Thunderbird Community Forum

I am trying to move emails from account "hasche@bigpond.net.au" to account hoedkaas@gmail.com. I was able to do this in a earlier version of Thunderbird. What has changed.

Changed my Email address and when I opened Thunderbird, my folders (35+) containing hundreds of Email disappeared. Need to find where they are hiding and reinstall. Thunderbird with new Email address is working correctly, except for the lost data.

After Windows 11 crash and re-install and Thunderbird re-install, where can I find my old address file and old email file location in saved backed up data, and filename format to import in new Thunderbird installation? I have done this once a long time ago and forgot.

Hi everyone,

I ran into a major accidental data loss issue in Thunderbird and I'm hoping someone can guide me on how to safely recover the messages.

What happened:

I attempted to copy a large batch of old emails from my Yahoo IMAP account into local folders.

Thunderbird initially moved them because I accidentally pressed "Move-to" Realizing they were moved instead of copied, I pressed Ctrl + Z to undo that action after all those emails were moved from my inbox to my local folder. That undo command synced back through IMAP and wiped those messages from both the local view and the server.

Those emails just disappeared and I want to get them back. It's been 6 days. How to recover them?

Hi, It worked flawlessly in the previous version. In version 153.0.2esr (64-bit), I can't drag and drop messages to a folder (e.g., Desktop). Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

I backed up my Thunderbird folder on my old pc, and moved it to my new pc. When I started Thunderbird, the appearance of the Inbox, plus my Address Book, was moved to the new pc. I don't see the Local Folders (and all the messages I put into the Local Folders) from my old pc, on the new pc Thunderbird app. I checked that the "Profile Folder" under Troubleshooting / Application Basics, was selected for the profile I moved from the old PC. I can see in the profile folder all the Local Folders. Any idea on how to get Thunderbird to recognize these transferred Local Folders and contents, so I can continue to access them on my new pc running Thunderbird ? Thanks

I have Thunderbird on the old computer. For twenty+ years I have read the instructions for moving it to the new computer. i cannot understand/am not at all confident in my ability AND I have only ONE keyboard/mouse. I have to move it from one computer to the other to operate them.

Right now all email is on the old computer, no email is on the new computer. No email has ever been on my cellular telephone. One set of periforals - keyboard/mouse.

I DO have the Bravura, the Plugable transfer cable and accompanying software, and many other things came across, but not the Thunderbird.

I want to do the move/installation correctly so that not one stored email is lost or corrupted.

I need help.

I have changed Thunderbird E-mail account from IMAP to POP3. My question is, How do I get all my E-mail folders from the IMAP into the new POP3 account. Nothing followed the changed accounts formats.

the thunderbird on the old laptop still showes all emails back until 2022. after copying the profil to the new laptop as described on the mozilla video, thunderbird took all settings but at one of the email accounts it just showes emails back to may 2026. The rest has disappeared. I tried all fixing experiences I found on internet but it doesn´t work. This special Email account had the pop3 - setting.

Hello everyone,

I am hoping someone can help me recover some EXTREMELY important emails for a legal matter. I was trying to export an entire nested Gmail label (WORK/TNC/TNC DISPUTE) to PDF.

It's a lot of emails spanning from April 2024 that I had painstakingly been going through and labeling to get them ready to print to use as evidence for a work dispute. When faced with the task of having to print all those emails to pdf, one by one, I wanted to chew my own arm off!

I'm convinced there must be another way to bulk print to pdf......and so I went down a few rabbit holes in search of my quick fix.....(I'm not trying to be lazy, I just have very little time left to get this done, and right now I'm losing the will to live if my reality is that I will be busy with this till the end of time.)

I read different threads and questions over the internet and found information that led me to Thunderbird. (Hi, Thunderbird :). I know there are paid apps or extensions that can bulk print to pdf, but I unfortunately don't have the money to pay for them (i.e. the work dispute - salary has been frozen for over 2 years and resignation was denied, so no income and held hostage by my employer - the emails I have lost are literally my future!). Sorry, enough of the why.....

I DID THIS:

So I read that I need to to create a folder in Thunderbird's "Local Folders" with the same name, and simply drag and drop the label from the original label to the local folder label (I did all of this in Thunderbird.

