Are you downloading only headers or full copies of emails? Check the following to download full messages:

• Right click on mail account name in Folder Pane and select 'Settings'
• Select 'Synchronisation & Storage'
• Select checkbox 'Keep messages in all folders for this account on this computer'
• click on 'Advanced' button
• Select all the checkboxes to include them for downloading full copies.
• click on OK

Confirm the settings you are using.

Then access profile name folder to completely remove and recreate the index files (they have a .msf extension). In Thunderbird

• Help > Troubleshooting Information
• Under 'Application Bascs' section about 8th in list is 'Profile Folder' - click on 'Open Folder'.

A new window opens showing you the contents of your profile name folder.

• Exit Thunderbird now - this is important.

• Delete these files:

1. * global-messages-db.sqlite
2. * panacea.dat
3. * session.json

• Click on 'ImapMail' folder
• Click on the imap mail account name folder to see contents
• Delete all files that have a .msf extension eg: 'Inbox.msf'

If you have any folders with a .sbd extension do the following in each of those folder . Note: you will have these .sbd folders if you have any subfolders.

• click on folder with .sbd extension eg: 'Inbox.sbd'
• Delete all files that have a .msf extension

Start Thunderbird. Please do not start clicking on folders as soon as it opens, allow the program a bit of time as it will be recreating and populating a load of files.

HELLO TOAD - HALL,

THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME, TO REPLY.

FIRSTLY, THANKS TO, "MATT", FOR THE EDITING, TO MAKE, MY MESSAGE, MORE READABLE.

= TOAD - HALL, AGAIN, THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO REPLY. TOAD - HALL, "YOU", WILL NOTE, THE "DATES", OF OUR MESSAGES, THIS MEANS, I STILL CARRIED ON REGARDLESS, IN TRYING TO SOLVE THE FAULT...

TO YOUR REPLY AND SUGGESTION = 4/3/21 - 3:09 AM. 1 - YES, I DID, I DO, DOWNLOAD THE FULL E - MAIL MESSAGE, TO MY DESKTOP COMPUTER,

 =  THIS  WAS,  IS  THE  PURPOSE  OF  ME  USING  THE  THUNDERBIRD  E - MAIL  PROGRAMME.

2 - I COULD NOT FOLLOW, YOUR FIRST SET OF INSTRUCTIONS, FULLY,

 =  AND  "I  THOUGHT",  THAT  IN  THE  BEGINNING,  YEARS  AGO,  IN  SETTING  UP,  THE  THUNDERBIRD  E - MAIL  PROGRAMME,  THAT  I  "HAD",  SET  UP,  TO  DOWNLOAD  THE  MESSAGES,  TO  MY  DESKTOP  COMPUTER  -  BUT  I  COULD  NOT  FIND,  SUCH  AN  OPTION,  IN  FOLLOWING,  YOUR  FIRST  SET  OF  INSTRUCTIONS............

3 - SO I DID, NO CHANGES, WITH YOUR FIRST SET OF INSTRUCTIONS.

4 - THE SECOND SET OF INSTRUCTIONS, I TRIED TO FOLLOW, AND COULD "SEE", ALL THE FOLDERS, WHICH YOU HAD REFERRED TO - AND I THOUGHT, THAT IN, "YOUR PLAN", TO DELETE SUCH FOLDERS, THAT WHEN RESTARTED, THEN THE THUNDERBIRD E - MAIL PROGRAMME, WOULD REMAKE, THE SAME FOLDERS AND FILES.

5 - ANYWAY, I DID, NO CHANGES, WITH YOUR SECOND SET OF INSTRUCTIONS.

6 - SO TO THE "QUESTION POSED", THEN, "NO", THIS DID NOT FIX THE PROBLEM.

7 - HOWEVER........................

8 - IN HAVING NOT, PREVIOUSLY RECEIVED A REPLY, I KEPT ON LOOKING AND READING, AND I ALSO CHANGED THE WORDING OF MY SEARCH QUESTIONS.

9 - LO AND BEHOLD, I FOUND A RESPONSE, FROM "YOU, TOAD - HALL", AND THAT RESPONSE, WORKED.................

Toad-Hall

  Top 10 Contributor

8/14/20, 12:30 AM

elliott16 said

  thanks so much. I had to restore EVERY folder each time I opened it. Such a simple solution. I still don't understand what the pin does.

If you hover over the 'pin' icon on the Quick Filter Bar you will see a tooltip appear which says 'Keeps filters applied when switching folders' .

