Normally if you delete folders or subfolders in Thunderbird they would be moved to the Trash folder, in your case the Trash folder in Local Folders. Did you search the Trash folder? If they are no longer in Trash you could retrieve them from a profile backup, if you have one...

check the trash folder.. If it has not been compressed, they may still be available. You can check from File Explorer to see size of the file. Let us know.

Unfortunately nothing in the trash folder.

Other suggestions?

Kr, Leo.

Any Thunderbird profile backup or of your personal data on an external hard disk or even on another partition?

Check the size of the trash folder. if it has not been compressed, the messages may be recoverable.

Mapenzi/David,

Thanks for your (quick) responses.

Size on disk: 240 mb. In the same window it says I can click a button to repair msf files. Is that a possible solution?

Cannot find the Thunderbiord Profile back up.

I looked for Local folders in Mozilla Thunderbird > Program Files: nothing there.

KR, Leo.

NO. "repairing' will compress.. if trash folder is not compacted or repaired, it may still have content. check its size. the msf files are not the concern.

The only size I see opening the Properties of the Trash folder is: size on disk 240 mb.

A while back I had to install a new version of Thunderbird (I think) and after the installation there were no local folders. One of the helpers on this forum helped me to recover them using the C > Users > 'My name'> AppData > Thunderbird > profiles. can I find a back up in one of the four folders there?

KR, Leo.

If the trash folder appears empty, yet is 240 mb, then messages that have been marked 'delete' are still there. You can check that by exiting thunderbird, and then open the trash file (NOT the trash.msf file) with notepad. Do a screenshot of what you see.

I opened Notepad. I cannot find the Trash file.

It is in the profile folder. click help>troubleshootinginformation, - then, click 'profile folder' and click 'open folder' - if the trasn folder is in Local Folders, click the Mail folder and then the Local Folders folder and somewhere there is trash, trash.msf. open the trash file.

- if the trasn folder is in Local Folders, click the Mail folder and then the Local Folders folder and somewhere there is trash, trash.msf. open the trash file.

@david: Leo deleted several subfolders from his Local Folders. The corresponding mbox files of those deleted subfolders should now be located in a Trash.sbd file folder in Local Folders in Mail. So Leo should look up the contents of Trash.sbd, too, even if the chance to retrieve his deleted subfolders (and messages) is near zero.

THANK YOU, @mapenzi. I admit to stumbling with .sbd folders. :)

I found the Trash.sbd in the Profiles folder > Default release > Root directory > Mail > Trash.sbd.

Unfortunately there is nothing more than there is in the Local folders.

I assume this is it? It is all gone?

Thanks for all your help, it is much appreciated.

Kindest regards, Leo.

So, the trash.sbd folder was empty? I regret your loss.

I found the Trash.sbd in the Profiles folder > Default release > Root directory > Mail > Trash.sbd.

It should have been ... Profiles folder > Default release > Root directory > Mail > Local Folders > Trash.sbd But I assume that that you just forgot to mention one step in the path ....

Yep, I did.