Unfortunately, this went VERY wrong. At first it seemed like it was doing something, but it didn't really do anything that I am aware of.....There was nothing in the local folder I had created and dragged the label to, there was nothing in the original label folder (everything was empty). I died! Then comforted myself with the fact that it's still in GMAIL.....that was the naive, optimistic me talking..... Headed over to Gmail, saw my label name, sigh of relief, clicked on the label name.....DIED 10000000000000 x over.......I continued to cry for the next 4 hours...

.That was the 12th of June.....I'm still trying to get them back.....I have been able to find a few bits of info here and there.....I just don't know how to get them back into Gmail for me to never try be so foolish again!!! (Until someone maybe shows me how to bulk print to PDF?????)....

Here is the current situation and the technical details of what I've found so far:

What happened:

Thunderbird executed a "Move" command instead of a "Copy".

The TNC DISPUTE label is in my Gmail web interface (the emails are not in the label, nor the the Trash and none of my settings anywhere are set to delete permanently etc., on exit).

The Local Folder in Thunderbird shows up on my screen, but it is completely empty.

What I have discovered in the background:

Account Type: IMAP connected to Gmail (*********@gmail.com). (i've replaced my email address name with stars to not put my private email on a public site)

The Local Files: I found the tracking path imap://**********%40gmail.com@imap.gmail.com/WORK/TNC/TNC DISPUTE. I also found the raw file directories containing TNC DISPUTE (no extension) and the TNC DISPUTE.msf index file.

The roadblock I am hitting:

I read that deleting the corrupted .msf index file while Thunderbird is closed will force it to rebuild the index and potentially reveal the emails. However, at first I couldn't safely get into the folder to do this:

When I clicked "Open Folder" from Help > More Troubleshooting Information, Windows threw an error: "Explorer.EXE - There was a problem sending the command to the program."

When I try to bypassed Thunderbird and use the Windows Run dialog with %appdata%\Thunderbird\Profiles, Windows threw another path error and refused to open it.

I ended up reinstalling Thunderbird and it fixed the access profile issue and I can now access where the data gets saved from Thunderbird.....

I just don't know what to do from here to get my (previously local foldered misshaped moved) folder back in my Gmail. (safely - to not corrupt everything or worse....delete it permanently.....)

The details of the missing emails (contents of the label that did copy to the local drive I think):

Directory Contents (as shown in the attached image)

1. TNC DISPUTE.sbd

• Type: File folder

• Date modified: 19 Jun 2026, 00:55

2. msgFilterRules.dat

• Type: DAT file

• Date modified: 12 Jun 2026, 05:49

• Size: 0 KB

3. TNC DISPUTE

• Type: File

• Date modified: 19 Jun 2026, 05:55

• Size: 670,605 KB

4. TNC DISPUTE.msf

• Type: MSF file

• Date modified: 12 Jun 2026, 22:31

• Size: 3 KB

5. Trash

• Type: File

• Date modified: 12 Jun 2026, 05:48

• Size: 0 KB

6. Trash.msf

• Type: MSF file

• Date modified: 12 Jun 2026, 06:27

• Size: 2 KB

7. Unsent Messages

• Type: File

• Date modified: 12 Jun 2026, 05:48

• Size: 0 KB

8. Unsent Messages.msf

• Type: MSF file

• Date modified: 12 Jun 2026, 06:24

• Size: 2 KB

Sorry for the long post, hopefully someone can help me go back in time and have my only issue be searching for ways to bulk print to pdf and not having to try restore the only emails that are actually worth being on there.

TIA xxx Margz

I have several MBOX files with me and I want to import MBOX files into the Thunderbird email client. I've come across different methods, including manual techniques and third-party tools, but I'm unsure which approach is the most efficient, especially when dealing with multiple or large-sized MBOX files. Some methods also seem complicated for users who are not very technical.

Suggest me any reliable tool for this!

A couple of months ago Thunderbird installed a new version (150.0.2) that made me enter a new identity. After I did that, I tried importing the e-mail folders from the earlier version (139.0), but totally without success. So I tried re-installing an older version, but this also, was no longer able to import the folders stored on my hard drive. What can I do????