File (alt +F) > compact folders. What your describe are classic symptoms of a corrupt mail folder and compacting will clear corruption. It may also delete all mail older that a certain date where the corruption occurs so copy all mail to another folder before you compact.

So I tried that and will report back as to it's effectiveness. It's a sporadic issue so it may be a few days. Not much seemed to happen when I did it.

If this is a common repair to a common problem with no visible affects why is it not a built in process?

Thanks.

it is a built in process, by default it operates after you delete the amount of mail set in Tools menu > options > Advanced > Network and disk space.

No dice. I had mail when I opened it up today. Actually mail that I deleted and cleared out of my trash last night,

Do you have anti virus scanning your mail? What happens if you turn off that component? (A relatively safe procedure, despite popular wisdom to the contrary)

Can you add an exception for your mail folders to your anti virus program, telling it not to scan them in real time?

I am going to try that now but honestly if that is the problem then TB needs some work. There is no valid reason that AV scanning of incoming E-mail should "resurrect" year old E-mails or make it keep checking for mail after it is shut down.

I'll keep you posted.

Scanning of incoming emails would be no problem, but when an AV suite chooses to interfere with a data storage system it doesn't understand then you should expect trouble. Some AVs look for infected files, and then quarantine them. When that file actually represents a folder, removing it would also remove all the rest of the messages in that folder. Even if the AV attempts to excise just a single infected message, without intimate knowledge of the workings of message storage and the structure of the message store, it is likely to inflict collateral damage on other messages, or even render the whole store useless.