I Shift-Deleted messages by accident. Yes, stupid, but can you help!
I frequently use Shift-Delete to get rid of mail but not have it go to Trash. Well, after 10+ years, the inevitable finally happened today when I Shift-Deleted several messages, it was actually several *hundreds* of messages, like maybe 1000+. Inbox is almost empty, can't Undo. I have not closed Thunderbird and have copied out the file "Inbox" (1.04 MB) and "Inbox.msf", in the hopes of being able to retrieve the lost mail. I'm hoping those deleted messages are still in the Inbox, but I don't know how to retrieve. Any help or hints would be very appreciated. Oh, one more stupid thing - my backup of Thunderbird is several months old, which would help, but I'd still feel stupid. Thanks for whatever.
Chosen solution
If compacting has not occurred on the inbox before you made your questionable copy (Questionable because Thunderbird was probably running when you made the copy and it may well be corrupted by that. Open the inbox in a text editor. I suggest notepad++ as it copes better with the large files that Windows notepad. But it really does not matter, as long as it is a text editor not a word processor.
Change any appearance of X-Mozilla-Status: 0008 to X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Make sure Thunderbird is not running. Place the edited file in the Thunderbird profile folder in Mail\local folders and rename it so as not to replace the inbox already in the folder. Restart Thunderbird.
You will probably find what you want in the jungle of undeleted mail. It might be simple, or it might be a mess, depending on how long it is single a compact successfully ran.
Read this answer in context 👍 1All Replies (2)
Chosen Solution
If compacting has not occurred on the inbox before you made your questionable copy (Questionable because Thunderbird was probably running when you made the copy and it may well be corrupted by that. Open the inbox in a text editor. I suggest notepad++ as it copes better with the large files that Windows notepad. But it really does not matter, as long as it is a text editor not a word processor.
Change any appearance of X-Mozilla-Status: 0008 to X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Make sure Thunderbird is not running. Place the edited file in the Thunderbird profile folder in Mail\local folders and rename it so as not to replace the inbox already in the folder. Restart Thunderbird.
You will probably find what you want in the jungle of undeleted mail. It might be simple, or it might be a mess, depending on how long it is single a compact successfully ran.
Thanks Matt, that did the trick and, yes, it will require further cleaning up of unwanted messages, but A) that's a small price to pay and B ) serves me right for by-passing the Trash box. Had never been a problem before, at least until now. A lesson learned, I hope! Appreciate your prompt help.
You must log in to your account to reply to posts. Please start a new question, if you do not have an account yet.