Thunder bird Inbox REMOVED not just quarantined

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
1

Norton reported that I had viruses . I allowed Norton to fix whatever problem it found, and it deleted my entire Inbox!   It is not in the quarantine it has been removed. I am unable to restore my inbox.

 

Please help.

2

Hi datagrfx,

 

Does anything appear in Norton History under "Resolved Security Risks?"  Do you have backups of your mail folders anywhere?  Thunderbird stores all messages in a folder as one single file, which is why Norton would remove the entire Inbox if a threat were detected in one of the messages.  I can offer you advice on how to avoid this happening again, but I am not sure how to advise you to recover from the present situation if the Inbox cannot be found.

3

How does one prevent this from happening?

 

Thanks

4

Hi Spotteddog,

 

You need to exclude the Inbox (and any other mail folders that you might choose) from scans in the following two Norton exclusion settings:

 

Items to Exclude from Scans

 

Items to Exclude from Auto-Protect and SONAR Detection

 

Click Configure [+] for each of these options and click the Add button in the Scan Exclusion box.  Navigate to the Inbox, which in XP is located here:

 

C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\<your profile>\Mail\Local Folders\Inbox

 

(Note the actual mail folders do not have file extensions.  Ignore the .msf files of the same names.)

 

When you open an attachment it is taken out of the Inbox, at which point Auto-Protect will be able to detect any threats that may be present, so eliminating mailbox scans does not pose any extra risk of infection.  To catch potential threats before they reach your Inbox you may leave Norton Incoming Email Scanning enabled.  If you do, also make sure that you enable the following setting in Thunderbird, as well:  "Allow anti-virus clients to quarantine individual incoming messages".

 

This setting is found in Tools > Options > Security > Anti-Virus tab.  It directs Thunderbird to temporarily store each incoming message as an individual temp file before later adding it to the Inbox.  This gives Norton an opportunity to scan each incoming message and remove any detected threats without putting the entire contents of the Inbox mail folder at risk of corruption or removal.

 

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Email_scanning_-_pros_and_cons#Excluding_your_Inbox_from_autoprotect_and_system_scans

 

 

 

5

Thanks. Will do. 

6

Were you able to locate what Norton did with your inbox?   I'm having the same problem locating the file.

 

Thanks