unable to restore deleted mail folder that contains many subfolders with messages
Using Thunderbird v 45.2.0 on Windows 7 Home Edition with an IMAP connection to a yahoo mail account. In Thunderbird, I deleted a large email folder that contains many subfolders which contain many messages. I located this deleted large folder (folder_name.sbd) and its subfolders and their messages (.msf) in my Windows file system in the "TRASH" folder folder: C:\Users\brent\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\abcdef1rc.default\ImapMail\imap.mail.yahoo.com.
In Windows File Explorer, I moved this this Thunderbird folder hierarchy from the Trash folder to the top level folder under the IMAP account name. In other words, I moved this folder hierarchy to the same level as the Inbox file in Thunderbird. The problem is that when I open Thunderbird Mail, this folder (hierarchy) does NOT appear in my folders list.
Out of desperation, within Thunderbird I manually created a new folder with this folder name, and a subfolder for each of the (deleted) subfolders. Still, the email messages do not display within Thunderbird. I then logged in to the Yahoo IMAP mail account and did NOT see the (deleted) folder and its subfolders there either.
In Thunderbird, I right-click at the top level on my IMAP account name and click "Subscribe". I see these (deleted) folders in the folder list,and there is a check mark next to their folder names meaning I am subscribed to these folders.
How do I get these subfolders with all their messages (which exist on my Windows folder (C:\Users\brent\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\abcdef1rc.default\ImapMail\imap.mail.yahoo.com.) to display in Thunderbird?
Do I need to get these hundreds of individual messages (contained in these sub-folders) into my Yahoo IMAP account? How can I do this in bulk?
Thank you.
Wšě wotmołwy (4)
This sounds exactly like this topic. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1134118
Right down to the messages being in the trash folder. However unless you really want to consume a mega amount of bandwidth without any real solid result I would stop trying to move folders around in the file system and then starting Thunderbird.
The best you can hope for is duplication of your mail on Yahoo after a couple of days bandwidth flogging. The worst is Thunderbird will just give up trying to synchronize this mega change and really turn into an unreliable mess.
At this point the best thing you could do is delete the account and start again and allow Thunderbird to re-download your yahoo mail.
Hi Matt, I don't think your suggestion applies to my situation. Your suggestion is to "delete the account and start again and allow Thunderbird to re-download your yahoo mail."
My Yahoo mail account does NOT contain these "deleted" folders and subfolders. (I cannot explain why they do not appear in my Yahoo mail account.) These "deleted" folders are visible only in my Windows File Folder ((C:\Users\brent\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\abcdef1rc.default\ImapMail\imap.mail.yahoo.com.) )
So what do you suggest I do? Thank you.
Matt, I forgot to say that these "deleted" subfolders that reside in my Windows File Folder still do not display within Thunderbird. I'd be happy if I could get these "deleted" subfolders to display in Thunderbird client.
How can I get these "deleted" subfolders to display within Thunderbird? I've tried moving the "deleted" subfolder hierarchy to the "...\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\abcdefrc.default\Mail\Local Folders\ folder (and then restart Thunderbird) but these subfolders do not display in the "Local" folder either.
I'm wondering if something is wrong with my subfolder hierarchy. For example, for each subfolder, I have a "folder-name.sbd" folder, and a and "folder-name.msf" file. My folder names have the ".sbd" suffix.
How can I get these "deleted" subfolders to display within Thunderbird?
I wonder if you have what you think.
Mail is neither the SDB file (it tells thunderbird the folder has sub folders. or the MSF file. That is an index into the mail.
The actual mail is a large file with no file extension that has the same name as the other two. It it does not exist you have no mail to do anything with. If you do have that then I suggest importing with the importexporttools add-on. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/
Note that you can only import to a folder you create in Local folders. ALL folders in the IMAP structure are synchronized so importing there would be something of a disaster.
Note here that if these folders where not configured for offline use then the mail will never have been downloaded from yahoo, only the mail lists which are in the msf files. Used to populate the user interface.