sandymrc said

I did a search for some emails and in the search box they are in the location of my missing folder.

Did you do this search in Thunderbird, or of the file system of the computer?

Thunderbird does not use any files or folders with the extension SNM.

Each folder in Thunderbird is represented in the computer file system as a file with no extension (the content file), and a file with the extension .msf (an index file). For example, "Inbox" and "Inbox.msf"

If there are subfolders under that folder in Thunderbird, then there will be a folder in the file system with .sbd after it. Example, "Inbox.sbd". That folder will hold the files for those Thunderbird subfolders.

These files and folders are located under ImapMail/accountname or Mail/Local Folders or Mail/accountname. These are located in the Thunderbird Profile folder. Click Help: Troubleshooting Information: Open Folder to see the Profile folder.

Is the file you found under one of these locations?

If the file really does have the extension .SNM, then I would need to see the contents of the file to determine if it is formatted like a mbox file or not.

Make extra copies of that file to make sure that you don't lose it. In fact, you should regularly back up the entire Profile folder. Backup the Profile Folder

I did the search in TB from my email window. I'm not sure what I hit but all of a sudden the 'Location' showed my emails in the lost folder. I made another folder and put in these emails. In my Roaming->TB->Profiles->.default->Mail->accountname file every folder has a file with no extension and a MSF file. I noticed some have a SNM file - these were created back in 2003. Could these be left over from an earlier TB version? Anyway, I was able to retrieve my emails. Thank you for your explanation-it was very helpful. And I do make copies of my profile every day or two.

I should have restricted my response to just the first question.

In the case of when a folder doesn't show in Thunderbird, but searches show e-mails that are in the folder, the thing to do is to:

1. Show your profile folder (Select Help from the top menu bar or from the "three bar menu" button on the top right, select "Troubleshooting Information", and click the "Show Folder" button).

2. Quit Thunderbird.

3. Delete the "global-messages-db.sqlite" and "panacea.dat" files.

4. Start Thunderbird.

Do this now. There may be other problems that you don't see that will be fixed.