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Thunderbird (102.9.1) freezes after compacting inbox folder!!

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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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Hi! I am using Thunderbird in my PC since 2018. I have 3 accounts connected to it, a Yahoo account, a Hotmail and a Gmail one.

I am mostly using Hotmail. Yesterday, I marked an E-Mail message as spam. Then, Thunderbird asked me to Compact now the inbox and I selected Yes. The compacting finished but since then, Thunderbird freezes and says Not Responding when I select e-mail messages in inbox folder to view them.

My hotmail's inbox has 24911 messages and 9.1GB disk size.

The other accounts (Yahoo, Gmail) are working fine.

What happened?

What should I do now?

It is a kind of urgent, I cannot work!

Thank you.

Hi! I am using Thunderbird in my PC since 2018. I have 3 accounts connected to it, a Yahoo account, a Hotmail and a Gmail one. I am mostly using Hotmail. Yesterday, I marked an E-Mail message as spam. Then, Thunderbird asked me to Compact now the inbox and I selected Yes. The compacting finished but since then, Thunderbird freezes and says Not Responding when I select e-mail messages in inbox folder to view them. My hotmail's inbox has 24911 messages and 9.1GB disk size. The other accounts (Yahoo, Gmail) are working fine. What happened? What should I do now? It is a kind of urgent, I cannot work! Thank you.

All Replies (7)

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I just went home, in my home PC which I also have here the Thunderbird v102.9.1 (64-bit) installed with the same configuration.

I have the same e-mail accounts installed here but here I have not done any compacting on a folder!

I encounter the same behavior also in this PC!!

The Thunderbird in my Hotmail account freezes for some seconds-minutes when I click on e-mail messages in inbox folder to view them...

Therefore, I suspect, is there any case that the version v102.9.1 (64-bit) have any bug?

It is weird that the same behavior happens also here....

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re :My hotmail's inbox has 24911 messages and 9.1GB disk size.

If you have the settings to download full copies - aka synchronise folders with server then you have 24911 emails stored in one single mbox text file which now has a huge size of 9.1GB. When compacting a complete copy of that file gets created, then any email not marked as deleted is written to a new mbox file, which replaces the original. It's possible the computer is struggling to open that file. It's possible some corruption could have occurred.

You would not be able to open that mbox file to recover anything using most text editors.

I'm presuming you have created the accounts as imap accounts.

I suggest try to use the webmail account to get this sorted.

  • Exit Thunderbird if it is running.
  • Logon to webmail account via a browser.
  • Create some new suitably named folders.eg: Family, Friends, Online Orders, Bills etc etc.
  • Move emails out of Inbox and put into suitably named folders for organising and storage.
  • Archive anything that is old.
  • Get that webmail Inbox emptied.

Start Thunderbird. Allow time for folders to synch with server. Subscribe to see the new folders you created.

  • Right click on mail account name folder in Folder Pane and select 'Subscribe'
  • Click on 'Refresh'
  • Select all folders
  • click on 'Subscribe'
  • click on 'OK'
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Hi Toad-Hall!

Yes, I have set Thunderbird to download full copies of my e-mails, thus I am using POP protocol. I am doing this to be able to have all my e-mails offline and view or download any attachment immediately if needed.

I read your proposal but I do not wish to have different folders for different e-mail categories. Like I've been doing all this time, I would like to have all my e-mails in one folder, thus, if I want something, I will search only in one folder, not on each folder individually...

One action I would like to do, if possible, is to leave this folder as it is (and have it as an archive) and create a new one in which the e-mails will be putted from there on (eg. to load from e-mail number 24911 and after). Is it possible; If so, how can I do it?

But, what should I do to fix this folder (my current inbox) anyway?

Lastly, I'm not sure that a corruption could have occurred due to the reason that in my home PC happens the same thing...

Thanks.

Modified by MinimalTech

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Sorry Toad-Hall!

I just noticed that the freezing happens on specific e-mails which contains a *.vcf file as an attachment!

In other e-mails with bigger attachments in size, but with *.zip, *.pdf, *.jpeg files it works fine!

But why it freezes with *.vcf?

Anyway! My first question still exists!

Can I convert my current inbox to archive and to have a new inbox with my new e-mails from now on?

Is it wise to do it?

Thank you.

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Archive settings:

You can set up to Archive to a specific folder. Usually, when you Archive emails, they are set up to go to an 'Archives' folder in the same Pop account. The settings are set up in Account Settings.

  • Right click on pop account name in Folder Pane and select 'Settings'

Account Settings opens in a new tab

  • Select 'Copies & Folders'
  • Under 'Message Archives' section
  • Select 'Keep message archives in:
  • Select 'Archives' folder on : choose pop account name/email address

At this point you can also choose to archive by year. I would advise this because it really is not a good idea to have very large files because if something goes wrong and you need to rescue emails, it is very difficult to open a large text file.

  • Click on 'Archive options' button
  • Select 'Yearly archived folders'
  • Click on 'OK'

Back in the Folder Pane

  • Select 'Inbox'
  • Make sure everything is in Date order.
  • suggest you do this in batches.
  • Highlight a group of emails - clicko n an email - hold down 'Shift; key and click on another email and everything in between will get highlightes/selected.
  • They get shown in Message Pane as 'X conversations' and you will see an 'Archive' button - click on it.

All the selected emails should then get moved into the 'Archives' folder and put into subfolders that have a year as a name. eg: > Archives > > 2016 > > 2017

Repeat selecting and archiving until all emails have been moved into 'Archives'.

This also means it will still be easy to locate any email in the 'Archives' folder. The 'Global Search' is an excellent tool for locating emails that reside in various folders OR use the 'Find' > 'Search Messages' This option can search in any selected folder OR selected mail account.

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Setting up Archive as mentioned in previous comment means it is now set up and you can choose to Archive at any point from now on.

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re :freezing happens on specific e-mails which contains a *.vcf file as an attachment

A *.vcf file is a 'vcard' and usually contains a sender/contact information. You would need to have selected 'View' > 'Display Attachments inline' in order for it to be displayed. It is possible to save the .vcf files and import them into the Address Book.

However, it may also be a malicious attachment being disguised as a vcard.

Freezing often occurs because another program has interrupted the process. It is likely the Anti-Virus product you are using is scanning incoming files and for some reason it is not likeing the .vcf attachment; possibly it is trying to 'fix' it.

Please note - I would advise that you do not want an Anti-Virus trying to fix anything when it involves any profile folder or file. It may try to fix the 'Inbox' and could corrupt the file as Anti-Virus does not understand the single text file actually contains all your emails. So if you want Anti-Virus to scan emails then please make sure you have the setting to ask you what to do. Never allow an auto fix as you may lose emails.

Q: What Anti-Virus product are you using?

The best method testing is to restart the computer in 'Safe Mode with Networking' as this disables the Anti-virus and other not necessary files, so you can run Thunderbird and see if you get a 'freezing' problem. It also means you do not have to uninstall etc any Anti-Virus, so when you go back to start computer as normal everything is auto up and running again. Note: if you normally use 'wireless' connection to router then you will probably need to use an ethernet cable to connect to router for the test.