First, if it was an IMAP account, nothing is lost. Just recreate it. If it was a POP account, it depends on how you removed it. During the removal, the first pane shown after clicking to remove includes a checkbox to remove data. If you left that unticked, then your messages should all still be in the profile. You can verify that by these steps: - click help>troubleshootinginformation - scroll down left side to 'profile folder' and click 'open folder' - you are now in the profile, click the Mail folder and I believe it will show your removed account name. - click that and I believe you will see you message folders, such as input, input.msf, sent, sent.msf, etc.

Report back on that and we can discuss next steps

Hi David

Thanks so much for your reply - its reassuring to feel there might be some light at the end of tunnel!

By way of background, in early July we had 10 email addresses, one of which we wanted to remove. Soon after realising I'd removed the wrong one, I recreated so that we could continue to receive mail. The recreated email address seems to be 'new' address for Thunderbird with none of the original subfolders containing mail. The recreated email address is IMAP but I cannot be sure if the original was POP or IMAP.

Using the Troubleshooting Info. option you mentioned, I am able to see the following directories in my Profile:

• Mail
• Mail.sbd
• Imapmail
• Imapmail.sbd

The 'recreated' email account I created has Local Directory as '........Thunderbird\Profiles\n1j8h8we.default\ImapMail\mail.aff-3.ie'.

Are you able to advise how I might proceed?

Kind regards Deirdre

I suggest reviewing the contents of the Mail folder if any accounts are POP. If none of the accounts are POP, then whatever is there is left over from prior setup. These would probably be the lost messages. The Imapmail folder probably just has the current accounts and, since it autopopulates, all should be there. For the Mail folder, doing a screenshot of any accounts there may be helpful and the contents of the Mail.sbd folder - but only to the extent that there are folder that do not match with current account. That is, your goal, as I understand it, is to locate message folders that are not linked to an account.

Hi David,

I believe that I have a similar problem, I inadvertently deleted my old account after setting up a new account when my cox webmail got transferred to yahoo! I was trying to fix the issues with the server settings and thought that maybe the multiple (2) accounts was the reason for the problem. It was not. But I was able to follow your directions with someone else regarding authentication method "0Auth2" and the problem was solved.

I have since followed your directions on the issue above, I have located and opened my POP.cox.net folder and see individual folders, sent, trash, .sbd and .msf files.

Is it possible to recover these and re-establish them into a new TB account?

Your help is greatly appreciated as this past account held 9 years worth of business emails...

Greg

You're referring to a backup copy of the profile? The msf files are useless, as they are just indexes, which thunderbird will rebuild. Yes, can copy the mail folders to the Mail\Local Folders folder when thunderbird is not running and they should appear when you restart. If you want to then merge the sent folder in local folders with the sent folder in the POP account, that is additional steps. If those are needed, post back after you recover the messages.

David,

Amazing! Unbelievable!! It is actually working, thank you so much for the help! Getting late for today will attempt the sent folder on 9/20. Please post any tips for that.

WoodSmith's

I'm glad it's working. Not sure what to advise, as I don't know what specifically has been achieved and what remains. More details, please.