That sounds more than frustrating, but please remember, using capitals implies you are shouting at the very people you are asking for help and they did not cause the problem you are experiencing.

It is important to compact folders on a regular basis as it cleans up traces of old previously deleted or moved emails. If you do not do this then files become significantly larger then you expect and the risk of file corruption is increased. Ideally a manual compaction on Inbox, Spam and Drafts should be done after deleting a load of emails or moving a load of emails. Corruption can also occur if you allow Anti-Virus products access to scanning your profile folders. Any file that gets opened may be scanned and if it does not like anything in that file - it can cause havoc.

It is exceptionally unusual to lose all emails in all folders in an account. So let's try to find out what's going on and what is currently stored in profile.

Please supply some information so we can understand your setup.

Q: What OS do you use ? Windows 11, MAC, Linux ? Q: Did you get the installation/download of Thunderbird from the official Thunderbird website or did you get it from the Windows app store or somewhere else ?

Q: What Anti-Virus do you use and is it allowed to scan all folders? That means it also scans any file on computer that gets opened and scan any file that gets downloaded etc?

Q: Are you talking about an IMAP or POP account? Q: Can you still see all the folders and subfolders in the effected account ? OR are they also missing ? Q: If you can see the folders - do they look like they are using an italic font ?

Check what is on server: Please logon to your webmail account via a browser. Q: Can you still see all the emails on the server?

Now to find out what is stored in the Profile folders... In Thunderbird

• Help > Troubleshooting Information
• Under 'Application Basics' - about half way down is 'Profile Folder' - click on 'Open Folder' button

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

If you are talking about a POP account:

• Select the 'Mail' folder to see contents
• Select the name of the pop account folder to see contents.

If you are talking about an IMAP account:

• Select the 'ImapMail' folder to see contents
• Select the name of the imap account folder to see contents.

Make sure the View is showing Details, so everything is in columns. Make sure you have the Name, Modified Date, Type and Size columns

Post images showing all the information you see. Make sure you include the directory path, so I know where you are looking. You might need to post/ upload several images. They must be image files eg: .jpg If you see folders with a .sbd extension, then select the folder and post image which shows it's contents.

I'm now following this question, so will look out for your response. Please note, you may also get others who may try to assist as well.

hello, I am using Windows 11,Been using Thunderbird for several years now probably got it from their website, using Windows defender and McAfee The account is my g mail, so IMAP all folders are still there but are empty, no italics. the server is empty as well.

According to the images you supplied: Do Not start Thunderbird.

You have emails in the 'Inbox' (no extension) mbox file - advise you get a copy of that file and put it on desktop. Then rename it to 'Gmail Inbox'

In Profile folder 'mgd2w1q1.default-release' Click on 'Mail' folder Click on 'Local Folders' folder to see contents. Put the copied renamed 'Gmail Inbox' file into 'Local Folders' folder.

The 'BG 2 Creations.sbd' folder has a lot of subfolders and I can see that you have a lot of empty mbox files.

re :the server is empty as well. In gmail webmail account: Do you mean the Inbox is empty as well ? Did you check 'All Mail' - is that empty as well ?

You need to find out what can be recovered via gmail webmail.

The only things in those two folders have come in since the problem happened. I have done the following;

Profile folder 'mgd2w1q1.default-release' Click on 'Mail' folder Click on 'Local Folders' folder to see contents. Put the copied renamed 'Gmail Inbox' file into 'Local Folders' folder

If messages had been deleted by Thunderbird then they would have been put into the gmail TRash and they would be recoverable.

If messages had just had all the 'labels' removed then they would still be in the gmail webmail 'All Mail' folder. In this case you can logon to see webmail account, select the 'All Mail' folder, select all emails and choose to move to Inbox which reapplies the Inbox label, so in Thunderbird they should all reappear in gmail Inbox.

re :Put the copied renamed 'Gmail Inbox' file into 'Local Folders' folder I advised you to do that just in case the gmail 'Inbox' synchronised with an empty 'Inbox' on server. It's an attemept to save whatever was in that file. When you start Thunderbird, those emails in that file should become visible in the Local Folders 'Gmail Inbox' folder.

If the webmail account 'All Mail' folder is empty then emails do not exist - in which case do you have any backups of profile which you had previously created?

Have you accessed the Anti-Virus and set up an exemption to stop the AV from scanning the Thunderbird profile ?