Why does Tbird get stuck "copying message to Sent folder"?

[Rhino]

I have seven or eight emails that all say "Copying message to Sent
folder" and show the progress bar at 100%. Some of them have been
sitting like that for several hours. I know for a fact that some (and
probably all) of them have been sent: I've already seen replies to some
of them.

It looks like the process of copying to the Sent folder is getting
inhibited for some reason but why would that happen and what can I do
about it? This isn't the first time I've seen this either; it happens
sporadically every few weeks. It starts and stops for no obvious reason.

I'm running Tbird 31.5 on Windows 8.1.

--
Rhino

[Good Guy]

It could be that you are using an IMAP set up and so TB is trying to copy your sent messages to your online sent folder or it could be that your sent folder(s) are corrupted and so a quick repair might resolve this.

To repair your folder, right click on the folder and select properties and then click on repair button.  this button is at the bottom of the window that opens when you select properties.  It is just above the OK/Cancel buttons.

Hope this helps.

[WaltS48]

Do they have large attachments, or being scanned for viruses as they
are being sent.

--
Kubuntu 14.10 | KDE 4.14.1 | Thunderbird 38.0a2(Earlybird)
[Coexist - Understanding Across Divides](https://www.coexist.org/)
Proofreader wanted - apply online. ;)

[Rhino]

I appreciate the suggestion. I did the repair on the Sent folder but
those emails are still sitting there saying "Copying message to Sent
folder".

What else can I try?


--
Rhino

[Rhino]

On 2015-03-16 6:14 PM, WaltS48 wrote:
> On 03/16/2015 05:31 PM, Rhino wrote:
>> I have seven or eight emails that all say "Copying message to Sent
>> folder" and show the progress bar at 100%. Some of them have been
>> sitting like that for several hours. I know for a fact that some (and
>> probably all) of them have been sent: I've already seen replies to some
>> of them.
>>
>> It looks like the process of copying to the Sent folder is getting
>> inhibited for some reason but why would that happen and what can I do
>> about it? This isn't the first time I've seen this either; it happens
>> sporadically every few weeks. It starts and stops for no obvious reason.
>>
>> I'm running Tbird 31.5 on Windows 8.1.
>>
>
>
> Do they have large attachments, or being scanned for viruses as they
> are being sent.
>

They have no attachments. I'm using Avast Free. "Scan outgoing mail" was
checked until a moment ago. I unchecked it but my emails are still
hanging there saying "Copying message to Sent folder" so I'm guessing
that the virus program can't be the culprit at this point.

Or do I have to cancel the emails and/or reboot before I can expect to
see the behaviour change?

By the way, newsgroup posts do NOT experience this same issue, just emails.

--
Rhino

[NewComer]

You would be amazed what a reboot can fix. Try it.

[WaltS48]

I would try cancelling the emails, and restart Thunderbird.

Newsgroups are NNTP . Emails are POP or IMAP. Is your account IMAP or POP?

[Rhino]

IMAP.


--
Rhino

[Tanstaafl]

On 3/16/2015 7:59 PM, Rhino <no.offline.c...@example.com> wrote:
> I unchecked it but my emails are still hanging there saying "Copying
> message to Sent folder" so I'm guessing that the virus program can't
> be the culprit at this point.
>
> Or do I have to cancel the emails and/or reboot before I can expect
> to see the behaviour change?

Any changes you may make will never affect an ongoing process like that.

So, yes, you would at *least* need to cancel the message(s) with the
stuck 'Copying to Sent' window, and likely even restart Thunderbird to
fully affect the change.

Note: in windows, it is a common problem that if you close Thunderbird,
the process continues to run in the background for many minutes, so just
closing it and reopening it will often NOT result in a full restart of
the application.

When troubleshooting problems like this and you want to make sure it is
fully restarted:

1. Close Thunderbird

2. Open the Task Manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC on any windows box)

3. Look for 'thunderbird.exe' process - if it is running, kill it

4. Start Thunderbird

In windows, this is the only way - other than a reboot - to make sure it
gets fully restarted.

[ISHIKAWA, Chiaki]

Interesting.

I have seen this happen a few times under Windows 7 and
under linux.
I was using then current version of thunderbird when these events
happened a few times in the last couple of years.

Yes, there is a time, and I don't know what triggers this situation at
all, when the sent folder seems to be locked for no reason at all
immediately after a send operation
(I suspect a race condition: a buggy code somewhere gets stuck trying to
obtain some other resource while holding a lock to Sent folder?).

I had to quit the TB and made sure that no zombie process is left
running and restarted TB. All was well, and the message was SENT, too.

Still, I wish I could obtain explicit warning about "Sent folder locked
and could not be written immediately.", etc. although all I did was
simply sending out an e-mail, and failing to write into Sent folder
seems a grave bug to me.

CI

[WaltS48]

Well, both of my accounts are POP, so I'll speculate that the problem
isn't with Thunderbird but with your IMAP server not responding for both
the problems.

[Fred S*****]

Rhino,

I had this problem back in March of last year and tried a bunch of things.

Basically, I decided to add Thunderbird into the Exclude list for the
Windows 8.1 Firewall - that seems to have solved the problem as I no
longer experience this issue.

Give it a try.

Fred