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Account and local folder disapeared today when I started Thunderbird

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  • Last reply by david

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Today when I started Thunderbird, I was asked to enter my email address and password. This created a new account and displayed my new and old emails I lost all my local folders. How can I retrieve my old folders? Your help with this matter will be greatly appreciated. The loss of many years of stored emails is a disaster for me.

Environment Windows 10 Thunderbird 91.7.1 Lenovo P50 ThinkPad

Thank you, Ed

Today when I started Thunderbird, I was asked to enter my email address and password. This created a new account and displayed my new and old emails I lost all my local folders. How can I retrieve my old folders? Your help with this matter will be greatly appreciated. The loss of many years of stored emails is a disaster for me. Environment Windows 10 Thunderbird 91.7.1 Lenovo P50 ThinkPad Thank you, Ed

Chosen solution

I found the folders in C:\Users\ed\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\g3ugs5lu.default\Mail There were two local folders: Local Folders and Local Folders-1

Under Account Settings - Local Folders - Local Directory the Local Folders-1 was selected. I changed it to Local Folders. Restarted Thunderbird and my folders are back.

I am very relieved to have recovered many years of emails but still wonder why Thunderbird hiccupped.

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Seçilmiş Həll

I found the folders in C:\Users\ed\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\g3ugs5lu.default\Mail There were two local folders: Local Folders and Local Folders-1

Under Account Settings - Local Folders - Local Directory the Local Folders-1 was selected. I changed it to Local Folders. Restarted Thunderbird and my folders are back.

I am very relieved to have recovered many years of emails but still wonder why Thunderbird hiccupped.

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This sometimes happens with anti-virus software interacting with other updates. the profiles.ini file is a simple text file at C:\Users\ed\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\ and gets somehow corrupted and that is the file that points to the profile. A simple text update (Notepad works fine) can fix it. This is a common topic here on the forum.