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Inbox subfolders suddenly showing zero messages

  • 1 reply
  • 0 have this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by david

John Tattarakis
John Tattarakis
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Hey all,

My dad is one of those guys who lets their inbox get very very large. We're talking 5000+ messages large.

Yesterday all of his subfolders - each containing anywhere from a few to several dozen emails - all just suddenly appeared empty. The main inbox folder still seems OK, but it's the sorted, categorized emails in the subfolders that are important.

I can still see the subfolders's extensionless data files in the Inbox.sbd folder - all quite sizeable (20 to 200 megabytes) - so I know the data is still there. I even opened a few in Notepad and, sure enough, the email data lives on.

What I tried:

- "Repair Folder" on folder properties - Deleted all MSF files and restarted Thunderbird so it could rebuild the index files - Created a new directory and subdirectory under "Local folders" and copied the extensionless data files (without MSFs) into its storage folder - Created a new profile and copied the extensionless data files to its email storage folder

Nothing worked. When the subfolders appear in Thunderbird and their index files rebuilt, they still show as empty, and right-clicking to view their properties shows a non-zero filesize, but "0 messages"

So, I'm at a loss. Hoping there is an easy way to recover the emails, since I can see them plainly when viewing these data files in a text editor.

Thank you ever so much for your help. Really appreciate you guys offering up your time to help people in need.

- jt

Hey all, My dad is one of those guys who lets their inbox get very very large. We're talking 5000+ messages large. Yesterday all of his subfolders - each containing anywhere from a few to several dozen emails - all just suddenly appeared empty. The main inbox folder still seems OK, but it's the sorted, categorized emails in the subfolders that are important. I can still see the subfolders's extensionless data files in the Inbox.sbd folder - all quite sizeable (20 to 200 megabytes) - so I know the data is still there. I even opened a few in Notepad and, sure enough, the email data lives on. What I tried: - "Repair Folder" on folder properties - Deleted all MSF files and restarted Thunderbird so it could rebuild the index files - Created a new directory and subdirectory under "Local folders" and copied the extensionless data files (without MSFs) into its storage folder - Created a new profile and copied the extensionless data files to its email storage folder Nothing worked. When the subfolders appear in Thunderbird and their index files rebuilt, they still show as empty, and right-clicking to view their properties shows a non-zero filesize, but "0 messages" So, I'm at a loss. Hoping there is an easy way to recover the emails, since I can see them plainly when viewing these data files in a text editor. Thank you ever so much for your help. Really appreciate you guys offering up your time to help people in need. - jt

All Replies (1)

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
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I do not have your answer, but you need to post some account specifics before anyone can help. For example, POP and IMAP may have different responses. Good luck with your dad's email.