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Lolu chungechunge lwabekwa kunqolobane. Uyacelwa ubuze umbuzo omusha uma udinga usizo.

Older emails disappeared on desktop after reinstalling Thunderbird (same email account) on smartphone. How do I recall the missing emails?

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  • Igcine ukuphendulwa ngu AMERICOWV

AMERICOWV
AMERICOWV
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I use Mozilla Thunderbird for our company email. We have two email addresses through AOL, both on Thunderbird as separate accounts.

For many years, both folders kept older emails going back several years, which is important if we need to find information that was contained in one of those emails.

When one of our workers updated & reinstalled the email applications on my boss' smartphone, the older emails (older than one month) disappeared from my desktop email boxes.

My questions are A) How can I recover & reinstall these so that I have immediate access and B) How do I prevent this going forward?

Thank you.

I use Mozilla Thunderbird for our company email. We have two email addresses through AOL, both on Thunderbird as separate accounts. For many years, both folders kept older emails going back several years, which is important if we need to find information that was contained in one of those emails. When one of our workers updated & reinstalled the email applications on my boss' smartphone, the older emails (older than one month) disappeared from my desktop email boxes. My questions are A) How can I recover & reinstall these so that I have immediate access and B) How do I prevent this going forward? Thank you.

All Replies (4)

user01229325
user01229325
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Since Thunderbird does not install or run on a smart phone I suggest that you ask your co worker what they did to remove the folders.

Hint: If this is IMAP email the messages and folders stay on the server. You just view them remotely with devices like computers and phones. If one device deletes a message or folder then it is gone off the server and no longer viewable from any device.

AMERICOWV
AMERICOWV Umnikazi wombuzo
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Airmail

Thank you for your response. We use AOL as our email provider but I use Thunderbird on the desktop. The smartphone may simply use an AOL app. Does this help clarify my question?

The emails were not deleted. Immediately after reinstalling the emails on my boss' smartphone (and it loaded thousands from each account), all emails beyond roughly 30 days disappeared from my box on the desktop.

Please let me know if this changes your answer. Thank you

user01229325
user01229325
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It does not. The question is are you using IMAP or POP? I would have to guess IMAP since you and your boss seem to be viewing the same email account on several devices and when something was done on a smart phone it affected what you see on your computer.

Either way I do not see this as a Thunderbird problem. I suggest that you get your IT person involved and sort it out.

AMERICOWV
AMERICOWV Umnikazi wombuzo
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Airmail

Thank you. I don't really have an IT person per se. I will talk to the guy who did it and see if he can figure it out. I do know that if I log into the email directly through the AOL website, I have the same problem (older emails disappeared). Perhaps it is something related to installing the email app on the smartphone? We will try and figure it out. Thank you for trying to help.