re : I have version 59.0.2 64 bit You are using a beta version as the most current release is 52.7.0 https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/all/

Inbox is a folder designed for new incoming mail. You should then be sorting and organising read mail into various folders; deleting anything you do not want and then compacting the folder to remove all traces of old deleted items.

However, at the moment do not compact anything until it known what is going on.

Create some new folders and move all of those remaining Inbox emails into a better place to store them. Get them out of the Inbox.

Is this a pop or imap mail account?

• Right click on mail account name in Folder Pane and select 'Settings'
• If pop select 'Disc Space'
• If Imap select 'Synchronisation & storage'

• select 'Don't delete any messages'
• click on 'OK'

• Right click on Inbox folder and select 'Properties'
• click on 'Retention Policy' tab
• make sure it says 'Use my account settings'

• click on 'General Information' tab
• Check to see if folder index is out of synch with actual storage,
• click on 'Repair folder' button
• click on 'OK'

Thank you for the speedy response. I do see I'm "currently on the release update channel" which may explain why I'm receiving beta version updates???? I don't recall agreeing to this, but I may have. Is there a way to remove myself from that, or just leave it alone? Also, are you suggesting I download the 52.7.0 32 bit version to replace this beta thing?

I completely understand folder organization, and I do have some for more important emails. But I'm not completely organized, so most un-deleted mails live in my inbox. It may not be ideal, but it's worked fine for me in the past. I have NEVER had emails disappear like this.

I followed your instructions. Results as follows- It is an imap mail account. "Don't delete any messages" was already checked. "Use my account settings" was also already checked.

I didn't understand the folder index/out of synch with actual storage part. But I did click "repair folder" and I believe it was 189 more messages downloaded, so I now have more old emails returned to my inbox, but only back to January. I should, and did until recently have items in my inbox dating back to April 2017. They're gone. If you have any more thoughts or suggestions, please let me know. I'm somewhat suspect that it is an issue with the ISP (Comcast). When I log into their webmail, the inbox goes back to exactly the same email from January that I now have in Thunderbird. Nothing older is there, either. Thank you so much!

Hi, again. I just received a call from Comcast's advanced tech whatever. They said they've done all they can do on their end. I remembered something I discovered last night that may shed light. I also have a laptop. (It was a Windows 8 machine, and was upgraded to 10 for free by Microsoft.) I checked the Thunderbird version, and it had 52.6 32-bit. (Also on the "release update channel" on that one as well.) When I checked the version, it installed an update to 52.7.0 32-bit. But the interesting thing is, on that machine, I have emails in the inbox dating back to 2014 when I installed Thunderbird! So it seems to me it could be narrowed down to something with this Dell desktop and the 64-bit version, perhaps? I have no clue, but I want it to stop deleting emails!

re :When I log into their webmail, the inbox goes back to exactly the same email from January that I now have in Thunderbird. Nothing older is there, either......clicked "repair folder" and I believe it was 189 more messages downloaded, so I now have more old emails returned to my inbox, but only back to January.

Thunderbird imap mail account folders can only show what is on the server. Something clearly was out of synch because the server had 189 emails that were not showing in Thunderbird until you repaired the index.

Possibility: Do you have an Anti-Virus product scanning Thunderbird files and folders? If AV product located something amiss, it could have quarantined the file or attempted to fix that file. This could account for missing emails in that file and could also explain why the index was out of synch as AV may not know about the index file. However, usually you can see all old emails, but they show up as blank until you refresh index and then only see what is on server, thus appearing to delete emails, which in reality had already gone due to AV.

In your case it is almost as if, comcast had removed emails and Thunderbird was showing this, but then Comcast recovered 189 emails, which you were able to see after fixing index / resynchronising with server.

re : Windows 10 laptop , I have emails in the inbox dating back to 2014

Q: Is this an 'imap' or 'pop' mail account? Maybe you can get those emails moved to other computer, but first I need to know what type of account you used on the desktop. If you know it was POP then all should be ok. But... If Imap, you do not synch with server as it may synch and remove emails. Do not connect to internet. If you need to check...Start laptop in 'Safe Mode' ....(not 'Safe Mode with networking').

then do the following to force Thunderbird to start in offline mode, so it cannot access internet. 'Menu icon' > 'Options' > 'Options' > 'Advanced' > 'Network & Disc Space' tab click on 'Offline..' button uncheck 'Automitically follow detected online state' Manual state when starting up

• Select: 'Offline'

'Download messages for offline use when going offline'

• Select 'NO'
• click on OK
• click on OK

This should now mean when you boot up computer as normal and start Thunderbird it will not access internet and will not synchronise with server.

Hello. First, I apologize. I gave you the Firefox version in my original post by accident. My Thunderbird version is indeed 52.7.0 32-bit.

I do have Norton Security installed, but I honestly don't know what it may, or may not be doing in the background with emails. I'm not terribly technologically savvy as you can probably tell!

I am fairly certain that Comcast lost these emails, perhaps during their server upgrade project, though I still don't understand why older emails sill exist on my laptop. I have McAfee on that machine. So maybe it is an anti-virus issue with the Norton product that I don't "see".

