Trouble with Thunderbird - need to exclude it in cleanup

[sillycat41]

Using Windows 10 and version 6.04  10044 (64 bit) of CCleaner.  Instructions for fixing glitch in Thunderbird said:  add an exclusion in your cleaning apps, like CCleaner, to not target Thunderbird and any of its related files.   I have no clue which files to add to the exclude list.  Help!

[hazelnut]

What glitch ?

Just in case you use Avast see here, been going on for months.

https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=320195.msg1694036#msg1694036

[sillycat41]

Sorry... I should have given more details.  Yesterday Thunderbird suddenly started loading old read emails from 2021 into my Inbox.  I did a search on how to fix it and someone said that it could have been caused by CCleaner removing files.  Apparently it has something to do with POPSTATE.dat files getting corrupt.  Very annoying since I can't  use Thunderbird now as it continues to load old emails by the hundreds!!!! 

[nukecad]

I don't use Thunderbird but apparently that 'popstate.dat' file can become corrupted and give the problem that you are describing.
It no longer knows which emails you have already seen so will show them all to you again.

It doesn't appear to be connected with using CCleaner or any other cleaner at all.
That advice you have read elsewhere is overkill. (Basically someone guessing).
If CCleaner was deleting popstate.dat then there would be hundreds of users complaining about it.

Unless you have a backup somewhere of popstate.dat then you are going to have to tell Thunderbird again that you have read those emails.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popstate.dat

Having said that  you can try making it an exclude in CCleaner, but I doubt it will do anything.
From the above link:

Quote

Finding popstate.dat

To find the file, open Thunderbird's Account Settings. Go to the account that you want to work with, then to that account's Server Settings page. Look at the Local Directory field (at the bottom of the window pane, next to a browse button) to see the location of the popstate.dat file for the account.

Once you know where the folder it is located you can make that whole folder, or just that one .dat file, an exclude in CCleaner.

 

[sillycat41]

Thanks for the response.   I'm wondering if I can copy the Popstate.dat file from my last backup of my hard drive and paste it???  Would that work???

[nukecad]

That should do the job as long as the popstate.dat in the backup is good. (and that depends just when it went funny for you).

Give it a go and if it doesn't change things then try an older backup if you have one.

Of course any emails you've received since you made that backup will still be shown as unread, but at least it won't be showing year old ones.

[sillycat41]

Okay thanks... I'll give it a try.  I'm afraid to delete the Popstate.dat file because I might lose some email or something else will happen.  Seems like replacing the Popstate.dat file is a saver bet, right?

[nukecad]

6 minutes ago, sillycat41 said:

 I'm afraid to delete the Popstate.dat file because ...

Make a copy of it to a USB stick or external drive before doing anything else with it, that way you can always put it back later if you want/need to.