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Restoring Old Folders

  • 7 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by sfhowes

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I had a system crash a few years ago and managed to retrieve some Thunderbird files/folders but not through a proper backup/restore method How can I restore these folders so I can see this old mail? I know there are some items in there from home improvements correspondence/receipts/invoices etc that I would like to access The data is clearly there, I'm just not sure how to restore these so I can actually open and read these folders content. (Some of these locations may be suspect as I attempted to move them where I thought they might be visible - for example those 'archive' files are in my actual profile, but nothing is visible in the actual application)

Appreciate any assistance on how I can do this :)

I had a system crash a few years ago and managed to retrieve some Thunderbird files/folders but not through a proper backup/restore method How can I restore these folders so I can see this old mail? I know there are some items in there from home improvements correspondence/receipts/invoices etc that I would like to access The data is clearly there, I'm just not sure how to restore these so I can actually open and read these folders content. (Some of these locations may be suspect as I attempted to move them where I thought they might be visible - for example those 'archive' files are in my actual profile, but nothing is visible in the actual application) Appreciate any assistance on how I can do this :)
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Copy the mbox files, the large ones of File Type, with no extensions, to the Mail/Local Folders location of the current profile, while TB is closed. For some reason, your 3rd picture indicates 'Local Folders' is a subfolder of mail.comcast.net, when the correct Local Folders is a subfolder of Mail.

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Thanks for your help! It is surely appreciated! Just to clarify - were you suggesting to take (only) the two files circled in the second image and copy/paste into the Mail/Local Folders Folder? Should I not also be moving the .msf files? So I did that and still nothing shows up and tried 'repair' on that local folder in attempt to resolve - still nothing.

I'm not sure how I did this but have two local folders See below

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Just copy the mbox files, the msf files will be rebuilt when TB restarts.

You have 3 'Local Folders': one in the account folder, one with the blue icon, and one that's a subfolder of the previous one. The one with the blue icon appears to be the correct place to copy the mbox files. But if I were you, I would create a new profile, from Help/Troubleshooting, about:profiles, and reorganize the structure, and not name anything 'Local Folders' besides the default one.

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Thanks for your patience as I struggle through this!

Just copy the mbox files,

You mean the inbox and sent files (the large size files)? I have done that and still nothing shows. (see my first image in second post above)

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Yes, the large files Inbox and Sent.

The place you copied them to is not the same as the location specified in Account Settings, D:\Thunderbird Mail Archives. Which is why I recommend a new profile to clear up this confusing setup.

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OK - I made a new profile and copied those 2007 - 2012 files and they all appeared and can open in that new profile! Thank you! But that other large 'inbox file' - the 2.8 GB one (I don't care so much about the sent files) I similarly moved into same location and that one still shows blank - I tried re-naming (a copy) before moving and same result Almost there - just that one chunk to resolve Thanks again for bearing with me on this

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I don't know why the Inbox file isn't readable, but maybe it's corrupted. See this post about a possible way to recover it.