird won't download new emails

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Anifinity
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Joined: March 28th, 2007, 4:27 pm

Thunderbird won't download new emails

Post by Anifinity »

I have thunderbird installed on both my laptop and desktop and both are configured identically. The problem is my laptop downloads all my emails fine whereas my desktop doesn't. According to thunderbird on my desktop I have no new emails, however running it on my laptop reveals new emails. I have a ton of emails sitting on my mail server and my desktop cannot see any of them, is there a way to fix this problem? I have already tried uninstalling thunderbird and removing any registry entries and even after reinstalling I still have this problem.
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tanstaafl
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Post by tanstaafl »

http://kb.mozillazine.org/New_messages_do_not_appear

If one of the machines can't download messages I'd suspect a corrupted folder (due to not compacting regularly) rather than a failed attempt to download a "bad" message.

See BOTH parts of the "Compacting doesn’t seem to work" section http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders
Anifinity
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Post by Anifinity »

I followed the directions on both the links but it still won't download my messages from my mail server. Is there anything else I can try?
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SkyeChild
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Post by SkyeChild »

Do you have different firewalls on the machines? It's possible that the firewall on your desktop is preventing you from getting your mail.
"bortaS bIr jablu'DI', reH QaQqu' nay" (Revenge is a dish that is best served cold). ...Klingon proverb
alanrf
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Post by alanrf »

Is your mail server by any chance GMail?
Anifinity
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Post by Anifinity »

no my email server isn't Gmail.

Both my computers access my router which has a built in firewall, no software firewall is installed on either of them.
alanrf
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Post by alanrf »

If Thunderbird on your desktop is telling you there are no new emails then this is absolutely nothing to do firewalls or antivirus programs.

It is not giving any personal information away to disclose to us the name of the email server you are trying to access. It may assist in resolving the issue. Please confirm that, as seems likely, this is a POP account.
Anifinity
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Post by Anifinity »

My mail server is mail.ngillard.com, it was given to me along with my website when I first signed up.

Yes this is a POP account.
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tanstaafl
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Post by tanstaafl »

Do you get an error message? If so, what is the full text of the error message?
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Connection_errors_-_POP3

Try creating a new profile using the profile manager. If that works around the problem then you know it was due to something in your old profile. Then you can either switch back to your old profile and try to fix the problem, or keep using the new profile and migrate your folders and address books.

You could also copy your known good profile from the other machine per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder and see if it has the same problems.

Can you send a message? If so, that rules out a firewall problem.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_addres ... n_profiles
Anifinity
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Post by Anifinity »

No there isn't an error message, it communicates with the server (or so it says at the bottom) but then says I have no new emails even though I do.

I have tried creating a new profile 4 times now after uninstalling TB and reinstalling it and after deleting the .msf files and it doesn't work.

I can send emails no problem but I cannot receive them.


although I can now access my emails that were successfully downloaded on my laptop, TB STILL won't download any new messages (I tested this by sending myself an email from my hotmail account) while my laptop DOES. I have no idea what's going on.

Any other ideas?
alanrf
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Location: Sacramento, CA. USA

Post by alanrf »

Sorry to ask the obvious question - but have you double checked the settings on the desktop and that "automatically download messages" is checked for this account?

Other than that tanstaafl's suggestion of copying the good profile from your laptop to your desktop might show some promise.

If that does not help then you will probably need to get Thunderbird to log the connection to the server to see if the server is providing the list of messages on the server (that is requested on each connection for a POP account) back to Thunderbird.
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tanstaafl
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Post by tanstaafl »

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_logging_for_mail/news explains how to enable POP3 logging.
break-down
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Post by break-down »

I'm having the exact same problem. I don't receive any errors but I'm not showing the new mails that are waiting there either. I can also send mail fine. I've deleted the profile and created a new one multiple times.
Guest
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try reboot?

Post by Guest »

One of the 4 user accounts on our WinXP PC had the same problem -- it could send mail but didn't prompt for a password and didn't try to download anything. The last received mail was on Mar 28. I rebooted and it works now. I hate to ask: did you try that?
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makaiguy
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Post by makaiguy »

Another check for something that could be overlooked...

Do you have your accounts in Thunderbird set to leave messages on the server? If not, whichever computer you use to first use to access your mail will download your mail and they will be deleted from the server. When you then use the second computer, those messages will no longer be there.
Doug Wilson
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