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I have lost some local folders. the emails within still exist somewhere as they come up in search. How do I restore?

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  • Last reply by christ1

Paul.G
Paul.G
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I had a HDD failure. The rescued files restored emails but not in folders as they were and no local folders now exist. I know that the emails still exist as a global search finds them but is there any way of restoring them to their local folders?

I've found some files which contain the missing items in Appdata\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\5dkwxh73.default\Mail\Local Folders if that helps. 

Thanks
I had a HDD failure. The rescued files restored emails but not in folders as they were and no local folders now exist. I know that the emails still exist as a global search finds them but is there any way of restoring them to their local folders? I've found some files which contain the missing items in Appdata\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\5dkwxh73.default\Mail\Local Folders if that helps. Thanks

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christ1
christ1
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I know that the emails still exist as a global search finds them

Presumably what you see is the information from the search index. That doesn't necessarily mean your messages still exist.

is there any way of restoring them to their local folders?

Not from the index. You'd need to restore a backup of your profile folder.

I've found some files which contain the missing items in Appdata\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\5dkwxh73.default\Mail\Local Folders

First of all, create a backup of your current profile while Thunderbird is closed. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_backing-up-a-profile

Thunderbird needs to be closed for the following. Copy the 'Local Folders' folder underneath 5dkwxh73.default\Mail from the backup and paste it into the 'Mail' folder of your current profile.

Start Thunderbird.