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Missing emails - Inbox only and rebuilding doesn't retrieve them

  • 4 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by andy191

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Hi Hive-mind. All my emails in my Inbox disappeared this evening when I wasn't at my laptop (I was in the room so I know no one else touched it). I repaired the folder which just brought back spam/deleted emails. Then I deleted the SQLITE folder and re-stared TBird but still just got the junk and no sign of my vital saved emails. I searched the Trash and they are not in there. I'm in a bit of a panic as there are about 30 emails that are absolutely vital to my business and I have to deal with them ... if I can find them! Please help.

Hi Hive-mind. All my emails in my Inbox disappeared this evening when I wasn't at my laptop (I was in the room so I know no one else touched it). I repaired the folder which just brought back spam/deleted emails. Then I deleted the SQLITE folder and re-stared TBird but still just got the junk and no sign of my vital saved emails. I searched the Trash and they are not in there. I'm in a bit of a panic as there are about 30 emails that are absolutely vital to my business and I have to deal with them ... if I can find them! Please help.

All Replies (4)

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If your account is IMAP, folders can disappear when connection to the mail server fails. As repair on an IMAP folder steps out and asks the server for what should be there, it will not fix anything is the connection is faulty.

First restart all items related to the connection, computer router modem etc. Preferable starting with what would be considered closest to the internet and ending with the computer that is connecting.

Now click the get mail button. Does Thunderbird throw any sort of error

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Hi Matt. Thanks for the quic kresponse! No joy with that I'm afraid. Just to be clear, I didn't lose the Inbox folder, just all the emails within it. The server only keeps emails for 2 weeks so although I can download the last 2 weeks again there are many emails from longer ago that I won't get that way. I presume they're on my laptop somewhere as it seems i=unlikely they have been totally deleted?

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andy191 said

Hi Matt. Thanks for the quic kresponse! No joy with that I'm afraid. Just to be clear, I didn't lose the Inbox folder, just all the emails within it. The server only keeps emails for 2 weeks so although I can download the last 2 weeks again there are many emails from longer ago that I won't get that way. I presume they're on my laptop somewhere as it seems i=unlikely they have been totally deleted?

Generally all folders but the inbox go missing on connectivity issues (I think there is another like sent that remains, but I am a bit hazy on that. The remaining folders (inbox) are all empty.

But is your account even IMAP? or is it POP, something I would expect if you are looking to retain email in the account for more than 2 weeks.

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Ah now I remember, it's a POP account. It's with claranet and they have an email limit and don't tell you when it's full and then you stop getting emails! So I changed the settings to clear everything over 2 weeks old. I'm not clear how this all works but once the emails are downloaded to my laptop I wouldn't have thought any connectivity issues would apply? But I might be misunderstanding it :).