[TriLUG] Speaking of Thunderbird in Debian..

[Aaron S. Joyner]

Brian Henning wrote:

> ...
> So it seems that after some unknown long amount of time of being open,
> Thunderbird begins getting stuck when it tries to check mail.  It
> doesn't crash; it just never actually connects to the mail server. ...
> Any suggestions?

I've had similar problems connecting to a particular vendor's brain-dead
IMAP server (which will remain nameless - no, it's not Exchange).  The
server would have similar problems with sessions that the server had
disconnected, but Mozilla Mail (at the time, and later Thunderbird)
wouldn't correctly handle that disconnection, and would seem to still be
talking to the remote server.  In the Mozilla days, I'd simply check
"Work Offline" (there was a power-plug looking shortcut for it in the
status bar), and then go back "Online", and it would them be able to
check the mail.  Logically, from my perspective, this was the quickest
and simplest way to forcibly disconnect and reconnect to the mail
server.  Thunderbird didn't used to have this exact feature built in,
but you could add it with an extension.  I think it may be in the latest
version, I don't think I had to add an extension for it, and I don't see
it in my list of current extension.  Check for the power-plug looking
icon on the left side of the Status Bar, or look for an "Offline" menu
under the "File" menu.

Best of luck!
Aaron S. Joyner