Thunderbird email setup

JasX

Ok recently installed Mozilla Thinderbird and must be missing something very obvious.

Used to use Outlook Express and want to setup Thunderbird to work in a similar way with my O2 pop account. I put in all my settings, send thunderbird off to download all my messages which it does but then if I close and re-open TB all previously downloaded messages disappear!

It won't re-download any either just reporting 'no new messages'

If i go thru the steps to create an 'imap' account there seem to be options to make email folders available offline but these disappear for setting up a pop account and I can't find any way to make it keep copies of downloaded emails? it must be capable of doing so?

have setup windows live mail in parallel with it and that does what I want from the word go? what am I missing with TB?

Thanks for any help

fwor

I use TB, and I can say for sure that what you are seeing is not how it's supposed to work! All of my accounts use POP, and the emails do not disappear when I close the program.

It sounds as though you may have a corrupted profile. I've had this once before and it lost all of my existing emails.

I never managed to repair mine, but there are quite a few "how-to" guides if you search for "thunderbird corrupt profile". You will probably find it easier because you should just be able to delete the existing one and create a new one.

BillScarab

When you re-open Thunderbird what folder does it display? Is it definately the inbox?

GeoffX

In 'Tools' menu, 'Account Settings', [ACCOUNT],'Server Settings':
- is 'Leave Messages on Server' checked? It should be.
- click the 'Advanced' button. Is 'Global Inbox' selected? If not, try it.

In 'Tools' menu, 'Account Settings', 'Local Folders', 'Disc Space' is 'Don't delete
any messages' selected? It should be.

(I'm using Thunderbird 3.0.)

JasX

Ok thanks all but I think fwor had it with a corrupt profile, I'd tried reinstalling TB several times but although i'd resorted to manually deleting it from program files and removing stray registry keys I'd overlooked the profile folder each time.

after reading about deleting .msf files after some initial success i went in and deleted all files in my profile & local folder directories and it seems to be working fine arter being forced to recreate them and start over.

All the settings GeoffX suggested were selected except the Global inbox one which since it seems ok now i've left on the 'inbox for this servers account'

Are corrupting TB profiles quite common then? some sites suggest its linked to keeping a large number of emails in folders/inboxes which i do tend to do? something I should be wary of?

fwor

I would say yes, be wary - having had it happen once myself in about 18 months of using TB.

I now backup my profile data once a week - not so much because I'm worried about losing a few emails, but because recovering the profile data for around 20 email accounts is very tedious...

spud17

I'd tried reinstalling TB several times but although i'd resorted to manually deleting it from program files and removing stray registry keys I'd overlooked the profile folder each time.

I've found both Firefox and Thunderbird to be pretty persistent, but if you've missed the profile.

I now backup my profile data once a week -

I use Syncback to backup my profile every day (ish).

Just set up my Win7 machine, opened profile backup on old machine, put profile onto usb, opened profile and copied all the files into new profile, accepting prompts about overwriting.

Result was seamless move to Win7.