This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Thunderbird filters

  • 1 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by AzZA

more options

I had a backup failure and had to patch together my Thunderbird installation along with stacks of emails. All good except that I have a copy of msgFilterRules.dat related to my Inbox but it is not detected and consequently no filters. Being lazy, I don't want to retype 15 years of accumulated filters. I suspect that the name on the primary Inbox is different than before and that is causing the failure to associate the filters with the current Inbox. How is this association made? What could be stopping it now? Is there some way to force the filter file I have to be associated with the new Inbox?

I had a backup failure and had to patch together my Thunderbird installation along with stacks of emails. All good except that I have a copy of msgFilterRules.dat related to my Inbox but it is not detected and consequently no filters. Being lazy, I don't want to retype 15 years of accumulated filters. I suspect that the name on the primary Inbox is different than before and that is causing the failure to associate the filters with the current Inbox. How is this association made? What could be stopping it now? Is there some way to force the filter file I have to be associated with the new Inbox?

All Replies (1)

more options

In Thunderbird, the association between filters and mail folders is maintained through the use of folder IDs. If the name of the primary Inbox has changed, it's possible that the folder ID has also changed, causing the failure to associate the filters with the current Inbox.