I have pretty much come to terms with the fact that those emails are gone, though I still have them on the laptop for the time being. I don't think I want to attempt to migrate them to my desktop machine. So long as this doesn't occur again, I'll be satisfied.

Thank you so very much for your assistance. I will bookmark this so I can refer back to it if necessary. I greatly appreciate the time you have taken to help! Take care.

Hello Lauraloo1,

I was missing emails, GMAIL actually, in ALL MAIL.

So from the Thunderbird home screen I clicked on File -> Subscribe -> and checked "All MAIL". After a few minutes the number of emails in ALL MAIL jumped from 92 to 4,000.

Good luck

Hello. silverfox. Thank you for your response. I'm fairly certain this is a Comcast/Xfinity issues rather than a local Thunderbird issue. When I log into their webmail, ,y inbox there goes back to the same date. I gave up on retrieving those old emails. I did check your suggestion, but don't see "all mail" as an option. Thank you again.

Dear Staff;

I don't know how to explain this however in my Mozilla Thunder this afternoon I had noticed that in my SENT folder there are more than 100+ emails that I had sent to my Berenis that are missing & I don't know where they are at.

They were all there this morning.

I had accidentally create a ARCHIVE folder & deleted the folder inside & sent it to the TRASH & then deleted there, however I don't know if this did it in.

I need help in recovering these precious e-Mails please exist.

My version of Mozilla Thunderbird is 59.2.1

Hello,

I'm very much a noobie about Gmail.

But I guess you've looked in All Mail going via the native Gmail application and NOT through Thunderbird.

silverfox5678 said

Hello, I'm very much a noobie about Gmail. But I guess you've looked in All Mail going via the native Gmail application and NOT through Thunderbird.

Can you please explain & if so the step by step to hopefully restore them all if possible I would greatly appreciate.

PRDelight1972

If you selected emails and clicked on Archive or used the 'A' as shortcut then those emails would have been put in 'Archives' folder. Depending upon settings, they may have been in a folder with a date or name of folder that they originally were stored under. If you subsequently deleted that Archive folder, then you deleted the archived emails within that folder.

However, the original postee of question was talking about a Comcast account. Are you talking about a comcast account? You are also talking about an entirely different as you chose to delete emails in an archive folder. It is rarely a good idea to ask the original postee of a question to help on a different account about an entirely different issue. In thhose circumstances would be advised to create your own question about your own issue. But in your case it sounds like you have deleted your archived emails. Do you have a backup which you can use to restore them? If you logon to your webmail account via a browser, are those emails still visible?

I thank you so much for your insight on this matter I checked my online web-mail for those beautiful e-Mails & no they aren't there.

OMG!

I can't believe what happened to them all & I'm not feeling good right now since they were all valuable to me.

By any chance is there any undelete or other avenues to explore?

I'm very sorry I wasn't paying attention when I had accidentally created the ARCHIVE folder & then deleted the folder from within & not realizing thereafter what had happened until the afternoon when I had noticed a low count & those pertaining all to her weren't there & I panic.

Again, if more assistance can be provided I'd greatly welcome it thanks!

PRDelight,

OK here we go.

If can access my Gmails two ways:

(1) through an email client - app or program - like Outlook, Maildroid or Thunderbird. (2) Or I can access my Gmails through Gmail itself , that is my clicking on Gmail and then I see the "M" icon for Gmail. I'll call this Native Gmail.

Now in (my) native Gmail there is a folder named All Mail. From the main Inbox screen I see folders named on the left hand margin with names like inbox, sent, draft and then All Mail.

In this native Gmail (only) all my emails are in All Mail and they go back 6 years and total 4,000 messages.

But if I look for all my Gmails using Thunderbird I see less than 100 emails in All Mial.

So if you are not accessing your Gmails using native Gmail, try it and see if you can access the All Mail folder.

Good luck

Oh no I'm in the UK. We don't have Comcast. I've never knowingly used Archive but I'll investigate that.

PRDelight1972 What account are you talking about? Who is your ISP? Is it a gmail account ? Is it a pop or imap account?

Please excuse me for not being to detail since I have known that this information is always helpful.

I had logged-in to my Comcast webmail account & confirmed that there wasn't anything there.

OMG!

What have i done in her name?

ISP: Comcast

No GMAIL account just the utilization of Mozilla Thunderbird I would say since the beginning of the calendar year or to be exact after my HP Pavilion PC suffered a horrible crash that I had witness.

As far as POP or IMAP I honestly can't confirm right now or could you instruct me on this?

After I realize yesterday something wasn't right I went to Mozilla & located a phone # & informed the rep of my tremendous error & they began to point me to the website & what to do from there onward.

Omg!

I need them all back if possible, since they all mean a great deal to me.

Omg!

This summer 2018 hasn't been a good one for my soul & know this on top.

re: As far as POP or IMAP I honestly can't confirm right now or could you instruct me on this? In Thunderbird

• Right click on comcast mail account name in Folder Pane and select 'Settings'
• Select 'Server Settings'
• Top right it will say 'Pop Mail Server ' OR 'Imap Mail Server'

What do you see?

Again, thank you for your instructions & after them it is POP Mail Server w/ two other dialog boxes of info pertaining to that e-Mail address.

Have you compacted any folder? Please do Not compact any folder.

What folder were the original emails in before you archived them ?