When your AI says it can't find anything

In short: Thunderbird isn’t keeping a local copy of your messages on this computer, and atbridge.ai searches the local copy. Open Account Settings → Synchronization & Storage, tick “Keep messages for this account on this computer”, and click Download Now.

If your AI tells you the inbox is empty and you can see messages sitting there in Thunderbird, this is almost always the same single cause.

The cause

Thunderbird isn’t keeping a local copy of your messages on this computer. atbridge.ai searches the local copy — so without one, it sees nothing.

This is an IMAP-account default behaviour on some setups: Thunderbird shows you what’s on the server but doesn’t download it for offline storage and search.

The 30-second fix

1. In Thunderbird, open Account Settings.

2. In the left tree, click your account name → Synchronization & Storage.

3. Tick “Keep messages for this account on this computer”.

4. Click Download Now. Thunderbird fetches your message bodies in the background.

You may also want to lower “Synchronize the most recent N days” to something reasonable like 30 — 365 if you search older mail often. This keeps the local copy a sensible size.

Verify

atbridge license status --pretty

The row Local storage enabled ✓ means it’s working. If it still says DISABLED, restart Thunderbird and try again.

Why atbridge.ai does it this way

We deliberately don’t search through your IMAP server. That would mean sending search queries (and getting matches) over the network to your provider — slower and less private. By searching the local store, everything stays on your computer.

Where to go next

• When activation fails
• When AI says “no tools”