Trouble importing nested local folders
I was having massing problems with my email, constantly re-downloading and at a snail's pace. It would often hang and at the rate it was re-indexing and re-downloading it would take 500 years. So I tried the Beta and that didn't help. I downgraded back to production TB but decided to start without my local folders in case the volume of them was causing the issue. Sure enough, with no local folders it runs great.
Then I wanted to start moving some local folders to the new profile slowly and watch what happened. I figured I could just move them as I need them. I moved a few that were not nested inside folders and TB recognized them. But when I move a folder with several sub-folders, it does not recognize them.
The help says to delete .msf files, but I only have mosmsg's and sbd's.
How do I get TB to recognize these folders of local emails?
Thanks!
All Replies (4)
I think you are probably starting at the wrong end of the process.
What accesses Thunderbird local folder files. 1. Antivirus products on access and on modification (prevent this as it makes the computer work so slowly you will think it needs an upgrade. 2. Thunderbird saved search folders. if they are set to search a fiolders and sub folders they can open hundreds of folders in a few seconds and basically run the operating system out of open file handles. Let alone the memory use. 3. Disable the rather silly "allow windows search" option. Way back (well Version 2 time) Microsoft "helped" Mozilla with Thunderbird. The result ware these mozmsg folders and mozeml files to allow Windows amazingly poor search to search email. The setting essentially doubles the disk storage used and provides absolutely nothing I can identify. Except windows search integration. If Thunderbird search is not good enough it needs fixing not farming out to windows. In my case I deleted over 110,000 files when I got rid of the option and manually removed the files it created.
Basically trying to work out what makes things slow by adding and subtracting folders is not going to achieve much at all. Especially as each added file comes usually with an anti virus scan as overhead.
Things that will usually make life easier.
- Compact regularly this increases network usage as all mails in a folder are verified with the IMAP server for IMAP accounts. But it stops Thunderbird hanging onto disk space in the folder file for supposedly deleted mail. It also makes the identification of malware well after it is deleted less likely to be a problem.
- Keep individual folders as small as practical. The larger the folder, the more system resources used to "open it" While windows allows files in the exabyte range that does not provide similarly large memory to load them. Having a number of large folders open can strain the capacity of many systems these days. Especially as now consumer laptops are little more that ipads, with touch screens being more valued than large ram, despite the desire to open that 8Gb file.
- Do not unless it is forced on you open any file or move any file in a Thunderbird profile folder unless you have seen from the task manager that the process is not running.
- Do not routinely do anything with profile files that can not be accomplished from the user interface of Thunderbird.
My anti-virus is set to ignore the Thunderbird folder. I have no search folder (but did have one once.) Good idea on #3. All of this is good info, but none of this helps me solve my problem of getting my local folders back.
This example might help explain what is going on. Imagine you have type of set up in the Local Folders mail account. Local Folders Inbox Family (stores no email or only a few that do not fit into sub folders) > Mums Side (subfolder of Family) > > Cousin (subfolder of Mums Side) > Dads Side (subfolder of Family) > > Cousin (subfolder of Dads Side)
What would this look like in the profile folders mail account name folder? You would have mbox (no extension) files that contains emails Indexs file with .msf extension And folders with .sbd extension if it there is a folder containing subfolders
Folders are listed first and all in alphabetical order.
- Family.sbd (folder)
- Inbox (mbox file)
- Inbox.msf (index file)
- Family (mbox file - you should see this - but in example below let's pretend it does not exist)
- Family.msf (index file)
In order for Thunderbird to know what is in the folder called Family.sbd, it needs to have an mbox file called Family.
In the folder called 'Family.sbd' you would see:
- Dads Side.sbd (folder)
- Mums Side.sbd (folder)
- Dads Side (mbox file)
- Dads Side.msf (index file)
- Mums Side (mbox file)
- Mums Side.msf (index file)
In order for Thunderbird to know what is in the folders called 'Dads Side.sbd' and 'Mums Side.sbd' , there must be mbox files of same name - 'Dads Side' and 'Mums Side'
In each of the 'Dads Side.sbd' and 'Mums Side.sbd' folders you would see: Cousin (mbox file) Cousin.msf (index file)
So, if you have a folder containing subfolders, then it must have an mbox file of same in in same location. If mbox file is missing, you can create one. So lets pretend the top level shows 'Family.sbd' folder, but there is no 'Family' mbox file. Right click and select 'New' > 'Text Document' Give it the same name and exact same spelling eg: Family Click on OK.
At this point the 'Family' file will get created as a text file with .txt extension eg: Family.txt Right click and select to rename it. Remove the extension .txt and click on OK You will probably get a warning about changing format, but you do want to do it - click on Yes. Now you have an mbox file called 'Family'. If you already have a 'Family.msf' file - delete it - do not worry a new one will get auto created when you start thunderbird. Thunderbird will now know all about the 'Family.sbd' In Folder Pane, the Family folder will display and it will show it contains 'Dads Side' and 'Mums Side' folders.
I should have stated this earlier - Thunderbird must not be running whilst editing etc in the profile name folders.