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Moved from Pop to Imap with same account but lost pop3 archive

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Hello,

I switch my xxx@hotmail.com from Pop3 to Imap with the same email adress . It worked perfectly. Thank you Mozilla team BUT: 1- as it is the same adress I was not allowed by TB to configure the Imap nor to reconfigure the POP. 2- so I deleted the POP account but then lost the archive which were configured by years.

I looked into my POP profile ( had made a back-up :-) ) but could not find any folders. Also search on your site but did not find the solution.

Any idea how I should proceed to retrieve my archive? Thank you

Hello, I switch my xxx@hotmail.com from Pop3 to Imap with the same email adress . It worked perfectly. Thank you Mozilla team BUT: 1- as it is the same adress I was not allowed by TB to configure the Imap nor to reconfigure the POP. 2- so I deleted the POP account but then lost the archive which were configured by years. I looked into my POP profile ( had made a back-up :-) ) but could not find any folders. Also search on your site but did not find the solution. Any idea how I should proceed to retrieve my archive? Thank you

Ŋuɖoɖo si wotia

Hi Charlotte

if you are somehow familiar with files and folders on your harddrive:

  • open the explorer (click on Computer in the start menu)
  • in the top address input type in: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles
  • there you should see at least one folder - inside this you should find the folders "Mail" and/or "ImapMail"
  • inside these folders you should find the archive files - these you can import to you new accounts

then you can install the extension ImportExportTools from: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/?src=search

restart thunderbird and use the tool from Tools->ImportExportTools menu to import the archive - just follow this howto: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders


that is just a way you could try - maybe there are other people that know easier ways - and it may be that your archives are gone and can not be found anymore - then a specialist may be able to "undelete" these

let me know if that helped

regards Marcel

Xle ŋuɖoɖo sia le goya me 👍 1

All Replies (5)

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Hi

I would expect that the folders ans files are still existing on your hard drive even after deletion.

please describe how you configured the archive functionality.

Maybe not all or even nothing is lost.

regards Marcel

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Hi Marcel,

My archived were configured by years. I had exactly followed the proposed procedure of Mozilla : http://mzl.la/1g2pBB5.

I have not yet looked onto the hard drive because I do not know what to look for ( extension of file, name of file etc....) .

Kind regards, Charlotte

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Ɖɔɖɔɖo si wotia

Hi Charlotte

if you are somehow familiar with files and folders on your harddrive:

  • open the explorer (click on Computer in the start menu)
  • in the top address input type in: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles
  • there you should see at least one folder - inside this you should find the folders "Mail" and/or "ImapMail"
  • inside these folders you should find the archive files - these you can import to you new accounts

then you can install the extension ImportExportTools from: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/?src=search

restart thunderbird and use the tool from Tools->ImportExportTools menu to import the archive - just follow this howto: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders


that is just a way you could try - maybe there are other people that know easier ways - and it may be that your archives are gone and can not be found anymore - then a specialist may be able to "undelete" these

let me know if that helped

regards Marcel

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It's unfortunate, but deleting the POP account was the wrong move. This would have been the correct procedure. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP_account_to_a_IMAP_account

If the method using ImportExportTools as suggested above doesn't work, you can try to recover the deleted account. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Recover_Deleted_Account

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Hi @ Christ1: I had followed the procedure indicated on this page:http://mzl.la/1l1HIaJ. I had well seen that my imap archive was empty- as on the server- but I could not find any other solution , after searching TB support, than deleting the POP account so to be able to configure the IMAP account. TB was always asking me to change my name! So may be a link to your link on mozillazine would be better. Anyway Thank you for your response.

@ Marcel Your procedure helped me to recover all my archives. Thanks a lot. However a remark on the mozillazine article: It is well explained that you have *.sbd folders for the hierarchy,that you should ignore the msf files and use the " text files". But I am not a geek, just a simple person not too idiot with her computer. Because we are used to have file with extension e.g. *. txt ,my first reflex was then trying to import the folder : C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\dej4dcga.default\Mail\pop3.live-1.com\Archives.sbd\2012.mozmsgs. and on top of that to import it under the Imap account. Once I tried onto local folder and with the 2012 no extension file it worked like a charm...Please smile , I am just sharing a user experience.

Hence I would suggest that: On this site ( support.mozilla.org) someone makes a page with pictures where you underline the type of file which can be imported - no extension- and that it has to be imported to a local folder. I am volunteer to write or review the page.

Well I am happy that the problem is solved and I wish you guys a very nice day. Charlotte