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: 6 years of email disappeared and a new huge nstmp file appeared

  • 4 ŋuɖoɖowo
  • 1 masɔmasɔ sia le esi
  • 11 views
  • Nuɖoɖo mlɔetɔ blaisefiedler

more options

Hello, I opened Thunderbird 102.4.0 (win 11 x64) this morning and in my inbox 6 years of emails had disappeared: I have emails before 19/10/2016 (yes, exactly 6 years ago, probably not a coincidence) and emails from today.

Emails in subfolders are still there.

I checked my /mail/local folders/ directory and the inbox file has become very small (177mb) but I have a new huge nstmp file (2.8 GB). Previously my inbox file was around 2.8 GB so I still have hope that my missing emails are stuck in the nstmp file.

Question 1: how do I get these emails back? How to retrieve them from nstmp? Question 2: why did this happen?

thank you!

Hello, I opened Thunderbird 102.4.0 (win 11 x64) this morning and in my inbox 6 years of emails had disappeared: I have emails before 19/10/2016 (yes, exactly 6 years ago, probably not a coincidence) and emails from today. Emails in subfolders are still there. I checked my /mail/local folders/ directory and the inbox file has become very small (177mb) but I have a new huge nstmp file (2.8 GB). Previously my inbox file was around 2.8 GB so I still have hope that my missing emails are stuck in the nstmp file. Question 1: how do I get these emails back? How to retrieve them from nstmp? Question 2: why did this happen? thank you!

All Replies (4)

more options

Quick update:

In Thunderbird email client I found the nstmp folder. But it was missing 2 of the 6 years of emails. I could copy these back to inbox but I am still missing 2 years of emails. Strangly after copying these back, the inbox file was only 2GB while the nstmp file was 2.8 GB: the missing emails are these but not visible.

So I gave up and copied over a backup from a month ago. I am missing inbox's most recent emails but at least I have the history.

more options

Hello

I did not know what is the nstmp folder, found the explanation here:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Nstmp_folders

so this suggests that upgrading triggered an automatic compact of your mailboxes (seems very strange) and it crashed (low disk space ? the 10000 temp file limit ?)

more options

the temp files would be copies of your emails created during the compact process. Antivirus software sometimes interferes with this process, and cause dataloss.

On your computer, you could copy the temp file to your thunderbird profile under "Mail\Local Folders" to try to get them back.

Do you have any backups?

more options

Thanks Wayne, I never solved this problem, but as explained in my initial note I copied a backup I had made a few weeks earlier: I lost some recent emails but at least had most of the 6 years worth of emails.