What does this mean and how can it be used: If you were looking at a folder called 'A' and you chose to apply one of Quick Filter Bar filters such as 'Unread' to declutter the view to see only the 'Unread' emails, but you had several folders which you wanted to check for unread emails, then you would click on the 'Pin' icon because it 'Keeps filters applied when switching folders'. Then select another folder and the same 'Unread' filter would still be applied. This means you can easily go through several folders checking all the unread mail without needing to keep selecting the 'Unread' icon each time. When finished you uncheck the 'Unread' icon and uncheck the 'Pin' icon.

10 - SO THANKS VERY MUCH, TOAD - HALL, FOR FIXING, MY PROBLEM, IN A ROUND ABOUT WAY.

11 - IN REFLECTION, I CAN ONLY THINK, THAT I MUST HAVE CLICKED THE "PIN" ICON, BY ACCIDENT, OR MAYBE, ONCE MY SCREEN SAVER IS ON, IN MOVING MY MOUSE, AND CLICKING, THAT I THEN, AT THAT UNSEEN TIME, CLICKED THE "PIN"...

12 - THIS WHOLE EPISODE, LEADS TO A NEW QUESTION, AND HOPEFULLY, TOAD - HALL, YOU CAN ANSWER THAT PLEASE ?

 =  IS  THERE  A  WAY,  THAT  I  CAN,  "COPY",  ALL  MY  E - MAILS,  FROM  THE  THUNDERBIRD  E - MAIL  PROGRAMME,  ON,  MY  DESKTOP  COMPUTER,  TO  A  2ND,  SEPARATE,  FOLDER,  ON  MY  DESKTOP  COMPUTER,  WHICH  IS,  "NOT  IN",  THE  THUNDERBIRD  E - MAIL  PROGRAMME ?

13 - HAVING FOUND, YOUR SOLUTION, WITH THE "PIN", AS ABOVE, I DID, "THEN", SEND TO YOU, A PRIVATE E - MAIL / QUESTION, TOAD - HALL, SO YOU MAY WELL SEE, MY NAME A 2ND TIME....

LASTLY, THANKS FOR YOUR HELP, TOAD - HALL.

YOURS.

RE: IS THERE A WAY, THAT I CAN, "COPY", ALL MY E - MAILS, FROM THE THUNDERBIRD E - MAIL PROGRAMME, ON, MY DESKTOP COMPUTER, TO A 2ND, SEPARATE, FOLDER, ON MY DESKTOP COMPUTER, WHICH IS, "NOT IN", THE THUNDERBIRD E - MAIL PROGRAMME ?

Yes. But the process you use depends upon what you want to achieve. It sounds like you might want to create a backup of everything in your thunderbird profile, but it may also mean you just want to save the emails individually in a format which you can open using Thunderbird.

If you only want to save emails as separate files which can be opened by Thunderbird: Create a folder on your desktop and called it eg: 'TBird Emails'. In 'TBird Emails' folder create additional folders that correspond with your folder names eg: 'Banking'. This just makes it so much easier when you need to locate things.

Please note: There is an addon that you can use to perform saves in various formats, but below I have given the manual method currently available in Thunderbird. If you want to use the addon extension instead and need more help then just ask :) The addon extension is called 'ImportExportTools NG'. You can read some info at the link. https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools-ng/

In Thunderbird, If you have an imap mail account, you need to be certain that you downloaded full copies of emails and not just headers. Check:

• Right click on imap mail account name in Folder Pane and select 'Settings'.
• Select 'Synchronise & Storage'

Message Synchronising

• select the checkbox 'Keep messages in all folders for this account....'
• click on 'Advanced' button
• make sure all folders have been selected and click on OK

Under 'Disc Space'

• select 'Synchronise all messages locally regardless of age'

• Menu app icon > File > Offline > click on 'Download/sync now'
• Select 'Mail Messages'
• Select 'Work offline once download and or synchronisation is complete.
• click on OK.

Once this has completed and you are in offline mode - it's better to be in offline mode to stop any synchronising whilst performing a lot of saving etc.

select a folder eg: 'Banking', then click on first email to get focus. Assuming you want to save all messages in that folder...let's say it is the Banking folder.

• Use 'Ctrl+A' to highlight all emails.

If you only want to save specific emails:

• Hold down 'Ctrl' and select emails in message list to highlight them.

