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Recover/move gmail-emails between same account in 2 profiles

Sharkey-Meep
Sharkey-Meep
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Today I did a big mistake. Using Gmail with IMAP. Managed to configure Thunderbird to delete older mails then 100 days... For the whole account...! Tried to do that for the trash only but was obviously to tired for that setting this morning :)

Lost a lot of emails of course. BUT! I do have the same Gmail-account in another profile - and that one is NOT used today. So, I have all the mails left there!

Now I've been trying several hours to retrieve these mails and move into the "main" profile/account, but I'm not able to do that. Once I managed to get mails into one folder and I did see them for 2 seconds, then they were gone. And I can't make it work again.

Trying to move the .msf and no extension-file files. Trying ImportExportTools-addon without any luck. Tried to export and import another folder with the addon but when importing it just picked 1 mail and made hundreds of copies!

Any ideas on what to do?

Can I somehow make Thunderbird only send to server with profile 2, open profile 1 and get them back? Why doesn't it work to move the email-files (.msf and so on)? Is IMAP the problem? A setting somewhere?

Today I did a big mistake. Using Gmail with IMAP. Managed to configure Thunderbird to delete older mails then 100 days... For the whole account...! Tried to do that for the trash only but was obviously to tired for that setting this morning :) Lost a lot of emails of course. BUT! I do have the same Gmail-account in another profile - and that one is NOT used today. So, I have all the mails left there! Now I've been trying several hours to retrieve these mails and move into the "main" profile/account, but I'm not able to do that. Once I managed to get mails into one folder and I did see them for 2 seconds, then they were gone. And I can't make it work again. Trying to move the .msf and no extension-file files. Trying ImportExportTools-addon without any luck. Tried to export and import another folder with the addon but when importing it just picked 1 mail and made hundreds of copies! Any ideas on what to do? Can I somehow make Thunderbird only send to server with profile 2, open profile 1 and get them back? Why doesn't it work to move the email-files (.msf and so on)? Is IMAP the problem? A setting somewhere?

Chosen solution

I solved it in a sort of easy way.

Went offline, saved all the emails I wanted from profile 2, switched to the first profile, imported with ImportExportTools (I now know you cant be offline when exporting, then you get hundreds of copies).

Seems to work. But I'm taking it bit by bit in case something goes downhill fast :P

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Sharkey-Meep
Sharkey-Meep Question owner
more options

Chosen Solution

I solved it in a sort of easy way.

Went offline, saved all the emails I wanted from profile 2, switched to the first profile, imported with ImportExportTools (I now know you cant be offline when exporting, then you get hundreds of copies).

Seems to work. But I'm taking it bit by bit in case something goes downhill fast :P

Modified by Sharkey-Meep