I just upgraded thunderbird to 0.8, and when i opened it, it said i had 180 unread messages, so I clicked on "Inbox." And the message list was blank.. Same thing with every folder. I uninstalled that and installed 0.7.1 and it was all back. Any ideas? It wasn't permission related in my profile. Couldn't think of anything else.

Try compacting the folders
File> Compact Folders
and if that doesn't work, you may have to start again with a clean profile.

I wonder if this behavior is related to something strange I noticed yesterday. I upgraded to 0.8 two days ago, and yesterday Thunderbird was reporting far more messages in my folders than they actually contained. Then after a while it got the count right--without my doing anything other than just using the program as usual.

Other than that, after a rough time getting the new "global" inbox to work correctly, I've been far happier with this 0.8 version than any before it. I never liked Thunderbird (to put it mildly...) till 0.8 came along.

this get's screwed up every new version. The new profile thing get's a wee bit old after a while.. so I'll stick to .7.1 it works at least
or maybe i'll back up my profile and try the compacting thing and if that doesn't work,,, I'll restore and reload
thanks

This may seem obvious to many, but it's relevant and might help somebody experiencing similar problems: whenever you install a newer version of Thunderbird (or Firefox, for that matter), be SURE you don't already have a "thunderbird" (or "firefox") directory existing. Before installing the new version, rename (via "mv") the program directory you've been using, to "thunderbird_old" or something--or else delete it. I recommend renaming rather than deleting, just in case you have to go back, or want to go back, to the older version.

If you install a newer version with the previous program-file directory still existing, you're asking for real trouble.

(Not suggesting that previous posters in this thread failed to do this, but the discussion reminded me of this important issue, that's all.)

well I tried that twice, and no luck, then I tried again today for kicks and it worked, o well.

Hey, I just five minutes ago got through REINSTALLING Linux at least four times--and most of my apps at least three times--before I finally got to where I could post this and resume "normal" operations. I have no idea what I did, but somehow I wiped out the kernel. Not the best thing to do!

My next project: try finally to understand and implement Mondo Rescue. I couldn't figure out how to work it before but I'm going to do my best in hopes it will help when I destroy my system like that.