As I understand the issue, you have one email account, but have it set up in both IMAP and POP on your PC. You state that you lost all messages. Is that in both accounts? Please clarify the issue and I will attempt to assist. Thank you.

yes thats right, i foolishly opened 2 versions of the acct not realising the difference between imap and pop3., the laptop pc has the imap version and the desktop pc the pop3 version. i do want them to sync with each other

the in box msg's were only lost in the pop3 acct

as per my update i got back my msg's, not sure how that happened, they just appeared shortly after writing the post

thanks very much for taking an interest

The problem may have eliminated messages on the PC, but since IMAP messages sync to the server, they weren't lost. I'm glad all worked out well. :)

yes i worked out only in that i got them back but can i convert the acct versions to both being imap so they sync. also its driving me crazy having personal folders etc duplicated [2 versions of the acct] on my desktop id like to think that i can just delete the pop3 version on my desktop and then re create in imap, but ....

thanks

If you already have the account in IMAP, all you need to do is close the POP account.

ok i was juast about rto delete the pop3 acct but came up against this [below]. which option would u advise. there are 2 choices '[i put xxx by them] thanks

Are you sure you want to remove the account "superqaz@outlook.com_2"?

xxxRemove account information xxxRemoves only Thunderbird's knowledge of this account. Does not affect the account itself on the server.

xxxRemove message data xxxRemoves all messages, folders and filters associated with this account from your local disk. This does not affect some messages which may still be kept on the server. Do not choose this if you plan to archive the local data or re-use it in Thunderbird later.

all my emails [except last couple xdays] are on the pop acct, i'm concerned abolt losing them if i delete that acct

You would want to select the option to keep messages if they are no longer on the server and you still need them. Deleting them there does NOT affect the messages on the server. If in doubt, do this: - click help>troubleshootinginformation - scroll down to 'profile folder' and click 'open folder' - exit thunderbird - click the Mail folder and then the POPaccount folder - this should display the inbox, sent and other folders for the POP addount - COPY all folders elsewhere. - start thunderbird and then remove the unneeded account

thanx everyone uv been a great help, ive had to install an 2 year old backup image [for other reasons[ which seems to have solved the email problem [just before i was about to correct it]. thanks to the back up i now dont have the pop acct to worry about.....but iv got a connection problem [in a new post]