If you have a lot of emails in that folder then you may prefer to do it batches. To select a continuous batch of emails:

• Click on first email
• Hold down 'Shift' key and click on last email in batch' - all emails in between get highlighted.

• Right click on highlighted emails and click on 'Save as'
• A new window opens and you need to select the 'TBird Emails' folder and then select the 'Banking' folder.
• Then click on 'Select Folder' button

Now wait as as each email now has to be saved individually as a *.eml file. Once you have done this the first time - check the stored emails, so locate the 'TBird Emails' > 'Banking' folder to see emails. Double click on a *.eml file and it should open and display the message. If all goes ok then this means you have successfully saved those emails.

If you want to perform a complete backup of the entire Appdata/Roaming/Thunderbird folder please ask.

DEAR TOAD - HALL,

THANKS FOR YOUR REPLY, YOUR VERY QUICK REPLY....

FIRSTLY, SOME BASIC POINTS -

 -  I  CAN  THINK  OF  MYSELF,  AS  A  "MUGGLE",  IN  NO  WAY,  AM  I,  A  COMPUTER  EXPERT.
 -  I  CAN  FOLLOW,  BASIC  AND  SIMPLE  INSTRUCTIONS.
 -  BUT  WHEN  WE  GET  TO  WORDS  OR  PHRASES,  THAT  I  DO  NOT  KNOW,  THEN   I  AM  LOST....
 -  THUS,  IT  IS  VERY  POSSIBLE,  THAT  YOU,  TOAD - HALL,  ARE  SAYING  THE  CORRECT  THING,  BUT,  "I",  DO  NOT  UNDERSTAND  OR  FOLLOW,  WHAT  YOU  HAVE  SAID  =  SORRY  FOR  THIS.

TO YOUR REPLY - WHAT I WANT TO ACHIEVE, IS A BACKUP COPY, OF "ALL", MY E - MAILS, THAT I HAVE, DOWNLOADED / ON / IN, MY DESKTOP COMPUTER, VIA THE THUNDERBIRD E - MAIL PROGRAMME.

 -  I  DO  NOT  WANT,  THE  BACKUP  COPY,  TO  BE,  "IN",  THE  THUNDERBIRD  E - MAIL  PROGRAMME.
 -  I  WANT,  THE  BACKUP  COPY,  JUST  STORED  AS  A,  SEPARATE  FOLDER,  ON  MY  2ND  HARD  DRIVE,  IN  MY  DESKTOP  COMPUTER.
 -  AND  IN  AN  IDEAL  WORLD,  I  WOULD  LIKE  THIS  TO  BE,  BACKED  UP,  AUTOMATICALLY,  PLEASE...
 -  THE  REASON  FOR  DOING  SO,  IS  THAT,  I  RECENTLY  LOST  "SIGHT  OF",  MOST  OF,  MY  E - MAILS,  THAT  WERE  ON,  THUNDERBIRD  =  THIS  "LOSS",  WOULD  AFFECT  ME  GREATLY  =  THUS  A  FULL  BACKUP,  WOULD  BE  HELPFUL  AND  REASSURING....

TO YOUR INSTRUCTIONS, IN YOUR REPLY - FIRSTLY, THUNDERBIRD TELLS ME, THAT I HAVE, VERSION, 78.9.0 (32 - BIT), AND THUNDERBIRD, TELLS ME, THAT IT WANTS TO INSTALL AN UPDATE, WHEN THUNDERBIRD, "SEES IT" = THEN I GIVE, THUNDERBIRD, PERMISSION TO DO SO.

IN FOLLOWING YOUR INSTRUCTIONS, YES - I AM CERTAIN, THAT I AM, DOWNLOADING THE FULL COPIES OF E - MAILS, AND THEIR ATTACHMENTS. I HAVE @outlook.com = pop-mail.outlook.com I HAVE @gmail.com = imap.gmail.com

I DID TRY FOLLOWING YOUR INSTRUCTIONS, BUT IT WAS ONLY HOURS LATER, THAT I REALIZED, THAT THEY "ONLY APPLIED TO", "IMAP".........................

 =  HOURS  OF  EFFORT  WASTED,  BECAUSE  I  COULD  NOT  FIND,  OR  SEE,  THE  NECESSARY,  WORDS / TABS / BUTTONS.....................  

YES, I COULD FOLLOW YOUR INSTRUCTIONS, IN MAKING A "2ND" FOLDER, THEN SELECTING AND HIGHLIGHTING, AND THEN, "SAVE AS", AND THIS WORKED.

 -  BUT  I  CANNOT  SEE  THIS,  AS  AN  ONGOING,  AUTO  UPDATE  =  IT  WOULD  HAVE  TO  ME  MANUAL,  EVERY  TIME,  THAT  I  THINK  OF  IT...
 -  HOWEVER,  IT  HAS  INDEED,  HELPED,  IN  MY  WANTING  TO  CUT,  COPY,  PASTE,  AN  E - MAIL  FOLDER,  TO  MY  OWN,  FILING  STORAGE  SYSTEM  =  SO  THIS  SHOULD  BE  VERY  USEFUL  =  THANKS.

LASTLY, TOAD - HALL, YOU STATED, " If you want to perform a complete backup of the entire Appdata/Roaming/Thunderbird folder please ask. "

 =  GIVEN  MY  STATEMENT  ABOVE,  ABOUT  WHAT  AND  HOW  I  WANT  TO  SAVE / BACK  UP,  DOES  THIS  SENTENCE  OF  YOURS,  DO  THIS,  TOAD - HALL ?
 =  IF  SO,  PLEASE  EXPLAIN,  HOW  TO  DO  SO ?

THANKS AGAIN, TOAD - HALL, FOR YOUR TIME.

YOURS.

In copying all those emails into a different folder on computer, you now have a copy of those emails, so you could consider that a backup of emails, but there is much more to Thunderbird than just the emails.

For example: There is all the information that relates to the 'profile name' folder which contains all the preferences and setup including the pop and imap mail accounts. Including the info that tells Thunderbird where to look for the profile. There may also be address books and message filters etc.

So it is worth creating a complete backup which you store in another folder outside of Thunderbird and ideally on an external hardrive. Create a folder ready to receive the backup. Call it 'TBird Backup v 78.9.1' (assuming you are currently using version 78.9.1 )

This means if computer had a complete hissy fit and crashed or you might need to get everything onto a new computer then a complete backup would be useful as it could be reinstated to get everything back.

It is not a difficult thing to do, but you just need to make sure you are going to copy the correct folder. On a Windows operating system, Thunderbird, by default, stores everything in this location: C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ <profile name> So you need to go to the 'Roaming' folder and copy that 'Thunderbird' folder.

You can do this via Thunderbird.

• Help > Troubleshooting Information
• Under 'Application Basics' section - about 8th in list is 'Profile Folder' - click on 'Open Folder'

A new window opens showing you the contents of the 'Profile name' folder

• Now Exit/Close Thunderbird - this is important.

• You need to go up the directory three levels.

So up first level to the 'Profiles' folder. Up second level to the 'Thunderbird' folder and finally up the third level to the 'Roaming' folder. 'Thunderbird' will be a folder in the 'Roaming' folder.

• Right click on the 'Thunderbird' folder and select 'Copy'.

Then choose where you want to store that copy. As you have created a suitable folder eg: 'TBird Backup v 78.9.1' on ideally an external hardrive....

• select that 'TBird Backup v 78.9.1' folder to see contents - which will be empty.
• Right click in 'TBird Backup v 78.9.1' folder and select 'Paste'.

The 'Thunderbird' folder will appear in the 'TBird Backup v 78.9.1' folder.

I've added a few images to help as a guide.

I would recommend that you create a backup of this type before you update, so if something goes wrong with the update then you always have a complete good copy.

DEAR TOAD - HALL,

THANK YOU, FOR YOUR QUICK REPLY, AGAIN.

AND, 10 OUT OF 10, AS OF, SWITCHING ON TODAY, AND HAVING TO UPDATE, THUNDERBIRD, I AM, NOW ON, 78.9.1 (32-bit)

AND "YES", "HISSY FIT", IS THE SITUATION, THAT I AM TRYING TO AVOID...

I DID FIND, THAT IN READING YOU REPLY, IT WAS EASIER, THIS TIME,

 =  I  DO  NOT  KNOW,  IF  IT  IS,  JUST  THAT  I  GOT  THE  STEPS  TO  WORK......

TO YOUR INSTRUCTIONS - I DID - HELP / TROUBLESHOOTING INFORMATION / PROFILE FOLDER / OPEN FOLDER, AND THEN, I CLOSED THUNDERBIRD.

THE NEW WINDOW OPENED, WITH "blocklists", BEING AT THE TOP OF THE LISTINGS. THEN I DID, CLICKING UP, THE FOLDER CHAIN -

 -  titda26i.default  /  Profiles  /  Thunderbird  /  Roaming.

I DID MAKE A NEW FILE, ON MY 2ND HARD DRIVE, AS YOU STATED = TBIRD BACKUP v 78.9.1

AND I DID, COPY AND PASTE, THE FILE ACROSS AND OVER TO, AND IT THEN APPEARED, IN THE NEW FILE.

THEN, IN THE NEW FILE, I CLICKED THE FOLLOWING FOLDERS -

 -  Thunderbird  /  Profiles  /  titda26i.default  /  Mail  

WITHIN WHICH, THERE WAS - Local Folders - pop.gmail.com - pop.gmail-1.com - pop.gmail-2.com - pop-mail.outlook.com - pop-mail.outlook-1.com ONLY IN - pop-mail.outlook.com, WAS THERE A FOLDER, CALLED - Inbox.sbd

 -  WITHIN  WHICH,  IT  SEEMED  TO  LIST,  MY  E - MAIL  FOLDERS  =  SOME  AS  FOLDERS,  AND  SOME  AS,  AN  ICON  @  A  SINGLE  SHEET  OF,  BLANK  PAPER,  WITH  THE  TOP  RIGHT  CORNER,  BENT  OVER,  BUT  NO,  IMAGE,  ON  THE  SINGLE  SHEET  OF  PAPER.
 -  WHERE  THERE  IS  THIS  SINGLE  SHEET  OF,  BLANK  PAPER,  IT  IS  REPEATED  TWICE  =  WITH  THE  SECOND  LISTING,  HAVING,  ".msf",  AT  THE  END.

ON CLICKING ON A FOLDER, THESE JUST HAVE THE SAME, SINGLE SHEET OF, BLANK PAPER, AND ITS REPEAT, WITH ".msf".

THEN, IN TRYING TO OPEN, THE SINGLE SHEET OF, BLANK PAPER, I AM GIVEN THE OPTION OF, "How do you want to open this file ?", AND WITH A SERIES OF ICONS, FOR PROGRAMS, SUCH AS, INTERNET, WORD, PAINT, WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER.

 =  I  CANNOT,  READ / SEE,  THESE  AS  SIMPLE  E - MAILS.........

???????????? QUESTION - TOAD - HALL, HOW DO I SEE, READ, THE CONTENTS, OF THIS "NEW FOLDER", AS ACTUAL E - MAILS ?

 =  I  UNDERSTAND,  I  THINK,  THAT  THIS  "NEW  FOLDER",  HAS  ALL  MY  USER  SETTINGS,  MY  PREFERENCES,  FOR  THUNDERBIRD.
 =  BUT  HOW  DO  I,  "SEE",  AND  "READ",  THE  ACTUAL  E - MAILS,  PLEASE ?????

THANKS AGAIN, TOAD - HALL, FOR YOUR TIME.

YOURS.

re :THEN, IN TRYING TO OPEN, THE SINGLE SHEET OF, BLANK PAPER, I AM GIVEN THE OPTION OF, "How do you want to open this file ?", AND WITH A SERIES OF ICONS, FOR PROGRAMS, SUCH AS, INTERNET, WORD, PAINT, WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER. I CANNOT, READ / SEE, THESE AS SIMPLE E - MAILS.........

You would use a text editor like 'Notepad' to read mbox files which do not have any extension. Each mbox file eg: 'Inbox' (not Inbox.msf) stores all emails that are in the Inbox. They are written to the file in the order downloaded, one after the other, so oldest is at the top.

However, this main backup method is not generally used as a way to read emails. It is a complete copy of Thunderbird profile data which would get used if you are in the unfortunate position of needing to recreate the entire Thunderbird setup or it can also be used to reinstate a particular file if for example you lost all emails in one folder. You would probably need additional instructions in order to do that, but at least you have a copy so it would be possible.

It all sounds good. You have created a full backup.

The previous method I mentioned about selecting emails and using the 'Save as' to save as .eml emails means you get easy access to viewing those stored emails.

So now you know two processes that can do two different things knowing your emails are much safer.

DEAR TOAD - HALL,

THANKS FOR THE QUICK REPLY, AGAIN. SORRY FOR MY DELAY....

YES THAT EXPLAINS ALL, AND NOW I THINK, THAT I UNDERSTAND.

TOAD - HALL, THANK YOU, VERY MUCH, FOR YOUR TIME AND HELP.

YOURS.