[FC4] Thunderbird Inbox gone [solved]

[M. Lewis]

M. Lewis wrote:
> FedoraCore4
> T'bird version 1.0.6-1.1.fc4 (20050720)
> 
> I've read numerous other postings about mail disappearing. I've searched 
> the FAQ as well as the forum at the Thunderbird help. I've tried all the 
> steps outlined in the 'mail disappearing' topic on the T'bird forum. 
> Still I have no Inbox.
> 
> The scenario:
> 
> Today I needed to reboot my machine to install a new kernel. T'bird was 
> working fine. I had about 70 or so emails in my inbox. Last night I was 
> working on cleaning the inbox up and moving messages out of there.
> 
> Rebooted machine. Brought up T'bird. Went to the inbox folder and it was 
> empty. Shutdown T'bird, started it again. Inbox is still empty.
> 
> If I go to my profile/ImapMail/ I cannot find any files or directories 
> called Inbox. It apparently somehow magically was completely deleted.
> 
> I've sent messages to myself from other accounts. I can not receive mail 
> now. I suspect the reason is the inbox is gone.
> 
> If I click on another folder in T'bird (other than Inbox) then click on 
> Inbox again, I see in the bottom left of the screen "Opening Folder..." 
> but of course nothing happens.
> 
> I'm very suspicious of some issue with IMAP, though Dovecot seems to be 
> running fine. I set T'bird to check mail every 1 minute. If I do 'tail 
> -f /var/log/maillog | grep imap' I DO NOT see T'bird logging in every 
> minute. I see it only when I start T'bird.
> 
> If I send new message to myself, I can see it in /var/spool/mailboxname.
> 
> 1) Any clues as to why this happened?
> 2) Any clues how to recover the messages that were in the Inbox?
> 3) Any clues how to prevent this from happening again? I suspect the 
> answer to this is have very small Inbox. As I stated earlier, I was 
> working on that last night. Guess I didn't get to it quickly enough.
> 
> I posted this on the Thunderbird help forum and I did get some answers 
> from one fellow. Unfortunately, he was a M$ user and just gave me the 
> standard spiel about things I had already tried.
> 
> Thanks for any ideas about how to proceed.
> 
> M
> 

Good ole Paul had the key:

http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=fedora-selinux-list&m=112541415121689&w=2

This solved the problem of not being able to 'receive' new mail with 
T'bird. Of course it had nothing to do (I don't think) with why T'bird 
deleted my Inbox in the first place.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Mike