Thunderbird the bane of my existence

[topanaris]

Hi all this is a just a rant about my new found hatred for thunderbird. There is a client on my network that uses Thuderbird as her email client, this client apparenlty have 6 years + worth of emails and of course refuses to delete any. I wasnt too perturbed with this until it was brought to my attention that her ENTIRE inbox disappeared, i though to myself oh this is just a blip maybe Thunderbird forgot her profile as it always does so a simple restart of the application should prove the best remedy. Upon restart still no inbox check everything on the system hard drive, viruses everything, still found no reason as to why the inbox vanished. "The mbox file is there in her profile so the messages should be there" am thinking to myself so i did what any stumped techie would do - Google. Apparently, there is a bug in thunderbird where if your mbox isnt compacted and you dont try to keep your inbox as "clean" as possible IT WILL CORRUPT YOUR MAILBOX FILES http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbir...t_seem_to_work
Needless to say i was pissed, what explanation could you give to justify someone loosing 6 years worth of emails. Now this is the last straw for me and thunderbird EVERYONE is now getting Outlook express - or so i thought further research pointed me to the fact that there is no easy way to migrate from Thunderdirt to Outlook express the only way is by EXPORTING THE EMAILS AS EML FILES. Mi done now.

[Arch_Angel]

So the option to automatically compact the inbox wasn't turned on?

[jamrock]

What kind of backup procedures do you have in place for the user's mail?

One option is to store the mailboxes on a server share and include that in your daily backup routine.

I have over 10 years of email in Thunderbird. I used to use Eudora back in the day. I migrated everything over to Thunderbird a few years ago.

I have never lost any emails but I still back up my email weekly.

I have seen too many people lose their mail when the hard drive of their workstations crash. At work we keep everyone's mailboxes on a server.

[Arch_Angel]

I switched over to IMAP instead of POP3, mainly to save hard drive space, but also to prevent this kind of thing. Email is stored on the server and Thunderbird only downloads the headers until you open the email, then it downloads a copy of the email to your computer.

But I have 1 POP3 account and thunderbird compacts it automatically.

[jamrock]

I switched over to IMAP instead of POP3, mainly to save hard drive space, but also to prevent this kind of thing. Email is stored on the server and Thunderbird only downloads the headers until you open the email, then it downloads a copy of the email to your computer.

But I have 1 POP3 account and thunderbird compacts it automatically.

Have you seen this happen before?

[topanaris]

It is set to compact automatically. However my research has led me to believe the sheer volume of messages cause the corruption of the mbox file. As for backup this user has a roaming profile and the server copy of the profile is backed up daily. However the server share for backing up email is a very good idea, i honestly should have thought of that before - actually i think i did what about when the user isnt attached to the network, could you simply make the folder available offline? I also notice that for whatever reason there a a lot of tmp folders that pop up in thunderdirt and deleting the msf files does nothing to return the mailbox folders to their original state

[jamrock]

It is set to compact automatically. However my research has led me to believe the sheer volume of messages cause the corruption of the mbox file.

I have met the mbox format with qmail and Postfix. It does have its weaknesses. Most arise from the fact that all the mail is stored in a single file. I did not know that Thunderbird uses this format.

As for backup this user has a roaming profile and the server copy of the profile is backed up daily.

You may want o check if the email data is a part of this profile.

However the server share for backing up email is a very good idea, i honestly should have thought of that before - actually i think i did what about when the user isnt attached to the network, could you simply make the folder available offline?

Why would they not be attached to the network?

thunderdirt

Hmmm... You sound bitter.

[topanaris]

I have met the mbox format with qmail and Postfix. It does have its weaknesses. Most arise from the fact that all the mail is stored in a single file. I did not know that Thunderbird uses this format.

You may want o check if the email data is a part of this profile.



Why would they not be attached to the network?



Hmmm... You sound bitter.

The mbox files are a part of the user profile as i have been relying on this system for 3 years now, when i have a system crash they just logon to another system and start working and i dont do squat!

I forgot to mention that the user uses a laptop and is in and out of the office most times.

And as for "thunderdirt" try explaining all of the above to an unattractive, unwed single 35 year old woman - and then.....tell me if you wouldnt be bitter.

[jamrock]

If the profiles are being backed up, shouldn't you be able to restore her data to the last time she was in office?

Perhaps you need to teach her how to backup up her mailbox to DVD once a week.

BTW, it is possible to lose data from Outlook also.

[topanaris]

We rotate offsite backups weekly so her data will be restored. As for Outlook i moved the Outlook PST file to a folder in the user profile so it backed up at shutdown utilizing roaming profiles, to date i have never had any issues with Outlook lossing data