Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

recover emails

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

bugbear
bugbear
more options

My website has recently been migrated to a new hosting provider. The website files were transferred, but not the emails. My old hosting provider has gone off-line/disappeared so the files on the old server are no longer recoverable. However, I still have my old emails stored on Thunderbird. As long as I use Thunderbird off-line I can still have access to my old emails. But if I reconfigure to the new server and go on-line then all my old emails will be zapped. My question is: is there a way to recover the old emails from Thunderbird? I thought perhaps if I rename the existing Thunderbird folders/files, for example if I add the word "old" to the file names, and then add a new email account for the new server, I could then manually move the old emails one by one to the new account from within Thunderbird. Would this work? I would need someon to explain to me which folders/files need to be renamed, as I don't really know what I am doing.

Is there any other way to recover the old emails?

My website has recently been migrated to a new hosting provider. The website files were transferred, but not the emails. My old hosting provider has gone off-line/disappeared so the files on the old server are no longer recoverable. However, I still have my old emails stored on Thunderbird. As long as I use Thunderbird off-line I can still have access to my old emails. But if I reconfigure to the new server and go on-line then all my old emails will be zapped. My question is: is there a way to recover the old emails from Thunderbird? I thought perhaps if I rename the existing Thunderbird folders/files, for example if I add the word "old" to the file names, and then add a new email account for the new server, I could then manually move the old emails one by one to the new account from within Thunderbird. Would this work? I would need someon to explain to me which folders/files need to be renamed, as I don't really know what I am doing. Is there any other way to recover the old emails?

All Replies (1)

Toad-Hall
Toad-Hall
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

In offline mode:

create suitably named folders in 'Local Folders' mail account Select an imap folder with emails. Right click on highlighted emails and use 'Copy to' the folders in 'Local Folders'. Check you can actually read them in the 'Local Folders' folders to make sure they copied correctly.

Local Folders stores emails in your Profile folders and does not synch with any server. So, a backup would need to include these files. If you backup the entire profile then it would be included. It would be best to create a new existing mail account for new server. If you alter the server settings for the current imap mail account then it will point to the new server and you would lose emails as they are not on the new server.

Modified by Toad-Hall