tbrocks9 said

Hi All: A power user here - been struggling with TB all day - lost some data etc. etc. -- tried to troubleshoot. here's the scoop: a clean profile - all folders loaded with messages. deleted all .msf files. some folders lose content after TB rebuilds the .msf files this means deleting all .msf files is very dangerous as it can have unpredictable behavior on some folder. Any insights into why this was the case? Thanks a lot.

Sounds like the underlying mbox files are corrupt. You might want to have a look in they with a text editor. If you can identify corruption and a possible cause I will be all ears. I would however suggest you exclude the Thunderbird profile from an real time scanning by your anti virus and check that the windows indexing service is not allowed to index the files in the folder. Both things have the potential to cause corruption through file contention or slow access.

Thanks Matt. I have around 300,000 messages in around 20 or more folders.

After I delete all msf's , after rebuilding, around 5 or so folders come out as empty. TB folder shows them as zero bite. something gets screwed up bigtime.

I'm running on MacOS. if the underlying mbox files were corrupt, why are they working when i restore the profile that includes pre-deleting msf's and same mbox files.

I have the problem isolated (can recreate it every time).

I have Avast running on Mac.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

tbrocks9 said

Thanks Matt. I have around 300,000 messages in around 20 or more folders. After I delete all msf's , after rebuilding, around 5 or so folders come out as empty. TB folder shows them as zero bite. something gets screwed up bigtime. I'm running on MacOS. if the underlying mbox files were corrupt, why are they working when i restore the profile that includes pre-deleting msf's and same mbox files. I have the problem isolated (can recreate it every time). I have Avast running on Mac. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Before you go too far, disable avast. Completely. then see if you can repeat the thing. I must admit that our testing on OSX is all automated. I do not think there is an OSX tester.... please if you have time we really do need someone.

But if you can reliably reproduce it, without avast, is it always the same folders. are they small enough that I could try and reproduce on windows? If we can make a case, the logical end point is file a bug. but lets do the testing to determine the cause of the effect.

Thanks Matt I'll be happy to help I'm travelling a bit so if u don't mind please keep this case open and I'll get back to it within a week or so. I do know it behaves differently on windows - i have windows too - and tested same profile there. will run the steps and get back to you. cheers

Anytime you can get to it. I tend to respond to posts. So when your ready you will get my attention again.

What is the file size? I recall some years ago OSX and Some Linus distributions had issues with files over 2Gb. it was a limit of the file system in use. Just tossing it out there for consideration really.

Very small sizes. I've had large files as big as 6 GB and TB seems to handle them ok.

Ok, thanks.

By the way, have you ever heard of any corruption or bugs with the two "remove duplicate" extensions?

Also, at some point all my mails in some folders doubled -- ever heard of that? It wasn't re-download since these are old folders and messages are long gone from server.

I use pop by the way and not imap.

All the best Reza Ganjavi www.rezamusic.com