Is it possible to copy just the Mail folder from a Thunderbird Profile backup in Time Machine on Mac?

No it is not. The folders of mail are associated with account numbers in your preferences so a plain copy it not the answer. Generally Time Machine is not the answer.

I have deleted an email account from Thunderbird and I did not tick Delete Data so the emails are still there in my Profile but they no longer show up in the tree in Thunderbird on my Mac ( OS 14.8 Sonoma). I had a lot of subfolders into which I had put incoming and sent emails on particular topics. For example I had a folder called Family, and inside that I had a subfolder called Birthdays as well as many other family related topics. My last Time Machine back up is about a month ago but that would be good enough to restore from. I tried ‘Import’ in Thunderbird but it only imported the main folders and the emails within but not the subfolders. I have another email address besides the deleted one and if I overwrite the whole Profile with the older one from Time Machine it will lose a lot of new stuff accumulated since that backup. Any help most appreciated

Can you just add the add the account back into Thunderbird? Once you have an account you can point the account to the correct folder which you say explicitly that you did not opt to delete when you removed the account. Problem solved without extra tools or trying to merge data that has not been removed back in somehow. The can be done in account settings > Server settings by changing the account directory to the correct one.

I assume you have now realized that all of an account data hangs off the account so removing it removes the agility to access the data for the account. As you point out it does not remove the data, just you ability to access it. Sometimes I wish these folder trees still had the joining lines on them so folk would realize that the stuff is connected and where.

Thanks Matt. Unfortunately I can't add the account back as there was a specific reason to remove it. There must be some way to get the emails back. Maybe I will have to use the whole Profile from the last Time Machine backup. The old stuff is more important to me than the latest.

There must be some way to get the emails back.

Open your Thunderbird profile folder, then quit the Thunderbird application. In the profile folder open the folder Mail, identify and open the "pop.xxx.yy" account folder which should still contain the messages of your deleted POP account. Copy the mailbox files (without suffixe) such as Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Archives ... to Local Folders which are also located in the Mail folder. If you see file folders such as Inbox.sbd, Archives.sbd, ... also copy them to Local Folders. You may have created personal folders in the old POP account such as Business, Vacations, Family, ... Copy them to Local Folders, too. Don't bother about the .msf files. When you restart TB you should see folders and messages of your deleted account in Local Folders in the folder pane.

Maybe I will have to use the whole Profile from the last Time Machine backup. The old stuff is more important to me than the latest.

If you use your profile in the Time Machine backup from one month ago with the still existing POP account you will also import the "specific reason" for which you have already deleted it once! Then it would be easier to follow Matt's proposal to add the account back in Thunderbird and point it to the corresponding old account folder in Mail.

Thankyou for these helpful suggestions.

The ‘specific reason’ was simply that the email provider is unreliable, does not have a spam filtering system, hackers were using the @….net names and it started to charge an annual fee. So I wanted rid of it. 

I will have a look at the Thunderbird Profile and move one folder to Local Folders and see what happens I think.

I will have a look at the Thunderbird Profile and move one folder to Local Folders and see what happens I think.

By default Thunderbird stores messages in so-called mailbox files (without extension) in the profile. So, Thunderbird closed, you should begin to copy (move) a file without extension such as Inbox to Local Folders.

Thankyou Mapenzi and Matt. I haven’t had time over the weekend to try moving any folders yet. Will the subfolders and the contents of them move too? If I move ‘Family’, will the subfolders ‘School’, and ‘Robert’ (for example), move too, including the emails within those subfolders? Thanks for your patience.

Hi Ruth, in your exemple if you have created a folder "Family" in Thunderbird with subfolders "School" and "Robert" you should see a file folder "Family.sbd" and a mailbox file "Family" (without extension) in the Thunderbird profile folder. The file folder "Family.sbd" contains the mailbox files "School" and "Robert" corresponding to the subfolders with same name. So you'll have to copy/move both - Family.sbd folder and Family file - to preserve folder hierarchy and message content.

Gosh Mapenzi, you are so helpful giving me clearly worded instructions, thankyou so much. You say ‘copy/move’. Do I have a choice between copy-paste or move? Is it safer to copy-paste and then delete the original once I can see that it’s been successful?

Sorry, Ruth. My bad ...English. I wanted to say "move by a copy/paste action".... In a case like yours it's always more secure to copy a folder (or messages) and paste them in the new location. So if you inadvertently pasted a copy in a false location you can always return the the original folder and restart your operation instead of desperately searching where you had pasted the copy....

Right, thank you for clarifying. That’s what I thought but best to be sure. I’ll have a go at it tomorrow and post my progress on here. R