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Inbox empty after changing from POP to IMAP

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by dlezon

dlezon
dlezon
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I wanted to change my existing email account from a POP server to IMAP server. The tech support rep from my internet supplier walked me through removing the existing POP account and then setting up an IMAP account with the same username as the original POP account. After setting up the IMAP account, the inbox was empty. All previous messages were gone. The tech support guy spent an hour trying to "find" the old contents of the inbox. It ended with him admitting he was not very familiar with Thunderbird and he was sorry. I have spent hours trying to recover the contents of the inbox with no success. Any help recovering the inbox contents would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I wanted to change my existing email account from a POP server to IMAP server. The tech support rep from my internet supplier walked me through removing the existing POP account and then setting up an IMAP account with the same username as the original POP account. After setting up the IMAP account, the inbox was empty. All previous messages were gone. The tech support guy spent an hour trying to "find" the old contents of the inbox. It ended with him admitting he was not very familiar with Thunderbird and he was sorry. I have spent hours trying to recover the contents of the inbox with no success. Any help recovering the inbox contents would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Chosen solution

POP accounts usually remove messages from the server after download, so if it there were no messages on the server, the IMAP account would sync with an empty Inbox.

Help/Troubleshooting, Profile Folder, Open Folder, close TB, open the Mail subfolder and then the account subfolder, e.g. Mail/pop.gmail.com. Find the Inbox mbox file - the large file with no extension, next to an Inbox.msf index file. Copy the mbox file only to Mail/Local Folders, then restart TB and find the folder under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP_account_to_a_IMAP_account

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_deleted_mail_accounts

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All Replies (2)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

POP accounts usually remove messages from the server after download, so if it there were no messages on the server, the IMAP account would sync with an empty Inbox.

Help/Troubleshooting, Profile Folder, Open Folder, close TB, open the Mail subfolder and then the account subfolder, e.g. Mail/pop.gmail.com. Find the Inbox mbox file - the large file with no extension, next to an Inbox.msf index file. Copy the mbox file only to Mail/Local Folders, then restart TB and find the folder under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP_account_to_a_IMAP_account

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_deleted_mail_accounts

dlezon
dlezon Question owner
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Recovered the lost items. Thank you very much!