Lately, Thunderbird (1.5.0.9) has been hanging when I try to open particular folders. Eventually, it crashes. I think I know why, and I seem to have fixed it, but please note that I am an incompetent Thunderbird repairperson. I don’t know what I’m doing. Following in my footsteps is likely to bring you to wrack, if not to actual ruin.

Are we clear on the disclosure? Good.

So, I noticed that the hanging folders had .msf files that were zero-length. I believe the msf folders contain the metadata about the display of the contents of the folders. I believe they do not contain the actual messages. So, I deleted them and restarted Thunderbird, forcing Thunderbird to rebuild the metadata.

If you’re an XP user, you’ll find your msf files, and the rest of the contents associated with your Thunderbird profile, at C:\Documents and Settings\User_Name\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\Jibber_Jabber\Mail\ (where User_Name=your user name and Jibber_Jabber=a random string Thunderbird generates).

It seems to have worked. And if you try it, it’s likely to cause your computer to fuse its solenoids or display only unsolvable Sudoku puzzles. [Tags: thunderbird msf ]

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