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Email files and database appear to be lost or corrupted

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by nopulse

nopulse
nopulse
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I fear I've created a disaster here on my system and I really need some help and advice on how to get back on track, if that's at all possible.

  • I run several PC's and laptops here and my TB 'Local directory' has been placed on a network drive.
  • My old PC runs Vista 64 and has been my normal place to use TB for all my email and is configured as 'Server Type: POP Mail Server' and the tick box is set to 'Leave messages on server'.
  • I've had to recently start up a new drive and operating system (Win 7 64) on the same box and in doing so, decided that I would probably be working on this one more often and would also like to access my email mostly from this OS/drive.
  • Without thinking this through properly, I stupidly set up TB on the new drive and pointed it to the same 'Local directory' on my network drive.
  • I also saw (but it didn't click) that in setting up TB on this new OS, TB defaulted to 'Server Type: IMAP server.
  • All seemed fine at first and my In and Sent boxes were fine, but what was missing was ALL the other folders and messages I had stored under the account.
  • On going into my network drive, to the 'Local directory', I can see all the folders are still there that should be under the account in TB, but there are NO files inside.
  • I've also had a look on my Vista 64 machine (my original TB install) and cannot see in my Profiles folder, any corresponding files that match the folders on the network drive!
  • And as of this morning, running TB on my original machine, I've now got data corruption on some duplicate IN box messages, where i'm seeing an old email from somewhere being repeated in the duplicate emails, plus, now going to my Sent box, ALL emails have data corruption, that is, although the headers are correct, every email now has a repeat of old email messages mixed into the message area.

I'm now very concerned and pretty lost as to where to go from here. I've got a LOT of emails from the past and filed in those folders and I cannot seem to find anything that goes with them.

Any help or clues here would be very much appreciated.

I fear I've created a disaster here on my system and I really need some help and advice on how to get back on track, if that's at all possible. * I run several PC's and laptops here and my TB 'Local directory' has been placed on a network drive. * My old PC runs Vista 64 and has been my normal place to use TB for all my email and is configured as 'Server Type: POP Mail Server' and the tick box is set to 'Leave messages on server'. * I've had to recently start up a new drive and operating system (Win 7 64) on the same box and in doing so, decided that I would probably be working on this one more often and would also like to access my email mostly from this OS/drive. * Without thinking this through properly, I stupidly set up TB on the new drive and pointed it to the same 'Local directory' on my network drive. * I also saw (but it didn't click) that in setting up TB on this new OS, TB defaulted to 'Server Type: IMAP server. * All seemed fine at first and my In and Sent boxes were fine, but what was missing was ALL the other folders and messages I had stored under the account. * On going into my network drive, to the 'Local directory', I can see all the folders are still there that should be under the account in TB, but there are NO files inside. * I've also had a look on my Vista 64 machine (my original TB install) and cannot see in my Profiles folder, any corresponding files that match the folders on the network drive! * And as of this morning, running TB on my original machine, I've now got data corruption on some duplicate IN box messages, where i'm seeing an old email from somewhere being repeated in the duplicate emails, plus, now going to my Sent box, ALL emails have data corruption, that is, although the headers are correct, every email now has a repeat of old email messages mixed into the message area. I'm now very concerned and pretty lost as to where to go from here. I've got a LOT of emails from the past and filed in those folders and I cannot seem to find anything that goes with them. Any help or clues here would be very much appreciated.

All Replies (2)

Matt
Matt
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Ok, did you create a profile on the network drive or just change the folder location in account settings ( the greatest mess maker of all time)

nopulse
nopulse Question owner
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Hi Matt, appreciate you coming back. Sorry... I didn't see this until today as I'm trying to stay away from TB as much as I can until I get a clearer picture as to what damage I may have done, and just like accidental file deletion, I didn't want to make matters any worse than they seem to be already.

Ok, I've never consciously created a profile in any place other than what TB wants me to/defaults to, which I gather is the local drive, ie... C:/Users/'my name'/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/XXXXXX.default, but in TB, I have under the Account Settings/Server Settings/Local Directory, created an Email folder on the network drive and into this has gone all my email files.

Does that make sense?