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Why does the Thunderbird folder have the Trash and Unsent folders but none of the inbox or sent folders?

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by Matt

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I have been trying to find a way to backup my Thunderbird. I have identified the folder (appdata-Thunderbird-Profiles-ihlfblc3.default-mail-) only one item is in there, Local Folders, and this only contains Trash and Unsent Messages. I don't particularly want those :) I want Inbox and Sent, as well as Archives.

I have been trying to find a way to backup my Thunderbird. I have identified the folder (appdata-Thunderbird-Profiles-ihlfblc3.default-mail-) only one item is in there, Local Folders, and this only contains Trash and Unsent Messages. I don't particularly want those :) I want Inbox and Sent, as well as Archives.

All Replies (3)

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You seem to have skipped a bit of the path. Are you looking at "local" ? Try "roaming".

I'd suggest you go up the tree to where profiles.ini can be found and backup from there. You will miss out on address books and other useful stuff, and may have trouble if you try to restore what you propose to backup. A backup is a waste of time if you can't restore from it.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=profiles-tb

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I went through "roaming" just didn't type it. There is no profiles.ini - from appdata-roaming-Thunderbird the only Profiles is a file folder as above.

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go to the help menu, select troubleshooting information and in that click the show profile button.

Now you are in the correct profile (it might already have been) have a look in the imap mail folder, instead of mail.

If your account is there, I would have to ask how many copies of your mail you want. If Thunderbird dies a horrible death on your computer as it falls into a volcano, the mail inbox and sent will still be on your mail server, waiting for you to set the account up again and download.