First, even if you had recent mozbackups, they probably would not work. There has been an incompatibility with that for years. If you just want to retrieve old email messages, you can use Windows File explorer to copy them to the Local Folders folder when Thunderbird is not running. On restarting Thunderbird, the message folders will be there. Here are basic steps to assist in that: # click help>troubleshootinginformation # scroll to 'profile folder' and click 'open folder' # exit thunderbird # you are now in the profile. click to mail folder and then to Local Folders folder # this is where you should paste the old email folders. Now, for the old message folders, # open the saved profile in windows file explorer. # for IMAP messages, look in the imapmail\<IMAP account folder> and for POP messages, look in the Mail\<POP account folder> and also in the mail\Local Folders folder. What you're looking for are paired files, such as inbox, inbox.msf, sent, sent.msf, etc. The files you do NOT WANT are the ones with the msf suffix. Copy the others and paste as documented above. # restart thunderbird and they will be there. Any IMAP messages may be incomplete, depending on whether the full message content had been downloaded prior to the crash.