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Lost email and folders on Oct. 20, 2020/How to restore both

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

RoxaneSJ
RoxaneSJ
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Please help: I followed Yahoo request for third-party email which included the Thunderbird email tool that by Oct. 20, 2020, we had to delete the account then, reinstall the account. The directions didn't work for me. When I tried to re-install, I couldn't get the email back nor all my folders. I called Yahoo, they could only recover the email back to 10/7/2020 which was on their server. Now, I've found where my folders are on my laptop by using this command: %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\. I found the folders and the files end in a .msf? How do I restore them back to my Thunderbird email account that I'm using? Q. #2 - How do I get back my email that was on my Thunderbird account that dated back to 2018 and 2017? I've read that it's actually on my computer but not able to find it. (hidden files are all exposed) This has been disastrous for me to not be able to use my folders and to see my old email as I had photos in some of the old emails. Would you please take the time to help me? I would appreciate that so much. Thank you, Sharon Munoz: sharon49ab@yahoo.com

Please help: I followed Yahoo request for third-party email which included the Thunderbird email tool that by Oct. 20, 2020, we had to delete the account then, reinstall the account. The directions didn't work for me. When I tried to re-install, I couldn't get the email back nor all my folders. I called Yahoo, they could only recover the email back to 10/7/2020 which was on their server. Now, I've found where my folders are on my laptop by using this command: %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\. I found the folders and the files end in a .msf? How do I restore them back to my Thunderbird email account that I'm using? Q. #2 - How do I get back my email that was on my Thunderbird account that dated back to 2018 and 2017? I've read that it's actually on my computer but not able to find it. (hidden files are all exposed) This has been disastrous for me to not be able to use my folders and to see my old email as I had photos in some of the old emails. Would you please take the time to help me? I would appreciate that so much. Thank you, Sharon Munoz: sharon49ab@yahoo.com

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Toad-Hall
Toad-Hall
  • Top 10 Contributor
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I'm really sorry you have had so much of a problem because Yahoo have been offering bad advise to their customers. I have repeatedly asked them to fix the bad advise they are posting and to redirect people to the following link to no avail.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-yahoo#w_important-changes-to-authentication-method-notice

re : Now, I've found where my folders are on my laptop by using this command: %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\. I found the folders and the files end in a .msf?

I presume you previously had a POP account.

This is how to locate it via Thunderbird.

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information

Under 'Application Basics' about 8th in list is 'Profile Folder'

  • click on 'Open Folder'

A new window opens showing you the contents of your 'profile name' folder.

  • Exit Thunderbird now.
  • click on 'Mail' folder

You will see the pop mail account name folder and also 'Local Folders' folder.

  • Right click on 'Local Folders' folder and select to open in a new window ready to receive copied files.
  • Click on the 'pop mail account name' folder to see contents.

You will see mbox files. They have same name as the folder you usually see in the Folder Pane. These files do not have any extension and they contain emails. Any .msf files do not contain emails theya re just indexing files used by Thunderbird. If you see any *.sbd folders, this means you had subfolders and they may also contain mbox files.

  • You need to right click on mbox file and select 'Copy'
  • Then go to the 'Local Folders' folder opened in other window
  • right click in 'Local Folders' and select 'Paste'.
  • Repeat until all mbox files are copied over from pop to Local Folders.

When you next restart Thunderbird, you should see all those folders appear under the 'Local Folders' mail account.

Modified by Toad-Hall