The problem may well be the 'retention policy' for the folder. Assuming you are using windows. if you right click on the folder in the folder pane and click properties in the drop down, you will see a tab called 'Retention Policy' select this tab and you'll see a dialogue that allows you to view/edit the retention policy for that folder. The folder can either have a unique retention policy or 'inherit' it from the account. If the 'Use my account settings' box is ticked, you can untick it and set new settings.

As for recovering the deleted messages, If you are using an IMAP account, you should be able to re-download them by synchronising the account.

Hope that helps

Rob

I have altered all files to save the last 2000 Emails. Don't know how to recover the older messages. I am on IMAP, but don't know how to synchronise the account to recover the old messages.

Imap folders synchronise to show what is held in same folder on server. Thats how you see emails in Subscribed folders. The folders in Thunderbird and folders on server are in effect one and the same. If you delete emails in Thunderbird then they will get deleted off the server when folder synchronises. So IF those emails were deleted in Thunderbird when you synchronise with server they will not get downloaded again, they will get deleted off server.

To recover emails that are still on server: You would need to Exit Thunderbird. Then access profile folders and delete the mbox file and the index file of the folder with missing emails. When you restart Thunderbird it will then download what is on server - assuming the emails are on the server.

Q: Have you logged on to webmail account via a browser to see if those emails are actually on the server ? If no then check now. If they are not on server then you cannot see what does not exist.

Q:Have you tried to rebuild the index?

• Right click on folder and select 'Properties'
• 'General Information' tab
• click on 'Repair folder' button
• click on OK

If you keep old messages and you do not want to delete older messages. Retention policy needs to be set to 'Don't delete any messages'.

If it is set to 'Delete all but the most recent 2000 messages', then that folder will only store up to 2000 emails. All surplus emails will get deleted from Thunderbird and also off the server. Make sure you selected the option to 'Always keep starred messages', then it shouldn't delete anything you mark as starred. But if you have a retention policy that can delete off server, as a precaution, I would not keep any important emails in that folder. So check that folder and move any really important emails out of that folder into a folder that has a retention policy to not delete anything.

Retention Policy settings for imap mail account is here:

• Right click on the imap mail account name in Folder Pane and select 'Settings'
• select: 'Synchronisation & storage'
• Under 'Disc Space' section
• select: 'Don't delete any messages'
• Select checkbox: 'Always keep starred messages'
• click on 'OK

That sets the default Retention Policy settings for all folders in that imap mail account. You can manually change on a per folder basis as previously mentioned. You may also discover, the server could have it's own policy on 'Trash' and 'Spam' folders and choose periodically to empty them automatically.

Check to see if the emails are still in the mbox file. In Thunderbird

• 'Help' > 'Troubleshooting Information'
• click on 'Open Folder' button

a new window opens showing the contents of your profile name folder.

• Click on 'ImapMail' folder
• click on the imap mail account name folder.

Look for a file that has the same name as the folder with missing emails. You are looking for an mbox file - it will not have any extension. If you see a .msf file than that is just an index file - no emails. If you see a folder with .sbd extension then that means you created subfolders and that folder may contain mbox and index files. You can open an mbox text file using Notepad++ Emails will be written to the file, oldest will be at the top. What is the Date of the oldest email ?

If oldest date is only a few weeks in the mbox file, but when you logon to webmail you can see all the older emails in that folder OR there are no mbox files that have same name as folders with missing emails, only .msf files and when you logon to webmail you can see all the older emails in that folder

Exit Thunderbird now - this is important.

Delete the mbox file and .msf file for the file with missing emails or if only .msf file delete it.

Start Thunderbird and it should synch with server and download all emails again.