you have all the folders turned off? so where does this new mail arrive and is it as IMAP or POP?

Hi Matt! I apologize; I may be using the wrong terminology. I do not have the Gmail standard tabs across the top, everything goes into the inbox. Most of the replies to this type of issue seemed to blame it on Gmail and the fact the only messages that are downloaded are from the inbox there.

In Thunderbird, I am transferring via POP because it is easier for me to manage, and the mail comes into the inbox and gets filtered into folders.

Gmail has lots of quirks. finding which affects any one person can be a mess. Personally I have had issues with mail going to the important folder and not arriving in my pop inbox in Thunderbird.

But one issue rarely considered is the effect anti virus scanning has. There are no hard and fast rules, the same goes for those phishing and scam tools the anti virus vendors just help us along with.

I mention the ubiquitious ant vurs/ Security suites because they are also great at nodding off to sleep and taking the active mail connection with them. This is worse with IMAP accounts on Google as they has a active connection that does not end all the while. But even with pop mail ccounts the anti virus scanner bit just drops off and everything stops.

One of the first diagnostics you will see is to restart both Thunderbird and the operating system in safe mode and see if the problem reoccurs while in that mode. The operating system safe mode is almost all about disabling the anti virus, without explicitly saying so as folk are resistant to the idea that their chosen security suite is not up to the task.

Hi! How do I restart Thunderbird in safe mode? I know how to start the computer that way, but considering I am running Windows defender, I would think lots and lots of others would have the same problem if that is what is going on.

The behavior I am seeing - that it works for a while then suddenly nothing is downloading unless I tell it to get messages - certainly is consistent with your thought on anti virus interference. Also, Gmail keeps telling that allowing less secure apps - which is necessary of POP will not work - is bad and to turn it back on. So, all of that does make your thought a very likely suspect. I will investigate further and report back!

Thanks!

Pattit said

Hi! How do I restart Thunderbird in safe mode?

Use the restart with add-ons disabled from the help menu. or hold the shift key while you click to start Thunderbird There is also a command line option, but really an unnecessary one as the other two should do the job for you.

I know how to start the computer that way, but considering I am running Windows defender, I would think lots and lots of others would have the same problem if that is what is going on. The behavior I am seeing - that it works for a while then suddenly nothing is downloading unless I tell it to get messages - certainly is consistent with your thought on anti virus interference. Also, Gmail keeps telling that allowing less secure apps - which is necessary of POP will not work - is bad and to turn it back on. So, all of that does make your thought a very likely suspect. I will investigate further and report back!

I have seen all sorts of Operating system hings cause problems. At one time it was the cypher token software all US military have to use to access their email. So a restart in safe mode is still something of an option. But you are right in it being unlikely to be defender as it does not actively scan email so probably does not monitor those ports. More usual suspects are McAfee, Avast and Kaspersky.

Well, I am back finally. Sadly, it took me three days to recover from putting my computer into safe mode. My husband has no idea what I did but somehow I managed to disable the darn machine!

For the record, I am not running McAfee, Avast or any other anti-virus software, just Windows Defender. After finally getting back to semi-normal, I still have the problem of mail not auto-downloading, but I have decided to just live with it!

I appreciate your trying to help - but I give up!

Well, well... here I am back again! And, joyfully, once again Thunderbird is downloading my messages automatically! Yes, you read that right. After months of not doing it, today I noticed that the messages are being downloaded without my manually requesting it. There was a recent update, and somehow that fixed the problem! YAY!!!