TBird marks ALL new mail as junk, send to Trash

[auntmarge6]

Some time ago Thunderbird started marking all my new email as junk and sending it to Trash. It still sends the messages my virus program marks as trash to the Junk folder, but the rest go to Trash automatically. This is NOT how the settings are arranged, and it happened suddenly without any settings changes from me. I reinstalled over current the copy, didn't help, and I've just lived with it, but this morning I highlighted all the Trash to unmark it as junk and hit delete instead of "not junk", so I've got to find a permanent solution. It's also pretty irritating.

It's possible it was an infection of some sort, which I had around that time, but my computer is clean now.

Would a complete reinstall after backing up data files be likely to help? It sounds like something is corrupted, and I'm not sure where to look or even what to look for.

Any other suggestions very much appreciated!

[DanRaisch]

Uninstalling and reinstalling the application has absolutely no impact on your Profile, which is where saved data such as account settings, message files, etc is stored and where most problems originate.

How recently have you compacted your folders? Compacting is something that needs to be done regularly in any email program. We recommend weekly, but many of us do it daily. When done often enough, it can be an extremely fast process. Not doing so can lead to problems like those you are experiencing. See this about how to and why it's so important: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

If you haven't been doing that before, first back up your Thunderbird Profile -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup then compact all folders. If 'compacting' them (and leaving a long enough time for the process to complete) doesn't fully resolve the problem then do the following on each account:

Close Thunderbird. Find and delete all of the files with the .msf file extension in your profile folder/Mail http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Folder#Thunderbird including your Local Folders, especially if you are using the global inbox. You must have "View hidden files and folders" on http://spywarewarrior.com/viewtopic.php?t=272 and you need to set "hide extensions for known file types" off (just below View Hidden) if you are using Windows. These are your mail summary files and do not hold any messages themselves. They will be rebuilt the next time you open each folder in Thunderbird. Compact all your folders when you have completed this.

To avoid this happening again, see the tips in these articles:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_worki ... derbird%29
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Performance_%28Thunderbird%29

[auntmarge6]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the suggestions. I've followed them all, compacted, gone through all folders under "profile folder/Mail" and removed the .msf files (twice). No luck. New messages are still being marked with the Thunderbird spam icon and automatically being sent to the Trash folder. Is there anything else I can try?

[Guest]

why is this happening?

Have you created any Custom filters?
Have you enabled Junk Mail Controls?

[Guest]

Some time ago Thunderbird started marking all my new email as junk and sending it to Trash. It still sends the messages my virus program marks as trash to the Junk folder, but the rest go to Trash automatically. This is NOT how the settings are arranged, and it happened suddenly without any settings changes from me.

by virus program, do you mean Junk Mail Controls?

have you checked the JMC settings, to see if they are still valid?
viewtopic.php?p=9892301#p9892301

[auntmarge6]

by virus program, do you mean Junk Mail Controls?

No, I mean the various Norton anti-virus/spam/etc. programs.

The Norton spam filters are sending flagged items to Junk, as it usually does. Everything Norton doesn't flag is being labeled by Thunderbird with the little orange spam icon and being funneled to Trash. My Junk Mail Controls are as suggested in the link you provided, and they've always been that way. This is new behavior without settings changes - at least, as far as I can find.

[Guest]

I don't use Norton, so I can't offer anything concrete. Maybe you can try turning off Norton, ( the email portion of it, at least). or turn off Junk Mail Controls?

[auntmarge6]

It's not Norton that's the problem. Thunderbird is marking all my mail automatically as junk, despite the settings not to. What I need to know now is whether there's a way to copy just the mail folders, delete Tbird, reinstall, import the mail folders, and not import whatever quirks are now in the program which might be causing this. IOW, a clean install with just mail folders imported.

[DanRaisch]

It's not quirks in the program. There something in the profile that is causing this. Try resetting the Junk training data by using menu path Tools->Options->Security->Junk tab->click on the "Reset Training Data" button.

[auntmarge6]

Hi Dad, thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't work. Is there a way to examine the profile line by line and see what might be wrong?

[DanRaisch]

The profile is not a file. It's a set of files located on the hard drive.

What you might try is creating a new profile and moving the mail files from the old profile to the new. To make this easier, you need to set Windows to "View hidden files and folders" and to not "Hide extensions for known file types". See this for easy instructions for how to do this: http://spywarewarrior.com/viewtopic.php?t=272

Close Thunderbird and open the profile manager. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_manager
Create your new profile, naming it something other than "default", and setup your accounts. Make sure it's working including for sending and receiving mail.

Then install this extension: Mboximport: http://nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/mboximport-en.html

To install a Thunderbird extension do the following:
Right click the download link and choose "Save Link As...". Then open Thunderbird, in Thunderbird go to Tools->Addons->Extensions->Install. Find the just downloaded .xpi file and select it. The installation will now begin. You will need to close and reopen Thunderbird to complete the install.

When it's installed, first select the folder you want to import into and then go to Tools>Import/Export in Mbox/eml format and under it, Import Mbox File. In the next screen you will get a choice to either import a selected file or to select a directory. Select the third option and when you get to the Windows file navigation window, find your OLD profile under C:\Documents and Settings\*user name*\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\*random string.profile name*\Mail and then select each account folder one at a time. This means that you will need to go through the Tools menu once for each account. The messages will be in a new folder named for the original with three numbers, ex: Inbox123, which you can then move the messages out of and sort as you want.

For your address books, install the MoreFunctionsForAddressBook extension. When it's installed you will have some new menu items under Tools in the address book manager. First open the manager with Tools>Address Book. Now go to it's Tools and find Actions for addressbook. Under it, select Import addressbook from mab file. It will ask you to create a new address book by naming it. Do so. Then, in the file navigation window that opens, find your old profile and look for the files with the .mab extension. Your personal address book is abook.mab and the collected is history.mab. You may have others that you either imported from another program or created yourself. You will need to do them one at a time. Once in, you can drag and drop the addresses from the imported books into your new Personal/Collected address book.

If you have any filters set in your accounts, the files you want to copy is msgFilterRules.dat This goes in the Mail/*account* folder. For Junk controls training, the file is training.dat and it is kept in the top level of the profile folder.

When you have completed this, compact your folders now and regularly in the future. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

That should be everything. Let us know how it turns out.

[auntmarge6]

Hi Dan, Thanks for the suggestions (and sorry for calling you Dad - a typo....) Will try your suggestions and report back. Margaret

[DanRaisch]

Not a problem. Good luck.

[auntmarge6]

Hi Dan,

I finally had a chance to spend the time to try your last suggestions and they worked!!! Now I have to get used to new mail showing up in my Inbox instead of in Trash. Many, many thanks!

Margaret

[DanRaisch]

You're welcome.