User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030612 Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030612 When compacting folders, all the messages shown in the message list pane suddenly turn invisible. This does not happen in the Inbox, only if the active folder is a subfolder of the Inbox. (Haven't tried to reproduce with Unsent Messages, Drafts, Sent or any of those, just with subfolders in the Inbox.) Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Enable the pref that compacts folders. 2. Open a folder other than the Inbox. 3. Wait for the dialog to appear. 4. Click "OK". Actual Results: The message list pane goes blank. The scroll bar remains the same, it does not disable as it would if the folder were really empty. The messages are not lost; they are still there, they just can't be seen. Switching to a different folder and then switching back brings them back. Expected Results: The messages should remain visible.

Update: this doesn't seem to happen with the "Sent" folder or a subfolder of it.

I've the same problem (same Build & OS). You can get your messages back by deleting the msf-files of the affected folders.

are you in some special view, other than just view | all messages? I don't see this happening at all.

No, it is happening in View | All.

Rather than opening a new bug for Thunderbird, I'll report here that I observe this problem intermittently in "Mozilla Thunderbird 0.4a (20031110)" running under Windows98SE. It happens on the InBox (in View/All mode), with the cursor showing an hourglass indefinitely. Clicking on any other folder, then returning to the InBox reveals e-mails again.

we blank out the thread pane while the folder is getting compacted, but it should re-appear when the compact operation is finished. I'll try it with a sub-folder of the inbox. Re Mark's Tbird comment, that's a different problem, and should be fixed in tbird .4 final, just released.

See bug 271988 for an easily reproducible variation on this problem. Reporter says "When compacting folders..." which implies using File | Compact Folders 271988 is about using the Compact This Folder item in the context menu.

*** Bug 228097 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 191063 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***