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Lost Folders and Email Files

  • 5 respostas
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by AgnesRM

Chris
Chris
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I have been using Thunderbird for many years. And, I've created multiple Folders (with multiple levels drilling down) which I place emails that I want to save. A couple of days ago, I left clicked holding an upper level folder, and dragged it to another folder. When I did that, Thunderbird showed a little circulating icon spinning until the process finished about a minute later. At the end of the process, a whole group of folders and emails disappeared.

When I explore the profile, under the folder "Mail", "pop.gmail.com", "_Companies.sbd", I can see folder names that correspond to the folders that disappeared. In those folders, I see files with the file extension "wdseml". Some folders don't have anything in them though.

My questions are:

(1) Can folders that disappeared be recovered where I can access them again in Thunderbird? And if so, how do I accomplish that? Is there an index file somewhere that can be audited and adjusted?

(2) If there is no easy way to recover those lost folders and emails, can I just remove the existing profile and replace it with a backed up profile I saved about one month ago. I would lose all the emails I had from that point to now. But, I would have all the original folders and emails up to that point.

Thank you for and help, direction or advice you can afford me, Chris

I have been using Thunderbird for many years. And, I've created multiple Folders (with multiple levels drilling down) which I place emails that I want to save. A couple of days ago, I left clicked holding an upper level folder, and dragged it to another folder. When I did that, Thunderbird showed a little circulating icon spinning until the process finished about a minute later. At the end of the process, a whole group of folders and emails disappeared. When I explore the profile, under the folder "Mail", "pop.gmail.com", "_Companies.sbd", I can see folder names that correspond to the folders that disappeared. In those folders, I see files with the file extension "wdseml". Some folders don't have anything in them though. My questions are: (1) Can folders that disappeared be recovered where I can access them again in Thunderbird? And if so, how do I accomplish that? Is there an index file somewhere that can be audited and adjusted? (2) If there is no easy way to recover those lost folders and emails, can I just remove the existing profile and replace it with a backed up profile I saved about one month ago. I would lose all the emails I had from that point to now. But, I would have all the original folders and emails up to that point. Thank you for and help, direction or advice you can afford me, Chris

Chosen solution

Hi Chris There should be a 'roaming' in that path somewhere unless you are not on Windows, OR you previously chose to change the default location, which you may have. Otherwise yes, that's the method. More here - it can be customized for the O/S you are using. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data The section on restoring from a backed up Profile should apply for you. Agnes

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All Replies (5)

AgnesRM
AgnesRM
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Hi Have you explored all your folders and subfolders before deciding those emails have really disappeared? From your description you might have had more than you thought selected, and dragged/dropped them into an unexpected place. Try searching for a message you are pretty sure is inside one of the lost folders, and see whether Search can find it. (Edit - Find - Search) If you successfully find some, select one then choose Open in folder to see whether you can find where they went. wdseml are copies formatted so Windows Search can find them. If you are able to find the emails in TB with search, that may answer (1). If not, there may be a way if they were deleted, but you have not compacted yet, so don't compact anything. Hopefully won't need (2).

Chris
Chris Question owner
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AgnesRM,

Thank you very much for responding with a wise suggestion. However, I was not able to find any of the emails I had within the last month. And, I tried multiple queries of different emails.

So to move on with my losses, I am wanting to re-install the profile I backed up a month ago.

Is it just a matter of going to AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles and removing the existing profile and replacing it with the one I backed up a month ago? All while Thunderbird is not running of course.

Or is there some other method of replacing backed up profiles? Your guidance is very much appreciated.

Thank you again, Chris Simmons

AgnesRM
AgnesRM
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Chosen Solution

Hi Chris There should be a 'roaming' in that path somewhere unless you are not on Windows, OR you previously chose to change the default location, which you may have. Otherwise yes, that's the method. More here - it can be customized for the O/S you are using. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data The section on restoring from a backed up Profile should apply for you. Agnes

Chris
Chris Question owner
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Agnes,

Thank you for your help. I was able to just delete the current profile. And then copy the backed up profile into that default Thunderbird profile folder.

All my previous emails are shown again. Just missing the ones from from December. Which is not a problem.

Thank you again! Chris

AgnesRM
AgnesRM
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Great - I am glad this worked well for you!