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Why is Thunderbird continuously downloading all my messages from the Yahoo mail server, when it should be mirrored and only update when there's a change?m

  • 14 replies
  • 10 have this problem
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  • Last reply by christ1

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Recently Thunderbird, which had been working very well and I loved using, began malfunctioning. Whenever it starts, and at random times through the day, it says it's downloading all the files in my Yahoo inbox. An hour will pass with the message "Downloading xxxx of 12342 messages", where xxxx slowly creeps up. Occasionally I get messages like "deleting 527 messages from inbox" or from sent. Directly accessing the Yahoo server shows that all my messages are there. Recently Thunderbird has started doing the same thing with other mail folders. Task Manager shows a big chunk of CPU time going to Thunderbird when this "downloading" activity occurs. This behavior does not occur with my work email, which I also access using Thunderbird.

Another bad behavior started at the same time as the above, and may be related. A set of 10 very old emails, apparently picked at random, would get crammed in to the top of my inbox, all with the same current date and time, as if they'd just been sent. After some real emails came in and the 10 redated emails had been pushed down in the inbox, the 10 would be updated/uptimed again so that they'd appear at the top if my inbox. This behaviour stopped after I created a mail subfolder and moved the 10 messages to it.

Recently Thunderbird, which had been working very well and I loved using, began malfunctioning. Whenever it starts, and at random times through the day, it says it's downloading all the files in my Yahoo inbox. An hour will pass with the message "Downloading xxxx of 12342 messages", where xxxx slowly creeps up. Occasionally I get messages like "deleting 527 messages from inbox" or from sent. Directly accessing the Yahoo server shows that all my messages are there. Recently Thunderbird has started doing the same thing with other mail folders. Task Manager shows a big chunk of CPU time going to Thunderbird when this "downloading" activity occurs. This behavior does not occur with my work email, which I also access using Thunderbird. Another bad behavior started at the same time as the above, and may be related. A set of 10 very old emails, apparently picked at random, would get crammed in to the top of my inbox, all with the same current date and time, as if they'd just been sent. After some real emails came in and the 10 redated emails had been pushed down in the inbox, the 10 would be updated/uptimed again so that they'd appear at the top if my inbox. This behaviour stopped after I created a mail subfolder and moved the 10 messages to it.

All Replies (14)

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File menu (alt+F) > compact folders.

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Downloading xxxx of 12342 messages

I've seen a similar behavior with Yahoo IMAP recently. From a larger folder (about 1300 mesages, not Inbox) about half of the messages suddenly get deleted. They are not deleted on the server though, and Thunderbird starts to re-download and index them, which is CPU intensive. I'm pretty certain the problem is with Yahoo's mail server, it tends to be slow and unreliable for me. No other IMAP account does show this behavior.

In any case, maintaining an Inbox with 12000+ messages is asking for trouble. Keep your Inbox as clean as possible and move messages out of Inbox. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_working_-_Thunderbird

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Does this need a bug report?

In addition to the re-downloading, the INBOX file keeps on growing larger and larger.

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Does this need a bug report?

May be for Yahoo.

... the INBOX file keeps on growing larger and larger.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1064476#answer-734852

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Anyone please comeup with a solution !!!

Regards.

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Why there is no one with a solution for this issue. TB people do you have something to share for this problem.

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I guess the TB officials has to come up with a solution.

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Smittywerbenjaegermanjensen said

Recently Thunderbird, which had been working very well and I loved using, began malfunctioning. Whenever it starts, and at random times through the day, it says it's downloading all the files in my Yahoo inbox. An hour will pass with the message "Downloading xxxx of 12342 messages", where xxxx slowly creeps up. Occasionally I get messages like "deleting 527 messages from inbox" or from sent. Directly accessing the Yahoo server shows that all my messages are there. Recently Thunderbird has started doing the same thing with other mail folders. Task Manager shows a big chunk of CPU time going to Thunderbird when this "downloading" activity occurs. This behavior does not occur with my work email, which I also access using Thunderbird. Another bad behavior started at the same time as the above, and may be related. A set of 10 very old emails, apparently picked at random, would get crammed in to the top of my inbox, all with the same current date and time, as if they'd just been sent. After some real emails came in and the 10 redated emails had been pushed down in the inbox, the 10 would be updated/uptimed again so that they'd appear at the top if my inbox. This behaviour stopped after I created a mail subfolder and moved the 10 messages to it.
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I have exactly the same problem, but it has now progressed to where it has set a limit (that I can't change) of 200 in my Inbox (and all folders), so it's completely unuseable. Yahoo works fine in a browser on the same PC, so is obviously a TBird issue. Why are they finger pointing at Yahoo ? If it works in another environment (even on my iPhone), there's clearly something changed on the mail client.

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Matt said

File menu (alt+F) > compact folders.


what does this mean ? I don't have a File Menu on Thunderbird


Smittywerbenjaegermanjensen said

Recently Thunderbird, which had been working very well and I loved using, began malfunctioning. Whenever it starts, and at random times through the day, it says it's downloading all the files in my Yahoo inbox. An hour will pass with the message "Downloading xxxx of 12342 messages", where xxxx slowly creeps up. Occasionally I get messages like "deleting 527 messages from inbox" or from sent. Directly accessing the Yahoo server shows that all my messages are there. Recently Thunderbird has started doing the same thing with other mail folders. Task Manager shows a big chunk of CPU time going to Thunderbird when this "downloading" activity occurs. This behavior does not occur with my work email, which I also access using Thunderbird. Another bad behavior started at the same time as the above, and may be related. A set of 10 very old emails, apparently picked at random, would get crammed in to the top of my inbox, all with the same current date and time, as if they'd just been sent. After some real emails came in and the 10 redated emails had been pushed down in the inbox, the 10 would be updated/uptimed again so that they'd appear at the top if my inbox. This behaviour stopped after I created a mail subfolder and moved the 10 messages to it.

Smittywerbenjaegermanjensen said

Recently Thunderbird, which had been working very well and I loved using, began malfunctioning. Whenever it starts, and at random times through the day, it says it's downloading all the files in my Yahoo inbox. An hour will pass with the message "Downloading xxxx of 12342 messages", where xxxx slowly creeps up. Occasionally I get messages like "deleting 527 messages from inbox" or from sent. Directly accessing the Yahoo server shows that all my messages are there. Recently Thunderbird has started doing the same thing with other mail folders. Task Manager shows a big chunk of CPU time going to Thunderbird when this "downloading" activity occurs. This behavior does not occur with my work email, which I also access using Thunderbird. Another bad behavior started at the same time as the above, and may be related. A set of 10 very old emails, apparently picked at random, would get crammed in to the top of my inbox, all with the same current date and time, as if they'd just been sent. After some real emails came in and the 10 redated emails had been pushed down in the inbox, the 10 would be updated/uptimed again so that they'd appear at the top if my inbox. This behaviour stopped after I created a mail subfolder and moved the 10 messages to it.
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Maybe when Yahoo gets their act together?

Modified by Wayne Mery

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Judging from comments in this thread the problem may be with Yahoo not Mozilla Thunderbird.

Others will understand the problem better than I do; but I presume Yahoo's (usually free ) webmail service is probably intended for consumption in a web browser such as Firefox.

I am not sure filing the bugzilla.mozilla bug1174489 is appropriate for this issue unless it is seen and reproducible with all IMAP accounts

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