This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Natao arisiva ity resaka mitohy ity. Mametraha fanontaniana azafady raha mila fanampiana.

How do I reinstate Thunderbird local folders lost on upgrading to Windows 10?

  • 4 valiny
  • 4 manana an'ity olana ity
  • 8 views
  • Valiny farany nomen'i Cicero1956

more options

I move emails on reading/actioning them into various local folders. On upgrading to Windows 10 the folders disappeared. If I use the Thunderbird search facility an extract from each "missing" email appears but I can't open them and the search screen doesn't let me see the pathway to where the folders/emails are being stored. I've searched Windows for "Thunderbird" and checked various folders that appear in the search results but none appear to contain the folders and their contents. Any thoughts?

I move emails on reading/actioning them into various local folders. On upgrading to Windows 10 the folders disappeared. If I use the Thunderbird search facility an extract from each "missing" email appears but I can't open them and the search screen doesn't let me see the pathway to where the folders/emails are being stored. I've searched Windows for "Thunderbird" and checked various folders that appear in the search results but none appear to contain the folders and their contents. Any thoughts?

All Replies (4)

more options

Matt I'm glad my intemperate posting finally got some attention and I appreciate you taking time to respond. I now understand that an unanswered question is a "dumb" question that has been deliberately ignored by the volunteers, although an explanation on the website to the effect would have been helpful!

However joking aside had I undertaken a search and stumbled on the link you have now provided it would not have taken me anywhere. I had already found the appdata folder in the old windows directory and it appears to only contain MS files. I note that the person who posed the question and recovered the missing folders had a clone of the hard drive. In my case I just have the file history back up file and I can't see any Thunderbird folder saved in it.

I checked the add-in you recommended in your response to the previous question and was confronted with a page of gobbledygook. I couldn't see any reference there to restoring folders. Is this really going to find my missing folders for me? Or am I missing the point, and the folders have actually been deleted during the installation (which wasn't a clean install by the way)?

Having seen your bio I can seen that this type of problem isn't much a challenge to you, but I'm all at sea.

more options

if the appdata folder in windows.old would I assume have

Appdata\roaming Appdata\local appdata\\locallow

as they are the locations that exist in windows Vista and 7 I assume they are the same in 8 and 10.

Their should be a Thunderbird folder in Roaming and in some instances a duplicate in \local But if there is no Thunderbird folder then your toast. Their is nothing to recover from.

more options

Hi Matt. The profile folder in windows.old (appdata/roaming/Thunderbird/profiles/[my profile] doesn't have any data.

However if I use the search pane in Thunderbird I can bring up lists of the missing emails - with several lines from each - so I know that they're still on the computer somewhere, but I can't open individual emails from the search results by doubling clicking on them nor can I right click on them to show properties and thereby find where they're stored. Do you have any thoughts?