Please see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cannot-receive-messages

Did it help?

Thanks for sending me the link.

As I was unable to edit the the incoming Server type in my account profile and as I was unable to add a second account profile in my name with the correct Server type, I thought I had to delete my account profile and re-add it with the correct Server type.

However, when I deleted my account profile, I lost ALL my emails that I had saved over the last 5 years.

Please HELP - how can I restore these emails?

Thanks

Anna

PS The new account profile now works and downloads emails again.

Unless I misunderstand, https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cannot-receive-messages does not suggest changing the account type, or anything in the account settings for that matter unless based on the ISPs documentation.

It sounds like you had the account set up with server type pop, and removed that account. If you recreated the account as server type imap and the pop account wasn't set up as global inbox, then the pop data still should be in <profile>\Mail\<account-name>.

If not, I hope you have backups.

Thanks for your response. I indeed had the account set up with server type pop, and removed that account. I now recreated the account as server type imap.

Where do I find <profile>\Mail\<account-name>?

Profile location is described in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-tb

When you get to <profile>\Mail\<account-name>, close Thunderbird. Then you can copy the folders that you want to keep from <account-name> to <profile>\Mail\Local Folders - rename them if you like - then start thunderbird and you should see these folders in Thunderbird where you can manage the messages as you like under Local Folders

Thank you very much for your help. I was able to find the folders and copy them back into Thunderbird. I could not have done it without your help. When everything works I am happy to use a computer but when something stops working I don't know why it stops working... Reading help files is also not easy for a computer-illiterate person like me because of all the jargon that's used. Anyway, again thank you very much.