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I have a problem with Thunderbird, which finds my e-mails but sometimes fails to open them from search results. For instance, I have this e-mail (screenshot 1) which I can locate manually by date. When I search for it using CTRL+K, I can see it in search results preview, with correct date and message body (screenshot 2). However, when I double-click on the search result, an empty tab opens (screenshot 3). This doesn't happen for all the messages, others open from search results just fine.
Any ideas on how I can diagnose/fix the issue?
What I have tried:
- Updating to latest version (52.6) and restarting
- Clicking on folder properties and selecting "Repair folder"
- Restarting in safe mode (with addons disabled)
- Copied my profile to a Linux machine and opened it with Thunderbird 52.5.2
Additional info. The folder in question is configured as Thunderbird archives. I have inspected the message using "View Source" and it looks OK: the usual headers are there, message body is correctly encoded plain text UTF-8, message ends with a dot on a newline.
Dmitry Grigoryev
Posted 2018-01-28T22:36:18.970
Reputation: 7 505
Good question. Can you navigate directly to the message by means other than a search, open it, and see the content (i.e., verify that the message currently contains content and isn't corrupted)? Is the problem only with archived messages? Are those Thunderbird archives or simply a folder structure named "Archives"? Do you have a separate backup that you can inspect to see if the same messages have the same problem? – fixer1234 – 2018-01-28T22:48:15.950
@fixer1234 I have updated the question. I'm afraid all my backups which have this e-mail are affected. If I spot this issue in an older message, I'll check a very old backup which was made before I split Archives by years. – Dmitry Grigoryev – 2018-01-29T00:03:43.713
The fact that the message source looks normal suggests that the issue is in rendering, which could mean app corruption. But you've replaced that. Compare the source for both good and bad messages. There could be some small, non-obvious change that prevents the viewer from displaying the content. I did a quick search and this doesn't appear to be a common issue. If nobody here comes up with anything, check the Mozilla support forum. They've got a lot of people with in-depth subject knowledge, and I've gotten good help there.
– fixer1234 – 2018-01-29T00:48:43.760@fixer1234 Sorry for the false alarm, after a few passes of "repair/compress folder" the messages started to show up correctly. – Dmitry Grigoryev – 2018-01-29T00:51:36.267
Interesting. But that wouldn't explain the same behavior on the backups, unless the messages were corrupted before being backup up. Just curious if it was the same messages, and only those, that had a problem on the backup. Anyway, consider posting an answer in case others run into the same problem. – fixer1234 – 2018-01-29T00:54:04.697
@fixer1234 Yep, I suppose the the corruption occurred somewhere between the date the e-mail was received and the time I made the backup. – Dmitry Grigoryev – 2018-01-29T07:53:51.597