TBird repeatedly dl'ing same messages

My wife & I both use TBird 1.5.0.5, mine on a desktop, hers on her work
laptop. Each is running several email accounts, she has a work email
("Smartermail) 1 gmail account & 1 hotmail account (via "hotmail
popper") I have an ISP based account (comcast) a gmail & 6 hotmails
(again, hotmail popper). Lately, we have both been getting repeated
dl's of the inbox, even though the messages have already been dl'd.
I've seen this on and off with hotmail int he past, but now her work
email is doing it as well. Settings for all accounts are the same,
including "leave messages on server". I've always used these settings,
but again the problem is intermittent. Is this a TBird issue, or could
it be that just by coincidence my wife's work email is now also doing
this behavior I had previously only seen from, hotmail?

TIA

Dan

 

scan your computer for viruses, trojans, etc

 

Thanks, I do that regularly & did just this morning, nothing found.

Dan

 

Not a solution, but a band-aid: there is a "Remove Duplicate Messages"
extension that will help you clean up the duplicate messages when they
do occur. <https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/956/>

 

OK, then try closing TB, then using your file manager,locate the mail
section of the TB profile. Inside you will find some files with the
extension of *.msf. Once found, delete them. Restart TB. Any difference?

To find your TB profile you can read this:
http://www.mozilla.org/support/thunderbird/profile#locate

but if you're using windows, then you must read this first:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/hiddenfiles.mspx

 

Thanks, I'll give it a try & let you know. Oddly, on my machine now the
same thing is happening with a DIFFERENT hotmail account. Also odd, the
majority of the messages on this account are on 2 listservs which posts
I filter into a special folder. The filter is not running automatically
on these duplicate dl's. Really weird...

Dan

 

That is helpful, I'll get it, thanks for the tip.

Dan

 

Tried it, works! Easier than sifting manually, anyway. Thanks!

Dan

 

Located the *.msf files. There's a ton, for each email folder as well
as all the ng's. I don't want to delete them if they contain the dl'd
messages (for the email) since some of the messages are no longer on the
servers. Is this a concern?

Thanks

Dan

 

No. The .msf files are simply summary files. The actual mail is
contained in the file without extension. The summary file will be
rebuilt when you reopen the application.

For example, you should find Inbox, and Inbox.msf. You can delete
Inbox.msf with no problem. If you were to delete Inbox (without
extension) you would delete all your mail.

So, any file with a .msf extension can be deleted with impunity, as it
will be recreated.

Lee

 

Thanks Lee, I'll give it a try.

Dan

 

Deleted the .msf. So far it seems to have done the trick on my desktop,
I'll try it on my wife's work laptop, which had been doing the same
thing. I noted when I was looking at these files that there were a
number from ng's I have not been subscribed to in months. Seems like
perhaps a periodic purge of the files might be good maintainence.
Someone should create an extension... ;-)

Dan

 

thats one of the downfalls of Mozilla. When you unsubscribe, left
over files remain behind.

--
Continued from yesterday . . . The bartender can't contain his
curiosity any longer, so he walks over to the table. There in the
center is a beautifully framed child's puzzle of the Cookie Monster.
When the frenzy dies down a little bit, the bartender asks one of the
blondes, "What's all the chanting and celebration about?" The blonde
who brought in the picture pipes in, "Everyone thinks that blondes are
dumb and they make fun of us. So, we decided to set the record
straight. Ten of us got together, bought that puzzle and put it
together . . . the side of the box said 2-4 years, but we put it
together in 51 days!"

 

Downfall or Godsend, depending on your needs. Many people have been
able to rescue needed data when they accidentally deleted an account.

It can leave kind of a mess in the profile though, which needs to be
cleaned out manually.

One other thing to mention besides the msf files is to compact the
folders. Deleted emails remain in the mbox file, even though they do
not appear in TB, until the folder is compacted.

Lee

 

but you can't compact newsgroups, just mail

--
Continued from yesterday . . . The bartender can't contain his
curiosity any longer, so he walks over to the table. There in the
center is a beautifully framed child's puzzle of the Cookie Monster.
When the frenzy dies down a little bit, the bartender asks one of the
blondes, "What's all the chanting and celebration about?" The blonde
who brought in the picture pipes in, "Everyone thinks that blondes are
dumb and they make fun of us. So, we decided to set the record
straight. Ten of us got together, bought that puzzle and put it
together . . . the side of the box said 2-4 years, but we put it
together in 51 days!"

 

Sorry, I jumped in on this late and didn't note the specific reference
to newsgroups.

Lee

 

Yes you can. Old messages are removed from newsgroups when they are
compacted.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that only if messages are downloaded
for offline use?

Lee

 

I think even if the messages aren't downloaded, the old headers will be
cleared by compacting.