OT: Thunderbird thread-reading problem

[Lobster]

Sorry, but I know there are a lot of Thunderbird pilots here...

I use Thunderbird 9.01 (newsreader only). Recently I've been having great difficulty reading threaded posts: hitherto, I would select the first post in an interesting thread in the main (index?) window, and having read it, press "F" to bring up the next post in the thread, or the first message of the next thread if the original thread has ended. However, when I do so, I get a 'Loading message' at the bottom left, and the title of the window tab changes, but the contents of the window stay the same. Sorry, hard to explain.

The only way I can view threads is to expand the thread, and click on the message I want.

I've been putting up with this for some weeks, but put it down to my very long-in-the-tooth PC playing up again; however I've just set up a brand new PC this weekend (with clean T'bird install) and it's exactly the same. Anybody else getting this?

Thanks David

[Andy Burns]

How is your view setup? I tend to use sort by: order received, ascending, threaded.

I use 'N' to move to the next unread message.

[Lobster]

I usually go for received, descending, threaded (FWIW I just tried your setup above and got the same results

Not sure of the difference without checking up (threads/messages maybe) but anyway - "N" gives me the same reult :(

David

[Brian Gaff]

I have heard of this non refreshing problem before. Its apparently a bug and its far better to go to the old versions and the same issue sometimes comes up in Firefox when you try to go back a page. They did say it would be fixed, but lets put it this way, I ditch thunderbird and use Live mail and use FF3.6. grin Brian on Outlook express at the moment.

[Another Dave]

I've given up on the latest Thunderbirds (see earlier thread). I suggest you go back to a previous version; I've gone back to version 2.0.0.24 but that's probably too extreme for what you want.

ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/

Another Dave

[Adrian C]

It's probably an update on Avast causing this.

See "OT-ish Anyone had trouble recently with Avast screwing with usenet access ?" recently posted on sci.electronics.repair by Arfa D.

[John Rumm]

No, and I am on the same version... I use a similar view setup to you, although use N for next message.

I would suspect either an indexing problem in the message store, or possibly an antivirus program conflict.

An indexing problem you may be able to fix by deleting the .msf file in the appropriate news folder. (it will force it to download headers again, but should not lose track of which messages have been responded to or read etc).

[Vernon]

yes i tracked it down to Avast and turned off NNTP under advanced mail settings and all is well again.

[Lobster]

>>>>>

BRILLIANT! Thanks so much - that's exactly the problem. All is now well again (except presumably I'm now vulnerable to virus attack via usenet? Is that something I should be worrying about (given that although I don't use binary newsgroups, AFAIK my news server doesn't actually block binary posts on text newsgroups?)

Thanks David

[F]

I'm beginning to think I might do that too.

I've got a folder with unread emails in it that all of a sudden refuses to show in the 'Unread folders' view and I'm getting fed up with having to re-configure folder views to remove 'Read' and 'Starred' icons.

[Arfa Daily]

I started a thread going on this over on another group. Are you by any chance using Avast! as your virus checker ? I have pinned the problem down to this, although I don't know why it has suddenly happened. Everyone that is suffering from it seems to be using Avast!

To check if that's your problem, right-click on the tray icon, then select "Avast! shield controls". Click "disable for 10 minutes" then try your news reading again. If the problem has gone away, a fix for the time being is to stop Avast! from filtering news input. You can do this by going to the "Real Time Shields" tab. Then select "Mail Shield" and then "Expert Settings". Uncheck the "Scan newsgroup messages(NNTP)" box. Then close out the windows you have open.

This should return everything to working as it was, but be aware that you now have no virus checking on newsgroup downloads. Bad arsed stuff carried on text groups has never been a problem as far as I'm aware, so probably reasonably safe, although we do need to get to the bottom of what has caused this, so that it can be corrected properly. Someone on the other group has, I believe, informed the Avast! people what is happening, so maybe there will be a fix for it soon.

Arfa