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 was deleted from our computer and our personal files were lost, can we retrieve them?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by bodcas1

more options

An engineer was sorting out a problem with our computer and, when installing Windows 10, he deleted Thunderbird. Unfortunately, he put in a new hard drive, and, when we came to open our emails, we found a number of the files we had created had disappeared. We tried downloading Thunderbird again, hoping they would still be there, but obviously they weren't. Does anyone know how we can retrieve these files? Will it mean trying to get them from the old hard drive or have they gone for good? Would be grateful for any help.

An engineer was sorting out a problem with our computer and, when installing Windows 10, he deleted Thunderbird. Unfortunately, he put in a new hard drive, and, when we came to open our emails, we found a number of the files we had created had disappeared. We tried downloading Thunderbird again, hoping they would still be there, but obviously they weren't. Does anyone know how we can retrieve these files? Will it mean trying to get them from the old hard drive or have they gone for good? Would be grateful for any help.

Chosen solution

we found a number of the files we had created had disappeared.

What files have disappeared? Please be specific.

Will it mean trying to get them from the old hard drive or have they gone for good?

If the old profile still exists on the old drive, and if you do still have access to the old drive you can recover the old profile and transfer it to the new drive.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (2)

more options

Chosen Solution

we found a number of the files we had created had disappeared.

What files have disappeared? Please be specific.

Will it mean trying to get them from the old hard drive or have they gone for good?

If the old profile still exists on the old drive, and if you do still have access to the old drive you can recover the old profile and transfer it to the new drive.

more options

Thanks for that Chris, we'll try what you suggest.