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When I try to retrieve emails, I see the following messages in the Thunderbird status bar:
Checking Inbox for new messages
Downloading 1 of 68
Nothing to download
The problem is confined to one mail account on one computer - I can see and download the messages on other PCs, my phone, etc. If I use telnet on the problem PC, I can retrieve the messages that Thunderbird is not downloading.
Also, for other accounts on the same mail server accessed by the same instance of Thunderbird I can download all messages.
I'm using Thunderbird 38.2.0 on Windows 8.1, connecting with POP3.
I've re-installed Thunderbird. I have also tried deleting the popstate.dat file for this account, to no effect.
1POP3? Really? Why not using IMAP? Which is better suited for multiple devices accessing 1 account. – Tyson – 2015-09-24T16:03:35.387
I'm aware of the benefits of IMAP. – Rod Graham – 2015-09-24T18:22:51.353
Then give us the background why you're using POP3. Are there any other programs trying to access the account at the same time? – David – 2015-12-31T01:22:17.487
Sorry David for the delay in replying to you (I wasn't getting notifications from Stack Exchange). – Rod Graham – 2016-03-28T13:04:39.327
I inherited the running of this setup and am too busy to change it. The way it's set up is that all emails we send bcc the account they are sent from, so there is always a local copy of every email on every machine (assuming each machine logs in to the mail server at least weekly. I believe the previous admin took this approach to save money on server space, and to avoid problems with unreliable connections and servers. – Rod Graham – 2016-03-28T13:11:01.653
And I'm pretty sure the problem wasn't the one machine being locked out by another accessing the server. Because we have about ten clients doing this, we do see the lock out fairly regularly, but it only ever lasts a few seconds, and in any case it is reported as an "unable to connect to server error" (or words to that effect) – Rod Graham – 2016-03-28T13:14:03.137