Thunderbird losing messages when compacting after Detach

I'm using Thunderbird 3.1.10 

When the following happens, then the message that I was working on seems to disappear

• I choose to Detach an attachment from the email
• After the attachment has been detached Thunderbird offers to compress the Folder
• I agree to the compaction, which is performed
• Then the message appears to disappear

This has happened to me at least twice and both times it was when I was detaching Golf Society results.

I have now recovered from the problem. So thought I'd write this up.

Recovery method:

1. Go to the folder in which the message was
2. Right click over the folder name
3. Choose Properties...
4. Click on Repair Folder

Workaround:

There might be an easier solution but this seems to work. Perhaps it's because I don't have auto compact on the target folder.

1. Move the message from the Inbox to a target folder - where the message will be permanently saved
2. Right click over each attachment and choose Detach
3. Save file where you want
4. With luck you won't get prompted to Compact now

Resources that helped me find the solution

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disappearing_mail

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders