Changes by my ISP forced me to change my Thunderbird servers settings, after which I restored my email backup to the new account without issue but all the messages disappeared after I went online to get new mail.
My ISP changed us to another mail provider. So I created a new version of my existing email with different server settings, then restored my email backup. I did this all offline and it was successful. All my emails and folders were there.
Next, I went online to download new email, after which all of the messages and folders from the backup were removed (overwritten). I've tried repeating the process by removing the new account and reinstalling it, but I can't get my old emails and folders back. This is a significant problem because I have over a decade of financial and legal emails in the backup. I have tried a number of the solutions posted in the Community but have not been successful in getting my emails back. I'm using Windows 10 and Thunderbird 115.10.1.
Any insights are most appreciated.
All Replies (5)
What is your account type - POP or IMAP?
The new setting is IMAP. Thank you.
With IMAP all mail is managed on the server. The IMAP client, i.e. Thunderbird, is just like a mirror of what's on the server. The IMAP server did delete your restored local backup, because it knew nothing about it. This isn't a bug, it's just how IMAP works. Therefore you need to restore the backup to your Local Folders account. Then you can upload the restored messages to the IMAP server. Email servers are not made for mass transactions and may limit the amount of data and/or no. of messages being transferred. So copy your messages to the server in smaller badges, and no all at once.
Ok, thanks for that.
Can you please clarify for my understanding how to 'restore the backup to my Local Folders'? 'Backup' in this sense mean all files in \profiles and below.
Second, how to upload to the IMAP server? I assume that would be done via the web GUI on yahoo.com?
Thanks again.
Can you please clarify for my understanding how to 'restore the backup to my Local Folders'?
After restoring your backup, and while Thunderbird is still in offline mode, copy the restored message from your IMAP account to your Local Folders account.
Second, how to upload to the IMAP server? I assume that would be done via the web GUI on yahoo.com?
If you do have some sort of folder hierarchy, manually re-create it on the server in case it doesn't exist. This part can also be done via webmail. Then, in Thunderbird, select the messages to be transferred to the server - right-click a selected message - Copy To Select your IMAP account, and the desired destination folder on the server.
As stated before, do the copy your messages in smaller batches, and for each folder. Don't copy everything at once.
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