Keep it working - Thunderbird

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This article suggests one way to to keep Thunderbird working and avoid serious problems. Its intended for new users, so it keeps things simple and presents few alternatives. The assumption is when you get more experience you may do things differently as you understand the tradeoffs.

  • Keep the inbox empty. Store any new messages in another folder after you've read them, perhaps a child folder in local folders. This will help avoid corrupting your inbox folder.
  • Regularly compact your inbox folder and any folders you delete messages in or move messages from. Once a week is a usefull rule of thumb though how often depends upon how many messages you get and how critical they are to you. Ideally you would configure Thunderbird to automaticly compact your folders for you by setting mail.purge_threshhold to 75 and installing the AutoMsgSelect extension (so that you don't get prompted for permission whenever it wants to compact a folder). Note that you install a extension by RIGHT clicking on the download link with Firefox, choosing "save link as", going to tools -> extension, and then press the install button and select the downloaded .xpi file. Otherwise Firefox will think it should install that extension and complain it could not be installed because it was not compatible with Firefox.
  • Regularly backup your profile. As a minimum backup your profile once you get Thunderbird working, and every time you upgrade. If you're using a version of Thunderbird that automaticly upgrades (v1.5 or later), backup your profile after it upgrades. Use Mozbackup to do this if you're using Windows.
  • Don't use the "default" profile name. Thunderbird has a nasty habit of once in a great while forgetting about the existence of a profile if it uses the default name. When this occurs you suddenly startup in the new account manager. You can avoid this by creating your profile with the profile manager and choosing a unique name. You can also specify where you want the profile to be stored. For example, I have a c:\profile directory and store my Firefox profile in one subdirectory and my Thunderbird profile in another subdirectory in it. This makes it much easier to find your profile if you need to edit one of its files. Just do not store it within your Thunderbird program directory or it may be deleted when you upgrade.
  • Check that your anti-virus software isn't configured to delete your inbox if you get a virus. If it doesn't support quarantining the infected message v1.5 has a workaround in Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Anti-Virus
  • Don't check for viruses in messages you send. This avoids some interoperability problems, and if the recipient isn't already using a anti-virus program they have bigger problems to worry about then your message.
  • Don't keep a copy of your messages on the POP server without providing some way to automaticly get rid of them later on. If you use tools -> account settings -> server settings -> leave message on server to keep a copy of the original message on the POP server after Thunderbird checks for new mail (so that you can still access it via webmail) set the number of days it should keep the copy.
  • Only install extensions from Mozilla add-ons or the Extensions Mirror. Not every extension is well behaved. These are the two most popular web sites for Thunderbird extensions so there is a better chance the extension has been tested and/or used by lots of other users.