Thunderbird question

[Gordon Messmer]

On 07/04/2015 02:16 PM, jd1008 wrote:
> On 07/04/2015 03:00 PM, Gordon Messmer wrote:
>> If you're connecting over IMAP, you can delete the cache:
>> rm -rf .thunderbird/*.default/ImapMail/imap.googlemail.com*
> Using pop - I had had undesireable experience with Imap,
> so I switched to pop. One of the reasons was that I needed
> to re-read old messages in situations where I had no internet
> access.

In that case, you can probably leave that in place, but set up a second 
Gmail profile using IMAP, temporarily.  IMAP has access to the full 
message store, and you can copy the messages locally.  I don't know of a 
way to make Thunderbird download your mail otherwise.  Maybe move 
everything to the Inbox would work?  It's hard to say.

Either way, you can configure IMAP to keep a copy of all mail locally, 
and I believe that's the default.  Access to mail while offline should 
work just fine with IMAP.

>> Though this should be a reminder that backups matter.
> Goes without saying :)
> I boldly ran the repair without first backing up Inbox :)

By that time, it was already too late.  Backing up corrupt data really 
doesn't do you much good.  You needed a backup from before it became 
corrupt.  So, I'll restate my original point:

*Regular* backups matter.  Don't skip them.  Don't leave them until you 
feel like you might need them.  Run backups on a predictable, regular 
schedule.

>> Also consider using Maildir instead of the default Berkeley format:
>> https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Maildir
>>
> Not sure what that gives me.
> Does is turn each message into a separate file?
> If so, not for me.

Yes, Maildir keeps each message in a separate file.  It's much less 
likely to become corrupt than mbox.

With mbox, any time you remove a message from a folder (either deleting 
it or moving it to another folder), the entire mbox file has to be 
re-written.  If you delete/move a message from a very large folder, that 
can generate a lot of disk activity, and creates a long window in which 
an interruption can corrupt the folder.  With Maildir, all operations 
should be atomic.  An interruption should never destroy an entire folder.