How can I recover old e-mails from an earlier version of Thunderbird?

I am unclear on the explicit steps you took, but here are are some steps to verify where your accounts are:

1. enter %appdata% in the search window on Windows task bar.
2. that should open File Manager at the appdata\roaming folder
3. if there is a folder named thunderbird, then there may be messages that can be recovered. If not, they are likely lost.
4. report back if there is a thunderbird folder and we will assist. Thank you

Dear David

Many thanks for the response.

I found the appdata/roaming/thunderbird folder and have several Thunderbird identities, two of which include large folders containing mail (for the others, the mail folders are minimal). A few months before Thunderbird updated itself I had successfully retrieved my e-mails from these folders after my computer crashed. What puzzles me is that now I can't retrieve these messages from even a re-installed older version of Thunderbird. I simply get messages that there is nothing to recover from these folders when I try to import messages into a new identity.

Cordially Tom

I am unsure on what you want to do. Are you wanting to reactivate the accounts, or just read messages? I will assume it is just to read messages. Here is the simple approach:

1. install the addon, importexporttools NG
2. highlight Local Folders in the folder pane
3. rightclick and select the 'importexport option to import mbox
4. That opens a window in File Explorer, Navigate to one of the folders you want to import. These will appear in sets, such as inbox, inbox.msf, sent, sent.msf. IGNORE the msf files. Select a file and click OK to import. Rename as desired.
5. repeat above for each message folder to import

Dear David Many thanks for the reply. You are correct: all I want to do is read the old messages. And many thanks for suggesting the addon! It worked!!!! I'm immensely grateful! ( I keep all the e-mails acknowledging charitable donations because my tax returns get audited occasionally and I need to prove the deductions I claim.) Thanks again! Tom

You are very welcome. :)