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Profile transfer not working after accidental delete of all emails

Thunderbird Profiles
Matt replied
Trun
Trun

Hi, I am extremely frustrated at my situation: I have a desktop (main computer), laptop and mobile phone all using Thunderbird, with a GMAIL account (IMAP) On my laptop I accidentally deleted the contents of the Archive (Thunderbird folder) and promptly ALL EMAILS AND HISTORY of emails wer LOST on said laptop. They subsequently disappeared on my mobile phone also. The delete action was also uploaded to GMAIL.com and I could not recover them there as it said I am using a different program. I then went on my desktop in offline mode and all my emails are there in Thunderbird (minus approx 5 days worth while the desktop remained offline (no big deal).

I have tried EVERYTHING to back up/export the profile from my desktop (while offline) and upload the mails onto my laptop to recover them and hopefully feed them to GMAIL. Nothing happens, they do not appear. I see all my emails within the thunderbird profile folder in a "IMAP.GMAIL.COM" folder but not in a "Mail" folder (is that relevant)? Is the laptop loading the emails then immediately deleting them, because it is syncing with GMAIL? I am so so lost. Please help. Thank you

Hi, I am extremely frustrated at my situation: I have a desktop (main computer), laptop and mobile phone all using Thunderbird, with a GMAIL account (IMAP) On my laptop I accidentally deleted the contents of the Archive (Thunderbird folder) and promptly ALL EMAILS AND HISTORY of emails wer LOST on said laptop. They subsequently disappeared on my mobile phone also. The delete action was also uploaded to GMAIL.com and I could not recover them there as it said I am using a different program. I then went on my desktop in offline mode and all my emails are there in Thunderbird (minus approx 5 days worth while the desktop remained offline (no big deal). I have tried EVERYTHING to back up/export the profile from my desktop (while offline) and upload the mails onto my laptop to recover them and hopefully feed them to GMAIL. Nothing happens, they do not appear. I see all my emails within the thunderbird profile folder in a "IMAP.GMAIL.COM" folder but not in a "Mail" folder (is that relevant)? Is the laptop loading the emails then immediately deleting them, because it is syncing with GMAIL? I am so so lost. Please help. Thank you

All Replies (1)

Matt
Matt
  • Top 25 Contributor

What part of syncronised have you missed. The server is considered canonical in that process so if there is nothing on the server any update to local profiles from a backup to put the mails back will immediately see them deleted to match the server.

If you have a copy of the files (the inbox etc files from the Thunderbird profile, copy them to a USN drive.

Install the importexport tools add-on in Thunderbird and import from those files to local folders. https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools-ng/?src=ss

You can later try and copy the individual email from local folders to the gmail account, but it will be slow anf gmail will fight you all the way. batches not exceeding 500 email is probably the most you can copy at a time and remember there is a daily bandwidth limit on gmail so if you previously had a large store you may find many days of using the daily limit are required to move things back to where they used to be,