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My custom folders have all disappeared. How can I find and resotre them?

  • 4 replies
  • 13 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by Stangage

Stangage
Stangage
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Probably some forced upgrade from microsoft has caused all of my custom folders to disappear. Still have my Inbox Mail folders and Drafts, Sent, Junk, Outbox, and Trash visible but the many others folders with thousands of e-mails aren't to be found. HELP!!

Probably some forced upgrade from microsoft has caused all of my custom folders to disappear. Still have my Inbox Mail folders and Drafts, Sent, Junk, Outbox, and Trash visible but the many others folders with thousands of e-mails aren't to be found. HELP!!

All Replies (4)

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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AppMenu button - Help - Troubleshooting Information - Profile Directory - Open Directory

This will open your Thunderbird profile directory in your file manager. Look for files without a file extension matching the name of your missing folders.

What is the size of those files?

Stangage
Stangage Question owner
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I had looked at the Troubleshooting Info before but couldn't quite figure out how it would help. With the help of Google I have now figured out how to kind of "see" the contents of the folderTree.json file. This file shows at lest some of the missing folder names but I have no idea to restore visibility of these folders. The Upload images wouldn't accept the .json file but I have attached a SNIP of part of the file as displayed by "notepad". The entry "mailbox://nobody@Local%20Folders/Eudora%20Mail/Stans%20Mail/Funy-inspirational%20collections" is clearly one of the missing folder names. So I know that some and probably all of the folder tree exists in memory somewhere and I also have daily B/U of the entire Hard Drive. The question is how to get them back where I can use them?

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Troubleshooting Information will help you to locate your profile folder.

I don't think trying to decipher folderTree.json will get you any further.

Stangage
Stangage Question owner
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Here's where I run off the road in terms of trying to solve the problem. If I go to the supposed profiles folder C:\Users\Stan\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\zzwzwkub.default the file directoryTree.json contains only the line: ["moz-abmdbdirectory://abook.mab","moz-abmdbdirectory://impab.mab", whereas the directoryTree.json file in the Troubleshooting info seems to have the info on the missing folders. Can I just copy the info from the "Troubleshooting" version of the directory tree and paste in into the location above or is there a more comprehensive approach to getting the missing folders back into the profile? Will getting the folders back actually also drag the data back? What file would the actual data that is in the directory tree be stored in?