http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disappearing_mail

Did you create a backup of your Thunderbird profile folder prior to the incident?

christ1 said

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disappearing_mail Did you create a backup of your Thunderbird profile folder prior to the incident?

Hi, No I didn't create a backup manually, does Thunderbird do that automatically? And if so, where would I find this backup and how would I restore it? I thought Thunderbird automatically stored all emails from all accounts? Cheers, Brad.

No I didn't create a backup manually, does Thunderbird do that automatically?

No, Thunderbird does not create backups automatically. That's your responsibility. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profiles-tb#w_backing-up-a-profile

I thought Thunderbird automatically stored all emails from all accounts?

Basically that is the case, even though there may be exceptions depending on the account type and configuration.

See if this article helps. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disappearing_mail

The most common reason for lost mail is anti-virus software messing with Thunderbird mail files causing corruption and hence data loss. It is beyond me why many people need to learn the hard way that backups are important.

Hi christ1,

I appreciate your help and advice, thanks, however "it is beyond me.." how some people treat others like idiots just because they have a little more knowledge about some things? Don't appreciate your attitude.

The second link you provided was particularly helpful in giving me an idea where to find my profile folder in Windows 10, although it wasn't in the Mozilla folder as the article suggested, it was in a Thunderbird folder.

Upon checking my profile folder I found all the emails from all the accounts seem to be accounted for, including the missing 7,455 from the "problem" (I.S.P.) account. The trouble is they are all in a .wdseml file format, which Thunderbird doesn't seem to recognise? Even though when I searched the web for that file extension they say it is created by Thunderbird, "The wdseml file stores mail messages from Thunderbird."?

So I still have no idea how to restore these missing emails, or why the other 6 email accounts don't seem to have a problem, even though they are all stored in the same .wdseml format, but my main email provided by my I.S.P. does?

.wdseml files are a partial copy (up to 49KB) of a message in the mail folder, stored in a .mozmsgs subdirectory. It is used by Windows Search Integration (requires Vista or a later version of Windows). They're actually renamed .eml files. The actual mail files are the ones without e file extension, e.g. Inbox.

To some extend these .wdseml files will possibly hold the entire message, as long as the original message wasn't too big.

To recover them: Install this extension. https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

Close Thunderbird.

Create a new folder 'recovered' (without the quotes) underneath 'Local Folders' using Windows Explorer.

Copy the missing messages from the *.mozmsgs folder in your profile to the new 'recovered' folder.

Use a tool for mass renaming or the command prompt to change the file extension from .wdseml to .eml - Google is your friend.

Start Thunderbird and use the previously installed Import/Export Tools add-on to import the missing messages back into Thunderbird.

Note, this will not restore your messages to the original state, however, you'd have at least something. Don't forget backing your stuff up before you start messing with it.