Accidentally moved IMAP Gmail label to Local Folders - Emails disappeared, Local Folder empty GONE EVERYWHERE!
Hello everyone,
I am hoping someone can help me recover some EXTREMELY important emails for a legal matter. I was trying to export an entire nested Gmail label (WORK/TNC/TNC DISPUTE) to PDF.
It's a lot of emails spanning from April 2024 that I had painstakingly been going through and labeling to get them ready to print to use as evidence for a work dispute. When faced with the task of having to print all those emails to pdf, one by one, I wanted to chew my own arm off!
I'm convinced there must be another way to bulk print to pdf......and so I went down a few rabbit holes in search of my quick fix.....(I'm not trying to be lazy, I just have very little time left to get this done, and right now I'm losing the will to live if my reality is that I will be busy with this till the end of time.)
I read different threads and questions over the internet and found information that led me to Thunderbird. (Hi, Thunderbird :). I know there are paid apps or extensions that can bulk print to pdf, but I unfortunately don't have the money to pay for them (i.e. the work dispute - salary has been frozen for over 2 years and resignation was denied, so no income and held hostage by my employer - the emails I have lost are literally my future!). Sorry, enough of the why.....
I DID THIS:
So I read that I need to to create a folder in Thunderbird's "Local Folders" with the same name, and simply drag and drop the label from the original label to the local folder label (I did all of this in Thunderbird.
Unfortunately, this went VERY wrong. At first it seemed like it was doing something, but it didn't really do anything that I am aware of.....There was nothing in the local folder I had created and dragged the label to, there was nothing in the original label folder (everything was empty). I died! Then comforted myself with the fact that it's still in GMAIL.....that was the naive, optimistic me talking..... Headed over to Gmail, saw my label name, sigh of relief, clicked on the label name.....DIED 10000000000000 x over.......I continued to cry for the next 4 hours...
.That was the 12th of June.....I'm still trying to get them back.....I have been able to find a few bits of info here and there.....I just don't know how to get them back into Gmail for me to never try be so foolish again!!! (Until someone maybe shows me how to bulk print to PDF?????)....
Here is the current situation and the technical details of what I've found so far:
What happened:
Thunderbird executed a "Move" command instead of a "Copy".
The TNC DISPUTE label is in my Gmail web interface (the emails are not in the label, nor the the Trash and none of my settings anywhere are set to delete permanently etc., on exit).
The Local Folder in Thunderbird shows up on my screen, but it is completely empty.
What I have discovered in the background:
Account Type: IMAP connected to Gmail (*********@gmail.com). (i've replaced my email address name with stars to not put my private email on a public site)
The Local Files: I found the tracking path imap://**********%40gmail.com@imap.gmail.com/WORK/TNC/TNC DISPUTE. I also found the raw file directories containing TNC DISPUTE (no extension) and the TNC DISPUTE.msf index file.
The roadblock I am hitting:
I read that deleting the corrupted .msf index file while Thunderbird is closed will force it to rebuild the index and potentially reveal the emails. However, at first I couldn't safely get into the folder to do this:
When I clicked "Open Folder" from Help > More Troubleshooting Information, Windows threw an error: "Explorer.EXE - There was a problem sending the command to the program."
When I try to bypassed Thunderbird and use the Windows Run dialog with %appdata%\Thunderbird\Profiles, Windows threw another path error and refused to open it.
I ended up reinstalling Thunderbird and it fixed the access profile issue and I can now access where the data gets saved from Thunderbird.....
I just don't know what to do from here to get my (previously local foldered misshaped moved) folder back in my Gmail. (safely - to not corrupt everything or worse....delete it permanently.....)
The details of the missing emails (contents of the label that did copy to the local drive I think):
Directory Contents (as shown in the attached image)
1. TNC DISPUTE.sbd
- Type: File folder
- Date modified: 19 Jun 2026, 00:55
2. msgFilterRules.dat
- Type: DAT file
- Date modified: 12 Jun 2026, 05:49
- Size: 0 KB
3. TNC DISPUTE
- Type: File
- Date modified: 19 Jun 2026, 05:55
- Size: 670,605 KB
4. TNC DISPUTE.msf
- Type: MSF file
- Date modified: 12 Jun 2026, 22:31
- Size: 3 KB
5. Trash
- Type: File
- Date modified: 12 Jun 2026, 05:48
- Size: 0 KB
6. Trash.msf
- Type: MSF file
- Date modified: 12 Jun 2026, 06:27
- Size: 2 KB
7. Unsent Messages
- Type: File
- Date modified: 12 Jun 2026, 05:48
- Size: 0 KB
8. Unsent Messages.msf
- Type: MSF file
- Date modified: 12 Jun 2026, 06:24
- Size: 2 KB
Sorry for the long post, hopefully someone can help me go back in time and have my only issue be searching for ways to bulk print to pdf and not having to try restore the only emails that are actually worth being on there.
TIA xxx Margz
Toate răspunsurile (6)
Hi Margz,
I do not know a simple explanation or simple solution, but will try to help.
If you were able to access your gmail messages from Thunderbird, I do not know a reason to put the messages into a local folder. But I also don't know how Thunderbird could have helped you create PDF files in bulk, so you may know something that I don't know. Maybe you wanted to use Thunderbird as an intermediary between gmail and another app or process.
The potentially good news is that there is a large file in your profile that may have your messages. The first, obvious challenge is that that file is not being treated as a standard e-mail file. It is also not where I would expect it to be.
