Email headers disappeared
Suddenly, all of the information in the top window, which showed the list of emails with From, Subject, Date, etc., disappeared. If I click on an invisible header, I can read the email, but not being able to see the headers is a very serious problem in finding emails. Screenshot attached. What can I do to fix this?
I think it happened just after compacting (not totally sure). I tried making a new folder and copying the emails into it, but the new folder had the same problem: the headers were invisible. I tried updating the program and that was no help.
Chosen solution
Thank you. I found another work-around. I found that if I copied all the emails into a new folder in Local Folders, the headers would show up (that would not work if the folder was in the same account, in which case the headers would not show up).
Then I removed my email address from the affected account and opened a new account using that address. When I got email in the new account the headers showed up. I then deleted the old account. I suppose I could copy the emails back into the new account, but there were 23K emails and that might have made the corruption more likely so I left them in the separate folder in case I want to search them later.
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It sounds like your mail files are corrupted. First of all create a backup of your Thunderbird profile folder. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profiles-tb#w_backing-up-a-profile
Then try to rebuild the index file of the troubled folder. Right-click the folder - Properties - Repair Folder
Note: depending on the corruption this may erase messages from the affected folder which cannot be recovered anymore. In that case you'd need to restore them from a recent backup done prior to the corruption.
Corruption is often caused by anti-virus software messing with Thunderbird mail files. It is therefore recommended to create an exception for the Thunderbird profile folder, so that the real-time scanner won't attempt to scan the profile with your mail.
For more information on the profile location see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird
Also see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_working_-_Thunderbird
Chosen Solution
Thank you. I found another work-around. I found that if I copied all the emails into a new folder in Local Folders, the headers would show up (that would not work if the folder was in the same account, in which case the headers would not show up).
Then I removed my email address from the affected account and opened a new account using that address. When I got email in the new account the headers showed up. I then deleted the old account. I suppose I could copy the emails back into the new account, but there were 23K emails and that might have made the corruption more likely so I left them in the separate folder in case I want to search them later.