If any emails had been erroneously 'marked as deleted' and 'hidden' they would have still been lurking in the files and potentially could have been retrieved. But, you say you 'compacted' the effected folder and that would have completely removed all traces of any emails that were 'marked as deleted', so would not be recoverable via that method.

You say local folders but what do mean by that ?

If a Pop account then all of it's folders are local as in they are stored on your computer and are independent of server. If imap then they might have a copy on your computer - it depends upon settings - so you might use the term local to desribe them but all emails are stored on server and folders are not independent of server.

There is also a special account called 'Local Folders' and they are independent of any server and local stored on your computer. Are you talking about emails in this account ?

What sort of account are you using Pop or Imap and what server eg: gmail ?

Do you have any backup ?

Hi. Thanks for the reply. This problem cropped up in the last week or so. Recent PC backups all show similar content in the ...profiles/xxx/mail/local folders subdirectory on the PC. So I presume no data has been lost. Yet most, not all, folders in the "local folder" directory within TB show as empty.

IMAP account Network Solutions

Again, that's for your help!

Bob

Reasons for 'looking' empty:

You have a filter running via Quick Filter Select folder that looks empty

• Quick Filter - are there any icons that have been enabled including the pin icon? They would have a blue line to indicate enabled.
• If yes, click on the icon to remove the filter.

Filter is running via View > Threads

• Select folder that looks empty
• Menu Bar' toolbar : 'View' > 'Threads' > 'All' (this should be selected)
• If another option is selected eg: 'Unread' and there are no unread then it shows nothing.
• If threads have been marked as ignored then will not display so....
• In addition to selecting 'All' - select 'Ignored threads'
• Do you now see emails ?
• If yes, and they have a red sort of circle in the 'threads' column header then they have been set up as ignored. You need to get that 'ignored' removed.
• Good info here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ignore-threads

Please carefully check both of these filter types on the 'looks empty' folders and report back on results. Note: you would need to check various folders because it does not mean the cause on one is the same as the cause on another.

Hi. Thanks for the suggestions. - no filter options are marked - view/threads/all is selected

The panel the TB folders panel on the left shows the number of items in the folders. For 90% of local folders there is no indication of any messages--ie, blank. In fact, that's the case--no messages shown when we open the folder.

Bob