So I start with those two facts and suggest some actions that may help us understand the situation and access your messages.
What is in TNC DISPUTE.sbd?
Make a copy of of TNC DISPUTE on your desktop or another easy-to-access location. Try to open it in a text editor. Does it get opened? If so, what do you see in it?
For our next steps, get the add-on ImportExportToolsNG by clicking on ≡ at top right, selecting "Add-ons and themes", searching for "ImportExportToolsNG". and installing it.
Hi Rick
Thank you so much for offering to help me. I can definitely tell you I don't know anything more than you know, I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. I had originally tried to use CloudHQ (but the limit was 50 emails....and I had about 640 emails that I needed to print to pdf to save on my PC)...so I had to try find free ways to do what I needed it to do....I just googled it and came across doing it by using Thunderbird....I'm not sure where that was from now (I didn't get that far to be able to remember how it was supposed to work).....My knowledge of software is dangerous.....as in I know just enough to cause damage.....(so I'm basically a layman)
So I created a copied folder on my desktop, I've attached screenshots of the copied folder....then a screenshot of the (copied) opened TNC.SBD folder and then a screenshot of the (copied) large file with no file type but with the size of 670 605KB....
I have installed the add-on ImportExportToolsNG
Ready when you are :)
Thank you so much once again!
The news is not encouraging.
That large file that we hoped had your messages is not a message file. Is it the result of your attempt to save your important messages in a PDF file? That's what it seems to be. But your operating system is not recognizing it as a PDF file or a PostScript file, so I don't know what it is.
The only things that I can think of:
- Search the Allmail label in gmail for messages that you know were in the TNC Dispute label.
- Access your Thunderbird profile in the file system by ≡ (at top right) > Help > Troubleshooting information > Profile > Show in [...]. Open and exand the ImapMail directory. Post a screen image of its contents.
- Do you have a back-up copy of your gmail messages?
Can you open that large TNC DISPUTE file in a PDF viewer?
Rick said
The news is not encouraging.
NNNNOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo Rick don't say that! That's making my already depressing evening even more depressing....-------That large file that we hoped had your messages is not a message file. Is it the result of your attempt to save your important messages in a PDF file? That's what it seems to be. But your operating system is not recognizing it as a PDF file or a PostScript file, so I don't know what it is.
Tried to open it with Adobe and gave two error messages and contained exactly 3 blank pages and one one emblem from my employer before this employer. LOL I have attached the screenshots. --------The only things that I can think of:
- Search the Allmail label in gmail for messages that you know were in the TNC Dispute label.
I briefly did this the other day, and I couldn't see it there (so I don't think it stripped the label only), but I will check again tomorrow.
- Access your Thunderbird profile in the file system by ≡ (at top right) > Help > Troubleshooting information > Profile > Show in [...]. Open and exand the ImapMail directory. Post a screen image of its contents.
so now it's doing it again and showing an error message if I try open it from there....screenshot attached......I also attached screenshots of when I went through my C:Drive manually - but I know we were able to go through Thunderbird at least yesterday??????
so just to note - when I found the contents of the TNC file - the path there did not look at all like the one's i've attached here (the attached ones seem to have have only been like that from when I reinstalled Thunderbird. My partner seems to think that the first time I downloaded it, the programme itself didn't install properly, we reinstalled it and the I could go to my local drive and find it.....Believe it or not, my partner is actually a Backup and Storage Engineer, and he's briefly looked (hence finding pathways and reinstalling), but he doesn't really have the time at the moment to really sit and figure out what nut job I did to my emails LOL and also hasn't used Thunderbird (even though he proclaims to be a Linux guy says he enjoys Linux more - I think he's just too busy to focus on this). So if you have any technical jargon thingy's you want to suggest, but you're afraid if you suggest it to me I'll break it, I can pass the message on to him and grab him to try it when he has some time. ------------------------------
- Do you have a back-up copy of your gmail messages?
luckily I do, I'm just not 100% sure it was all of it......I'll only know that once I can read them again.....I honestly don't know if they're in the correct type either though...I know at one stage we tried to do google takeout and then upload or import or export from Outlook....so don't know if I have duplicates at the moment. I have posted a screenshot. --------------------
I think I've answered everything and attached everything now.......
Thanks for your time Rick. I appreciate your willingness to try solve this mess.
Margz :)
Making sense of any of this is difficult. Why is there a trash folder and an unsent message folder in TNC DISPUTE.sbd? What is [gmail].sbd? Why can't you access your profile from troubleshooting information? Why are you reporting different file paths at different times to the same files? What is this thing that you are calling a "tracking path" (imap://**********%40gmail.com@imap.gmail.com/WORK/TNC/TNC DISPUTE)? Where do you see that? It looks like a URL, not a file path. Have you been doing anything with it? How did you create a 670 MB file (TNC DISPUTE) with text that indicates that it is a PDF file but that cannot be viewed in a PDF viewer?
I have the impression that you have been doing too much in the file system instead of in Thunderbird, and now the two are not able to work together. But you have not reported that you have been doing much in the file system.
If you did Google Takeout, can you find the files that you got from it? They should be useable. Is there a TNC DISPUTE file among them? Or did you take out only Allmail?
Would you please post a screenshot of your local folders in Thunderbird and the message table when TNC DISPUTE is selected?
Where did all those mbox files dated July 3 come from?
Where did you get Thunderbird? How did you install it? How long have you been working with it?
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